History of the North Arkansas Baptist Association: Volume II

By Roger V. Logan

History of the North Arkansas Baptist Association: Volume 2 is a chronicling of mission history of the churches and their members, reaching out from their own Jerusalem, located in four counties in northwest Arkansas, to the uttermost part of the world. It follows churches and individuals as they go on mission to meet physical and spiritual needs unmet by a world that is blind to their cries.

It contains the life history of fifty-six-plus congregations as they grow in number and spirit, reaching their individuals with the claims of discipleship under Jesus Christ. Pastors, too, are highlighted in the histories of their pilgrimages in the faith.

The history is a must-read for every believer, both to give encouragement regarding the past mission advance and to challenge would-be missionaries and the churches that support them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798888518939

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgments

Something about the Future

Further History of North Arkansas Baptist Association

Introduction

Our Associational Missionaries: Then and Now

International Missions

A New Era in Worldwide Missions Activity

1996

1997

1998

1999

Funding International Mission Trips

2000

Mission to the Philippines

2001

2002

2003

NABA House, Activities in Senegal

Prayer for Rain Followed by Abundant and Immediate Downpour

Trip to the Orient

2004

Sweatman Associational Missionary of the Year in 2004

2004 An African Girl Who Needed a Miracle

India: A Major Work Ongoing

2006

2007

Mission Trip to Benin, West Africa, 2007

Some Other International Mission Activity 2007–2013

Ivory Coast

Nicaragua

A Mission Effort to a People in the High Andes Mountains of Peru

Investing in Missions and Education: Assisting Local Pastors to Go to Israel

Some Home and North American Mission Activities

North Arkansas Baptist Associaton Disaster Relief Efforts

Tornadoes

Gassville, Arkansas, Tornado, 2008

Moore, Oklahoma, 1999

Hurricanes

North Arkansas Baptist Association in Hurricane Katrina Relief

2005 Mission to help in the wake of tsunami which caused devastation and great loss of life in Asia

Earthquake in Haiti

Hurricane Sandy

Ministry in Arkansas and North America

Wilmot Mission to help the needy and evangelize in southeast Arkansas

First Baptist Church of Valley Springs, AR. Partners with Nebraska

Tetelestai House Ministry

Church 180

North Arkansas Baptist Association's Work at Pawhuska, Oklahoma

Associational Sunday School Revival

College Ministries: North Arkansas Community College, Harrison, Arkansas

Solid Rock Foundation

Christian Counseling Ministries

North Arkansas Baptist Foundation Inc.

Some of Those Who Went on Mission in 2001–2005

Other Work within in the Association

The Karen (Burmese) Baptist Community of Green Forest

Reading the Bible and an Apology

Pastor's Prayer Meeting

The Evangelism Response Center

Bent Nails Men Help Churches Build

Jerusalem Changers

Stories of Some Southern Baptist International Mission Board Missionaries Who Have Strong Ties to the Churches and People of the North Arkansas Baptist Association

Ed and Greta Pinkston Long Term Missionaries to West Africa with Local Roots, for Among Other Things, to Start Churches, Translate the New Testament and Teach Literacy in Africa

Local Pastor and His Wife, as Missionaries in Africa, Testify as to God's Protection in a Dramatic Way

A Young Man Who Grew Up a Member of Osage Baptist Church Pursues Long and Distinguished Service in International Missions

The Missionary Journey of Jim and Virginia Bryant

Tim Sperduto from Berryville Former IMB Missionary

Scott and Crystal Carter, IMB Missionaries

Fred and Angela Evans

Arkansas Baptist Boys' Ranch, Boone County, Arkansas

2015 Tornado Damages Facility

Some Special Events from Prior to 1978

A Great Community-Wide Revival at Harrison in the 1920s

A Prayer Meeting under an Oak Tree Leads to Revival in 1927 at Hopewell

Notable Church Musicians of Yesteryear Brighten Local Baptist Worship Services of Their Day

God's Blessing Evident at Oregon Flat Baptist Church, Bergman, Arkansas, in 1948

A Famous Minister Preaches Payday Someday to Hundreds of People in Carroll County

Famed Christian Evangelist and Preacher: Vance Havner Sponsored by the association in Bible Conferences on Two Occasions

Local Involvement in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention

Rev. John T. Finn, Associational Missionary, President Arkansas Baptist State Convention, 1979–1980

Some Presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention Who Have Spoken in Our Churches Since 1978

Some People with Connection to Local Churches Involved in Arkansas Baptist State Convention and Southern Baptist Convention Activities

Famed Radio Preacher Rev. J. Harold Smith Spoke at Valley View

Former Eagle Heights Pastor, Stanton Cram, Preaches Funeral Type Service for Persons Dead for Over 140 years

US President Speaker at Funeral in First Baptist Church of Jasper

Record Attendance at ACTS 1:8

Conference in North Arkansas Baptist Association

Impact Carroll County Acts 1: 8 Follow-Up Event Held in Carroll County, 2014

The 2013 Annual Meeting of the North Arkansas Baptist Association

The Associational Building Harrison, Arkansas

Chronology Of Some Other Notable Activities Since 1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

Associational Sunday School Revival

Al Hodges, a Missionary with Local Roots, Reports

1987

1988

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

A New Era of International Missions Outreach

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2011 Golf Tour

2012

2013

2014

2016

Our Churches Coping with Coronavisus in 2020

Church Histories

First Baptist Church of Alpena

Batavia Baptist Church

Bear Creek Springs Baptist Church

Beaver Lake Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Bellefonte

The Original First Baptist Church of Berryville

Beth'El Baptist Church, Green Forest

Bethel (Cottonwood) Baptist Church

Black Jack also known as Pleasant Hill Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Blue Eye

Boxley Baptist Church

Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church of Nail, Arkansas

Brand New Church.

Buffalo River Baptist Church

Burlington Baptist Church

Busy Bee Baptist Mission

Butler Baptist Church

Calvary Baptist Church

Carrollton Baptist Church

Cassville Baptist Church

Cave Hall Baptist Church

CenterPoint Baptist Church

Charity Baptist Church

Church 180

Sign at the corner of North Willow and West Ridge Avenues.

