Every Saturday morning when most boys were out playing, I met with other boys my age gathered in a dark dank basement at Calvary Baptist church, Chillicothe Mo. I went for two reasons, I belong to a group called Royal Ambassador, it is a Southern Baptist Mission organization that helps boy to become Godly mission minded men. And the second reason was after the program was over, our leader Brother Harry gave us a dime to get anything we wanted at the Dairy Queen adjacent to our church.

I had begun the Royal Ambassador program in a previous church outside of Kansas City, Mo. It also met in a dark damp basement. I am not sure what it is with Baptist and their dark damp basement and all of the boys’ activities were held in these caves. I was an elementary school age when I started. At my first meeting the group voted me to take minutes of the meeting. I was so excited that I went home and told my parents that they needed to buy me a watch. “Why do you need a watch?” they asked?” “I have been voted to take the minutes of the meeting and I need a watch to watch the minutes.” They laughed and explained to me I was voted to record in writing what we did in our meeting. If I had known what they were asking me to do I would have turned the job down.

Our family moved to Chillicothe MO where I started junior high school. We found Calvary Baptist church and they had a Royal Ambassador program where I could continue my journey. Our leader was Brother Harry. He was a man with a sweet spirit, gentle voice and he talked a lot about Jesus. He was the pastor of the church. After working all week visiting the sick, witnessing to the lost, he taught on Wednesday evening and preached twice on Sunday. Yet, he still thought it was important to teach us boys on Saturday morning.

I had turned fifteen and the last step in the Royal Ambassador program was to get your “Ambassador Pin.”  To earn that pin you served the church for 125 hours, memorize scriptures and completed a vigil. Brother Harry found enough work for me to complete my 125 hours, I memorized the scriptures and when it came to the “The Vigil”. I would spend three hours alone in a room with a series of questions about my life, I had to reflect on what I wanted to do and who I wanted to serve. For a fifteen year old to spend this much time alone in prayer, scripture reading, and reflecting on one’s life and then to exit the room to report to leaders was a huge undertaking.

Three hours seemed like twenty hours but as I worked through the assignment, reading the scriptures, praying, talking to God, more reading, more praying and writing out what God was saying to me. It was an overwhelming deep spiritual experience. As I came out of the room, I reported to a group of men, Brother Harry, Bro Blankenship, and Bro Ashford. I shared with them my answers and how God was speaking to me. I was told that I had passed the test and they commissioned me to be an Ambassador for Christ. They handed me a small card that stated “This is to certify that Walker Moore became an AMBASSADOR, 11-5-1967.” From a dark damp basement, I was commissioned, to go unto all the world. I have no other credentials; I have not been commissioned by a denomination or a church nor any organization. But I was commissioned by Brother Harry and the men who taught me, laid their hands on me and told me to go unto all the world.

Brother Harry has gone home to be with the Lord, leaving behind his son Mark, Martha, and Mary who has now gone on to be with the Lord. I had to babysit Mark once when he was a squirrely kid. But today Mark Clifton is the Sr. Director Replanting and Rural Strategy at North American Mission Board. Doing a tremendous job of turning declining churches into growing lighthouse for the kingdom. I haven’t seen Mark in years, but I was near his home last week and sent him a text asking him to have lunch. We met up and there I had the privilege to share with him how his dad had impacted my life, how he had commissioned me, sent me out to be an Ambassador for Christ.  Because of his commissioning me, I have orchestrated the telling of the gospel in 53 Countries, trained and commissioned 13,000 over the last fifty years to be Ambassador for Christ.

Before we finished lunch, I pulled out my tattered “commissioning card” and ask if I could take a picture of him with the card.

You might not ever heard of Brother Harry Clifton, but he has impacted the world through the lives he has touched.  As I sat across the table listening to Mark talk, it was like I was hearing his dad again. God bless pastors who tell his congregation that they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, equipped with the Word of God and then commissions them to go unto the world.

Thank you Brother Harry!