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As believers, we all are instructed by Jesus in Matthew 28:19 to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." Further in Acts 1:8, Jesus tells us that we "shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon [us]; and [we] shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Missions and evangelism are the life-blood of the church.
On a local level, we are involved in the House of Hope Ministries which is a food and clothing bank. This past year, we assisted in a clean-up of Hurricane damage. We support the work of local missions through our giving to the Sabine Baptist Association. Mission work in our state of Louisiana is supported by our giving annually to the Georgia Barnette State Missions offering and our giving to District 8 missions and ministries office. Addtionally, we give to the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program to support mission work throughout the United States and abroad.
We believe in doing more than simply contributing money. Each November, our church members are involved in collecting shoes for Mexico. Annually, we send over 100 pairs of shoes through this ministry. We also participate in the Samaritan's Purse annual Christmas Shoe Box ministry. This past year, we began sponsoring a new church start in Eugene, Oregon. Freedom Pointe Church is pastoring by Shreveport, LA native Rev. Bobby Blake. We are very excited about all that God is going to accomplish through this new church start.
James and Martha Guay are local missionaries that Oak Hill supports each year as they go several times each year to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the nations. We also support the work of Andy Nicholson with Innovative Mission Opportunities in Houston, TX. Andy leads mission trips several times each year to unreached Muslim groups.
Internationally, we send out youth summer missionaries through Global Expeditions and Amazon Medical Missions. Hannah Scoggins, a Junior at Northwestern University, has served in Peru twice. She participated in a medical mission trip and a church building mission trip. From our youth group,John Holloway, has served in Jordan, India, Peru, Botswanna, and Canada. Matt Peace, has served in El Salvador, Zambia, and South Africa Josh Ritter, has served in Australia and China. Leith LeBlanc, served in Italy. Mardi Gauthier, served in New York. Katelyn Masters, served in Romania.
In November 2008, we began a partnership with the Mission Voice Network of India. While John Holloway was serving in India in the summer of 2008, he worked with Pastor Vijayan. Pastor "V" came in November to Many and met with our area churches. Oak Hill is serving as the US contact for Mission Voice Network.
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