[EMAIL] is receiving this newsletter because you are subscribed to the
Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International E-newsletter mailing list.

by - BMDMI Missionary, Tina Rushing Woods, DMD
This year, BMDMI's Hospital Bautista in Guaimaca is slated to have approximately 16 different teams coming down to Honduras to serve, whether as a surgical team, evangelism team, dental team, or other group. We were blessed to have the David Rumph/OB-GYN surgical team here the week of April-9th performing hysterectomies, bladder tucks, uterine ablations, & other gynecological procedures.

Dr. Shaun Marshall is a general physician in Canada & also has an anesthesiology license. He brought his portable unit with him & dedicated one day of his time to help sedate 4 children for dental work last Wednesday. Three of our children were from our Children's Home in Zamorano, with the fourth being a child of a missionary couple here in Honduras. All children were between the ages of 4-6 & needed extensive dental restorations.

What a wonderful blessing it is to have a hospital with the means to serve little ones needing sedation dentistry---Thank You Dr. Shaun!!!!

by - BMDMI Missionary, Darrel Johnson
This past April 12th and April 13th, our BMDMI Bible Institute in Nicaragua experienced our second Bible Conference of 2011. This was uniquely different from our marriage conference held the middle of February where there were many ladies present because this time there were only men. The reason was the topic, Reaching and Building Up Men for Christ. This much needed conference was brought by Mel Cornillaud, Men?s Ministry Director from Beach Road Baptist Church, Southport, North Carolina. Mel presented the same conference last year to the BMDMI Honduran pastors. In addition, Mel has taught this same material to men in many different areas of the world including Africa, Europe and Asia. Mel made the statement that the needs of men and the ways to reach them are the same the world over.

As is true of most evangelical churches in Central America, the majority of the membership of our BMDMI churches in Nicaragua is made up by women. While we are very grateful for the wonderful women in our churches, the key to church growth is to reach men. The statistics show that when the husbands are reached for Christ that the majority of the wives and children are also reached. In addition is the irrefutable teaching of Scripture that the husband is to be the spiritual leader of the family.

Mel taught that there are six things that God desires for pastors and leaders: (1) establish an authentic brotherhood of faithful Christian men in each church; (2) incorporate proven ingredients to establish a vibrant and successful men's ministry to reach men; (3) encourage faithful men to build relationships of confidence with men outside the church; (4) evangelize lost men and bring them into the church; (5) build men up to spiritual maturity to be spiritual head's of their families and help them to conquer sinful temptations; and (6) equip men for outreach and missions in their communities.

One of the reasons why the conference was so interesting and practical was the involvement of the men through sharing both in small group sessions and in the full sessions. In the small group times, each group designed an action plan of how they propose to accomplish the six purposes of a men?s ministry. Each grouped shared their action plan with the full session. It was decided to make follow-up reports at the monthly pastor's meetings to serve both as a source of encouragement and as a source of learning as to what activities have had success and which haven't.

One of the last things done at the conference was for the men to come forward and write on the white board the names of three men that they wanted to reach for Christ. This time closed with a prayer of commitment and a prayer for the lost men whose names were on the white board.
The announced goal of the conference was to provide the essential ingredients, practical ideas, and tools necessary to initiate, grow, and revitalize a men's ministry in our BMDMI churches. I believe that this goal was fully met. It will be exciting to see how God will use this conference in our BMDMI churches as our pastors and leaders put to work all that they learned.

Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International
11 Plaza Drive | Hattiesburg | Mississippi | 39402
(601) 544-3586 | www.bmdmi.org

by: Bruce Johnson - Webmaster