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LUBBOCK— They came from California, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Some are newlyweds, others are new parents, and some are retired.
All will soon be headed to locations across the globe—to South and Central Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
As they were commissioned during an International Mission Board Sending Celebration Monday night, Oct. 27, at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Annual Meeting, SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick called the 31 new missionaries—many of whom concealed their faces because they will be serving in countries where proclaiming the gospel could be dangerous—“heroes.”
Among them were Rodelliza Hao and Alex Windle.
A heart for the nations
Hao, a native Filipino, came with her parents to the U.S. at age 6. She grew up in Texas and, after college, pursued a career in advertising. When her company manager invited her to church at Parkside Baptist in Denison, Hao came with questions and “a few misconceptions about Christianity.”
Eventually realizing she had been a cultural Christian, she gave her life to Christ after listening to an online message. Once reluctant to talk about her faith, Hao said her No. 1 desire became sharing Jesus.
When the same manager who had invited her to church—and gone on the mission field—later told her about IMB opportunities, Hao applied for a two-year term as a journeyman in Peru, working on the creative solutions team supporting missionaries with social media and media content and providing design and photography services. Her term ended in July 2025, and she will return to the team in January as a career missionary.
Japan is the next stop for Windle, an Arlington resident who will also be returning to the place where she did a stint as an IMB journeyman: Tokyo.
Windle grew up going to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night, trusting Christ at age 6. Her family moved frequently during her childhood but always plugged in at different churches wherever they landed, she said.
“I heard about missions in GAs,” Windle said. She first traveled overseas at age 12 and befriended people from diverse cultures when the family lived in Louisiana.
When college summer plans fell through one year, she signed on last minute for a short-term mission trip to help IMB missionaries with a VBS in Johannesburg, South Africa. While there, she visited with missionaries and their children.
“God used that trip to open my eyes to His heart for the nations,” she said.
She studied business in college and applied for IMB journeyman positions after graduation, serving in South Asia for two years working with university students.
Realizing “business is what I am good at,” she got a job in Arlington as a project manager for a nonprofit but missed being on the field. In Tokyo, she will work in logistics, using her business acumen for kingdom service.
Like Hao, Windle praises her church for its mission emphasis: “The Fields Church is why I am going back.”
A ceremony to remember
During Monday night’s Sending Celebration, held at Southcrest Baptist Chuch, IMB President Paul Chitwood praised the SBTC’s longstanding commitment to Cooperative Program giving, noting the convention’s practice of forwarding 55% of undesignated receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Whether your church is able to give hundreds or hundreds of thousands … all of us working together has made it possible for your IMB missionaries and their national partners to share the gospel with more than 1.6 million people this past year,” Chitwood said. Of these, 144,000 professed faith in Christ, with 68,000 baptized and thousands of churches launched.
Missionary applications have swelled in recent years, Chitwood said, contrasting the 300 applicants seven years ago during his first term as IMB president with more than 1,600 this year alone.
“And we’re looking for more,” he said, adding that even retirees can apply for fully funded two-year terms on the field, using their career experience for gospel advance.
Speaking from Deuteronomy 31, where Moses passes the torch to Joshua, Chitwood encouraged the candidates to “get [their] minds right,” and to be “strong and courageous.” He urged them to “get after it” and “do their job,” made easier because IMB funding eliminates the need to raise support. And he exhorted them to “get aligned,” to “follow the [ultimate] leader,” the Lord.
It was an emotional ceremony. SBTC President Danny Forshee, lead pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, was visibly moved as the ceremony began. “We are sending our best,” he said.
When you give through the Cooperative Program, you mobilize your church to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world.
