A couple weeks ago I drove to Côte d’Ivoire to meet my parents and attend the 50th anniversary of Baptist Work in that West African nation. The Baptist Convention of Ivory Coast (UNEBAM-CI) put on the jubilee celebration and invited IMB missionaries who served (or currently serve) in the country. It was a massive reunion with so many of our friends from the 80s, 90, and 00s.
Some of the past missionaries that attended the three day event were my parents, Ted & Francis York and Ed & Greta Pinkston. The Yorks were our next door neighbors in Bouaké in the 90s and some of our best friends. The Pinkstons were the first Southern Baptist missionaries appointed to Côte d’Ivoire in 1967! It was wonderful to see them again.
I was so impressed by the respect and honor the Convention showed my parents and their colleagues. All the alumni missionaries were awarded honorary diplomas and gold medals. Ed Pinkston received the highest honor and was dressed as a chief – complete with crown and golden scepter!
Part of the weekend’s events included a parade of nearly 1000 Baptists out to the conference grounds and a graduation ceremony for the UNEBAM-CI’s seminary students. Several of the graduates were young men that the past missionaries had led to Christ or discipled.
In fact, I was blown away by the number of current pastors who came up to my parents and the other missionaries to thank them for investing their lives in them. I was seeing the seeds Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13:8 that “fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!“