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NORTHEAST By Carol Pipes and Sara Shelton


hat does it mean to be mobilized? Simply put, it means to be sent. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” As Southern Baptists respond to God’s call to take the gospel into the most under-reached and underserved areas of North America, the


North American Mission Board is connecting them with people and places allowing them to live out God’s call on their lives. Whether it’s as a church planter, church planter apprentice or missions volunteer, there’s a role for everyone in fulfi lling the Great Commission through evangelism and church planting.


THE PRATHERS’ STORY


A few years ago Kassie Prather came to her husband, Riley, with an out-of-the-blue suggestion, something that would combine her heart for missions and his desire for ministry: church planting. “Kassie came to me and said, ‘What do you think about church planting?’” Riley explains. “I was surprised by it, because it was something I had never considered. I wanted to preach and love people in my community—everything a church planter does—but in my traditional, Southern Baptist context.” Putting the thought on the backburner, Riley, a student minister at First Baptist Church Minco, Okla., turned his attention to missions. In search of a context where his students could serve outside the Bible Belt, he found information about the spiritual need in the North- east. Riley then connected with NAMB church planter Shaun Pillay in Norwich, Conn., and planned a mission trip for the summer of 2011. That trip changed his life. “Everywhere we went, my heart seemed to literally feel the weight of the darkness there,” Riley explains. “I


was struck by the nature of the church, the work that Shaun and his guys were doing, and just the overall need for Christ in the area.” Recalling his wife’s question about church planting,


Riley retuned home and shared with Kassie a new desire God had put on his heart: to move to Connecticut and start a church. “I just told God, ‘I’ll go if you’ll send me.’” Kassie and Riley took a second trip to Norwich to spend time with Shaun and his wife, Deshni, to talk and pray over this vision. “We both just knew—this was the path God had been planting in our hearts for years,” says Riley. The Prathers look forward to moving to Connecti-


cut this year and starting the work of planting Green Valley Crossing Church in Putnam. They plan to spend their fi rst year in the small city working to build relationships with the community they will serve and launch their church in 2013. Their sending church, First Baptist Church Minco, is behind them 100 percent, supporting them prayer- fully, fi nancially and relationally. The Grady Baptist


15 Fall 2012 • onmission.com


HOW TWO COUP


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