by James Kennard, Military Director

When my wife and I started our mission work in the early ‘60s with the people of Okinawa, we began to get requests from military personnel. A great need existed for a fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church to minister to the people related to the military on the island. At that particular time, we were at the height of the Vietnam war and there were over 100,000 military personnel and their dependents on the island.

Gail and I could really see that there was a great need in the military community; however, at that time, we could not break away from the work that we had started with the Japanese people in Okinawa. We asked those who were requesting to start a church to pray earnestly with us that God would give us someone to help get a church started. They prayed, we prayed, and while we were on furlough in 1967, I began to share this burden with others. Brother Bob Elzey said, “God wants me to go to Okinawa and be the one to start this church.” He and his family went to Okinawa in May of 1968 and the first services of Maranatha Baptist Church were soon held. In September, the church was organized. God has wonderfully blessed the ministry through the following years. Out of this military church more than 400 people have surrendered to full-time ministry over the years. Many of them are now missionaries or pastors, and some are in other special ministries. We praise God for the way that He has used this church as a soul-winning ministry, and that there are so many young men who have been called and trained for the ministry.

When we at Baptist International Missions, Inc. began to see the tremendous response that we were having from the military in Okinawa, it gave us a real burden to see this work expanded to a worldwide ministry. We began to send missionaries into other countries as well as to work with our military. Also we began to see many needs here at home in America. Churches were started where military personnel were not being reached. We now have missionaries working in sixteen different countries with the American military.

This ministry started with a burden for our own American military personnel and their families and it has grown to where it is today. When we started the ministry, the war in Vietnam was raging. We realized that a greater war—a spiritual one—was raging in the hearts of our service men and women. The responsibility for bringing peace to this war did not rest with the government but with fundamental churches and missionaries who recognized that the military was truly a mission field. We realized that we must concentrate on a ministry of soul winning and church planting with our military. We have done so, and we are seeing great results. We not only win them but train them in how a church operates. We are also able to show them missions firsthand; many are returning to the field as missionaries.

The ministry is now expanding in another area. We realized that if God could do all of this through the American military, then what about the militaries of other countries as well? We began to get a burden in this direction. One of our missionaries built two churches while working with the Canadian military near bases in Germany. We are now sending out missionaries to the military of foreign governments.

The military of any country is a unique group, and much of the time they’re neglected by any other mission work. Do pray for us and for this expansion ministry as well. We expect great things to happen as a result of this outreach.

The birth of any ministry begins with a burden. Then the ministry becomes a reality when someone acts on that burden. Thank God for the burden He gave us in 1966 for the military.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

BRANT & MAYLOU HOLLADAY -  EUROPE DIRECTOR
AARON BURR & STACY HOOT -  DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
JOHN & LEE ETTA HORNBECK JR -  MILITARY - GERMANY