County Line Baptist Church

Crooked Creek Baptist Church (See also Union Baptist Church)

Crooked Creek Cowboy Church

Deer Baptist Church

Denver Missionary Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Diamond City

Dove Circle Baptist Church

Eagle Heights Baptist Church

Elixir Baptist Church

Elmwood Baptist Church

Emmanuel Baptist Church of Harrison

Eureka Springs, New Day Fellowship Baptist Mission

First Baptist Church of Eureka Springs, 1880–1908

Eureka Springs First Penn Memorial

Everton Baptist Church

Freeman Heights Baptist Church

Gaither Baptist Church

Historical Update: Gaither Baptist Church since 1978.

Grandview Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Green Forest

Primera Iglesia Bautista Latino Americana

Grubb Springs Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Harrison

Highland Baptist Church

Hilltop, Mount Zion Baptist Church

Holiday Island First Southern Baptist Church

Hopewell Baptist Church

Iglesia Bautista Maranata, a Hispanic church, in Berryville, Arkansas

Immanuel Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Jasper

Lakeland Baptist Church

Lead Hill First Baptist

The Lord's Church Mission

Marble Falls Baptist Church

First Baptist Church Marshall

Metalton Baptist Church

Morning Star Baptist Mission

Missionary Baptist Church of Mt Judea, Newton County

Mt. Zion Baptist Church (Oak Grove)

Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Murray, Union Missionary Baptist Church

Nail, The Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church

New Day Fellowship Baptist Church, Eureka Springs

New Hearts Church

New Hope Baptist Church

Newton County Baptist Church

Newton County Cowboy Mission

Northvale Baptist Church

Northview Baptist Church

The Oasis (formerly called Searcy County) Baptist Church

Old Liberty Baptist Church

Olvey Special Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Omaha

Oregon Flat Baptist Church

Osage Baptist Church

Parthenon Baptist Church

Peel Baptist Church

Pindall Baptist Church

Prairie View Baptist Church

Rock Springs Baptist Church

Rudd Baptist Church

The Oasis (formerly called Searcy County) Baptist Church

Shady Grove Baptist Church of Carroll County

Shady Grove Baptist Church of Boone County

Shiloh Baptist Church

Snowball Baptist Church

The Source Baptist Church

Southern Heights Baptist Church

Southside Baptist Church, Lead Hill

St. Joe Baptist Church

The Stone Baptist Church

Sugarloaf Baptist Church (Carrollton Hollow)

The New Tabernacle: TNT

Trinity Baptist Church

Union Baptist Church (See also Crooked Creek Baptist Church)

Union Missionary Baptist Church of Murray, Arkansas

First Baptist Church of Urbanette

First Baptist Church of Valley Springs, AR

Valley View Baptist Church

First Baptist Church of Western Grove

White Oak Baptist Church

Woodland Heights Baptist Church [Woodland]

An unexpected opportunity for a larger building with room to grow

Zion's Light Baptist Church

Biographies

Bibliography

Statistics

About the Author

Index

cover.jpg

History of the North Arkansas Baptist Association

Volume II

Roger V. Logan, Jr.

ISBN 979-8-88851-892-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-894-6 (Hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88851-893-9 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Roger V. Logan Jr.

All rights reserved

First Edition

Cover photo shows part of the Bassari village of Etiolo, in southeast Senegal near the Mali border. Members of the North Arkansas Baptist medical team were treating a girl who had been bitten by a snake when the photo was taken. Team members slept in the houses shown in the photo. Rev. Carl Garvin, who was present as a part of the team, said there were many snakes there and that they are often staid in the crevices of the rock walls of the houses causing concern to those who slept in them. He said that small chickens were turned loose in the area at night so that the snakes would not bother the people. [Cover photo courtesy of Dr. Brian Bishop.]

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

History of the

North Arkansas

Baptist Association

Volume II

Christian Missions

Outreach from Southern

Baptist Churches of North Arkansas

Roger V. Logan Jr.

Published by the North Arkansas Baptist Association

Harrison, Arkansas

Rev. Heath Kirkpatrick, Moderator

Rev. David Graham, Director of Missions, February 2018 to present,

Material compiled with special assistance of:

Rev. Royce J. Sweatman, Director of Missions, 1994–2014.

Rev. Bob Johnson, Director of Missions to February 2018

and help from many others including an ad hoc volunteer Historical Publication Committee

made up of

Dr. James D. Bryant, Ralph G. Hudson, and the author

In Honor of Roger V. Logan Jr.

Roger V. Logan Jr., seventy-seven, a resident of Harrison, Arkansas, was called home on Friday, April 15, 2022, at his residence.

He was born August 28, 1944, at Springfield, Missouri, to Roger Vernon Logan Sr. and Belle Raley Logan. He married Miss Bonnie Jean Fox on December 23, 1967, at Harrison, and graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor's degree and a juris doctorate. He was an avid historian, who had authored several books and articles on Boone County and Baptist history. He had been an attorney for fifty-four years, a judicial judge in the Fourteenth Judicial District Court for twenty-six years, and served in the Arkansas House of Representatives in the 1970s. He was a founding member of and first president of the Boone County Historical Society and was an authority on the Mountain Meadows Massacre and had authored several articles on the subject. He was a former president of the Arkansas Judicial Council. He was an active member and former officer of the Jordan Milan Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and Gideon's International. He was a member and former deacon of First Baptist Church of Harrison and was currently teaching the Senior Adult Men's Sunday School Class, which he had done for thirty-plus years.

Survivors include his wife of fifty-four years, Bonnie Logan of Harrison; a son, John Walton Logan, of the home; a daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Jay Prier of Johnson, Arkansas; a granddaughter and her husband, Emily Victoria and Randy Blake Crossno of Overland Park, Kansas; a brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Barbara Logan of Bergman, Arkansas; two nieces and their husbands, Pam and Shawn Kindal and Elizabeth and Eddie Humphrey Jr., all of Bergman, Arkansas.

The funeral was held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, at First Baptist

Church in Harrison with the Rev. Royce Sweatman and the Rev. Rob Davis. officiating. Burial was in the White Church Cemetery in Harrison, Arkansas.

