FULFILLING THE GREAT COMMISSION: Local pastor prepares to share his faith abroad
By CANDACE NEWSON, T&D Features WriterFriday, August 08, 2008Bishop Dr. Raymond Brown has long been traveling across the U.S. to spread the gospel. Among the states he has been to are Florida, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
But it was in Detroit that a young woman from Africa heard him preach, and he received an invitation to minister in Kenya.
"From there, all kinds of doors started to come open," Brown said.
In September, Brown will travel to the African nation, followed by mission trips to Barbados, West Indies, and California in October and November. In December, he will fly to Kingston, Jamaica, before heading to England in January.
Each trip is at least three days long and will include ministering and outreach work, Brown said. He said several church members and local pastors may go with him as well.
"It's a great opportunity," Brown said. "It humbles me to be able to go international."
The trips will broaden his work in the Orangeburg community as well, he said, adding that he is currently working with a pastor from Barbados to bring an international conference to Orangeburg in February.
Brown has been a minister for more than a decade. He was licensed and ordained in 1997 at his home church, New First Mount Beulah Baptist Church, in Swansea. He also sang in the choir and later became the choir director.
Soon after, Brown became pastor of Turkey Branch Baptist Church of Neeses from 1998 to 2002, and he is currently the pastor and founder of Spiritual Birth Ministries in Orangeburg.
In 2004, Brown graduated from The Overcoming College of Religion in Winnsboro.
In the future, Brown said he hopes to bring churches in Orangeburg together and present opportunities for more pastors to travel with him on mission trips.
"I'm just really humbled by it all because God could have chosen anybody to do this," Brown said. "Ministry is my life. Anyway that I can help anybody, I will."
T&D Features Writer Candace Newson can be reached by e-mail at cnewson@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
