Global Missions Archives < Oklahoma Baptists

The Adventure of a Lifetime

Tythan Skipworth — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:46:40 +0000

One of my favorite movies growing up was Star Trek. I don’t think it was because of the characters in the show, although Spock was pretty unique. I think what made it fun for me was its theme, “to go where no man has gone before.” All of us have been born with a sense of adventure, and living for Christ is the ultimate great adventure.

I can’t think of a theme and many times a concern that fits us better as leaders in our churches today. We are truly going where no man has gone before. The world is changing so fast around us. It’s overwhelming at times to try to understand it. AI, social media, and globalization barely scratches the surface of where our world seems to be headed. For us however our mandate stays the same, as we are going, go and make disciples of the world.

An exciting frontier for churches is getting outside of the walls of our church and accepting the call to go where we have never gone before. I have had the honor of being on mission with churches as they have taken their first steps of accepting God’s call to go overseas. Many for the first-time step into a world that they have never known. It has been fun to watch the transformation of their individual lives as well as the transformation of their church. It is hard to have a church in decline that is on mission and is serving outside the walls of the church.

Church leader: let’s go. Let’s go to places that need the gospel. Let’s go to communities, cities, and nations that have not heard the saving knowledge of Christ. There are new frontiers awaiting us to live the great adventure of taking the Good News to the world. Let’s go change the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we go we will be changed ourselves and be blessed as we become a blessing to others.

Acts Camp

Tythan Skipworth — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 16:56:19 +0000

I will never forget seeing Mary for the first time at our informational meeting in the fellowship hall at Stroud, First Baptist Church. She attended to hear about the mission trip that her church would be taking since 1993. I wrongly assumed that she was there to learn how to pray for the team. In my defense she was 79 years old, and I have had the honor of many people her age pray faithfully for me and teams as we ministered around the world. Mary wasn’t there to just pray; she was ready to go.

Mary had been recently widowed, never had a passport, never been on a plane, and not really been out of Oklahoma. Her words to me were, “I am feeling called to go,” which I replied, “I’m called to take you.”

Six months later we boarded our first plane together and soon landed in Nicaragua. It was a joy to watch her serve and watch her love the Nicaraguan people and encourage our team. It was amazing to walk the streets with her to prayer walk and her share her testimony where she shared Christ. She loved on children and loved on us. It was a joy to eat ice cream, hike mountains to see God’s beautiful creation, and experience joy of serving together.

Mary has set a new bar for sending. She reminded me of God calling on our lives to obedience before anything else. Mary could have had a lot of excuses to not go to Nicaragua. No one would blame her, but she went. Her passion has inspired me to serve and share God’s love more than ever before. I’m so blessed that God put Mary in my path. I will never be the same and one day when I grow up, I want to be like the Jesus I saw in miss Mary.

A Humbled Heart

Tythan Skipworth — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 18:33:17 +0000

Mary, the 79 Year Old Missionary

Tythan Skipworth — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:49:49 +0000

How the Gospel Changes Everything

Tythan Skipworth — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:51:16 +0000

I will never forget the first time I took a team to Santo Thomas, Nicaragua. We had an amazing medical team, lots of medicine to help the people, and a great VBS team with all the supplies. Everything was pretty perfect. We were the first team to ever go into this village and share the gospel so I couldn’t have been more excited.

The best word that could describe what happened that day when we left the village was disastrous. No one came to our clinic because the priests told everyone before we got there that the medicine we had would poison them, all the children’s supplies for VBS got stolen, we got rocks thrown at us, and it was obvious that no one wanted us there. We all felt so defeated because we had underestimated the darkness of a community that had never heard the gospel.

I was recently back in Santo Thomas and sat on the steps of the Baptist church that sits in the village today. As I was reflecting back to our first mission trip in Santo Thomas over 10 years ago the reason for the change I saw there was obvious. It was and only could be the gospel. The gospel finally penetrated the community as one by one people gave their lives to Christ, a church was planted, and believers became discipled. Now Santo Thomas is planting other churches in other communities.

It’s an amazing reminder to me why we do what we do. We do missions for various reasons, however the primary reason is to share the gospel at home and around the world. Only the gospel can change a community, nothing else. We do missions to make God known and as we make Him known we share about His glory. As we share Christ and make Him known His transforming work begins in people’s lives. I also never want to forget that it also changes and transforms me.

Send One.

Tythan Skipworth — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:44:46 +0000

The past year my wife Vanda and I have had the blessing to attend and speak at churches across our great state. Although the churches varied in size, location, rural, or city there was one theme that we would hear at each church over and over again before we headed back home to Arcadia.

Henry T. Blackaby is famous for his quote “Find where God is at work and join Him”. God is working in the hearts of Oklahoma Baptist in a very unique way. Every single church that we attend we would have had a least one person who would approach us and say, “I’m called to go overseas, how do I do it?”

After hearing that phrase repeatedly, watching how God seemed to be placing the nations on the hearts of our members, and as those members young and old were voicing “Send Me,” we wanted to join God where He is at work. This is why we feel called to say Send One to every church.

Send One is not about Oklahoma Baptist or the IMB, it’s about joining God where He is working. So we are asking every church to look into their congregations and ask who feels called to go?

It doesn’t matter if your church has never sent anyone, it doesn’t matter if they don’t have the finances, doesn’t matter if that One has never been overseas what is most important is that God is calling that person to go.

It takes a lot of courage and faith for someone to approach us like that. They are stepping far out of their comfort zone as they respond bravely to God’s call. It’s beautiful to hear the calling and passion down inside of them that compels them to make their desire known.

For those called, we are ready to take them. For those called we will train them. For those called we will walk with them because if they are called then that’s all that is required because for now the call is all they need.

Disruption

Tythan Skipworth — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:06:50 +0000

I don’t know a person that enjoys being disrupted. I’m not talking about when we speak (although that is annoying), I’m talking about our daily lives, our routines, what we do day to day. We work really hard at keeping our lives as normal as possible and that is a huge trap Satan has placed in front of us that we often fall into. However, I think I can make a case as followers of Christ who work hard at keeping their lives normal as possible are the most miserable people on the planet.

Normalcy is problematic as followers of Jesus. From the beginning of The Bible till the end, God was continuously disrupting people’s lives. We were not saved to be normal in this world. We were saved to be abnormal because this “world is not our home”. We are not meant to live here. Which means the more comfortable we try to live in this world the more miserable we become. We also limit our kingdom impact as we live for ourselves.

Nothing disrupts our lives like living on mission, however nothing is more fulfilling either. We are most fulfilled when we love God and follow His commandments. We have deep joy when we serve God and others. The less we think of ourselves and try to accumulate stuff, the greater joy we find. Therefore, what is it to live on mission?

The best definitions about living on mission comes from God’s Word. They are all throughout the Bible. Here is one of my favorites that keeps me focused: “And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.“ ”For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?“ Mark 8:34-37

Our Greatest Adventure Awaits

Tythan Skipworth — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 14:33:02 +0000

If we are honest, I think the majority of us would say we are bored. Not that we don’t have enough to do because we are busy people, but maybe discontent. Maybe it’s the question “what am I doing with my life?” Or, “there has to be more?”

Deep in each of us is the desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Something worthy to give our lives away to. We start searching for it when we are young and dream of our lives making an impact, or living the most fulfilled life. Then, all of a sudden, we are living day to day and feel trapped in the world we have chosen for ourselves.

The great news is that it’s never too late. When Jesus said “I’ve come to give you life and life to the fullest” that means we are a decision or two away from living the adventure of our lives.

As I begin this series of blogs, I pray that we grasp ahold of the amazing adventure that awaits us. Serving God, following God, loving God is full of great adventures that is right before us. Not only that, but also in full transparency, it’s the hardest thing we will ever do. The adventure God invites us to requires sacrifice, being uncomfortable, and doing things we may have never done before. Jesus never ever promised us that following Him was comfortable. It’s not, and never will be.

When I travel to another country or God puts someone in my path here in Oklahoma, I try to remind myself that I have been given the greatest news ever given to humankind. I can give them hope, I can give that person joy, because I have the opportunity to spread God’s love here and around the world. Our ride is waiting. The offer is there. God’s invitation is extended, our adventure begins.

A Student like Addi

Tythan Skipworth — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 16:01:34 +0000

They call her Addi for short, probably only about 5.1, she can’t weigh more than 100 pounds. Always smiling, humble spirit, she loves people around her well, and she brightens the room because Jesus shines so brightly out of her. She has grown up in the community of Stroud where she will graduate high school next year. Addi would intimidate no-one however there is a warrior deep down inside of her that is starting to emerge.

I met her for the first time at Falls Creek when I spoke in her cabin late one summer night. I saw it before we shook hands, before I knew her story, before she knew mine. The Lord seems to speak to my heart the minute I saw her and said, “here’s another”.

She possesses something that makes her unique. I’m not sure how to describe it but I’ve seen it throughout my missions’ career. Anointing, chosen, set apart, called, not sure what it is exactly but it’s there. Young people like Addi have this look in the eyes that separates them from others. Believing parents talk about how God spoke to them when they were born as if God prepared their hearts to let this one go. If the eyes are a window to the soul, then Addi’s soul and others like her are to be on mission. They will live overseas, speak two or three languages, and give their lives to advance the Good News around the world. There is a calling on their lives that can’t be stopped. They are going with or without us.

Oklahoma Baptists, God has placed us in a position to shepherd students like Addi. We are called to lead, feed, protect, and shepherd them to fulfill the great commission. They are all taught out of our churches, them come to our camps, and sit in our pews. As we send our people to the nations, they are counting on us to send them well. Let us continue to strategize and work together to reach the ends of the earth. Let’s train them, discipleship them, and give them opportunities to accomplish their God given assignments. I can’t think of anything greater that we could invest in than giving our lives away to students like Addi and for her and all others to know that Oklahoma Baptist is hanging on to our end of the rope.

Let’s Go.