Jim & Phyllis Childress
Jim and Phyllis Childress, Missionaries to Panama Letter of Introduction - Historical Review
This effort is an attempt to provide some information that will allow you to get to know us better. We provide this historical record for your information and orientation towards our ministry. It is designed to give information to pastors considering supporting our ministry or pastors who have inherited us as missionaries during their ministry transition.
I was saved as a teenager at Bible Baptist Church in Cincinnati Ohio. My wife, Phyllis, made a profession of faith there as well, but would not be saved until about 12 years later when she received Christ in our home after we returned Springfield, Mo. so that I could finish the required courses in order to graduate from Baptist Bible College.
We both went to BBC right after high school in 1965. Phyllis graduated on schedule. I did not. Phyllis graduated in 1968 and I graduated in 1975, spending almost five years in the Army between start and finish. Almost four years of my military service were dedicated to service in Panama.
Phyllis and I have been married since Aug 6, 1966. We do not have children. We have adopted a number of pastors’ families and there are about 15 that call us grandma and grandpa.
I will try to provide you with general history of our ministry, with the idea that this will give you a chance to know us better.
1965 – We entered Baptist Bible College, Springfield, Missouri.
1968 – Phyllis graduated from BBC.
1969 – I entered the Army and lived in Panama from February 1970 to December 1973.
1975 – Returned to, and graduated from BBC needing one semester and summer school to qualify for graduation.
1975 – Started our missionary intern ministry at Temple Baptist Church of Marshfield Missouri -Ival Robinson pastor. I was the second missionary intern for the church, but would not be the last.
1976 – We were approved as BBF missionaries in September with Temple Baptist Church as my sending church.
1977 – In August we headed for language school in Queredetaro, Mexico. The school was administrated by BBF missionaries Jimmy Lee and Georgia Web.
1978 – Drove to Panama from Cincinnati Ohio. We arrived in late October.
1979 – With no forethought of working with U.S. military, we ended up doing so. This ministry started in our home. Bro. Al Sligh, a BIMI missionary to the military, came to work with military in the Panama Canal area. We worked together during a transitional period and the military church relocated to the Balboa YMCA. Brother Sligh became pastor of the church with this move ... and the move was necessary because we had grown to175 in our home.
Brother Sligh would lead the church to 600 for a period of time. The political changes that brought sanctions and military personnel restrictions affected the attendance from that time forward. This church continued to exist until the military pullout was completed at the close of 1999.
1980 – We concentrated on the Spanish ministry in the same location ... our home. We still had some Spanish speaking people with us after the relocation of the military ministry. Essentially we would build a second, and different, church in the same location.
1981 – We were able to organize the Maranatha Baptist Church in Panama City. It was the first Spanish speaking Independent Baptist Church to exist in the capital city.
1982 – Worked in a rural ministry for some time, bringing a small group of 18 to around 70.
1985 – Started working with Brother Gaudette in a team effort ministry in another area of Panama City called San Miguelito. We would organize that church when the attendance was established and the membership matured to the point of accepting that responsibility. This church sponsored our Bible Institute.
1989 – We saw the first graduation from our Institute. Oscar and Damaris Chavez were two of our graduates and he is still pastor of the church in San Miguelito today.
1990 – I return to pastor the church we organized in 1981. I had turned over a church of 85 and had less than 20 when we returned. This church was revived and a national pastor called to lead. The pastor was a University graduate and came from the congregation.
1997 - Became pastor of the church where I am presently pastoring. We organized that church in 1999. We are in a bedroom community for Panama City and are located in the fastest growing district of Panama.
Note: Throughout this time frame we have also gone back to churches or supplied for missionaries on furlough. We were back at the military church a couple of times, spent a year in Bro. Hargis' ministry and 7 months in Bro. Young's work. We also did a part time assistance ministry in Bro. Gaudette's work in Santa Librada for a year.
Along the way we started doing medical missions and medical donations to the Ministry of Health. In 1993 we held our first medical clinic outside of Panama City. It was a test which had successful results. Fundamental Baptist Church is still going in the area where we had the first medical clinic.
Two years later we started doing medical clinics in difficult access areas ... entering by helicopter or boat. Today there are churches established in Belen, Rio Concepción, Rio Veraguas, and Rio Guzaro because of medical clinics. Seeds have been sown for churches in Rio Cafta, Tobobe and Cusapin.
Medical clinics have also served to strengthen churches in the Cocle del Norte river valley and Caymito, ministries founded by and still under the watch care of other missionaries. We have done the same with churches in the central mountain region where Blaine Gaudette has worked for years.
Medical donations have worked to elevate the name of Independent Baptists in the country, once to the point that the first lady of Panama called us to help secure and transport a donation. I like it when the first lady of the nation calls us and asks for help. The last donation arrived in Panama the last week of August of 2004 and consisted of 17 truckloads of medical supplies and school furniture. The previous donation required a C5A and two C130s to carry the cargo. That much stuff gets someone’s attention.
With our medical ministry growing we have developed a Panamanian team of doctors and nurses that have been helping us have local church based evangelical medical ministries. It is not uncommon to see between 35 and 50 professions of faith in one day of a medical clinic. I consider that a very good return on the investment.
Future plans have us doing some other things:
1. Building a new building at our present location. Our present ministry has a general attendance between 110 - 135 and our facility only has two rooms with walls: The auditorium and the nursery. Everything else is under temporary shelters with no walls. I foresee this church doubling in attendance within six months of having a new building. I foresee starting a day care ministry as an outreach for young couples moving into the bedroom community.
2. Further developing the medical ministry. In November our Panama team will fly to Mexico to help two churches progress in their stages of development.
3. Relocate the Bible Institute, now under the leadership of Dan Young, who graciously took over that ministry years ago.
4. Continue to serve as a professor in several Bible Institutes.
5. Continue to do Bible conferences along the coastal region. Last conference saw about 175 in attendance.
I am scheduled to do one of these in October 2004 and May of2005. We keep that cycle pretty much firm because those two months are the ones which offer better sea conditions.
6. Extend the medical ministry into other countries, like we are doing in Mexico in Nov. of 2004. My desire is to do a medical clinic in Cuba.
7. Start a Manna sponsored feeding center.