It was a mission started almost 20 years ago, one that annually sent local teams to southern Africa for the sake of continuing and strengthening the outreach conducted by First Baptist Church. Now, as the primary missionaries of the mission have retired and returned home, the church is hosting a team of Swaziland natives for training that will aid in continuing the work that has been done there.

The church is hosting a team of nine people from Swaziland over Thanksgiving break to train and guide them on how to continue the work the missionaries and church has done over the past two decades, according to Jimmy Moore, head pastor at First Baptist.

Since the Myerses’ husband-wife missionary team that spent the past more than 20 years in Swaziland, decision to retire, the church has worked diligently to ensure the people of Swaziland know it is committed to continuing to help and minister to them, Moore said.

During the training session, members of First Baptist, who have experience in missions to Swaziland, have been offering training to the team, Moore said. Included in the various training sessions are: how to teach a Bible study class; how to organize a church; training on how to develop disciples; training children and youth; and a session that brought a local doctor in to teach the team members about how they can help in their churches regarding disease and things from a medical perspective such as how to address diabetes, HIV infection, hypertension, basic dieting and hygiene, to name a few.

“We don’t want to see the church there and the work that has been done suffer,” Moore said. “We’re going to step up our efforts this year with the partnership. We brought them over to encourage them and offer them some training and let them know we’ll still be in Swaziland.”

Since the partnership in southern Africa began, the church has aided in developing at least 10 different churches by working with them and helping them train pastors, develop skills, send medical teams and other outreach, Moore said.

“I hope this training lets them know how serious we are about the partnership,” Moore said. “We hope they can take something back and that it encourages them to continue the work in the absence of the Myerses and strengthen the churches and let them know we haven’t given up on them. We also hope to step up our game a little bit and maybe send more teams.”

The church has also, in the last several years, headed medical missions and sent two medical teams that saw around 250 people per day to look at wounds, treat illnesses and offer medications.

“It just touches my heart to see what our church has been able to do,” Moore said. “We’re not a large, large church, but it touches my heart to see what we’ve been able to do with the Lord’s help there. It has also blessed us, just going there and learning from them, and it’s helped us see the world differently and see our own community differently.”

The team members will be in Washington through Tuesday, upon which time they will return to Swaziland and implement the training they’ve been given into their own communities, according to Moore. The church will continue to send mission teams to help maintain the work that has already been done, staying connected to its people and ministries.