June 26, 2002

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The North American Mission Board (NAMB) recently appointed Rachel and James Preston to missions service in church and community ministries in Jefferson City, Mo.

Mrs. Preston is a ministry evangelism consultant, working as the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) volunteer coordinator. In this capacity she is working statewide with Missouri Baptist Builders, Mission Service Corps missionaries, World Changers, Campers on Mission, and other short-term mission projects. She is also working on a regional basis as a resource person for mission education, church and community ministries, special ministries, disaster relief, and volunteerism in 11 associations and 264 churches.

A native of Ballwin, Mrs. Preston is a graduate of Truman State University in Kirksville. She served as minister of music at First Baptist, Stamps, Ark., from 1991 until 1994, and at Union Hill Baptist Church in Holts Summitt, from 1995 until 1998. She began working with the MBC in 1998, and most recently served as missions mobilization consultant with the convention.

Mr. Preston is a native of Kirksville and a graduate of Truman State. He is also a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Following service as pastor for several churches in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, he is now associate vice president of the Missouri Baptist Foundation in Jefferson City.

The Prestons have three children, James, Katherine, and Rebecca.

Also appointed to mission service are Terry and Sheila Wilbanks. Mrs. Wilbanks is a Missouri native. They serve in collegiate evangelism in Bloomington, Ind.

Mr. Wilbanks is a native of Texas and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served in Scotland from 1992 until 1994 as part of the International Mission Board’s journeyman program. For the past two years, he has served as Baptist Campus Ministries director for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana in Indianapolis.

Mrs. Wilbanks is a native of Missouri and graduate of Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1992 until 1994, she was a US/C-2 missionary serving in Chicago. She also worked for the Fort Worth Crisis Pregnancy Center in Fort Worth for a year. She is currently a homemaker. The Wilbanks have one daughter, Kennedy.