Michelle Pierce

Micah Rust, 13, plays a Mexican game called “capirucho” as Shelley McKendry watches during a missions festival at Applewood Baptist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colo. Photo courtesy of IMB

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (BP)--Applewood Baptist is the kind of church that could change the world. Applewood presented a Lottie Moon Christmas Offering check of $180,885 to Tom Elliff, International Mission Board senior vice president for spiritual nurture and church relations, during the church’s recent annual World Missions Conference.

Applewood Baptist Church’s director of missions, Bob Oxford (top right), talks to (from left) Nicholee Nietch, Karen Baird, Bob’s grandson Nick Oxford and Michael Nietch about an upcoming mission trip to Belarus. Photo by IMB

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (BP)--How has Applewood Baptist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colo., maintained its steadfastness in missions over the past three decades? The answer: laypeople.
      Robert and Peggy Oxford are prime examples.
      “For the last 30 to 35 years, one couple has maintained the emphasis on missions -– Bob and Peggy Oxford,” said Tom Elliff, former Applewood pastor and now International Mission Board senior vice president for spiritual nurture and church relations. “To me, they so exemplify what we would hope every believer in our church would be: active, giving, going. They are about Kingdom growth.”