Neville Callam visit

There were a few glitches, chief among them being a missed airline connection, that formed the backdrop for Neville Callam's visit to our church on Tuesday evening, but the end result was a powerful worship service and a great message by Dr. Callam. Dr. Callam and Alan Stanford of the North American Baptist Fellowship were at the airport in time in Washington for the flight but somehow didn't get checked in on time and were told they couldn't board the plane when they arrived at the gate, even though the plane was still there. To make a long story short, they caught a later flight that arrived at the Kansas City airport at 6:50 p.m. The service was scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. and the drive takes about 45 minutes if there's no traffic. Our minister of education was gracious enough to volunteer to pick them up and shuttle them back to church. Jim Hill, the executive secretary of the BGCM, made a few adjustments to the program on the fly while we awaited their arrival.

Our church's orchestra and choir did an outstanding job with their portion of the music and then we were blessed by the music of an African American choir from Kansas City. They had sung previously at the BGCM's annual meeting last year when Anne Graham Lotz was our keynote speaker and they're absolutely wonderful. We were able to download one of the BWA promotional pieces from the Internet to show before Dr. Callam's arrival, and then were greatly blessed by his message.

He spoke on Jesus' words "Fear not" and related them to the fears he and Alan had experienced through the day with the problem of a missed flight, the anxiety over possibly not arriving in time to speak, etc. He went on to tie that same theme to the BWA's work in the world in the areas of evangelism, humanitarian aid, religious liberty, and support for those being persecuted for their faith. Dr. Callam is a highly articulate man with a winsome nature and displayed a thorough grasp of the Scriptures in the brief message he brought. If you have the opportunity of attending one of the services where he is being introduced during his 2 month tour of the U.S., don't pass up the chance to hear him.