This article was featured in the June 2023 edition of The Baptist Courier. 

Christian was homeless, broken, and in desperate need of hope.

He had recently arrived in Los Angeles and had spent the last week in the depths of the subway. Lee Clamp, Chief Strategic Officer at SCBaptist, was serving with the Palmetto Collective when the group approached Christian with a blanket and shared the Gospel with him. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary, Jacob, shared the Gospel and extended an offer for him to join a discipleship-based rehab facility and church plant.

The Road to True Freedom

He agreed to go, and as they walked to the subway, the train doors began to shut. The college team stopped the train, and they raced toward the metro. Jacob assured him that this was no movie. This was real life and the road to true freedom.

The team emerged from the subway, and Christian got in a Send Relief van with NAMB missionaries. As they made their way to the church, Christian became anxious and doubted that this would end well for him. He looked up at the church as they approached and saw the words: Set Free Church. The men standing outside were an unlikely group of disciples. They had all been pulled off the street themselves and were now serving at the ministry helping guys like Christian.

Divine Intervention

Unfortunately, Christian was told he would have to return in a few days to be properly admitted. Distraught, Christian asked where he was supposed to go. Jacob said, “What were you planning to do before we sat down next to you?” After a long pause, Christian said, “I was planning to kill myself.” Jacob pulled a few strings, and Christian was accepted on the spot. Overjoyed, Christian gave him a big hug and said, “Thank you for letting me be a part of your movie.”

The South Carolina Baptist movie is an epic film that has been playing for the past 200 years with similar scenes of life transformation. Starring in this episode were a variety of stars funded by the generosity of SCBaptists. The Send City Coordinator, Will Browning, was once a funded church planter in SC, and, along with Jacob, is now funded by NAMB. Christian will be ministered to by church plants funded directly by SCBaptist Churches like Taylors First Baptist Church and Barnwell First Baptist Church. The college students were sent by SCBaptist churches through the Janie Chapman Offering. This summer, nine more college students will spend eight weeks in LA as GenSend missionaries led by Cory Singleton, GenSend director for LA and SC native. All of them are supporting actors in an epic film starring the King of Kings.

Whose movie are you a supporting actor in? When you share the Gospel with others you enter their spiritual story. Lights. Camera. Action.

-Lee Clamp, Chief Strategic Officer