Every BIO Fall Meeting seems to take on a flavor all its own. This year’s meeting was no exception!
Monday night we honored Missionary Marilyn Decker. She has faithfully served God for 39 years in Brazil working with the Deaf. We also surprised Dr. Garvin Dykes by awarding him the BIO Faithful Man Award. In 2013 the Dykes will have been in faithful ministry to the Lord for 50 years. With many of the Dykes’ friends and former coworkers present it was a special evening that was closed out by a wonderful message from Dr. Neal Beard.
Along with a forum on missions on Tuesday we heard from Dr. Emmett Manley, Claude Dykes, and our newest Executive Council Member Doyle Ashburn in the morning. We were blessed by Dr. Frank Holman in the evening. The Executive Council approved our newest missionaries on Tuesday afternoon: Victor and Robin Rouse. They are now BIO missionaries to Latin America working in conjunction with Fires of Evangelism.
On Wednesday we were especially blessed by a sweet time of prayer for our missionaries. We then heard from many of our missionaries on furlough as well as had another forum on missions. Dr. Frank Holman preached the last message of the meeting. It was very encouraging. The meeting was finalized when Dr. David Cross, our Vice President and Treasurer, prayed a prayer of dedication for our missionaries on deputation who are headed to the field in 2013.
All of the messages along with the forums will be available to listen to enjoy. They will be released in the coming days here at the BIO website.