#first baptist

Recent Acquisition - Ephemera Collection

28 June 2025: Perry, Houston County, Georgia.

My middle daughter starts a 10-week mission trip with YWAM in Papua New Guinea this week. She started traveling yesterday, but her journey goes back years before that - even before she was born.

It goes back at least as far as 1987. That's when Paul Logan started attending First Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, one year after I did. Then, a few years later Paul attended a YWAM meeting and felt called to become a missionary in Ukraine.

Fast forward to 2013 and Paul was back in Sioux Falls talking to our church about his ministry's work with orphans in Ukraine. My daughter felt called to help and started a bake sale.

A few years later, Paul invited my family of five to join his team at Arise! Ukraine to launch a church camp just outside Kiev. It was the first of two visits to Ukraine and it was part of what led my daughter to choose WYAM instead of college.

That's the way legacy works. The things First Baptist was doing fifty years ago played a role in my daughter becoming a missionary today. It's the topic of my sermon at First Baptist a few weeks ago that you can watch here.

It's another presidential election year, which introduces all kinds of temptations for Christians to prioritize the kingdom of man over the Kingdom of God.

In this, my first ever sermon, I draw on the Old Testament story of Daniel to help Christians seek first the Kingdom of God, even in an election year.

13 July 2023: Macon, Bibb County, Georgia.