TRADING PLACES Free Will Baptist Bible College Professor Serves as Guest Professor By Ruth Bivens     Find out more about Free Will Baptist Home Missions by visiting www.homemisions.net.

Dr. Richard Hendrix, pastor of the Madison Free Will Baptist Church in Madison, Alabama, and rotating professor at Free Will Baptist Bible College, just returned from a week in Altamira, Tampico, Mexico. During his visit, Richard taught a four-day course on Hebrews Chapter 11 at the Instituto Biblico la Cruz (Bible Institute of the Cross), spoke in six different churches, and preached at the Huasteca District quarterly meeting. During these services, he spoke to 700 people and saw three people come forward and make salvation decisions. Another made a public profession of faith; one came for reconciliation, and dozens filled the altars.

His final service on Sunday evening was held at the Peniel FWB Church in the Mano con Mano Colonia of Tampico. This community is comprised of one-room shacks built from scrap lumber and pallets on the site of an old city dump. As he sat outside with members of the congregation, students from the Bible Institute, and Bud and Ruth Bivens eating tamales, he called home. “I’m sitting here eating tamales in the middle of a dump,” he told his wife Carolyn. “And, I am in Heaven.”

Hendrix expressed his surprise at the size and strength of the work in the Altamira area as well as the quality of the pastors. He was amazed at the attendance when 135 people crowded into the Mahanaim FWB Church in Santa Amalia for the quarterly meeting. Another 85 people (who were unable to fit inside) crowded around the open windows to listen to the message.

Under the direction of Pastor Inocente Pacheco, the church had observed a 40-day prayer vigil at five o’clock each morning prior to the quarterly meeting. They prayed specifically for guidance and direction in the business, special anointing of the speaker during the worship service, and receptive hearts among the people to accept the Word preached. The results of their prayers were evident. The Lord blessed the service in a mighty way.

During his visit, Hendrix stayed in the home of Bud and Ruth Bivens who live in the “Fred Jones House” on the IBLAC campus. The Bivens teach at the institute and travel promoting the Bible institute both in Mexico and the U.S.

Brother Richard went home to Alabama with plans to return to Altamira as soon as possible, and to send as many others that way as he could. The students and staff at the Bible Institute are already anxiously awaiting his next visit.