MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BP) — An International Mission Board (IMB) Sending Celebration is a time to support those who are going on the field to share the gospel with a lost world. Such an event allows participants the chance to commemorate those who mentored and discipled them. For many, their mentors are current or former IMB missionaries who have encouraged them to ask how God might use them through the IMB.

On Nov. 10, New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., hosted a Sending Celebration that featured 49 newly appointed missionaries. The IMB event kicked off the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, which is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the state convention.

Randy Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, shared how thankful Tennessee Baptists are to partner with Southern Baptist churches to cooperatively send and support international missionaries.

“We celebrate the fact that Southern Baptists are working together all over this country to be one of the strongest sending networks of churches,” Davis said. “It impacts lostness at home and around the globe.”

New IMB missionaries share testimonies of journey to the field

Christian Castellano served as an IMB Journeyman in Peru after working as a ministerial assistant at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., his sending church and the church where he was baptized at age 7.

Bellevue Baptist is also where Castellano, as a middle schooler, met Kyle Roy, who was on staff at Bellevue and is currently an IMB missionary in Brazil.

“He taught me the importance of prayer and evangelism and having a global perspective of God’s mission to save the world,” Castellano said about Roy.

In high school and college, Castellano went on mission trips to Nicaragua and Honduras. He eventually led church groups overseas. Toward the end of his Journeyman term in Peru, he believed the Lord gave him the desire to return to Peru as a career IMB missionary.

While he was preaching at a church in Lima, Castellano gave a call to action, inviting people to step into God’s mission to reach the world. He said the Lord made it clear that the sermon he was preaching was for himself. At that moment, God was telling Castellano he was to come back to Peru.

“As a Journeyman, I had the opportunity to engage with unreached people groups in remote parts of the Americas,” he said. “God is up to something, and I am so excited to be a part of it.”

Ricky and PJ Holder are following God’s call to Uganda with their four children.

Rich Elligson influenced Ricky and PJ, giving both a passion for missions. Elligson was their missions professor at Baptist University of Florida and a former IMB missionary.

“He is the reason that I pursued a degree in missions,” Ricky said about Elligson. “I took one missions class with him when I was a student ministry major and absolutely fell in love with all of that.”

Ricky and PJ went to Cuba with Elligson to do short-term volunteer mission work, and Ricky credits Elligson for preparing them for international missions in areas such as language training and teaching techniques.

“He was there for us,” Ricky said. “I graduated in 2010, so it’s been a while, but it is great to reflect on sitting in one of his classes and thinking then that I’m going to be on the mission field one day. It took a long time, but we’re finally at that point.”

As Ricky and PJ served the local church, they experienced many blessings, as well as hurdles and challenges on their journey. They faced times when they did not see how they could fulfill their passion for international mission work.

It wasn’t until January of this year when they finally encountered a clear opening with the IMB. Ricky was taking his final on-campus course for his doctorate at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Of the 15 students in his class, six were affiliated with the IMB, and one encouraged Ricky to send in an application to go to Uganda.

From there, God seemed to open the doors quickly for them to reach the mission field. Their four kids are excited for this opportunity. As a family, they have made trips to Uganda, and all the children loved the experience and look forward to living in the east central African country.

Heartland Church in Winter Haven, Fla., is the Holders’ sending church. The Holders are the first missionaries to be sent from Heartland Church.

“We’re excited to join the work of making disciples among refugees in Uganda,” Ricky said.

Lauren Hou grew up as a missionary kid. Her parents Victor and Darlene Hou served with the IMB in East Asia from 2003-2019, and they are currently IMB staff members in Richmond, Va.

“I saw my parents evangelize, disciple and contextualize,” Hou said. “My parents’ and other missionaries’ work showed me what it looks like to bring the gospel cross-culturally, which contributed to mobilizing me.”

Hou shared she planned to return overseas after finishing college, but God convicted her of wanting to go for her own purposes. She was attending a church women’s retreat where she heard the story of William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy estate, who became a missionary after traveling around the world and was burdened for the lost.

Borden’s missionary service didn’t last long as he died within a month on the field. Sometime later, it was found written in his Bible six words, “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.” Borden’s story challenged Hou to lay down her plans and obey God.

“I confessed my plans and committed to do whatever God wanted for me, whether to stay or go,” she said. “As I prayed, I heard God say ‘Go,’ so my life has been focused on that direction since then.”

Hou spent two months in Japan where she learned about the ways God is working among the Japanese. Now she is returning to Japan to share the Good News and help strengthen churches.

“Pray that I abide in Christ as I engage the lost with the gospel and catalyze believers toward spiritual maturity,” she said.

A special time of prayer was observed with four Tennessee Baptist church leaders voicing prayer in Arabic, Korean, Spanish and German.

Chitwood thanks Tennessee Baptists, expresses need for more to share gospel

IMB President Paul Chitwood said he was blessed to be back in his home state of Tennessee, especially to celebrate new missionaries sent to the nations – the very thing that brought Tennessee Baptists together 150 years ago and Southern Baptists together 180 years ago.

“Your gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering make their work possible,” Chitwood said. “And the beauty of our cooperative model means that every church represented in this sanctuary tonight had a gospel witness this past year in 155 countries around the world!”

Chitwood also took the opportunity of being in the “Volunteer State” to express the need for more Southern Baptists to serve on the mission field.

“We need more ‘volunteers’ on the mission field – planting churches and proclaiming the gospel,” he said. “Every job is an opportunity to share the gospel.” He also emphasized the varied skills, jobs and roles available to missionaries today.

Chitwood offered a message of encouragement from 2 Kings 7:3-9 to the missionaries, as well as those who pledge to support them. In a message he called “Lessons from Lepers,” he told the crowd to recognize the condition of the world, tell what God has done and recognize that “this is a day of good news” (2 Kings 7:9).

The next Sending Celebration will be Feb. 5, 2025, at First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C.