The stained-glass window above depicts Jesus's ascension. It is located in the beautiful old Penn Memorial Church sanctuary in Eureka Springs. The window is said to have been created by an unknown local craftsman. And it was given, after the present church was built in 1912, as a gift from some former members of the earlier 1889 First Baptist Church, which had ceased to function. The present church is a member of the North Arkansas Baptist Association. [This and other photos of windows in the church are used courtesy of the First Baptist Penn Memorial Church of Eureka Springs.]

Preface

The North Arkansas Baptist Association is associated with the Arkansas Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. A history of the association was published in 1978. In the over forty years since that volume was written, a great deal has been undertaken and accomplished in the North Arkansas Baptist Association, and a considerable amount more has been learned about our earlier history as well. In a time when Baptist associations are thought to be on the wane, I believe the reader will agree that this one has been active and growing. The number of churches and missions grew to fifty-nine. Seventeen churches were organized in the twenty years Rev. Royce Sweatman was director of missions. The foreign and home mission activities of the association have grown tremendously. Mission work has been undertaken at home, in Arkansas, in other parts of North America, in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Israel, the Orient, India, and Africa. With cooperation from people from other area churches, a free medical clinic was commenced and operated in one church of the association for over a decade.

Church league sports activities have been initiated in some of the churches. A number of family life centers have been built by member churches and a wide variety of ministries in them have been initiated or expanded. Reported, probably incomplete figures indicate a membership in churches within the association in 1979 of 9,096. In 2009 there was a reported high of about 14,760 in church membership. In 2009, there were a reported 5,163 persons enrolled in Sunday school and in 2010 here was an average estimated weekly attendance in worship of 6,027 persons. From 1991 through 2010 churches of the association reported baptizing 6,716 persons, or an average of approximately 336 persons per year. Some churches did not report for some years and so this figure may be smaller than the actual number baptized. These figures do not include many professions of faith made during international mission trips: sometimes, hundreds of them during a single trip. Some numerical totals for a specific overseas trip or trips were recorded, but no running overall total was kept. When estimates were added up from the scores of trips made over the twenty years in which he was associational missionary, the total was said by Rev. Sweatman to have been in the thousands.

Over the years, church members in the association and the associational missionaries have done door-to-door evangelism, both here and in foreign lands and they have conducted religious censuses and started churches here and elsewhere. The association has sponsored numerous special activities, training courses, and evangelistic campaigns. It has brought in several distinguished speakers, sponsored missions, and mission activities, and assisted member churches in doing things that many of them did not have sufficient resources to do alone. A number of local pastors have gone to Israel on mission and in the course of those trips visited the physical locations of many events recorded in the Bible, thus affording them valuable training in biblical background and inspiration for their future ministry.

As always, since pioneer days, the associational missionaries have continued to offer their personal assistance to local churches as the need has arisen and as time has permitted. They have promoted associational activities, conducted many revivals, conducted Bible studies, sponsored Vacation Bible School clinics, filled vacant pulpits, back-stopped for ministers who, on short notice, needed to be gone from their pulpits, coordinated activities benefitting the churches and led in developing an interest in and participation in North American and international missions.

In 1978, when the previous history of this association was published, Rev. John T. Finn was Director of Missions. In 1979, he was elected President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. On November 19, 1979, our Associational Executive Board adopted a statement of policy recognizing the responsibility of the associational leadership and the churches of the association to provide additional support to brother Finn in performing his duties as director of missions and thus to help him be better able to devote the amount of time and effort required to perform his duties as state convention president. He continued to serve our association until 1982. After he left, Rev. Jack Ramsey served briefly, followed by Dr. L. B. Atchison. During this time, some additional associational involvement in international mission activity began to take place.

From 1994 to mid-2014, Rev. Royce Sweatman led the association to continue and expand old ministries and to undertake new ones. He worked to get pastors and people involved in international missions to a degree that had never been attempted here before. Sweatman was named Arkansas Associational Missionary of the year and received other recognition and award. His leadership broadened local horizons in many ways. Sweatman has been followed by Rev. Bob Johnson and Rev. David Graham. Both have continued participating in international missions and both have sought ways to serve the churches of the association and to help the churches to reach out to the lost and unchurched.

A new generation has grown up since the last volume was published. There is now plenty of new material to fill a second volume of history. The need for the ministry of the association remains great. The benefits of its influence, especially in home and international missions and in benefitting small churches, are substantial.

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to Rev. Royce J. Sweatman for his invitation to produce this book, for his support of and work on this project. The North Arkansas Baptist Association has authorized and funded the publication of this book. Thanks also go to the current officers of this association. As of this writing, they are Rev. David Graham, associational missionary, Rev. Heath Kirkpatrick, associational moderator. Thanks also go to Dr. James Bryant for his contributions to the text and photos as well as work on the Publication Committee. Thanks also go to Dale Garner, former associational clerk and chair of the Administrative Team, for his work in those capacities and for his help in providing information for the book, and to Jerry Cash, associational treasurer. Thanks also go to Ralph G. Hudson who did work on the layout of the book, indexing the book as well as his work on the Publication Committee. Thanks to the churches which make up the association for their contributions to this effort. Thanks go to all who gathered and submitted materials for use in authoring this book and to persons who were interviewed by the author. The names of many of those persons who submitted materials for churches are noted in the history of their church. Special thanks also go to Rev. Bob Johnson and Rev. David Graham for the meaningful and substantial help they have given to this project. Thanks also go to Jeanie Tomlinson for service rendered in the production of this manuscript.

We have made numerous requests for historical data which might be used as a resource in authoring this book: Requests were made to churches, pastors, missionaries, and others. Some have submitted material, and some have not. So we used what we had or could find on our own. Thus, this history may not be as nearly comprehensive as we would like, but hopefully what is presented is enough to give a good look at things which have occupied the time and resources of the association, the churches, and their members during the period since 1978.

A sincere effort has been made to present facts. We have attempted to present something about the history of each church and each pastor and some others.

It is hoped that what is presented will be interesting, informative, and will assist and, perhaps, inspire some who come after us.

