Missionary physician Bill Wallace stayed in China throughout World War II and led the staff of Stout Memorial Hospital in Wuchow in a heroic evacuation when the Japanese attacked. After his selfless service in China from 1935 to 1951, he died in a Communist prison cell.

Dr. T.W. Ayers served in China from 1901 to 1926 and built the first Southern Baptist hospital on foreign soil. He was decorated by two presidents of China for his actions during a plague that threatened the country, and for initiating Red Cross work during a Chinese civil war.

The day after Christmas 2004, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Indonesia and triggered a tsunami that swept into multiple nations bordering the Indian Ocean, wiping away entire communities and bringing devastation. An estimated 228,000 people were killed and nearly two million were left homeless in a dozen nations including Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. Hardest hit, though, was Aceh Province, Indonesia, which bore the tsunami’s terrible brunt and took the lives of some 169,000. As international disaster relief groups flew in to offer aid to stricken countries and communities, Southern Baptist volunteers were among those responding with compassion and care.
By mid-February 2005, contributions from Southern Baptist churches and individuals surpassed $10 million—an unprecedented amount—to be used for tsunami-related aid projects across South and Southeast Asia. “We were there early, and we were there with people who knew the language and culture, supported by volunteers who [met] needs,” said Don Dent, then IMB’s regional leader for the Pacific Rim. Southern Baptist volunteers fed the hungry, met medical needs, cleared mud out of houses, and dug mass graves for villagers. Dent explained that Christians serving these Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist communities, were having an impact and asked Southern Baptists in the US to keep praying “that God will open a door that no man can shut.”
The local government funded art projects in the tsunami survivor camps. Southern Baptists provided ongoing relief work for a full year after the tsunami, bringing food every day to a number of camps, as well as doing children’s activities and English language classes. Southern Baptists also provided funding for fishermen to rebuild their boats and replace the nets they lost in the tsunami.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to the majority of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, while the Middle East and North Africa are predominantly Muslim. In the US, Muslims account for only about 1.1 percent of the total population, though communities are concentrated in certain areas of the country. Southern Baptists in the US have the opportunity to build relationships with their Muslim neighbors. Building trust and loving as Jesus loves is a first step toward gospel proclamation.

International Mission Board missionaries seek to be witnesses to Christ’s redeeming power. Here, a group of Buddhist monks discusses spiritual matters.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, India is the world’s second most populous nation—and home to 1,520 unreached people groups. Of those, about 700 groups are not currently engaged with any church planting strategies consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Across the savannahs of East Africa, trees are important community gathering places. A Maasai pastor leads this new church that was planted with help from IMB missionaries Tim and Annie Tidenberg.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

Honduran prisoners call IMB missionary Amy Johnson Mamita, or “Little Mom.” She prays for them, listens to them, and teaches them from the Bible. Along with her flannel-board Bible lessons, her practical service, like helping them read and write letters to family and girlfriends, taught them compassion. In Francisco Morazan, the department that includes Honduras’ capital, an estimated 250 gangs involving 10,000 youth ran the streets in 2002.

As AIDS takes its toll in Uganda in 1998, the Mbarara University Teaching Hospital in Uganda has more patients than beds. Larry Pepper was a NASA flight surgeon before God put him on a different trajectory: working with the IMB at hospitals in Africa.

As AIDS takes its toll in Uganda in 1998, the Mbarara University Teaching Hospital in Uganda has more patients than beds. Larry Pepper was a NASA flight surgeon before God put him on a different trajectory: working with the IMB at hospitals in Africa.

Dr. Martha Myers was well known for her trips over rugged roads of the countryside to treat the illnesses and wounds of some of the poorest people in Yemen. In December 2002, an Islamic militant entered Jibla Baptist Hospital, where Myers worked, and killed three IMB medical missionaries: Myers, hospital director Bill Koehn, and purchasing agent Kathy Gariety. Donald Caswell, a pharmacist, was wounded but survived the attack.

Amanda Barger reads an Albanian-language children’s book about Jesus to two women from Bodini, Albania, in 1996. Barger, a Cooperative Services International worker, had hiked with a team through rocky Albanian mountains to a traditionally Muslim village. There, 17 village men and women listened as the team talked about love, forgiveness, contrasts between the Bible and the Qur’an, and salvation through Jesus Christ.

Since the earlier photos were taken, Pepper has spent more than two decades offering hope to the hurting in Africa. Through the years, he and his wife, Sally, have spent countless hours at the bedsides of the hurting, leading them to the pages of the Bible and bringing them to lasting hope in Christ. They have discipled university students. They have helped new mothers get on their feet and find faith. They have started AIDS clinics and planted churches. They have seen people find spiritual life, and they have buried the ones whom physical death has overcome.