Our People Need Missionaries

Report of the Pennsylvania SBCV Mission Trip

                                                                                                                                               Vol. IX, No.1, January 1996

We were convinced before we left Virginia that God was going to work because we experienced the strong opposition of the enemy. From the original team of eight we were reduced to a team of five because of crisis situations occurring with three of our team members.

Lancaster, PA, is a city of over 400,000 inhabitants with no established Southern Baptist witness. God has given a vision to Orion Rhodes, who pastored a good sized church at Gettysburg, to move to Lancaster and begin a work for God there. For about two years a group has been meeting at the Holiday Inn on the Liliby Pike trying to get a Southern Baptist church off the ground. From just the pastor and his wife they have grown to about 70 adults and children.

It was into this situation that our SBCV mission team moved on Sunday, October 15^th. We hired, on a nightly basis, three banquet halls at the Holiday Inn; there we ministered to adults, youth and children. During the day we went door-to-door and also witnessed in the Farmer’s Market. As a result, we had the joy of leading 7 ladies and 1 man to Christ. How often did we hear the response, “I believe I’m going to heaven because I’m a good person”? How people need to hear that there is only one way to be saved: repent, believe, and Christ receive!

What of the future? The potential is phenomenal, the obstacles are enormous! The cost of land is at premium prices, approximately $50,000 an acre with a minimum of 5 acres being required by local government for a church building. We believe as a mission team that this is something we of the SBCV could support and help get established, that the city of Lancaster might have a viable southern Baptist witness.

Mission team members were: Rayborn Hill, Wayne Hills Baptist, Waynesboro; David Johnson, pastor, Rileyville Baptist, Rileyville; David Pursley, Rileyville Baptist; and Clyde and Lois Trojak, Deer Park Baptist, Hampton.

[Editorial Comment: This is the first SBCV mission effort outside Virginia. May God grant that it prove to be only the first in a series which will prove effective in leading many souls to decisions for Christ and only end with His return. TCP]