The Rope is a blog-style newsletter that follows the rope between the congregation (and supporters) of HubCity Baptist and our missionaries on the field.

William Carey (as many at HubCity are aware of) was one of the first Baptist missionaries, and his passion to see the Christianization of foreign peoples laid the foundation for what we now call the "modern missions movement."

With this quote, Carey finishes one of the greatest works ever published on missions: An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In this work, he explores the labors of various missionaries, and he notes both their challenges and fruits of God's grace. After all has been explored, he resolves that surely it is worth while. It is this mindset that drives William Carey to go to India to labor for the cause and kingdom of Christ. 

However, he knew he could not go alone. Carey had confidence that God would provide for him as he pursued His glory, but Carey also needed people to support him, spiritually and practically. He needed others to pray for him, and he needed others to help him when times were tough. He needed confidence that when he went down into the pit, there would be faithful people with their hands bound tightly to the ropes tied around his waist.

This picture is a reminder of what it means to hold the ropes, and that is why it is sent out with our missions newsletters. This picture is our church praying for everyone who went out on mission during the summer of 2026.

The point of this picture is not to elevate one group of people—the missionaries, the congregation, or the leaders—it is to elevate the mission of God, that He is sending more laborers into the harvest (Luke 10:2). As the missionaries stood before the congregation, they were recognized and supported by the body of Christ under the leadership of faithful, qualified ministers, and they were sent out with the confidence of the Spirit of Christ (Acts 13:1-4).

The function of this newsletter is to help our congregation, and other supporters, understand what is happening on the field so they can specifically pray for and praise with our missionaries.

As we receive updates, we will send out and keep summary posts so you can have one place to go when you want to know how you can pray for our missionaries, how you can financially or practically support them, and how you can praise God for what He is doing through them!

Feel free to share this with anyone who desires to have a place on the HubCity rope. Anyone can download the app to explore The Rope and other teachings, so please point them there!

As our summer missionaries are enduring in the field, we are eager to hear their reports about what God has done!

David is serving with Ocean City Baptist Church in Maryland, and they are about to start the summer Sports Camps!

"This is the church where I am serving! They host a lot of international events and our team has been making really good connections. Pray that we intentionally have good conversations about Jesus and show Jesus through our actions."

"Hello,

Thank you for wanting to receive this, another week in the books!

Key topics for this week: Camp(s), Meetings, Language Lessons, Difficulties, my Role.

To begin, things are moving faster. Our big camp starts Monday and I can’t wait to be a part of it. Setup was yesterday and I met so many great folks and hope to form lifelong connections. So many people from so many places each with powerful stories. I’ll be helping with sports, planning to teach the campers how to pitch a baseball as well as other things. The other camp I’ve been helping with has been an English camp for kids. That has been wonderful, first time jitters were certainly a thing but I had fun and the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy it and we plan to see them again later. We even got homemade bread out of it, which was yummy.

Had a fun meeting early in the week, got to hear some great stories and learn more about where we are, was so good.

The language is fun, I’m using more words, but the alphabet gets me confused. I had to rewrite mine because I realized it was out of order. I think I will take home many of the phrases for sure.

The trip while fun and good has had some difficulties thrown in. I find myself tired a good bit of course, but that’s just how it is. I had a strange experience with a rude cashier, no biggie, but I was not happy. I moved on now, but I do not desire to paint a sunshine and rainbows picture. The days are good, but some can be more difficult than others. I’m thankful for all the provision, whatever form it takes.

I’m thankful for my role in supporting others, I’ve enjoyed that and am glad to do it. I look forward to the resulting growth and hope to continually apply what I’ve learned.

Lastly, we went hiking today and it was so good, but I am quite tired. I almost didn’t want to type this out, but here I am. Anyways, I’m glad I did.

Till next time, Brax"

Autumn and Elizabeth have both been serving in Montana: Autumn has been serving as an intern for Valley Life Church, and Elizabeth has been serving at the Blackfeet Reservation. Next week, however, they will get to serve at a summer camp together!

"Montana has been great so far! My team has hit the ground running by leading a kids archery camp this past week. Many kids heard the good news of the gospel and who Jesus is for the first time. We have been able to serve people in our community by meeting their needs, and we are preparing to work a summer camp in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation next week. Please continue to be in prayer for unity and spiritual growth within our team; that God will soften the hard hearts of those we share the gospel with; and that ultimately all things we do will be to the praise of His glory!"

