A Brief Tribute to Ed Overbey
a few brief remarks delivered at his memorial service by Dave Parks, Executive Secretary of Baptist Faith Missions
I have been asked to say just a few words on behalf of the Missionaries and Directors of Baptist Faith Missions – both past and present – and from the entire Baptist Faith Missions fellowship and family in Christ.
I want to limit my remarks to Brother Overbey’s impact upon us and influences among us as our friend, fellow-servant of the Lord, and as our leader.
Regardless of how you knew Brother Ed or in what capacity you might have related to him, one thing you can say about him, he was always the same Brother Ed, and always the same sterling and Christ-like character.
There is a Scripture that always comes to mind when I think of Brother Ed. Luke said this about Barnabas in Acts 11.24: “For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”
Brother Ed was a good man because he always modeled his life after Christ. He was a good man, not because of any goodness native or inherent in himself, but because of the goodness of Christ who lived in him. Brother Ed was as Christ-like as any man we have ever known or would ever hope to meet.
He was a good man because he was full of the Holy Spirit, and he always expressed and exemplified the full panoply of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He lived in the Spirit, and he walked in the Spirit.
And he was a good man because he was full of faith in Christ – he knew Christ and lived a full life of faithful and committed service to Christ. He was “full of faith” both in the sense of his faith and confidence in Christ, and also his faithfulness to Christ in every activity of his life and ministry.
Brother Overbey related to us and led us as a generous man. He was all his life generous in his commitment to Baptist Faith Missions – both with his financial contributions and the giving of his life’s service.
In fact, Brother Ed was one of the contributors to the very first offering given to Baptist Faith Missions for the support of Joseph Brandon’s ministry in the Acre, Brazil. When Hafford Overbey assumed the role of promoting support for Missionary Brandon, he led his own Sunday School class to begin the contributions. We have the first mimeographed letters Hafford Overbey began distributing [which soon after became “The Mission Sheets”]. The first offering was $16.25, and each offering was faithfully recorded and accounted for. Among those offerings are “Edward Overbey – $1.00” [his brother Donald Overbey also contributed $1.00]. Not much now, but in March 1942, $1.00 was a generous offering for an 18-year-old young man. He continued that commitment and support for the missionaries supported through BFM for the rest of his life.
Brother Ed was one of the contributors to the very first offering given to Baptist Faith Missions for the support of Joseph Brandon’s ministry in the Acre, Brazil, in 1942.
Brother Ed always related to us and led us as a gracious man. Brother Ed was, above everything else – a man of grace. He knew the grace of God and he lived out the grace of God.
He always treated everybody else with sincere, genuine, and un-hypocritical grace. We sometimes would have to talk about or deal with sensitive matters relating to other servants of our Lord, but we never discussed anybody else – or dealt with any kind of sensitive measures – but that he would always preface anything he said about anybody else with this introduction: “He is a good man…”
He always spoke the truth – but he always administered the truth with love, fairness, consideration, deep sensitivity, and grace.
He was courteous and deeply respectful to all of his brothers and sisters.
Brother Ed related to us and led us as a man of the Word of God. As our leader, Brother Ed was not only a MAN OF HIS OWN WORD [he was a man of impeccable and impeachable integrity and honesty] – but more importantly, he was a man of the Word…the Word of God.
He was the consummate teacher of the Word of God – the Bible…both in his public ministry and his personal conversations with all of us. He knew the Bible. He had studied the Bible extensively and deeply all his life. He was studious and knowledgeable of the Scriptures. He was a true scholar, but he was simple, direct, and clear in his expression of the Word of God.
And, he not only KNEW the Bible, but he lived his life and conducted all of his activities by the Word of God. He led us to do everything we did by the Word of God. Brother Ed could take the truths and the teachings of the Scriptures and explain and express them in the simplest of terms so we could act on it with conviction and clarity.
He was unmovable and unshakable in his convictions, but he also knew how to give liberty and consideration to other people’s beliefs when there was room for another interpretation or application of the essential truths of Scripture. He counseled us on more than one occasion, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” [Romans 14.5].
