A GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST

by Dr. Jeff Alverson

In 1 Timothy 2:3-4 Paul told his preacher “boy” to be a “good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Of course, one can be a soldier and not be a good soldier. Brother Al Sligh has been in Military Missions now for many years and has, indeed, been a good soldier of the Cross. This past August at BIMI Director’s Meeting, Al Sligh and his wife, Norma, posthumously, were honored with The 2005 Distinguished Missionary Award in recognition of their outstanding service as faithful missionaries with Baptist International Missions, Inc., for the past 32 years. This is certainly an award well deserved by this man of God.

Al Sligh retired from active duty military service on July 31, 1968, after spending twenty years in the United States Air Force. Upon his retirement he and his wife, Norma, went to Okinawa to teach at the Okinawa Christian School. It was in Okinawa that they were first introduced to military missions while attending Maranatha Baptist Church, a church dedicated to ministering to the US military personnel and their families stationed on the island. Brother Al was the first ordained deacon of this church and directed the church visitation program. As he faithfully served in this capacity he felt God wanted him to do more. Soon he surrendered his life to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus and was ordained in July, 1973. Shortly thereafter, he became the associate pastor and full-time visitation director of the church.

The following year Mrs. Sligh became ill and they were required to return to the States. Although Brother Al had earned a BS degree in Education from Middle Tennessee Sate University in 1966 while stationed at Seward AFB in Smyrna, Tennessee, he felt he needed some formal Bible training. That year he enrolled in Tennessee Temple Bible School and graduated with a ThG in May of 1975.

Immediately he immersed himself in the work of military missions and moved his family to Puerto Rico where he founded and established the Maranatha Baptist Church and Academy in 1976. The church was soon averaging 160 in Sunday services under his leadership. He served the ministry in Puerto Rico for three years and moved to Panama where he established another Maranatha Baptist Church, a ministry to the US military there where he faithfully served for the next eighteen years. During the year of 1986, the church averaged 554 in their Sunday morning services.

In 1991 the base began drawing down as they made preparations for the military to leave Panama. As the military population diminished so did the church attendance. Brother Al, working with a Spanish-speaking missionary, began a transition to turn the church into a national work that is still in existence today.

After a short stay in the States, the Slighs returned to Okinawa and served again as Assistant to the Pastor at Maranatha, the place where his ministry began many years before. However, their work this time would be brief. In 2001, they returned to the States where Mrs. Sligh soon passed on to Glory. But Brother Al was not finished. In October, 2003, he went to Guam at age 73 and established the Freedom Baptist Church near Anderson AFB and turned it over to a missionary pastor in February 2004. Once again Brother Al returned to America to have surgery on both knees.

Since his recuperation, he now serves as Military Missions Coordinator working out of the home office at BIMI. For the past year he has edited the GI Banner and in addition to all of this, this old soldier of the Cross now serves as our Education Coordinator and plans to be serving when the Lord gives him his final promotion to glory.