Page 26 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2017

COASTNOTES
LEFT: Beams Office. MIDDLE: BEAMS president and director Dr. Rene J. Freret. RIGHT: Beams Warehouse
Bible Distributor Celebrates 20 Years
Since 1997, BEAMS (Bible
Education and Missionary Service)
has grown from supplying 50 Bibles
a month to up to 10,000, serving
12 missionaries to more than 3,500 missionaries and national workers and from three countries to more than 150 countries around the world.
This month, BEAMS celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special event on June 3. “We’re looking forward to having guest speakers in attendance to speak encouraging words over
our organization, as well as the groundbreaking of our warehouse expansion,” Arthur Lockard, a full- time BEAMS missionary said at press time.
BEAMS was originally founded by Dr. Julian Pope in 1972 with the purpose of conducting mission conferences in churches, sending Scriptures and other literature to missionaries and going overseas for evangelistic campaigns. BEAMS was taken over by Dr. Rene J. Freret, the organization’s current president and director, in 1997 following Dr. Pope’s resignation. The ministry was then moved from Houston, Texas to Gulfport and
is now sponsored by Faith Baptist Church of Gulfport.
Dr. Freret has been involved in mission work throughout his entire ministry career. He has pastored churches throughout the region, including New Hope Baptist Church in McNeill, Miss., Central Baptist Church in Gulfport, Forest Hills Baptist Church in Benton, Ark., and served as Assistant Pastor at Baptist Tabernacle in Shreveport, La. In 1973, Dr. Freret founded and pastored Temple Baptist
story by Kelsey Sunderman-Foster photos courtesy of Don Crosswhite
Church in Gulfport where he served for 24 years. In June of 1997, he
resigned as pastor to become full-time President and Director of BEAMS. Though many ministries provide
copies of New Testaments for missionaries to use, it is rare for entire hardback Bibles to be given free of charge. Dr. Freret and his organization have taken this on as their primary purpose, and raise funds to do so through offerings from local, independent, Bible-believing Baptist churches that allow them to purchase and supply Bibles for use by missionaries.
Since Dr. Freret’s installation, BEAMS has distributed more than one and
a half million Bibles. “We are able
to do this with the help of the 3,000 churches that support us,” he said. “We distribute Bibles in 48 languages all over the world from right here in Gulfport, with the city’s name written across the front of each one.”
BEAMS
15444 Duckworth Road, Gulfport 228.832.1096 office@beamsbibles.com
26 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • June 2017
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