Listen to a Neighbors and Nations Elder Conversation with Zane Pratt and Mike Laughrun.
Going beyond one week of Neighbors and Nations
- To learn more about our sending opportunities as a church, read Pastor Gene’s letter below
- To learn more about how to share the gospel, visit tcbchurch.org/gomoments
- To pray for gospel opportunities around the world, visit imb.org/pray
- To give to Give2Go, visit tcbchurch.org/give2go
- To go on an upcoming trip, visit tcbchurch.org/gotrips
Letter by Gene Mermilliod
As one of the pastors of Tri-Cities Baptist Church, and having served on our staff now into my 34th year, I guess you could say that I have a rather unique perspective on who we are as a sending church. Being a sending-minded church is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, we weren’t even three months old as a body of believers when we sent out our first mission team to the Navajo Indian Reservation. From our beginning in April 1990, it has always been a part of our DNA as a church to be a gospel witness both here in our Jerusalem, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
During the 1990’s we were active in local gospel pursuits as well as sending teams out at least twice per year – one domestically [northeast Arizona], and the other internationally [Romania]. As we moved into the decade of the 2000’s, a shift took us to mostly Central America [Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador]. But there were also mission teams sent to Brazil, Peru, and India. One family from our church went up and planted a church in New Hampshire which is still in existence today. We began to host Global Impact Conferences toward the end of this decade.
Our mission efforts grew and expanded during the decade of the 2010’s. We hired a GO Pastor and sent teams to places like Portugal, South Africa, Central America, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos. During this decade we began to send families from our church as missionaries to places like Uganda, Zambia, the Middle East, and to the Czech Republic. We helped to launch two churches out west – one in Portland, Oregon and one in Denver, Colorado. College students also began to give 5-6 weeks of their summers to go on Gen Send trips out west.
In this current decade, we have focused on supporting additional church planters in Colorado, California, Tennessee, and Georgia. We have engaged with refugee families in Clarkston, GA for the past three years. In 2023, we sent out 66 church members to various places of service both domestically and internationally. We were also blessed to send 6 college students out as interns this past summer both in Colorado and in Portugal. Our current plans for 2024 include sending teams to South Asia, the Middle East, Uganda, Clarkston, GA, City View Church in Atlanta, Colorado, and potentially to Pennsylvania this summer. It is our hope to send out additional college interns this summer to places like Portugal, Uganda, South Asia, and Colorado.
In addition, over the past few years we have had the privilege to send out some of our church elders to engage with pastors in theological education in places like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Asia. It is obvious that our Lord has opened many doors of opportunity to us as a body of believers over the years. God has given to us a heart for the nations because He has, and has always had, the nations on His heart. We don’t know how much longer we will have these opportunities, so we are trying to make the most of them as we can while these opportunities still exist. Your generosity in giving to Give2Go has enabled our church to be engaged in reaching the nations as well as local ministries. Thank you for your generosity! May the Lord bless His work around the world.
Gene Mermilliod
Elder/ Care Pastor
Gene Mermilliod serves as the Care Pastor and Elder of Tri-Cities Baptist Church and has served on staff since 1990. He is married to his wife Gayle and they have six children (Paul, Josh, Joel, Cara, Peter, Daniel).