Church Partner Gets Recharged

1 st Baptist of Modesto Gets Recharged

It all started when a team from United World Mission and the Alliance for Saturation Church Planting visited First Baptist Church of Modesto to help them with their focus on Slovenia.

One young couple in attendance, Todd & Sarah Hunnicutt, were looking for God's direction missions. At the end of the day, in a working group assigned the task of talking about next steps and how to make Slovenia alive to the congregation. Pastor Claude Terry recommended that the couple across the room, the Hunnicutt's, would be a great choice.

That started a process for Todd & Sarah of traveling to Slovenia for an Alliance Field Leader conference in Budapest. They loved the Alliance vision, and wanted to come under the Alliance umbrella. However, Todd was told that the Alliance is not a mission sending agency and that in order to serve, they would have to be sent by a mission sending organization. So, Todd asked which mission, of those in the Alliance, most closely aligns with the vision and focus of Saturation Church Planting. Todd was looking for an agency that was not distracted by others things. "That would be United World Mission," replied a missionary who, as it happened, was not with UWM!

On the Hunnicutt's second visit to Slovenia, the senior pastor of 1st Baptist came along to see this new field. By God's grace, he met a Slovene pastor who he immediately clicked with, and has since come back 3 times to mentor this key pastor. Both pastors often refer to each other in their preaching and conversations, and it has definitely raised the level of awareness of mission in Modesto. The church-wide focus on Slovenia has led over 60 people to travel to Slovenia in just two years. They've accomplished a lot; from English classes to a prayer team to a musical group (that have twice done concerts in the Slovene language) to a special addictions ministry team that continues to mentor a young couple with an outreach to addicts.

United World Mission helped Todd and Sarah to succeed, in part, because its Budapest-based "Regional Development Team" had built strong relationships in Slovenia. By standing on the shoulders of the respected Budapest team, Todd and Sarah gained instant credibility. Those early relationships remain solid after being on the field for a term.

First Baptist Church has a long missions tradition and many of its members serve around the globe. But because of the coordination of efforts between Pastor Claude and the Hunnicutt's, the ongoing relationships between the senior pastor and a Slovene pastor, and the coordination of a new addictions ministry in Slovenia by the 1 st Baptist addictions ministry - the congregation is more excited about mission in general, and Slovenia in particular, than at anytime in the church's history. Praise God!

First Baptist has been so satisfied with United World Mission's relationship with the Hunnicutt's, that another single from the church is now serving in Chile, and others are in the pipeline.