How Did Henderson Hills Baptist Church Begin Sending Mission Teams to Wales?
It all began in Summer 2008 when Allen and Deedee Rice went to Great Britain for a three week vacation and for Allen to study archaeological sites related to King Arthur (he had won a little research grant for that purpose). On June 19th, Allen and Deedee visited Glastonbury Abbey in southwest England where King Arthur was reportedly buried. This was Allen’s third time to visit the site, but it was the first time that either he or Deedee had seen an outdoor Christian religious service for English schoolchildren there. As he watched the opening of the service, and as he chatted beforehand with a goodhearted and wise old Anglican priest, Allen felt more and more ill at ease. He felt an indescribable, intense urge to come back to Britain so that the people can better know the Gospel and be saved. It was a missionary calling he could not shake, though he tried not to act upon it for about two weeks to see if it would go away. It didn’t. Allen felt God had gotten in touch with the wrong guy. Allen had only gone on only one previous mission – to Monterrey, Mexico - and even though it had been fruitful in leading souls to Christ, he felt that mission work was just not really for him.
Allen thought the only way to get rid of his inner prompting was to tell Mike Wall, HHBC’s Missions Pastor about his Glastonbury experience. Allen expected for Mike to ask Allen to take two aspirin, pray about it, and come back in six months. Instead, Mike asked when Allen was going to lead a team. Allen was shocked! It seemed that just a few days earlier, Henderson Hills’ missionary connection to Barcelona, Spain had been severed and Mike was considering where else in Western Europe the church might establish a toehold. Interesting coincidence!
Then Mike asked Allen to select a city in Great Britain as the place to which Allen was to lead a team. Allen had no idea. But he did know Great Britain to some degree, based upon four previous tours. So he meditated, prayed, and felt that the best place to start was Cardiff, Wales. But neither Allen nor Mike Wall knew where to go from there. How could they get the mission started? Who should they contact?
Allen told his friend, Chris Shaneyfelt about Cardiff, Wales as a possible site for a future mission. The next week, Chris met Gavin Hart, a college student at his workplace, who had just returned from a mission trip to Cardiff, Wales. Interesting coincidence!
Gavin told Allen some names to contact. Allen gave that list of names to Mike Wall, who seemed to already know these people. About two weeks later, Mike contacted Allen and informed him that the main person they needed to talk to was a missionary named Troy Blankenship; he was the Southern Baptist missionary in charge of ministry in South Wales. And, Mike added, Troy just happened to be in the United States on a required six month furlough from Britain. Allen asked if he could go wherever Troy was in America to meet with him. Mike answered that Troy happened to be in a far away place called Edmond, Oklahoma – his home for the six month furlough. Interesting coincidence!
What followed was an energizing meeting with Troy, and then Allen and Dustin Loehrs going to Wales in December 2008 to establish a strong working relationship with Troy and with Rhiwbina Baptist Church -- a local body which Allen called “Henderson Hills Wales” because of their strong similarities to HHBC – an Elder-led, Calvinist, Non-Cessationist Baptist Church located in the affluent, family-oriented, northern suburb of the capital city.
Allen and Dustin led an evangelism team of eight people in March 2009. Everyone on the team felt that the Lord’s hand was with them and that Wales was an especially anointed mission field. Allen and Dustin then led a second evangelism team of nine in July 2009 on an equally anointed mission. It was this group that spent most of their time in Swansea ministering to 23 year old pastor-to-be Derek Rees who had just been assigned a church building where the 150 year old congregation had finally succumbed to the decline of Christianity in Britain and the doors had closed. Our team was there to applaud Derek as he ceremoniously crossed the threshold of “Capel Gomer” – Gomer Chapel – a church which would officially become his first pastorate in September 2009. We prayed for him, canvassed what for him was a new town, and had many intense hours of witnessing to the people of Swansea.
How Did the December 2009 Construction Mission Get Started?
In late September 2009, Allen, Derek, and Dustin brainstormed by phone over what the next mission trip would look like. They felt that God might want Allen to bring a Construction Team to help remodel the gently decaying building so that it would be useful for ministering to a new generation of Welsh Christians. When Allen asked Deedee what she thought of the possibility of a mission team leaving in less than three months, just two weeks before Christmas, and going to the less than tropical landscape of Swansea, she guessed that no one would want to go and the mission would never get off the ground. Allen had to concede that Deedee was probably correct. Nevertheless, Allen had Mike Wall over to his house and asked him if Henderson Hills could fund a construction mission to Wales leaving on December 12th and returning on December 20th. Mike’s only response was to laugh out loud. Allen assumed Mike felt the plan was too costly and too absurd, so Allen started trying to explain and persuade. Mike told Allen to just be quiet for a minute. Then Mike got out his cell phone and opened a text message that church member and very active missionary Caleb McCaleb had sent him the previous day. Caleb had stated that he wanted to help organize a construction mission that would leave on December 12th and return on December 20th. Interesting coincidence!
Though Caleb had originally intended for his proposed construction team to go to Nicaragua, conditions on the ground there were not favorable at that time, so Caleb gladly agreed to become the Construction Team Leader, partnering with Allen as Mission Leader for a December 2009 Construction Mission to Swansea. Mike Wall generously funded the construction budget, and a little more than two months later, the intrepid band of 24 crazy, wild-eyed Americans set out on their Great Wales Adventure. And what an adventure it was!
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