Grace and Peace:

And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

The first human being walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. He and his crewmates were 240,000 miles from the earth...I didn't find that on google maps, but you can look it up. The United States had invested $24 billion and employed 400,000 workers from some 20,000 private firms.

Joe Shea was the man charged with the task of brining all of those resources together for this historic task. As you can imagine, the challenges were beyond daunting. There were pressures, arguments, and unspeakable dangers inherent in this project, but they had one thing going for them. In the book Apollo, Shea recalled, "We would go out in the parking lot and look up at the moon asd say, 'You really want to go there?'"* The answer was yes.

Our Great Commission for Christ carries a much higher calling than putting a man on the moon. Southern Baptists have a mandate from our Lord that requires an amazing investment of monies, over 10,000 missionaries, and the cooperative efforts of 42,000 Southern Baptist Churches with 16,000,000 members. We will always face problems, challenges, pressures, and even arguments. But if we really believe what we say we believe...if we really do accept the Great Commission...if we really can gaze heavenward and affirm that we really want to take everyone we can with us there...then we can look to Jesus and see the value of our efforts, our time, and our investment. Do we really want to do missions? The answer simply must be YES!

Please Look at this Opportunity:

Celebrate Missions! Thursday, 06.28.12. Come on out to Wilda Baptist Church on St. Clair Rd., just past Gardner, LA, off Hwy 28 W., at 6:30 pm. A Central Louisiana Baptist Association event to help you take notice of the many mission endeavors that are in action from right here in central Louisiana. Who knows? You just might discover a previously uncovered passion for a mission that our Lord has placed "right up your alley." Oh yeah, there's good food and fellowship, too!

Blessings,
Robert Daniel
__________________
*Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, Apollo (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 178.