was expecting to tour a museum and instead had a life-changing experience.

I love surprises, and on this day I needed one.

You see, I was on a mission of sorts myself. I had just flown from Alberta and survived the white-knuckled, rush-hour drive from Atlantas airport to the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta. I had heard that NAMB partners with churches in my home country of Canada for the express purpose of reaching every person who has never heard the gospel of Christa worthwhile but lofty goal,

I thought. Frankly, I was here to find out what NAMB really meant by that.

"Are you a first-time visitor?" asked Lee Head, receptionist, smiling broadly. "If so, may I suggest you tour our Vision Centerits tremendous!"

I hope everyone here is this pleasant, I thought, pinning on my visitors badge. It occurred to me that NAMB is made up of people, not steel and glass.

I met Dr. Bob Reccord, NAMB president, who confirmed my suspicion that the agency has its corporate heart in the right place. "People, not organizations, bring others to Christ," he told me. "People in churches are planting churches, and NAMB will do
whatever it can to assist those people, because NAMB is those people too. All of us here are real people with families and car pools and mortgages and busy schedules who take the call to evangelism seriously." Dr. Reccord sets the example himself by being a soul winner and being accountable to colleagues for personal evangelism. Staff meetings begin with the question: Whom have you shared the gospel with since we last met?

He also encouraged me to tour the Vision Center, and so, later in my visit, I boldly marched through its heavy wooden doors.

Immediately, I was overwhelmed. I had expected, oh, maybe some displays on the wall, maybe a brochure or two. But no, this was a large, engaging, fun, interactive environment depicting the redemptive work through Southern Baptists in North America.

Recognizing that people remember far more of what they both see and hear, NAMB has created a walk-through experience thats a microcosm of what the agency is aboutcontinental mission strategies.

In Heritage Square I stepped back in time to historic Baltimore and Southern Baptists missionary roots.

Next I wandered through an area that reinforced my concern about our societys moral decline and desperate need for Christ. Rounding a corner into a cityscape, I witnessed urban decay and lawlessness: "The 183 photographs in this alley symbolize the Americans who will fall victim to violent crime during the 10 minutes you are in this display area," "On the shelf are 10.5 dolls. They represent the average number of abortions that occurred since you began reading this plaque," and "There are 4,932 hairpins scattered on the floor of the shop. Each one represents one American woman who will be assaulted by her partner by the end of this day."

More displays tugged at my emotionssome, like the interactive game show quiz, made me laugh right out loudand convinced me that, yes, NAMB is focused on Canada and other special areas:

impacting cities, reaching the fast-growing populations of students and ethnics, mobilizing volunteers.

But one display especially came alive, because I had met employee Barbara Massey. Beautiful, distinguished, impeccably dressed, she looked like the last person I would expect to wind up in prison. But thats exactly what happened several years ago when she was an unwitting pawn in a drug sting.

Now I was in the Vision Center stepping into a cell like the one that served as her home for nearly a year. I read the plaintive messages scrawled on the wall as the prisoner described his radical change of heart after a chaplain led him to the Lord and a life of service when he, like Barbara, was set free.

I felt what those prisoners felt: set freeto be on mission. I recalled that other NAMB employees had impressed on me that every Christian is called to be on mission, that NAMB exists to help people "plug in," that NAMB stands ready to help me and my church fulfill Jesus Acts 1:8 strategy.

Connie Cavanaugh lives in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada.