SMALL CHURCH THINKS BIG IN CARRYING OUT MISSION

MILLERSVILLE -- The small Millersville First Baptist Church has big plans.

Nine members of the church are leaving early Tuesday morning on a trip to Ecuador to construct a church building for the congregation's new sister church there.

Daniel Hale, pastor of the 100-member congregation, said, "The church has a history of mission involvement. Over the years, members have been to several countries. We have also done mission work locally, chopping wood, building fences, painting houses."

Last year, the church sent 12 members to Quito, Ecuador, the capital city, to help on a project to build a missionary children's dormitory. While there, members visited a small community called Calacali, where a new congregation was beginning to grow.

"We discovered they didn't really have a church," Hale said. "They were renting an apartment and had really outgrown it. They had a dream to build a church and were praying for someone who would help."

Seeing the need, Hale said, the Millersville congregation responded. "We discussed it and prayed about it and felt compelled by the Lord to do it," Hale said.

Through the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board, the Millersville church worked out a sister church relationship with the congregation in Calacali.

Members here are headed to Ecuador to begin construction on a church building. They plan to be in the country through Feb. 25.

"We know we won't get it completed," Hale said. "We will work on the first phase, the basement part."

Nine members of the Millersville First Baptist Church, along with three people from outside the congregation, are going.

Hale said some of those going have construction experience; others do not. "The rest of us will pitch in and learn and do the work," Hale said.

A large portion of the costs of the mission trips are paid by the local congregation. The balance is paid by those individuals going on the trips.

"We have a volunteer mission fund, which is 2 percent of our budget, specifically for this," Hale said.

Hale said church members plan to return to Ecuador at least once a year for the next three years to complete construction of the building. "Hopefully, we will be able to do more than one trip per year," he said.

"It is a monumental undertaking," Hale said. "We are making a three-year commitment. And our church has also just voted to build a new building here."

But, he said the church members feel strongly about mission work.

"It's the great commission," Hale said, "go into all the world. It's really what it means to be a New Testament church."

Headed for Ecuador are Lyman and Dean Craft, Ralph and Vera Mayfield, Gerald and Margaret Denton, Phyllis Riehn, Gary Niswonger and Daniel Hale from the Millersville church. The other three team members are Robert Cox, Blane Mays, pastor of Verner River Baptist Church in Kennett, and George Zellner, Baptist Association Camp Director.