Desert Hills Baptist Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has helped one of our international partners with an important project: building a wall around his house.

The leader of this partnering ministry had gone on a short trip to preach. When he left his home, a few drunk men entered his property and threatened his wife, children, and the orphans his family takes care of. To keep his family safe, the decision was made to build a wall around his home’s property. “I cannot go out for ministry peacefully until we have a good fence wall with bricks,” he said.

Building a wall would cost about $9,000—money that this international leader did not have. So Desert Hills Baptist Church, pastored by Kirk Wesselink, stepped in.

“Our strategy in missions has been to direct resources into the hands of national pastors and leaders to enhance their ministries,” Kirk says of Desert Hills Baptist Church. “Education, building needs, orphan support, and supplementing national pastorsʼ salaries has been our focus. We happily partner with Regular Baptist International and the Biblical Baptist Partnership International (formerly the IPFBM) to fulfill some of these objectives.”

Chris Hindal, former director of Regular Baptist International, says Desert Hills Baptist Church has always “been willing to step into situations that seemingly are not too exciting but needful.”

The construction is now underway, with Desert Hills Baptist Church working directly with this ministry leader.

Funding the wall is the eighth international project the church has been involved in.

Other pastors often ask Kirk how they can keep a ministry accountable with funds it receives. Accountability can be “simple and actually quite rewarding,” he says. “Our church is thrilled to receive weekly updates with photos, etc., from the international partner. In other projects we have been video linked into dedication services, virtual tours, and even weddings and baptisms. Further, we have many of the pastors speak to our church via live video calls.”

Kirk says his church is “privileged to know, pray for, and be ministered to by these men, their families, and their churches.”