Worth a thousand words
Early in life Ted Wilcox knew God had given him a desire to make exceptional photographs, and he knew photography was a powerful tool for conveying information and ideas. He had no idea photography would take him to 16 countries around the world.

Ted Wilcox receives a lot of attention when he travels. People are natually drawn to the man with the camera, especially children like these from Afghanistan. tedwilcox.com

A member of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, Ted credits the church for giving him a clear vision and direction for using photography in missions. God had been maturing me through Bible study for years to prepare me for missions, says Ted. However, he didnt feel fulfilled or directed. Then I started attending Saddleback, became involved in the childrens ministry and volunteered with the communications ministry as a photographer.

Ted got his first taste of missions as a leader and group photographer on a youth trip to Mexico. Ted has childhood memories of growing up in church and of missionary reports. I would sit in the back and say to myself, No, not me, I am definitely not called to go to Africa or China.

The trip to Mexico changed those early apprehensions about international missions. It planted the first seeds of desire to work internationally and to use my photography talents toward that purpose, says Ted. Within one year I traveled to Africa and Eastern Europe on mission trips.

Since then, Ted has taken several mission trips with teams from Saddle-back and gone on assignment for organizations such as Samaritans Purse and the Salvation Army.

Serving as a photographer in a foreign country can be challenging. Because of language barriers, he communicates with simple gestures and smiles. I never want to be perceived as just another member of the media trying to get a story, says Ted. I want people to know Im there for a different purposeto share Christ.

Just being a westerner often provides special privileges and a platform for earnest attention and discussion. Recently, on a trip to a remote village in Tajikistan, Teds missionary guide told him that their visit with a family was a huge honor that would be bragged about and discussed for a long time.

Teds most recent mission trip was to Afghanistan in 2002 to document and help with the distribution of shoe boxes for Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child. I never get tired of watching children as they receive their gifts. Words cant describe the moment when a local leader explained to the children that some of the gifts were from New York City children who had suffered at the hands of terrorists. But most important, he acknowledged that the gifts came from Christians who wanted to share Gods love, says Ted.

Sharing Jesus long distance
What would it be like to have a personal evangelism strategy where everyone you talk to has spiritual questions and you never have to leave the comfort and safety of your own home? Just ask Jeanie Huntshe loves it!

Jeanie works out of her home in Harrison, Arkansas, as a data entry worker and babysitter. Jeanie is also a telephone encourager for the North American Mission Boards Evangelism Response Center (ERC). The ERC in Fort Worth, Texas, was designed to give Southern Baptists across the country a common phone number for evangelistic responses. The national phone number1-888-JESUS-2000is used by state conventions, churches and other groups and is included on evangelistic materials, plus it can be found on television programs, radio and newspaper ads or even magazine articles.

Jeanie Hunt shares christ's love with callers. COURTESY OF JEANIE HUNT

When people call the toll-free number, the ERC routes their calls to volunteer encouragers across the continent. The anonymous calls come to volunteers like Jeanie, who has led more than a dozen people to the Lord over the phone. Being a telephone encourager has given me a new boldness to witness directly to people.

Jeanie read about the telephone ministry in 1999. I had been praying that God would open a door to ministry for me, says Jeanie. Sharing Christ with people while

sitting in my own home was almost too good to be true! She inquired about how she could be part of this incredible opportunity.

I was terrified the first time I logged on, but I soon realized it was the Holy Spirit doing the talking, helping me remember my Bible study from that day or the devotional I had read earlier, says Jeanie. I was only required to be available, and the Lord equipped me.

Most who call Jeanie have questions, doubts and fears about their spiritual life. Her goal is to help callers clarify their relationship with Jesus, and if they dont have a relationship Jeanie encourages them to trust Christ.

I got a call from a six-year-old boy who wanted me to sing, Jesus Loves Me to him, recalls Jeanie.

His father had walked out on the family, and he needed love from his Heavenly Father.

Jeanie finds that most people who call and are led to the Lord are ready; they just dont know what they are supposed to do to have a new life in Christ. Thats where the role of a telephone encourager comes in.

One time Jeanie answered the phone and a man said, I would like to ask Jesus into my heart on this Thanksgiving Day. Jeanie made sure the man understood the decision he was making and then led him in a prayer where he asked Christ into his heart.

In my spare time, in the comfort, safety and privacy of my own home, I can extend my Masters hand to people I would never have met otherwise, she says.

For information on becoming a telephone encourager call Joy Neal at 817-570-1409 or email jneal@namb.net. 

Outback outreach
Mike and Katherine Raether are two of the 80 people who live in Zortman, Montana, where coffee is free at the local caf and people laughingly refer to their climate of nine months of winter and three months of relatives. Originally from Washington State, Mike and Katherine moved to Zortman to start a church. Years ago God put it on my heart to be a church planter, Mike says.

Mike and Katherine Raether make the locals feel welcome. COURTESY OF THE RAETHERS

My wife and I visited Montana for the first time about seven years ago, says Mike. We felt the Lord was preparing us for a move out of the Pacific Northwest, and we had an idea He might have Montana in mind. As they prayed and traveled, they drove through small towns without any evangelical churches. I was distressed at the lack of a gospel witness and became interested in pioneer missions. It became the deep desire of my heart to establish churches in remote areas where others might not be willing to go.