- Autumn

"Also, pray for more kids to show up at the next camp!! We believe we don't have many signed up but are hoping for more!"

- Elizabeth

Last week, 11 of our church members helped renovate and refurbish the Farmington Conference Center in Farmington, Maine!

Farmington Conference Center is a retreat center that exists specifically for churches, Christian camps, and other Christian groups.

In anticipation of their upcoming evangelistic camps, our group was invited to help "de-winterize" and ready the property. By the grace of God and with the strength of God, we painted cabin decks, readied their kitchen, gave the grass a summer trim, installed a/c units, split firewood, leveled tree stumps, created fire-starter kits, prayed for their camps and property, and more!

Along the way, we survived a few injuries and many ticks (creatures we're not so used to in the south), but by God's grace we continued!

We had the opportunity to refresh the directors of the conference center, and they are excited for what God will do through the center this year!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Many of our Summer Missionaries are finishing their first week on the field, and we are eager to hear their first updates about what God has done! We labor on in prayer as we expect God to use their effort and ministry to exalt the name of Christ among the nations!

Continue to be in prayer for all of our summer missionaries: David Taylor, Autumn Cochran, David Blythe, Elizabeth Clenney, and Braxton McCrary. Check out the Summer Missions page on the HubCity Baptist app to learn more about how you can pray for each of them!

"Hello, it has been close to a week since I left the U.S and so much has happened. I am adjusting to the new area and beginning to get used to being here. There is a lot to discuss so I will move onto that quickly, here we go.

Traveling over: over the course of 25+ hours I made my way across the world to where I now find myself. There was much provision in the way over. The long flight over the Atlantic didn’t feel so long and as a result, was not as taxing as I expected. The plane dinner was actually wonderful also much to my surprise. The only difficulty that actually occurred was a minor delay on our last flight. So overall the travel over went without a hitch.

Upon landing: immediately we headed to customs where there was no trouble getting in. The process was straightforward and quick. After getting our bags we met the family we were there to see and got on taxis to go to apartments. I’ve got my own room and fan to use and am very thankful for that. Learning to grocery shop has been interesting and not speaking the primary language has presented some challenges but I can now say I have fried chicken in two different countries. A lot of the first few days was learning our environment, exploring and settling in.

Objectives: we have been learning language and it is quite exciting, I did not think I’d enjoy it this much. It’s a whole different experience when you have to/get to use it every day. We’ve done some key phrases and words as well as much of the alphabet. More on that later, the two camps that will take up the majority of our time here begin next week. I expect to be exhausted and sunburned but I know so much will come from these. Be thankful for that and for the opportunities we will have coming up. It is much more elaborate and wonderful than I could’ve thought.

Fun tidbits: the culture here is so interesting. Driving here is insane, people just go and they at the same time assume you’ll walk out in front of them at crosswalks, so I have had to learn to do that, I have gotten better after much hesitation. Culture on public transport is a big thing here too, the younger are expected to give up seats for the older, men to give up seats for women and so on. I watched someone get told to move and I myself have moved around a bunch even in just a week.

To close: I will attend a fellowship tomorrow and am looking forward to that. Also prepping for the camps tomorrow as well. I hope to sleep better and better as I adjust and grow in knowing and living in the culture here.

Till next time.

Sincerely, Braxton"

Most of our summer missionaries are getting ready to head to the field, and we are grateful Braxton has already begun his ministry in West Asia!

"Hello, this is the first update from my journey so far. I am thankful for you for being willing to care for and support me. Here is a short update from the first two days.

Day 1

To begin, all of us got together for the first time Friday evening to meet each other in person and to get to know one another. We also went over some of the key aspects of our training for the next two weeks. Day 1 was simply that, familiarizing ourselves with our lodgings, team and schedule for the next couple weeks of training.

Day 2

I’ve headed to our team lead’s house to go over several things. We watched some encouraging stories of others like us from the past and discussed that together, we prepared for the first Sunday and finalized what we’d be doing the following day. After wrapping up we all went home for some rest, myself and the others were quite tired from the business of the previous couple days. To end, my team and I went out for dinner, the food was wonderful and we enjoyed the time of fellowship. Once we left there I headed to my teammates host home to check on their car which was having some issues. However, on the way there I hit a nasty pothole and my truck began running bad and had to be parked. As a result we are down two vehicles two days in. The Father is using this to stretch me and Thank Him that all should work out fine and all we will deal with are some minor inconveniences.

(Thank you for your support, I’ll reply if I can, but the days are busy!)

Sincerely, Braxton"