Spurgeon said one time that a preacher and teacher of the Word ought to bleed “Bibline blood” – that is, your very blood should have Bibline and Biblical consistency. Brother Ed had Bibline blood coursing through his very veins.
Brother Ed related to us and led us as a servant. He was a true “servant-leader.” He was humble, quiet, soft-spoken, unassuming – he was approachable – and never tried to impose himself on anyone or force himself into any situation.
He served in numerous roles and capacities during his lifetime of ministry and service to Christ. But, he told me one time: “I never really applied for any position or ministry I have ever assumed. In everything I have ever done, someone came to me and asked me to serve.” And he served our Lord and others that way all his lifetime.
Jeremiah had a faithful assistant and scribe by the name of Baruch. It seems that Jeremiah may have had to rein him in on one occasion by saying to him, “And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not…” [Jeremiah 45.5]
Brother Ed NEVER sought great things for himself – but the Lord on many occasions and in many roles sought him out – and Brother Ed always followed and served the Lord faithfully.
And, as the Hebrews writer said of all the other examples of faith he was commending in Hebrews 11.32: “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of…” so much more we could say about the deep respect and appreciation we all have toward God for the privilege God has given us to learn from, be led by, and be impacted and influenced by the Christian character and example of Ed Overbey, faithful servant of God, leader, and friend.
We can only reiterate and say “Amen!” to the commendation and affirmation we are sure he has received from his Lord, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” [Matthew 25.21]
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FaithWORKS Report [December 2013]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- HAROLD BRATCHER – PRAISE GOD for his [and his wife, Marie’s] 55 years of faithful missionary service to our Lord in Brazil. PRAY that God will continue to prosper the churches they have planted and cultivated in Brazil. PLEASE NOTE: his new permanent Stateside address: 1950 Falling Leaves Lane, Lexington, KY 40509.
- MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW – PRAISE GOD for the reports of ‘seeing the Grace of God’ in their river churches and preaching points and in Cruzeiro do Sul. PRAY AND GIVE to help them with their home church building project needs.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for His church plants which are growing and increasing. PRAY for their co-workers’ needs. PRAY for them as their closest child is moving 3000 miles away.
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER – PRAY fervently for their family’s needs: Wanda’s mother is coming to live with them – and they have just suffered the bereavement of Mrs. McGary’s son and Wanda’s brother, Ross McGary.
- JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for the friends they continue to make and cultivate – and PRAY that God will save many more through their ministry of the Grace of Neighboring.
- A.J. AND BARBARA HENSLEY – PRAISE GOD for the many outreach works and ministries they are conducting. PRAY for the supply of all their needs, and for the many physical afflictions of their people – especially for Gloria.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAISE GOD for providing their needs for a vehicle and housing. PRAY that God will protect, encourage, and strengthen them as they travel and report on their ministry.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON – PRAISE GOD for their ministry and work which continues on – and for the missionaries who have gone before them also. PRAY that God will supply the needs they have for finishing works they have begun.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAISE GOD for the provisions He has made for them since being Stateside. PRAY that God will hear and answer the prayer he concludes his letter with.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAISE GOD for giving them fruit and responses from their various outreach ministries. PRAY for them and for their children as Jesse and now Brennen pursue their educations here in the States.
Block these dates and plan to attend…
2014 BFM WINTER MISSIONS CONFERENCE
January 19-22 | Sunday-Wednesday
PARK RIDGE BAPTIST CHURCH, Gotha FL [Orlando-area]
“LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS”
For more details, contact Pastor Ben Glover
BentonGlover[at]aol.com | 407.719.9861
NOVEMBER MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERING – RECORD LOW
We want to thank everyone of you who faithfully and regularly gives to the Monthly General Fund offerings. Your offerings literally keep our missionaries on their fields of service and ‘keep the lights on’ for their daily living and ministry expenses. You sustain and maintain them. “Thank You!” again and again!
