Hurricane, W.Va.—It’s another early morning for Bill Barker in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. He leaves home earlier than usual in his brown Toyota minivan.

As he tops a mountain crest, Barker pulls off the road to talk to God.

“I look out across the mountains as the morning mist and fog begin to lift,” he says. “You can still see the green valleys below filled with fog. It’s such a beautiful sight. I stand there and pray, ‘Lord, please send revival and fill these mountains again with Your glory even as You fill these valleys with the morning mist.’”

Born in Boone County, W.Va., Barker grew up in coal country but left in 1969 with plans never to return. He said a higher calling from God Himself told him seven years ago that he should “go home” to West Virginia after a 32-year absence.

As a native Appalachian, Barker said he is “uniquely qualified” for his current post as director of Appalachian Regional Ministry. ARM is a partnership ministry of NAMB, national Woman’s Missionary Union and 11 state Baptist conventions, including Kentucky’s.

With profound poverty, joblessness and an alarming high school dropout rate, the region has many physical and material needs that can be met by ARM, but it’s the spiritual needs that concern Barker most.

The spiritual lostness is “overwhelming,” Barker said, “Within the 10-state region I cover, there are 13 million-plus unchurched men, women, boys and girls. ... Seventy percent of the Appalachian Mountain people are unchurched.”

Although it seems there are churches around every bend in every little mountain hamlet, Barker said overall church attendance is down. Many churches have closed.

“Even today, after many years as a Southern Baptist missionary, I drive across these mountains but have to pull off to the side of the road occasionally to weep over the lostness of Appalachia, my people.”

Barker and his wife, Arlene, are among more than 5,300 missionaries in the U.S., Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

The annual week of prayer for North American missions is March 4-11. This year’s offering goal is $57 million; 100 percent of the gifts will be used to support or assist North American missionaries.

“The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is one of the most effective ways of being able to reach out and touch lives,” Barker said.

“Because Southern Baptists give, and because they care, I don’t have to spend my time out trying to raise money. Instead, the offering gives me a way to devote myself 100 percent to the ministry.”

Barker drives 50,000 miles a year and spends as many as 180 nights away from home as he encourages pastors, coordinates volunteers, fills pulpits and ministers in other ways to “his” people.

He describes himself as just a preacher who “loves to get out and knock on doors and visit with people—maybe drink a cup of coffee at the kitchen table with them. And often, when I’m out working with a pastor, I’ll just go out and go cold door-knocking with him in the community.

“I’ve never had a door slammed in my face,” Barker said. “I’ve never had anyone to say, ‘You can’t come into my home.’ Everybody respects religion in the mountains.”

The Appalachian Mountains extend from southern New York to northern Mississippi. Barker’s ministry area includes all of West Virginia and portions of Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

It is a diverse region, he noted. Recent “transplants” from Florida, south Georgia and Alabama live in the north Georgia mountains, while the coal fields of central and northern Appalachia are peopled with families who have lived there for generations.

“They’re quiet, loving and kind people,” Barker said. “Religion is still a big part of their lives. It’s mountain religion. They love to sing and they love to make music.”

Despite many positive aspects of the culture, Barker said some Appalachian churches are legalistic and emphasize a “saved-by-works” religion instead of salvation by God’s grace.

“As Southern Baptists, we have a wonderful opportunity to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the mountains of Appalachia and tell them God loves them, Christ died for them, and they’re saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast,” Barker said, paraphrasing the Apostle Paul.

One of Barker’s major responsibilities is to recruit volunteers to come into the mountains to serve. “I work with the people in the mountains to help them understand how they can use volunteers,” he said, “And then I work with the churches and associations to help them understand how they can come in and assist the short-term volunteer missions.”

Working to share Jesus in Appalachia means ministering to millions of people who are without Christ, and are the poorest of America’s poor.

“Within Appalachia, we have 37 of the 100 poorest counties in America,” Barker said. “Twenty-nine of those counties exist in Eastern Kentucky, where 38 percent of adults lack either a high school diploma or a GED equivalent.”

Barker said he recruits volunteers to minister on several different levels. “We do ministry that involves cultivation evangelism,” he explained. “Volunteers come in and hold backyard Bible clubs, run vacation Bible schools, distribute the ‘Jesus’ video, conduct block parties and a host of other things. ... We also work with church construction or renovation.”

Barker estimates 50,000 Southern Baptist volunteers come to Appalachia each year—with eternal results.

“For every 10-12 volunteers, there’s one profession of faith,” he said, “And when volunteers come and focus exclusively on intentional evangelism in a particular county, we know that for every four volunteers, there’s one decision for Christ.”

In a single county, 2,500 people have made professions of faith in Christ over the past five years, Barker said.

“We thank God for every (volunteer) that comes, though that’s not nearly enough.”

For more information about the Appalachian Regional Ministry, contact Barker by phone at (606) 316-4298 or by e-mail at gbbarker@arministry.org. Visit ARM’s Web site at www.arministry.org.