A key focus of missions leadership training with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is casting a vision in local churches to build long-term pipelines missions involvement. The goal is to engage people of all ages in gospel work, both locally and around the world, and create an atmosphere where responding to God's call feels natural and expected. That means intentionally offering invitations and opportunities to respond to that call.
This concept gets talked about a lot in classrooms and conferences, but it often comes alive most powerfully through real-life stories that show how one generation's faithfulness can inspire obedience in the next.
In the mid- to late 1950s. Mercer College classmates Maurice Randall and Shirley Jackson (who later became Shirley Randall) developed a relationship that eventually turned into a shared lifetime of mission service. Maurice, originally from North Georgia, first sensed his call to medical missions as an 11-year-old boy during a Sunday evening service at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Lavonia. When the pastor closed with an invitation to those feeling called to missions, Maurice responded.
That single moment changed the direction of his entire life, and by the time he started college, Maurice was already set on pursuing medical training for missions.
Shirley grew up in a similar environment. Her father pastored Georgia Baptist churches around Cedartown, so church and gospel ministry were central to her childhood. After graduation and marriage, the Randalls were appointed as medical missionaries by the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) and went on to serve in Zimbabwe for 30 years, beginning in 1971 at Sanyati Baptist Hospital.
Decades later, their example of service was felt in a powerful way. In 1998, Maurice and Shirley's son Mark and his wife Tina were commissioned by the International Mission Board to serve in East Asia. The call first answered by an 11-year-old in a small Georgia church had now reached a second generation committed to global gospel work.
Maurice and Shirley eventually retired from IMB service in 2001 and returned to Georgia. Mark and Tina completed their own overseas term and later settled in Alabama. More recently, Mark released a biography of his father, The Most Wanted Man in Zimbabwe, which tells the story of Maurice's life and medical ministry in Africa. Mark credits growing up on the mission field watching what God did through his parents as a strong influence in his answering the call to missions.
The family legacy didn't stop there.
Maurice Randall’s niece, Katie Nalls, and her husband, Chris, met while serving as IMB journeymen and later became career missionaries in Mozambique. Chris grew up at First Baptist Church in Tifton, while Katie spent her childhood at Tabernacle Baptist in Carrollton.
Maurice Randall’s commitment to medical missions in Africa played a significant role in shaping Katie Nall’s own calling to the Great Commission. Katie shared that the Randalls invited her for a visit when she was 12 years old. "God used that visit to open my heart to the nations and greatly impact my life,”
She recalls her uncle's faithful prayers on behalf of missionaries. "I was blessed to spend time with the Randalls in their home in Sanyati, and when I picture Uncle Maurice, I picture him at the head of the breakfast table with his Bible open, reading to everyone the scripture passage for that day and praying for the missionaries whose names were listed in Open Windows," she said.
As a college student, Katie continued to be involved with her family's commitment to missions. "In the summer after my sophomore year at Berry College, I worked with the Randalls for three months as a volunteer," she explained. "I greatly benefitted from seeing how they faithfully served the Lord and loved people.”
The Nalls, who now serve as the First Term Training Coordinators for Sub-Saharan Africa, call Georgia home. They frequently served as guest missionaries at Camp Pinnacle and spoke in churches across the state during their stateside assignments.
Karen Pace, a consultant with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, highlighted the impact the missionaries had on the young campers. "Chris and Katie Nalls worked with us to develop culture and a missions focus on Mozambique. This partnership proved to be invaluable as we experienced culture in Mozambique, sharing the gospel, and even saw a person come to faith as a result. Each camper that summer had a picture of a girl from Mozambique to pray for as a result of that mission trip."
Even after camp ended, the Nalls and Camp Pinnacle continued to partner to reach the nations. "As a result of this missions focus," Pace said, "two of our camp staff spent a semester in Mozambique at a local university building relationships with students and working with the Nalls to expand the mission reach."
This story of generational missions involvement reinforces the underlying truth that what is valued in families is passed on to succeeding generations. Both generations of the Randalls and now the Nalls demonstrate a beautiful legacy of missions and a pipeline that started with a childhood response of "yes" during an invitation in a small rural Georgia Baptist church.
It's the kind of missions pipeline that can't be manufactured by programs alone, but one that churches can cultivate by faithfully calling, teaching, and sending people.
Mark Randall's book, The Most Wanted Man in Zimbabwe, offers a closer look at that legacy. The example of this one family illustrates the importance of accepting the missional call to go and make disciples of all nations. While many people respond to missionary calls after hearing from visiting speakers, some of the strongest and longest-lasting movements start much closer to home—around family tables, in faithful churches, and in young hearts taught early that following Christ might one day take them to the nations.
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