It takes a certain type of person to live in such a remote place, Mike says. Its 180 miles round trip to a decent-sized grocery store. But God has tailor-made us for this place.

Adopting the lifestyle of the locals, Mike and Katherine live in a mobile home, drive a truck and stock their freezer with enough wild meat during hunting season to last the year.

Because 50 percent of the Zortman residents live below the poverty level, Katherine began a free store ministry in a donated mobile home where people can choose from donated clothing and household articles.

Five months after Mikes arrival, with volunteers from Joshualand Ministries in Florida, Little Rockies Community Baptist Church was built and dedicated, debt free. A ministry that began with eight people in the Raethers living room has seen 20 people come to faith in Christ and several baptized. On Sundays, 95 percent of the children in town are in church along with an equal percentage of adults.

The Raethers responded to the call of God, left comfortable jobs and grown children and went on faith to a faraway land. With Jesus as their model, they simply trust and obey and expect God to bless. No place is too remote, no church is too small.   

More than gold
Most visitors to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, came to see the incredible athletes pursue their dreams of Olympic gold. Thanks to Southern Baptists like Toni Naylor, many spectators left with more than memories of gold.

Toni greets visitors to the winter Olympics with a warm smile. GIBBS FRAZEUR

Toni, a US/C-2 missionary committed to two years of service in the U.S. or Canada, spent two years in Salt Lake City serving with the Global Outreach team responsible for preparing volunteer evangelistic efforts for the 2002 Olympics. Toni led the team in the ski village of Park City that reached out to the thousands of spectators who came to see events like the adrenaline-pumping giant slalom and gravity-defying snowboarding events.

Toni coordinated the volunteers positioned at warming and hospitality stations, efforts that resulted in many brief encounters with spectators. She and the others shared Christ using the More than Gold trading pin and pocket guide. Both tools use the colors from the More than Gold logo to present the plan of salvation. Some of these encounters resulted in immediate professions of faith while others were opportunities to plant seeds of Gods love and salvation.

Toni learned about missions as a child through Mission Friends, Girls in Action and Acteens. Throughout middle and high school, she went on several mission trips with her youth group. It finally clicked by the time I was a senior and making plans for college that I could actually be a missionary one day. I felt a strong desire to devote my life to mission work, in some form or fashion.

During college Toni took advantage of summer mission opportunities that took her to Anchorage, Alaska, and Vail, Colorado. By the time I graduated, I couldnt imagine having a full-time job in anything other than ministry, says Toni. God put a desire in my heart to go and share the gospel no matter what the sacrifice, no matter the cost.

Toni felt God calling her specifically to Resort/Special Event Ministryreaching people outside the four walls of the church. Through this ministry, I am able to meet people where they are, and I can introduce them to Jesus when they are not expecting to meet Him, says Toni. Im learning how to creatively get peoples attention. Then finding ways to meet their needs so I can earn the right to share my story about what God has done in my life.

Toni also felt God calling her specifically to the western part of the United States, places in our country where there is not a church on every corner, where people dont grow up hearing about Jesus. She found Salt Lake City to be an incredible mission fieldespecially during the Olympics. Not only did she touch the lives of people in the United States, but she also shared Christ with people from all over the world.

People ask Toni when shes going home to Florida. She just smiles and says, I am home. Home is where God sends you, where He calls you to be on mission. 

Breaking ground in pioneer missions
Police Chaplaincy is a pioneering field in Canada. Not all that long ago, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had only one chaplain for the whole country.

Ben Yablonski came to Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, to pastor a small Baptist church. After 12 years of pastoral ministry Ben felt the Lord was directing him toward police chaplaincy. Ive been an auxiliary RCMP officer [like a reserve constable] for many years, so I had a natural in with the officers, says Ben.

Ben Yablonski considers it an honor to serve as a police chaplain. COURTESY OF BEN YABLONSKI

Ben is now associate pastor at Victoria Baptist Church, the only Southern Baptist church on Vancouver Island. His focus is chaplaincy care to emergency service personnel. The North American Mission Board has appointed him as a Mission Service Corps missionary.

As a chaplain, I go on ride-alongs with the constables and offer a listening ear, says Ben. I think of this as preventive maintenanceproviding a sounding board for the little problems before they become big ones. Ben employs morale boosters like birthday cards and Smile File, a joke sheet with encouraging quotes from Proverbs or Psalms.

Emergency service chaplaincy is not outreach, but reaching in to a close knit, even suspicious, subculture of our society.

Ben knows it took integrity and trust to move him through levels of acceptance with the other officers.

I was told by a chaplain in the United States that it often takes two to five years to break into a department, says Ben. My first day as a chaplain, God had me in the front seat of a police car in the first 20 minutes I was there. Most chaplains dont experience that kind of success so soon.

 A little over a year ago, Ben was visiting one department of 30 officers. Today, he visits 330 officers across seven detachment areas. During his career, Ben has been a firefighter, coroner and Justice of the Peace, but none of those jobs was as rewarding as serving as chaplain alongside the men and women in the RCMP.

Since September 11, doors have flung open for discussions about God and faith, sharing who God is with those who are merely curious and those who are truly searching, says Ben. Its been the most rewarding part of the ministry.