Something about the Future

Before we look into the associational history, it seems fitting to take a peek at some present needs and assess opportunities for future service. Rev. David Graham, the current associational missionary, has addressed the following to pastors of the association about the charge God has given them and, to some extent, to the rest of us, as well: I think you need to recognize that He has called you and placed you in a position to have an impact…helping to lead people into an eternal relationship with Him. There are people all around our churches that need to be reached and He has called us to reach them. He has intentionally placed you here, in this time, in the community where you serve, with the people you do life with, with the congregation you lead, in the pulpit where you stand and with the messages you preach. He has done so with a purpose. While fellowship is good, and discipleship is good, and worship is good, I believe we only get one chance to catch fish. It is God's boat. But he has given you His boat so you can catch fish. So for this coming year, I'm asking you to accept the source challenge and own the theme… GO CATCH FISH! (Book of Reports North Arkansas Baptist Association 69th Annual Meeting, Go Catch Fish, October 15, 2019, page 6–7).

There are many vacant positions of service in the outreach of local churches, in the ongoing work of the association in Disaster Relief: in local, US and international mission activities. Church members who want to be of service can take time to learn about and support Home and Foreign Missions projects, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry; the North Arkansas Baptist Association Foundation; the activities of the churches like Church 180; ministries to the Arkansas Baptist Boys' Ranch or to the people served by the Tetelestai House.

Maybe the contents this book can give some who read it other ideas for personal involvement in ministry and inspire them to get involved. Such things have been done, and with His help, there is work yet to be done.

Further History of North Arkansas Baptist Association

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV, John 3:16)

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (KJV)

In the Bible, God's people were told to remember to tell their children how the Lord had led each generation, so that each succeeding generation may know and benefit, in perpetuity. See Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78.

Remember all the ways the Lord has led you… (Deuteronomy 8: 1–6)

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren. (NKJV, Deuteronomy 4:9)

Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations; Ask thy father and he will show thee; thy elders and they will tell thee. (KJV, Deuteronomy 32:7)

Introduction

As noted in the preface, the North Arkansas Baptist Association is an organization made up of fifty-nine Southern Baptist churches and missions. The association is an organization through which those churches can work together to achieve common goals. The Constitution of the association says, the Association is to promote the preaching and teaching of God's Word; to uphold the principles of Baptist faith and to encourage the churches to be loyal to and practice these doctrines and principles as well as; to enable the churches to better enlist and train all Christians for service; to promote missions, initiate programs for increasing the effectiveness, harmony and spiritual power of the churches of the Association (see Article II, The Purpose, "Constitution of the North Arkansas Baptist Association, revised April 1990).

The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, in his sermon The Generation to Come and The America of Tomorrow [Love Worth Finding Ministries, Memphis Tenn. (2011)], said that Americans must review their history, renew their memory, get right with God, and reclaim their legacy. [See Psalms 78.]

The last few decades have been a time of substantial activity and growth within this association. There has been a lot to chronicle in this phase of its history. During the period of 1994 to 2014, the seventeen new churches started included Beth'El Baptist Church of Green Forest; Buffalo River Baptist Church of St. Joe; CenterPoint Church of Harrison; Church 180 of Harrison; County Line Baptist Church of near Compton; New Hearts Church in Harrison; Charity Baptist Church, off of Highway 206 southern Boone County; Crooked Creek Cowboy Church; Iglesia Bautista, of Green Forest; Iglesia Bautista Maranatha of Berryville; First Southern Baptist Church of Holiday Island; The Stone [Baptist] Church of Omaha; New Day Fellowship Baptist Church of Eureka Springs; The Source Church of Holiday Island; Pindall Baptist Church; and the Newton County Cowboy Church. In addition, there have been some missions organized within the association. Not all the new churches started have survived to the present as a part of the association, but most have. Missions within our association have started also and are dealt with elsewhere in this book.

Out of state (within the United States) mission activities and disaster relief efforts have been undertaken by the association (with participation of member churches). They have reached out to people in need: in Missouri; in Louisiana (after Hurricane Katrina); in Oklahoma after a disastrous Tornado; in Arizona; Nebraska; North Dakota; in Florida (after Hurricane Andrew); in North Carolina; Texas; and New York after the 9–11 attack on the World Trade Center and, again, after Super Storm Sandy.

After 9/11, Rev. Sweatman was off-site coordinator in North American Mission Board Headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, lining up people to go to assist in relief efforts in New York.

North Arkansas Baptist Association foreign missions' activities have included making partnerships with Baptists operating in Israel, Senegal, Peru, Holland, and Canada. In addition, as already mentioned in the preface, missions or relief actives have taken place in a great many places scattered over the world. Dozens of international mission trips have been undertaken by hundreds of church members from this area.

Roots of modern Baptist mission activities go back to a time when our pioneer predecessors were the recipients of the Gospel message from people who came here to start the first churches. Baptists were among the early settlers who lived in the Ozarks before Arkansas became a state.

The first record of a permanent European heritage settlement in what is now Boone County tells of a time over two hundred years ago when people settled on White River in 1814. [Some came in 1813, but whether they settled in Boone or Marion counties in that year is not clear.] The missionaries who came here undoubtedly felt the call of God to bring the plan of salvation and instruction about how Christians ought to live. Many from the modern generation of local residents now feel the same kind of call to take the Christian message to others in need elsewhere. There is a record of the formation of the Crooked Creek Baptist Church in what is now Boone County on July 3, 1834. From that day in 1834 to 2020 is 186 years. A brief time after Crooked Creek Church was formed, the Old Union Church was organized, in July of 1838, near what is now Berryville, in Carroll County.

Changing the rough and rugged society of the frontier in that time required missionaries who were strong in their faith, sure in their calling, and courageous enough to risk great harm to themselves to follow the Great Commission. They needed to be people who had, with God's help, what we might call a can do attitude for achieving goals: people who had a big vision of what God could and what He would accomplish through them. It seems those people were not so much different from some the author has met and talked to who have, in recent times, returned home to Arkansas after spending time serving on mission in Africa, Peru, India and other places scattered over much of the world.

Rev. Royce Sweatman's ministry, as Missionary in this area, spans the time from the early 1990s to July of 2014, photographs the grave marker of Elder William E. Penn, a well-known Baptist evangelist from the nineteenth century, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Together these two men's ministries have spanned parts of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. [Note: In nineteenth-century Baptist churches of this area, ministers of the Gospel were often referred to as Elder instead of Reverend. This practice appears to have pretty much passed out of existence by the 1920s.]

