2018
Well, we returned Mon­day night from our trip to Kan­tu­nilkÃn, Mex­i­co. God tru­ly was at work, sov­er­eign­ly work­ing in hearts and in sit­u­a­tions. We had a team of 16 peo­ple and every­one of them were great and worked hard evan­ge­liz­ing, teach­ing, and with VBS. On this trip peo­ple were saved, broth­ers were prayed with, lead­er­ship in the church was encour­aged, we made new con­tacts, and now God is open­ing new doors to serve in even greater ways in Kan­tu­nilkÃn that will reach even more with the gospel. Great part­ner­ships were made among pas­tors in our asso­ci­a­tion and with their lead­ers. We all walked away encour­aged about what God is going to do with Igle­sia Bautista Vida Nue­va. Pas­tor Luis and his wife Veron­i­ca are doing a great job lead­ing and we are work­ing with them to part­ner in reach­ing Kantunilk­n. So much hap­pened this time that it would take me a long let­ter to write it all. We just want to praise God for this trip, for His grace to all of us, and we are excit­ed to see His glo­ry spread even fur­ther in Kan­tu­nilkn. Thank you Mis­sion Team, Thank you DBA, And thanks to all of you who sup­port­ed us to go, it will be your reward too. To God be the glo­ry!
-Joey Davis, Kan­tu­nilkn mis­sion team leader and Pas­tor of Igle­sia Bautista De Cedar Crossing 

Sev­er­al of our DBA con­gre­ga­tions and some friends from oth­er like mind­ed church­es trav­eled to Kantunilkín, Mex­i­co to encour­age and min­is­ter along­side the new­ly estab­lished and grow­ing Igle­sia Bautista Vida Nue­va. Vida Nue­va is a church God has estab­lished and has uti­lized the work of Geor­gia Bap­tist and, espe­cial­ly our DBA church­es to accom­plish this work.

The mem­bers of our team were:

Joey Davis (Pas­tor Igle­sia Bautista De Cedar Cross­ing and mis­sion team leader), his wife Gaby Davis and their daugh­ter Wil­low Davis; 

Eric Deprat­ter (mem­ber of Igle­sia Bautista De Cedar Crossing); 

Petra Her­nan­dez (mem­ber of Igle­sia Bautista De Cedar Crossing); 

Ang­ie Red­dish (teach­es ESL at FBC Lyons with Pas­tor Joey Davis) (mem­ber Oasis Church of God, Lyons)

Bil­ly Puck­ett (DBA Mis­sion­ary and mem­ber of FBC Vidalia); 

Lydia Clements (stu­dent at Brew­ton-Park­er College); 

Austin Pounds (stu­dent at Brew­ton-Park­er College); 

Chris Vin­son (Pas­tor Trin­i­ty Bap­tist Church) and his son Jake Vinson; 

Ricky Cum­mings (Pas­tor First Bap­tist Vidalia); 

Mitch Bell­flower (Pas­tor to chil­dren at First Bap­tist Lyons) and his wife Kel­ly Bellflower; 

Clint Jar­riel (mem­ber of First Bap­tist Lyons) and his wife Robin Jareriel

 

Vida Nue­va request­ed teach­ers from our Daniell Asso­ci­a­tion to come invest in their church lead­er­ship. For 6 hours each day, Tues­day through Fri­day, we had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pour into their church leadership.

Pas­tor Ricky Cum­mings (FBC Vidalia),

Pas­tor Chris Vin­son (Trin­i­ty Bap­tist) and Association

 

Mis­sion­ary Bil­ly Puck­ett taught each day, Mon­day though Friday. 

Ricky taught hermeneutics, 

Chris offered a sur­vey of the New Tes­ta­ment and Bil­ly pre­sent­ed a sur­vey of the Old Testament.

 

Also, each morn­ing and after­noon, Tues­day through Fri­day, 9 mem­bers of the team, lead by Pas­tor Joey Davis, would go out door-to-door, shar­ing the gospel and invit­ing peo­ple to the church and chil­dren to Vaca­tion Bible School.

 

From 4pm to 7pm each day, Wednes­day through Fri­day, the entire team joined the church Vaca­tion Bible School team and min­is­tered to around 85 chil­dren each day.

Mitch Bell­flower and his team from First Lyons arrived on Thurs­day and jumped in with VBS. After VBS, Mitch and his team was able to meet with the lead­ers of the church and pro­vide encour­age­ment and sug­ges­tions for effec­tive chil­dren’s ministry.

 

 

 

Our DBA pas­tors had sev­er­al encour­ag­ing one-on-one meet­ings with the Pas­tor of Vida Nue­va, Luis Rodriguez. We were able to encour­age Pas­tor Luis in the area of bap­tism and our Lord’s Sup­per, and while we were there, Pas­tor Louis admin­is­tered the ordi­nance of bap­tism for the first time and lead his church in our Lord’s Sup­per for the first time. On Sat­ur­day the church trav­eled to the beach and bap­tized 4 new con­verts. Pas­tor Ricky bap­tized the first per­son as a demon­stra­tion for Pas­tor Louis and then Pas­tor Louis bap­tized the oth­er 3 as the church choir sang prais­es from the shore. It tru­ly was a glo­ri­ous day.

 

Our part­ner­ship with Vida Nue­va is bear­ing fruit, and a sol­id Bap­tist church is being estab­lished and strength­ened in Kantunilk­n, Mex­i­co. Our oppor­tu­ni­ty to be a part of this king­dom work in Kantunilk­n is cer­tain­ly a gra­cious gift of our God to us. May he con­tin­ue to offer the church­es of the DBA oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­tic­i­pate in the advance of the king­dom of Christ and the glo­ry of God at home and across the world. I am con­fi­dent that he will, if we ask him for the oppor­tu­ni­ty and are faith­ful when he opens the door to us.

Bil­ly