Brian Williams says there’s not much going on in rural Alaska in the summers to engage kids with the Gospel. That’s why Brian — a pastor in the Copper Center area — had a vision for starting a baseball camp ministry.

There was just one missing piece — all the equipment.

But Scotty Goldman, director of the State Board’s Office of Global Missions, said God already had a plan for that. Around the same time, someone from a city league athletics group in Alabama called him and said they had a huge amount of surplus equipment — especially for baseball. He connected with Brian, and Brian said it wasn’t long before big boxes started arriving.

“God really provided,” Brian said.

Scotty says Brian’s vision for engaging rural areas is part of the next season of Alabama Baptists’ partnership with Alaska Baptists. Funds from the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering help with that in a variety of ways, including covering the shipping costs for the baseball equipment.

Investments like this are “long lasting and have eternal impact,” Scotty said.