Our Associational Missionaries: Then and Now

Our association derives most of its history before the midtwentieth century from several preceding associations and the churches which were members of them. These churches existed in the area now served by North Arkansas Baptist Association. They, through a chain of mergers and succession, eventually in 1974, formed the North Arkansas Baptist Association. Central to the work of the associations has been that of the associational missionaries (some time known as directors of missions). Their history goes back many decades into the nineteenth century.

Around the turn into the twentieth century, the associational missionaries may also have been pastors of one or more local churches. For much of our history, these men had no staff or office except what they might have happened to already have at home or at their church. Occasionally, in those early days, there would be more than one preacher in an association each of whom did part of the work of the associational missionary in a given year. Sometimes, they divided the association into districts and selected a missionary in each such area, but through most of the twentieth century, one man was assigned to do the work of associational missionary in the whole association.

When Rev. Sweatman came to North Arkansas Baptist Association, the title used for his position was Director of Missions. He said, as time went by, it was apparent that he was not director of anything and that the old title was much more descriptive of the job, so he asked that the name of his position be changed back to Associational Missionary.

The missionaries / directors of missions we have found record of for the North Arkansas Baptist Association and its predecessor associations are as follows:

Elder W. N. Edwards, 1879, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder W. A. Lindsey, 1889, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder Isaac Davis, 1889, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder W. M. Kerns, 1891, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder Q. C. Pennington, 1892, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder W. W. Buckner, 1893, Crooked Creek Association;

Elder J. I. Martin, 1895, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder J. B. Swanner, 1895, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder W. B. Collins, 1895, Carroll County Baptist Association;

[In the Carroll County Baptist Association, records indicate

that pastors did missions work in absence of an

associational missionary during the years 1896 to 1906.]

Elder J. B. Swanner, 1900, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder Calvin Lafayette Mattox, 1900, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder N. F. Bradley, 1901, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder J. B. Swanner, 1901, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder Reglus W. Raley, 1901, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder M. L. Voyles, 1903, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

(Arkansas Baptist State Convention sponsored)

Elder O. C. Hefner, 1905, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder J. B. O'Neal, 1907, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder H. P. Church, 1908, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder M. L. Voyles, 1908, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder J. A. Thornton, 1909, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder J. B. Rose, 1910, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder C. Hodge, 1910, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

(Arkansas Baptist State Convention sponsored)

Elder Joe S. King, 1911, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder J. B. Rose, 1913, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder J. E. Rose, 1912–1913, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder J. S. Spurlin, 1914, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder A. M. Monks Crain, 1913–14, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Elder Sam Jackson, 1915, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Elder J. C. Vaughn, 1916, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Rev. J. F. Bow, 1922–1925, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

(Arkansas Baptist State Convention aided)

Rev. J. B. Rose, 1923–1924, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. Elmer F. Cox, 1927–1929, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Rev. J. F. Bow, 1933, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Rev. W. O. Taylor, 1935, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. J. Earnest Cox, 1936, Crooked Creek Baptist Association;

Rev. Elmer F. Cox, 1938–1939, Boone-Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. Hugh Cooper, 1939–1940, Boone-Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. W. B. Essman (Ouachita student), 1941;

Boone-Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. G. E. Lafferty, 1942–1950;

(He died performing his duties preaching at the

Oregon Flat Baptist Church) Boone-Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. John R. Stratton, 1945–1947, Newton County Association;

Rev. Otis Denney, 1947–? Newton County Association;

Rev. Dennis James, 1951–1954, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. John R. Stratton, 1951–1953, Boone County Association;

Rev. Howard L. Wilson, 1955, Boone County Association;

(He died on January 1, 1956, in an auto accident

while on duty going to conduct a revival meeting.)

Rev. Bedford Jackson, 1956, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. Lowell Wright, 1956–1958, Boone County

and Newton County Association;

Rev. Dennis James, 1958–61, Newton County Association;

Rev. J. S. Compere, 1957–1960, Carroll County Baptist Association.

Rev. Weldon I. Barnett, 1963, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. Fred Sudduth, 1964–1965, Carroll County Baptist Association;

Rev. Dennis James, 1958–1966, Boone County Association;

Rev. John T. Finn, 1967–February 1982 Boone Newton

and North Arkansas Baptist Association (He served as President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention while Director of Missions here);

Dr. Jack L. Ramsey, June 1, 1982–June 1, 1984,

North Arkansas Baptist Association.

Dr. L. B. Atchison, September 1, 1984–February 1, 1994,

North Arkansas Baptist Association.

Rev. Royce Sweatman, November 1, 1994 through July 2014;

North Arkansas Baptist Association; and

Rev. Bob Johnson, from July 15, 2014, North Arkansas Baptist Association.

and interim from July 1, 2017, to February 2018,

and Rev. David Graham from late February 2018 to the present.

[An outline of our predecessor associations may be helpful to understand the preceding listing. The Carroll County Baptist Association lasted from 1868 to 1938. The Crooked Creek Baptist Association lasted from 1869 to 1938, when churches from the two joined to form the Boone-Carroll County Baptist Association. The Newton County Association was in existence from 1944 to 1961. Churches of Boone and Carroll counties formed separate associations in 1951 and later joined to form the present association. For a while, beginning in 1961, there was a Boone-Newton County Association. Eventually, in 1974, churches which had been a part of Crooked Creek, Carroll County, Boone County, Boone-Carroll, Newton County, or Boone-Newton County associations formed the North Arkansas Baptist Association. That was under the leadership of Rev. John T. Finn. A report on the history of the Boone-Carroll Association is found in Dr. J. S. Rogers, History of Arkansas Baptists, Centennial Edition, Executive Board Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Little Rock, 1948 at pages 368–369. Dr. Rogers lists the founding of Crooked Creek Baptist Association as occurring in 1867, but the copy of the founding documents of the association published in the minutes of the Crooked Creek Association's annual meeting in 1879 says that it was 1869. Dr. Rogers said that Carroll County Baptist Association was formed in 1870, but there is a record showing that an associational meeting was held on October 3, 1868, and that W. W. Davis was Clerk. See also Roger V. Logan Jr., History of the North Arkansas Baptist Association, 1978.]