The Monthly General Fund offerings are necessary – and are used – to provide the Essential Maintenance Transactions [EMT] that our missionaries must have to sustain their most basic and essential expenses: salary, housing, ministry expenses, hospitalization premiums, and correspondence. Without these provisions, they cannot continue doing what they do.
November’s Monthly General Fund [$23,197.61] was the least Monthly General Fund Offering we have record of receiving – and our present accounting system goes back more than 10 years. This is a most unenviable record to set. If our Monthly General Fund Offering does not meet the threshold amount of the above monthly disbursements, then we must reduce those same committed disbursements proportionately and equitably among our missionaries to make up for the deficit. This month’s deficit [December’s disbursements are made from November’s offerings] was $12,359.92. We thank God that this month we had extraordinary gift funds available to make up that deficit so we didn’t have to deduct it from our missionaries’ monthly deposits. [See the article “GRATITUDE FOR A GENEROUS BEQUEST”].
Please give to the General Fund so your missionaries can pursue their daily lives and ministries without this distraction. Give by the Grace of God – to the Glory of God! You can give online by going to our website: baptistfaithmissions.org and click on the ‘Donate/Support’ tab. Designate your offering for ‘General Fund’. Thank you on behalf of our missionaries!
2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING UPDATE: $17,036.91
We have begun giving to our 2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING with last month’s offerings. Those offerings listed in this month’s Mission Sheets are just the ‘firstfruits’ and initial offerings we have received to date. We are asking God to multiply this amount several times before it is completed. NOTE: the Thanksgiving Offering is always open any time for your contributions. Just designate your offering: ‘Thanksgiving Offering’ and it will be applied and included. We must receive a very generous Thanksgiving Offering to give our missionaries the services and benefits we have committed to give them “as the Lord provides”. The Lord provides through our sharing of the Grace He has given us.
“I speak not be commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.” [2 Corinthians 8:8]
“For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding Grace of God in you.” [2 Corinthians 9.12-14]
You can also contribute online at baptistfaithmissions.org on the ‘Donate/Support’ tab. Designate your offering for ‘Thanksgiving Offering’. Thank You! on behalf of our missionaries!
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
PLEASE PRAY FOR GLENN ARCHER
We encourage you to pray with us on behalf of a very dear friend, Pastor Glenn Archer. He is suffering from Pulmonary Fibrosis and his health and strength is growing progressively weaker. His disease is irreversible and incurable. Glenn served as a Director of Baptist Faith Missions for 34 years (1978-2012) and as our Treasurer for 11 years (1991-2002). He has also planted and pastored churches in Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. His physical condition has so weakened that he is on oxygen-assist 24/7 on maximum output most of the time. He struggles for every breath. Every movement and activity exhausts him. But, he continues to be an encourager to all of his brothers and sisters in Christ. Please ask our Lord to give him daily strength according to his needs – and Grace to strengthen his heart of faith in Christ. You may correspond with him at: 502 Nuckols OBCC Road, Calhoun KY 42327 / glennarcher0[at]gmail.com. He may not have strength to respond, but he will appreciate hearing from you. Please ask the Lord also to strengthen and encourage Judy, his loving wife and faithful caregiver.
GIVING GOD THANKS FOR A GENEROUS BEQUEST
Baptist Faith Missions was blessed recently with a very generous gift in the form of a bequest. Ernest and Helen Palmer were members of a long-time supporting church in Lexington KY and have known, loved, and befriended the missionaries associated with BFM for over 50 years. During their lifetimes, they invested some of their funds in Certificates of Deposit (CD) and designated Baptist Faith Missions as the beneficiary of those CDs. Those same funds were available to them while they lived if needed to provide for their own needs. Mr. Palmer went to be with the Lord a few years ago, and then Mrs. Palmer was called Home to Heaven this year.
