Missionary of the Week

I am blessed beyond measure in so many ways in my life, and one of those ways is the men that God allows me to learn from and work with in world evangelism. I am also blessed with an incredible group of people that follow this blog, pray for us, and show their love for God’s global mission in awesome ways. I want to start something highlighting other missionaries on this blog to bring those two groups together for several reasons:

• KNOW- I want my readers to know them
• PRAY- I want my readers to know how to pray for them
• INVEST- I want my readers to be able to invest in their ministries and lives as God moves
• CARE- I want my readers to know the desperate need for Gospel ministry in more than just Spain
• EXULT- I want my readers to know what God is doing globally and rejoice in it
• GO- I want my readers to see the mission fields represented, and be challenged to take short term missions trips, or be open to full-time work if God directs

Those goals spell the acronym “KPICEG”, and I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I hope it’s inspirational. So here is the first in my alphabetical list of great missionaries:

Phil and Lori Bassham

I met Phil the first day we came to Vision 5 years ago, and at the time he was a single guy training for the mission field. He was the music director and singles SS teacher, and had been at Vision since day 1 of the church launch. My first impression was “This guy is odd.” My second impression was “I think I like him”. Phil is quirky to the hilt, but I found out pretty quickly that he was passionately in love with Jesus and His Word.

I’ve never seen anyone care so deeply about music conveying biblical truth, and he has left a huge mark on our church’s philosophy of music and corporate worship.

He is a discipler, a Bible teacher and preacher (I often pick on him because he once tried to preach the entire book of Hebrews in one sitting), and God has directed he and his wife Lori to the incredibly needy field of Thailand to plant churches. Thailand is is country enslaved by Buddhism, which gives no hope to the Thai people, and is only 0.7% evangelical Christian of any kind.

The Basshams have been on deputation since Fall of 2010, and are planning to head to the field late this year, Lord willing. They are currently trying to fill their calendar for the coming year, and I would heartily recommend them to any pastor as a missionary couple that would bless your church, and are worthy of support.

Would you commit to pray with me for the Basshams? Pray that God will give them times of refreshing on the road, that their support level will increase, that God will use his preaching, and for their first daughter that is due in May. Check out their website and let them know you are praying for them this week!