Our History
Dr. Raphael Thomas
A New Mission is Born
As both an ordained minister and a medical doctor, Dr. Raphael C. Thomas had a passion for evangelism, using medicine as a tool to reach the people of the Philippines. But in 1927, after twenty-three years of service, he was required by his mission board to confine his work to medicine alone. Unwilling to abandon his evangelistic endeavors, Dr. Thomas submitted his resignation. A handful of missionary colleagues who had worked in sympathy with Dr. Thomas also submitted their resignations. Returning to the US, Dr. Thomas met with a group of associates to consider what to do. The outcome of that meeting in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, was the birth of a new Baptist mission.
Mrs. Lucy Peabody
The Association of Baptists for the Evangelism in the Orient
Back in the USA a number of significant missions leaders rallied to the cause of Dr. Thomas and his colleagues, embarking on what they called an “adventure of faith.” An executive committee was formed under the name Association of Baptists for Evangelism in the Orient (ABEO) in order to raise and manage funds. Mrs. Lucy Peabody assumed the chairmanship of this committee and therefore became the mission’s first president.
Dr. Harold Commons
Expansion and Name Change
In 1935 Mrs. Peabody retired and the Board elected Harold T. Commons as its first fulltime president. Growth had been slow during the first seven years of the mission, so that when Dr. Commons began his tenure there were less than twenty ABEO missionaries scattered in three areas of the Philippines. In 1939 ABEO began a work in the Amazon River area of Peru. This necessitated a change in name to the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE). Despite the difficulties caused by World War II, ABWE saw expansion in both the number of fields and missionaries.
Dr. Wendell Kempton
The Mission Grows
Dr. Commons served an incredible 36 years as the president of ABWE. When he retired in 1971, Dr. Wendell Kempton was selected by the Board to become the next president. At that time there were approximately 350 missionaries serving in twelve countries. During Dr. Kempton’s thirty year tenure the ABWE family grew to over 1,000 and, with many national partners, ministered in nearly 50 countries.
Dr. Michael Loftis
Producing Missions Movements
Dr. Kempton retired in 2001 and was succeeded as president by Dr. Michael Loftis. Michael and Jo Beth Loftis had served for 10 years as ABWE’s Executive Director of Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. Loftis led the ABWE mission family for 10 years with a bold vision to multiply missionaries and national partners in launching church planting movements – producing missions movements to bring in the harvest worldwide.
Dr. Al Cockrell
ABWE Today
Dr. Loftis concluded his faithful service as president in June 2011. Dr. Al Cockrell was appointed on June 7, 2011, by the Board of ABWE Ministries, Inc., to serve as Interim Executive Administrator during the selection process for a new president. Dr. Cockrell, a former ABWE board member and pastor/consultant for 45 years, comes to this role with much experience in assisting with leadership transition.