When their estate was executed, those CDs were presented to BFM. After we fulfilled some specific requests which accompanied the bequest (for our missionaries), we are using the remainder of this gift to provide other needs to benefit our missionaries. [1] We have reimbursed our missionaries for the $10,872.74 we had to assess on their monthly deposits over 2013. During three months of 2013, when our monthly General Fund offerings were not sufficient to meet their monthly support disbursements from the General Fund, we had to reduce their monthly deposits proportionately among them to cover those deficits. We kept careful records of how much was reduced from each missionary’s deposits for each of those months – and those reductions were reimbursed to them out of this gift. [2] We have covered that same deficit in this month of December for their monthly deposits. Our General Fund offerings for this month lacked $12,359.92 to meet the threshold for what we must receive in order to give our missionaries the full amounts of the monthly support commitments we make to them. So, rather than additionally deduct and reduce their monthly deposits again this month – we supplied that deficit from this same gift.
Not only do our missionaries deeply appreciate this gift, but GOD LOVES THESE CHEERFUL GIVERS ALSO! [2 Corinthians 9.7]. And, SO DO MULTITUDES OF ‘ETERNAL FRIENDS’ WHO WILL BE IN HEAVEN THROUGH THE GOSPEL MINISTRIES CONDUCTED THROUGH THE USE OF THESE OFFERINGS! Please read Luke 16.9. When you give to missions and the ministry of the Gospel, God uses your offerings to bring the lost to faith in Jesus Christ. And, when you go Home to Heaven, those who were saved through your giving will welcome you into our Everlasting Home!
THIS IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO, TOO! WILL YOU?
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! “TEXAS GIVING FRIENDS”!
We want to give a tribute to some of the very best and most gracious “Giving Friends” BFM has ever had. We won’t use their real names because they have never wanted to be known or recognized by their names. But, years ago, I asked them if we could call them “Texas Giving Friends”, and they said we could. So, for years, they have been listed in our Mission Sheets Contribution Record as “Texas Giving Friends”. They began giving personal offerings to BFM over 50 years ago and have continued that ministry of generosity over all these years.
Generous offerings. Sacrificial offerings. And not just to BFM, but they have also given equally generously to a number of other Gospel missions ministries, especially in Mexico. And the fruits of the churches and ministries to which they have contributed are still growing, still producing, and still bearing fruit for eternal life and the Glory of Christ.
Over the course of 2013, it became necessary for both of these dear ‘Giving Friends’ to receive long-term elder-care in private nursing and assisted-living facilities. [Our Brother ‘Texas Giving Friend’ was called Home to Heaven in October]. At that time, much to their own regret, it became necessary to suspend their giving to BFM. But, their son wrote me at that time with these words and prayer: “This was a very difficult decision for the family to make, so we will be praying and expecting that God will raise up someone new; not just to fill the void they leave, but will multiply their giving in an unusual and abundant way in Jesus’ Name.”
God has kept very careful records and has tracked everywhere their offerings have gone, and the souls that have been saved, and the works that have been done through their investments in the Kingdom of God. “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” [Philippians 4.17] God knows – and only God knows – the numbers of those who have heard the Gospel through the ministries financed by their offerings…and have come to faith in Christ…and are in Heaven – or will be in Heaven – because they gave. In Luke 16.9, our Lord made this promise and gave us this assurance: “And I say unto you, ‘Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness [our giving]; that when ye fail [die from here, and go Home to Heaven], they may receive you into everlasting habitations.’ ”
IS GOD CALLING YOU TO COME AND TAKE THEIR PLACE AND STAND IN THIS GAP BY GIVING TO THE BFM GENERAL FUND? WILL YOU ANSWER ‘YES!’?
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2011-2012 Thanksgiving Offering Update
PRAY – PURPOSE – PLAN – PREPARE – PERFORM
[2 Corinthians 8-9]
Please give as generous an offering as the Lord enables you to give.
We praise God for each of you who has given to our ongoing Thanksgiving Offering. Our current total offering amount is $56,065.38. While this amount is still less than last year’s offering [$63,720.13], we do know that every one of you who has given has done so graciously, generously, and gladly. We bless you and commend you for your obedience to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
Please continue to give to our still-open Thanksgiving Offering and also to our Monthly General Fund as God gives you something to give. 2 Corinthians 9:8-15
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