photo by GIBBS FRAZEUR

If there is any single question facing faithful men and women today, its that one. And across North America many senior Southern Baptists are finding both an answer and a calling through Mission Service Corps (MSC). God is giving personal fulfillment and great rewards to these who give fully of themselves for missions.

John and Kim Piepmeier are serving in Kiana, Alaska, a little village above the Arctic Circle. Thats a long way from Missouri where they both grew up. But with 50 people having already come to saving faith in Christ under their Alaskan ministry, its as though God is reaffirming to them, I saved you, I called you, and I am blessing you.

The Piepmeiers, who were chosen as the 2002 Mission Service Corps Missionaries of the Year, have an extensive ministry pastoring the little church in Kiana. But the history of their calling goes back even further. They started by serving on a short-term basis with missionaries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the Lake of the Ozarks and in Oneida, Kentucky, beginning with Backyard Bible Clubs using puppets. 

As they sensed God calling them to go into full-time missions, they made the surrender to go anywhere. It was on the North American Mission Board website that they saw the opportunity in Kiana, Alaska. They applied and were accepted to serve as self-funded missionaries through Mission Service Corps. Over the past few years they have proven to be Gods instruments for change among the people there.

Though they have some medical challenges and miss their grandchildren, their spirits are high. When John and Kim surrendered to Gods call to full-time ministry, they didnt know when or where, we just knew God said to us, Follow Me. Now, seeing what God is doing in their lives, they declare with enthusiasm, God is good.

Jim and Patti Barrett seemed to have it all, the large house, the matching Jaguars. He was a director of marketing for a large firm, she a high-school principal. Both had earned advanced degrees and both were what they called Sunday Christians. But their families had been praying for them and, through a downsizing of Jims company, the long hours involved in five start-up companies and the realization that there was more, they started to re-evaluate their lives. When we began to eliminate things from our life, God began to give us a heart for His priorities, Jim says. At the age of 50, we had retired from secular work and were now committed to being on mission with God.

First they went to Poland to teach English and stayed with a Polish family who loved the Lord in a manner we had seldom before seen. Then they went to Poland a second time, teaching at a university in Czestochowa and seeing God bring people to Himself through a Bible study and Sunday school.

Today, Jim and Patti are Mission Service Corps consultants working with five associations in the northeast corner of Texas. They want to multiply themselves as MSC missionaries and have already seen the number of missionaries increase from 20 to 73. Last year, 200 people came to faith in Christ, and two new churches were founded. The Barretts describe one of the missions: Several of the MSC missionaries are involved in a truck stop chapel ministry. The truck stop owners, who are Hindu, now provide free electricity for the tractor trailer chapel and invite the chaplains into the facility to talk with truckers. Its wonderful to see how God uses ordinary people to be on mission with Him.

For anybody who is willing
We can find a place for anybody who is willing to work, says Joe Brooks, Volunteer Mission Coordinator for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Joes role is to coordinate both short-term volunteers and long-term MSC missionaries for the convention. We look for people called by God. Senior adults are among the most underutilized and yet greatest assets the Southern Baptist Convention has.

He explains that committed seniors, who have the time and the financial resources, can help with small churches, tutor in schools, do relief work, support state convention staffs, work with the homeless, evangelizethe opportunities are everywhere. Many feel called but dont know how to get started. We need them. Well get them started, Joe says. They can contact us or tell their pastor that theyre willing. Every state has an MSC coordinator or contact point. We will pray with them, answer their questions and provide the information they need. 

Before they told God they would go anywhere, Joe and Linda Ledford had been taking short-term mission trips through the Watauga Association of Baptists in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Joe says, Many times as we headed home after a full day of work we said to one another, Wouldnt it be great if we could just do missions full time?

What happened next was a request from a pastor in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, to spend eight months helping the church develop childrens ministries. Now the Ledfords had a specific call in front of them. That caused a crisis of belief, as we discovered that it was easy to say we would go anywhere, but actually doing it was much harder, Joe says. Through prayer and with encouragement from family and friends, we came to a peace and a certainty that God had called us to Canada.

What did they do next? Joe quit his job as bureau chief of a local newspaper, and Linda closed her beauty shop. Raising their financial support from family, friends and churches who would be ministry partners, the Ledfords moved to Canada in August 1999. Through childrens ministries, then adult Bible studies, people began to come to faith in Christ, and a church was born.

Now, the Ledfords have agreed to help start a church in Cornwall, Ontario.

Joe and Linda declare, We will continue as long as God permits us to serve. God has given us an indescribable peace. He has shown us a part of Himself that wed never known before. Our greatest reward has been to be present as God brings people to faith in Christ and forms them into a new church. Weve never experienced anything as exciting as this.

Retirement by design
Men and women like Keith and Mary Wright are planning for missions, starting to serve as short-term, self-funded missionaries while they are still working, checking their finances for retirement and then saying to God, Ill serve You. Several have health problems that limit them now or probably will in the future. But they are going to keep going.

This is retirement by design. Keith, who serves in prison ministries, says, I had to de-junk my life. My wife, Mary, and I have made a commitment to become debt free and stay debt free.

Now Keith is working on moving out of the responsibilities of his air-conditioning business so that he can give more time to what he feels called to do. The first time I saw inmates in Bible study praying with each other I was hooked. I knew that I was one who had been called.

He now serves with the Sagemont Church Prison Ministry Team at the Carol S. Vance facility in Richmond, Texas. To serve is its own reward. We have been given a front-row seat to see the hand of God at work, says Keith.

Keith, who has been told that he may some day be in a wheel chair, says, I am not afraid after all that I have seen God do.

God working through ordinary people
According to Mike Riggins, director of Mission Service Corps, the majority of missionaries feel called to missions eight to ten years before responding to that call. Mike adds: My passion is to see people discover and then fulfill their life calling. Everything God does is with an eye on eternity. Nothing thrills me more than to see people discover what their piece of eternity is.

Because Jim and Patti Barrett are committed for the long term, they explain, We will definitely continue in mission work. God is on mission all around the world, and we want to be working with Him because we know that His plan to win a lost world is fulfilled through ordinary people.

Volunteer Coordinator Joe Brooks says that its time for senior adults to stand up and say, Count me in. All they need to do is ask the question What can I do?

Roger Palms, former editor of Decision magazine with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is the author of 14 books and lives in Anoka, Minnesota.