International Missions

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

—Matthew 28: 18

. Local Baptist people have been involved in various foreign mission's activities for a long time. Of course, those who gave money to Southern Baptist Churches have, through the Cooperative Program, given to international missions since back in the 1920s. The Cooperative Program is a convention-wide fund-raising mechanism which helps support Southern Baptist Convention and State Baptist Convention ministries including international missions. Some of our people from various local churches have, through Convention sponsorship, served as missionaries in foreign lands. Sometimes, the credibility of the Christian's claim to being concerned about the salvation of a soul is not very strong unless it is evident that he or she also cares about the physical needs of the person he or she is trying to win. Still, evangelism permeates what the association does. At present, the Southern Baptist Convention has about 4,800 missionaries at work serving about 921 people groups.

In the final years of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first, much more personal and direct mission work has been done by local people through their churches and the association. There are probably examples of such mission activities by our people which occurred prior to the ones accounted for herein, but some we have found record of will help give an idea of efforts which were made.

. In the spring of 1961, Rev. Roy Hilton, Pastor at First Baptist of Harrison, was sent by his church to participate, with over twenty other pastors, in a revival crusade in Scotland lasting from April 4 through 16. Brother Hilton, writing from Scotland, said of his experience: "Friday, April 7, the choir launched a campaign with a wonderful program of music. These are a singing people. I only wish you could have heard them sing praise to the Lord.

Saturday, April 8, we enjoyed a get acquainted reception.

Monday through Friday preservice prayer meetings were held. These were well attended, and one can really feel the Spirit of God as these people pray. At seven thirty each night, we enjoyed a wonderful period of community singing which helped get us all prepared for the evangelistic services following. After this service, an informal tea was held which provided opportunity to meet and speak with prospects."

Rev. Hilton went on to describe a ladies' rally during which Mrs. Hilton explained some of the ways American Baptist women serve the Lord's cause. [First Baptist Harrison, Challenger, April 13, 1961.] Later, a letter from the pastor of the church in Scotland expressed gratitude to God for the inspiration and strength Hilton's messages gave which he said resulted in conversions and decisions for baptism and church membership.

, 1966. In November of 1966, Rev. Bob L. Wright went to the Philippines and preached in a crusade, sponsored by the Foreign Mission Board in cooperation with the Philippine Baptist Convention, called New Life Crusade. Wright's itinerary began by going to Sampaloc Baptist Church of Manila, November 10–15, and then to Bamban Baptist Church in Tarlac, November 17–22, which was located just outside of Clark Field.

Rev. Wright said he preached in a building the cornerstone of which said it was constructed by proceeds of the Lottie Moon Offering. One of the converts at that place was a newsman, a photographer, who had been with the team for most of the time they were there. During the last service, he put down his camera, came forward and received Christ.

There was a militant Communist movement in the Philippines then which was aggressive and hostile. Wright said that, at night, their operatives would stand just outside the lights and listen to what was said. Wright also said that the preachers were told not to say anything anti-Communist or they might be shot on the spot.

Wright also said they got up one morning and noticed a commotion outside of their hotel. On the street, there was a traveling ice cream vehicle. To their horror, when it was examined, a severed human head was discovered inside. Wright was told that this was a message to him not to say anything about the Communist movement or that was what would happen to him.

Their itinerary then took the team to San Pablo Baptist Church, East Pangasinan, and then on to Lamao Baptist Church in Abra, December 1–8, both in the Philippines

To reach the last preaching station, they walked eight and a half hours mostly up hill. It was in Abra. northern Luzon. Brother L. Wright was one of the younger preachers working in the crusade. He said that was why he got assigned to the place with the eight hour walk up the mountain. He had walking shoes, but they were not up to the trip. After walking a long way, they reached a mountain stream, and the cold water there was a welcome, healing balm for aching feet

Wright said that the people they met were very responsive and welcomed the message. It was unbelievable. They were hungry for the Gospel. All of them were [nominally] Catholics since they were taken in when they were born. But Wright said the ones he met had never heard about Jesus. The long, difficult trip on foot took until well into the night. When they were on their journey, one of the missionaries said he wanted to cancel the service, but Wright said: ‘No,' we have come too far. He continued: We had to walk across a swinging bridge in the dark and said: When we got there…they were assembled, waiting for the preacher to show up. They thought we needed a meal. The main course was a choice of either monkey or chicken. I chose chicken. Next morning, I was sitting on the front row. There was a little man who had a live, fluttering chicken. He gave it to me. I tried to give it back, but he did not want it back. I was told: ‘You will offend him if you do not take the chicken.' So it was lunch. We bathed in the river up there… It was ice-cold."

At one gathering, there were nineteen people present and when the service was ending seventeen made professions of faith.

Wright, who as a boy, lived in a rice growing community of Arkansas, said that the people in the mountains of Abra grew rice. They would harvest it and start downhill to market. Wright was familiar with quality rice and said theirs was excellent: beautiful rice, very white and, so, it was usually all sold before the farmer got down the mountain to the actual rice market. Abra is in a sort of jungle. Going up the mountains you would meet some natives dressed in style typical of jungle people. He said: We were told to go to the side of the path and let them pass. They were also told not to talk to them, that they could not understand English, anyway. Brother Wright said:

I was told not to look at their eyes. But I looked anyway. They were very intently focused on something. I asked about that and was told that another tribe had stolen one of their cows and they were going to fight and get the cow back… They were in arm's reach of us.

Wright continued: It tested your inner spirit. It was dangerous, very dangerous. But the Spirit of the Lord just fell strongly on me. I was not fearful. There was a peace which passes all understanding which fell upon us. It was so very real. We had to trust the Lord.

Wright next traveled, on December 11, to Taipei, Taiwan, and then to Tokyo, Japan on December 13 and, on December 14, back home to Harrison, Arkansas. [See Challenger, October 30, 1966, page 1.]

Wright said that his trip was a remarkably interesting one: The people were so very responsive. They would take care of you like you were one of them. They sensed that we were there for a special purpose. That was the exciting part. Because the spirit of God was so strongly felt, the movement was extraordinarily successful."

