WHEN WILL THIS ALL END? I was VERY saddened and personally hurt (but, unfortunately, not greatly surprised), as a Baptist, when I read about the evident intention of the SBC leadership to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance, mostly because I grew up with parents who loved and sought to work with ALL kinds of God’s people who call themselves Baptist, and I was taught to love in the same way.

I was born and grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the daughter of Edgar and Zelma Hallock, Southern Baptist missionaries there for 45 years. The Baptist World Alliance was a household word in our home. I remember as a child having the privilege of meeting many different officers of the BWA who came to eat or stay in our home and I always felt that somehow I was "related" to them. I remember the Baptist World Alliance Youth Congress which met in Rio and, even though I was a child at the time, I felt the excitement of receiving people from other countries as my Dad and others worked to prepare for it. Then in 1960 the BWA came to Rio for its meeting and I remember us spending a lot of time as a family praying for that meeting, since Daddy was the Congress Coordinator and he and Mother were very much involved in its preparations.

I do not recall the year, but I do remember a phone call we received one night from Daddy who, at the time, was in Zimbabwe, Africa, attending the Youth Congress. I remember the tears in his voice as he shared with me the joy and wonder he had experienced that night through the music of the African people. He described so vividly the "shuffle" of the choir as they came in from the back of the auditorium and the joy they expressed as they worshipped the Lord in song. He said, "Honey, if this is what Heaven is going to be like, I can hardly wait to get there!"

In 1990, at the age of 74, Daddy was again invited to be the Congress Coordinator for the meeting in Seoul, Korea, and he spent many days traveling back and forth to that country and learning his way around in the language. Eventually, he and Mother moved there and lived the last year before the Congress. At the time I did not know Denton Lotz personally but I loved him because of the deep respect and admiration my parents had for him and for his way of leading the BWA. My husband and I, who at the time were missionaries with the FMB, had the privilege of going to Korea and participating in that meeting, as I was the accompanist for the Symphonic Choir of the Baptist Seminary in Recife, Brazil, which had been invited to be part of the program. I watched the excitement etched on my parent's faces as they used the basic Korean they had learned to communicate with those beautiful people, and as they shared amazing stories of very poor Baptists who were able to attend the meetings through scholarships that were given through the BWA for this purpose.

We watched in amazement as Daddy (and Mother too), at the age of 79, accepted to once more join ranks with Denton Lotz and the BWA to help as Congress Coordinator for the meeting in Argentina in 1995. He decided he needed to learn Spanish to communicate with those folk, so he enrolled in classes at the University of Oklahoma. Eventually, he and Mother moved to Argentina and had barrels of fun preparing to receive Baptists from all over the world.

In 2000 he didn't think he could make it to Australia, but he did make it to Heaven and is having the time of his eternal life praising the Lord along with millions of Christians from all over the world.

Two very big things have happened since Daddy and Mother went to be with the Lord. As I talk with my sister and brothers, we thank the Lord for taking them when He did because these things would have broken their hearts!

First, the IMB decided that all missionaries needed to sign the Baptist Faith and Message if we were to remain on the field. We, Houston and I, realized from the beginning that there was no way we could sign off on someone else's statement of faith--which would (and has) become creedal in its use to my way of thinking. Nor could we commit ourselves to conduct our ministry according to a culturally biased statement prepared for the US context, a statement which emphasizes issues which are not issues where we work and which ignores issues which need to be addressed here. So, we took "early" retirement and, with the help of Mainstream Baptists of Oklahoma, friends from First Baptist Church, Norman, Okla, and other friends in Texas, returned to Brazil 2 months later. What a glorious time we are having back in Recife, among the prison inmates and the professional people of our city.

Second, the obvious intent of the SBC to separate from the BWA over questions of control and differences in ways of thinking. This really would have crushed my parents. They brought us up to seek God’s will and to think for ourselves, to be responsible to him and to be open to his leading in ALL issues! One of my colIeagues from the Baptist Seminary in Recife who attended the meeting in Rio when the BWA voted to accept the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member shared with me his impressions of what happened following the vote. As soon as the vote was taken, the representatives of the SBC present took off their name tags, placed them on the chairs, and walked out of the room. He said it made him cry to listen to a pastor from a very poor country express his sentiments about what happened.

I remember very well being told by the IMB that we could work with any Christian organization in the world (actually being encouraged to do so, especially if funds could be found that way) but that we could NOT, under any circumstance, work with people from CBF churches. Does this now mean that IMB missionaries can continue to work with any Christian organization in the world, except the CBF and any Baptists linked to the BWA?