I do not like going to prison. I’ve been there, multiple times. They are depressing, oppressive, gray places filled with hardened people who trust no one and look on outsiders with burning suspicion.
Prisons scare me. The prisoners scare me more. No, I don’t like prisons … but I will go to a prison for a good story, or just about anywhere else in this world that rational-thinking people would avoid.
Places like a mosque in India where I nearly started a brawl between two Muslim factions with a question I asked. In the interest of self-preservation, I slipped out as the arguing rapidly escalated.
Then there was the time I was caught in a devastating earthquake in Peru that for days cut access to the remote mountain village in which I was on assignment.
I also once had to ditch a couple of very large Chinese mafia “security” guys while on assignment in a major city of a Latin American country where I was doing a story on Chinese in the Americas.
And then there was the time a friend and I were escorted from the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City for taking pictures. Yeah, we knew we weren’t supposed to do that, but we needed them for our story.
I have worked as a journalist in 37 countries and a bunch of states covering stories about missions and ministries. I can confidently say that God is actively at work around the world to bring people to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and to conform them into the image of His Son.
Telling those stories is the best part of my job here at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. I take my cues from Luke, who told Theophilus stories about Jesus and the early church so that Theophilus “may know the certainty of the things [he had] been taught.” On the rare occasion I’m invited to speak in churches, that’s what I do.
For over 12 years, I’ve been responsible for producing our Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions (GOTM) promotional videos. The videos are a snapshot of God’s activity in Tennessee and how Tennessee Baptists are both engaging and investing in that work. The stories are amazing.
Like the work being done in a juvenile prison in Dandridge, where volunteers led by Dale Lusk, a layman from Swannsylvania Baptist Church, faithfully share the gospel and disciple incarcerated youth multiple times a week.
More than 250 boys have been saved, baptized, and set on the road to discipleship in the past decade.
Or the video we did on 5 Loaves Food Pantry, a ministry of Vine Ridge Missionary Baptist Church, which at the time had a membership of about 19 people. However, this small but mighty church provides food for more than 400 people in the county while sharing the gospel and praying with everyone who arrives for a food box.
Bivocational pastor Richie Farley leads the church, and his wife, Doylene, leads the ministry. I asked her how it is they’ve never run out of food not knowing in advance how many people will come that week. “That’s why we call it 5 Loaves,” she said. “We don’t know, but God does, and He always provides what we need.”
Another favorite is one you’ll see in this year’s GOTM promotional kit. Mason is a virtually forgotten West Tennessee community along Highway 70 in the shadow of Ford’s Blue Oval City.
There was a long-abandoned church building in rough shape in Mason, but that was it. Leon Jones, who pastors a church in Memphis, believed God was calling him to make the hour drive every Sunday afternoon to resurrect and lead the church in Mason.
After an intense renovation of the building, he walked the community, knocked on doors, and invited people to church. The building is now alive with people and is rapidly growing.
“These people weren’t unchurched,” he said. “They were de-churched. God wasn’t through with this community. They just needed someplace to go.”
Tennessee Baptists, you had a part in each of these stories. God is doing a work through you as you faithfully give through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions.
I often paraphrase the apostle John when I tell churches that if I were to share with them all that God is doing in Tennessee, the world itself could not contain the videos that would be produced.
Truth is, any way you slice it, Tennessee is a mission field, and your GOTM giving makes a tangible difference in the eternal well-being of our fellow Tennesseans. Thank you for giving. Find out more and order your GOTM materials for the 2025-2026 offering year through tnwmuorder.org.
Don’t miss out on some great stories. B&R