On July 16, 1969, the Challenger announced that the First Baptist men's group was proposing to pay $1,000 toward building a chapel for the people of Boliney, Abra, Philippines, to include two to three Sunday school classrooms (which could also be used for preaching). Bill Doshier was the First Baptist brotherhood director and worked on the project. [Thanks to Rev. Bob L. Wright for an interview in 2016. See also articles in the Challenger, 1966 and 1969. Also, thanks go to Mrs. Billie Ruth Wright for assistance as well.]

, 1976. About fifteen persons from the association went to Guatemala in April of 1976, in the wake of the massive February 4, 1976, earthquake to do disaster relief/mission work there. Those who went included Bob Barbour, Al Gregory, Bill Griffin, and Ralph G. Hudson. The group went to Tecpan, Guatemala. Hudson said that the area they visited was about 7,500 feet above sea level. He said that, in the earthquake, about 12,000 people were killed and many buildings were shaken to pieces. Some land areas were split open with fissures so deep that the bottom was not discernable from the surface. An ancient stone Catholic Church was destroyed. A different church the group from Arkansas worked on dismantling was also heavily damaged. A lot of work was required to remove the damaged walls before rebuilding could proceed. They worked under direction of a Southern Baptist missionary on assignment there. The only tools were hand tools. The church bell tower was too strong to be dismantled by hand. They were able to get a local coffee farmer who was very anti-Christian to lend them his tractor which made it possible to get the job completed. The team slept in a hut with a dirt floor. A local woman was hired to serve as their cook during the time they were present there. First Baptist Challenger for April 28, 1976, says that the men from First Baptist returned home on Sunday evening. [For more details, see Karen Stevens, ‘Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You…,' Harrison Daily Times, April 30, 1976.] The photo shows a group in front of the church which was dismantled after the earthquake. Photo courtesy of Ralph G. Hudson.

. In 1984, a press was donated by a generous Baptist from this area. It was given to a Brazilian Baptist Association in Belem, Brazil. The Foreign Mission Board missionaries working in that area at the time were Carroll and Jackie Shaw. Bennie Ellis, local businessman, expert press operator, long time associational officer and deacon at First Baptist of Harrison, volunteered to go to Brazil, set up the press. He was also going there to train someone in Brazil to operate the press. Ellis and his wife Norma went to Brazil and spent about two weeks there. As planned, Ellis set up the press and trained the operator. He observed and gave instruction until he was convinced that there was someone living in Brazil who could operate the machine alone and could produce useable printed products. [Material from Norma Ellis Cutler.]

. The author was privileged to know Dr. Ralph and Mrs. Genile Bowers. They were long time members and leaders in their church in Harrison. When asked to talk about a mission he and his wife Genile conducted in Boykin, Africa, Dr. Bowers related the following: He said: I had a friend in St. Louis who used to go on mission trips, and he asked me if I would be interested in going. I said ‘Yes' and he called me and said when they are ready for you, I will have a missionary call you…

The Boone County Headlight, December 13, 1984, tells us that, in October of 1984, Dr. Bowers, and his wife Genile, went on a four-week mission trip sponsored by the International Mission Board to operate a dental mission in Bohicon, Benin, Africa. Bowers said that a representative of the Southern Baptist Mission Board told him that a dentist from Memphis who was originally expected to operate the clinic, had decided that he and his family could not take it and left. Bowers was asked to work a month to help keep the outpost of dentistry open. After the original dentist left, the Mission Board planned to get other American dentists to go there for a month at a time until a full-time dentist could be found to take over. The Challenger says that Dr. and Mrs. Bowers were leaving September 26, 1984, for Benin. The church voted to establish a Mission Fund for those who would like to give an offering for needs discovered during the mission in Africa [Challenger, September 13, 1984]. Dr. Bowers and Genile went there and processed many patients per day for six days a week. An article in the Boone County Headlight quotes Dr. Bowers saying that the clinic was in a fairly large town. He said you could not tell how large the city was by going through it and that the living quarters for a lot of the people were fairly primitive. Bowers said he was assisted in his work by Mrs. Bowers and two native assistants. Bowers said that natives used small sticks to clean their teeth. Bowers exhibited some of those to a reporter who photographed them. Bowers also said, on one occasion, he and Mrs. Bowers went to one of his assistants' homes: They took us to the best home in the village. They had a concrete porch and the rest of it was all thatched. The first thing I did [at the mission] was to rewire the clinic. The original dentist had bought 110-volt equipment. When it came, it was on 220… I got an electrician from the embassy who came and rewired all of the motors to 220. That made a real difference in how the clinic operated. They had one line of municipal power: from Cotonou, one power line. [It] made a circle aroundAbomey, and back down the country, on the other side of the country. That one line was the total source of electricity. There was one church there pastored by my assistant and they had Sunday and Wednesday services. There were no additions [members] to it [the church]: just stifled. The missionary who was sort of in charge of it was not a Christian, really, he cursed the missionaries and workers. He did not treat them right. [He left.] The year after…they started, thirteen…churches [started] and [in] the 12 years before: only one.

The patients were all counseled by Christian counselors and the services were all provided by Christians. They were told the plan of salvation, not required to agree, but all were told.

Dr. Bowers said that the people are highly intelligent and gracious, but that their technology in Benin is similar to what ours was in the late 1800s. There were several dentists who went there after Bowers to stay a month each. The process continued in that fashion, operating the clinic, for a year or longer.

The Challenger says that the Bowers were to present their mission report to the church November 25, 1984 [Challenger, November 15, 1984]. Dr. Bowers was a long-time member, deacon, and later trustee of First Baptist Church. He was a highly respected dentist with a practice which spanned many years and was also a public-spirited man, interested in improving his community and state. Bowers was also a sportsman and, for several years, he served as a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. [Personal interview of Dr. Ralph Bowers by the author and Dr. Bower[s] Tells Experiences of Dental Patients in Africa, Boone County Headlight, December 13, 1984, p. 14.]

. In October of 1987, Rev. Raymond Edwards, who was then pastor of the Lyttletown Baptist Church in Manchester, Kentucky, went on a mission trip to Kenya, Africa. On that trip two new churches were organized; a pastor was selected for one of them and an evangelistic meeting was held there. Edwards said that they baptized approximately twelve to fourteen people on Sunday at the end of the meeting. They also started to build a church structure on a two-acre tract of land.

Rev. Edwards told of a small boy who had functioned as a guide for them helping them to find people and places. One of the men in the team gave the boy two coins as a thank you for his help. Later, at one of their church meetings, they passed a hat for collection and the men saw the little boy give his two coins, probably all the money he had, perhaps had ever had, to the church. One of the team said, upon seeing this, he had to walk away and shed some tears. The church was the Gonda Baptist Church.

The photo, which is used courtesy of Rev. Raymond Edwards, shows the poles installed upright and the little congregation standing in what soon would be their church.

Rev. Edwards said that the team including twelve short term missionaries was among the Giriama tribe in eastern Kenya for ten days. He said that, all told, they saw approximately 2,200 individuals come to faith in Christ during their ministry there.

. Rev. Raymond Edwards attended twelve years of public school at Alpena, and grew up attending Burlington Baptist Church, where he was saved, called, and licensed to the ministry. Edwards has pastored a number of churches in this association. While pastoring in Kentucky, he went to Jamaica on a preaching mission. He said he had previously gotten acquainted with a pastor from Jamaica and went there in cooperation with him. Altogether, Edwards made three trips to Jamaica. The first one involved just Edwards, alone, and the other two trips involved mission teams from churches. He said that in September of 1988, Hurricane Gilbert hit the island. Soon after that, Edwards went there. He said that they did work reroofing three churches. Just about every palm tree on the island had been stripped of its branches and roofs were in generally bad condition.

Edwards and his wife went on an evangelism mission trip to Jamaica in the spring of 1989. They stayed at the residence of Rev. Everett Jackson, there. He said that he preached a series of meetings at the Happy Valley Baptist Church. During the last trip to Jamaica, in August of 1991, Edwards went alone. He conducted an evangelistic crusade at Boxton, Jamaica.

. Rev. Raymond Edwards also recalled that, later while he was pastor of the original First Baptist Church of Berryville, Arkansas, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention had a partnership with Guatemala. They maintained an Arkansas House in Guatemala for use by Arkansas people working on mission there. Dr. L. B. Atchison was North Arkansas Baptist Association Director of Missions at the time. Atchison said he and Edwards, July 9–12, 1990, had gone on an exploratory trip to Guatemala to learn what they might be able to do there. Those who went included Dr. L. B. Atchison, Rev. Raymond Edwards, Bennie Ellis. Dr. Jim Perkins, Rev. Bill Cone, pastor of Marble FallsBaptist, and Glen Sattler. Rev. Edwards said: The key purpose of this trip is to provide the opportunity to meet with the missionaries, the Nationals, and the people of San Cristobal Church in Guatemala City, and see first-hand the immediate needs and to provide information to assist our Association in planning the mission projects to be carried out over the next three years. [See First Family Focus (First Baptist Berryville), July 5, 12, 1990.]

After the vision trip there was a construction trip. The men did work on the Arkansas House facility. The First Baptist, Harrison, Challenger publication for November 18, 1990, tells of a trip to Guatemala sponsored by the association with ten of the twelve persons going on the trip being from First Baptist Church. Dr. Jim Perkins, the pastor, listed those from First Baptist planning to go as: himself and Dr. L. B. Atchison, Dolores Atchison, Paige Atchison, Joe Bowers, Cynthia (better known as Cy) Bowers, Dan Bowers, Bennie Ellis, and Bob Wheeler. Larry Brandt had planned to go on this trip. But at the time, he commanded an Army Reserve unit which was placed on alert for Operation Desert Storm and so he did not get to go on this trip. In the Challenger article, Dr. Perkins said that they were going to fly to Guatemala for a week of work. Cy Bowers said she was a member of a group which went to Guatemala and that the purpose was to serve as a vision trip. That would be to assess what ministries the association should be involved in there. Bob Wheeler and Bennie Ellis roomed together on this trip. Wheeler said they stayed in the Arkansas House which had, by then, been completed. They went to a small rural church. The missionary group conducted a sports clinic and got local youth to play basketball. The missionaries went to homes in the evenings and shared their faith.

The group returned to Arkansas on December 1, 1990. Dr. Perkins said that, while in Guatemala, they worked with Mark McClellan an International Mission Board missionary. He said that they did religious survey work in the community and got a favorable reaction to their presence there. After the group got back home, Dr. Perkins was informed that attendance at a church they had worked with in Guatemala had increased substantially.

Dr. L. B. Atchison, Director of Missions, reported that he and the associational officers were attempting to plan activities which would be for training, promotion, and fellowship. He said that much of the work of the year had related to the planning and coordination of the Guatemala Mission Project which involved working with Antioch Baptist Church, also known as Antioch Baptist Temple, in San Cristobal, near Guatemala City, Guatemala. From June 5 through 8, 1991, twenty-five people from the association assisted in renovation and finishing construction of the church. First BaptistHarrison's Challenger, of April 14, 1991, says that an associational mission trip to Guatemala was then in process of developing. Six adult men from First Baptist Harrison were planning to go on a construction team to help build a church there. [See also Challenger, June 2, 1991.]

There was a six-man team from the association, composed of people who had gone on the exploratory trip, which divided up the churches of the association and went to them with a program about the proposed work in Guatemala. They explained the need and what was proposed to be done. There was an appeal for volunteers to go and help with the work. Those who went were Dr. L. B. Atchison, Charles Bacon, Bill Bailey, Carl Beard, Wayne Cone, Kim Cooper, Doug Dees, Homer Dotts, Clara Garrett, James Garrett, Bennie Ellis, Greg Harding, Lee Jane Harris, Rev. Ray Edwards, construction coordinator, Clarence H. Hunt, Richard Metts, Suzie Metts, Earl Dean Phillips, Dianne Richardson, Vern Richardson, David Sager, Dick Sager, Glenn Sattler, LeMae Sattler, and Rev. Royce Sweatman. Ms. Richardson and some other women prepared meals at the Arkansas House. The men (the construction team) worked on the church building. Bob Wheeler, from First Harrison, said that Larry Brandt was in the group on this trip. Atchison said that, in addition to the work done, the churches of the association gave $10,000 toward the building of the church. [See First Family Focus, First Baptist Berryville, June 6, 1991.]

.