FaithWORKS Report [May 2014]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- ODALI AND KATHY BARROS—PRAISE GOD for preparing the way for them to begin holding services in homes along the river. PRAISE GOD for opening the door for a school ministry. PRAY for them as they begin working in these new places that God would direct every step of the way.
- MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW— PRAISE GOD for good visits with 11 of their pastors and missionaries. Since the beginning of the year, Mike & Hudson have traveled 2,341 miles on 3 rivers to report on 17 mission works. PRAY for all of these works, that God would continue to grow them and strengthen them! PRAISE GOD for continued progress at their home church as well.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for being able to celebrate nearly 60 years of service in Brazil with the pastors and people in Urai. PRAY for them as they transition to a year-long furlough.
- JOHN MARK AND JUDY HATCHER—JOHN MARK AND JUDY HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for opportunities to show Christ’s love to neighbors in France! (And PRAISE GOD for safety in that situation! Bzzz!) PRAY for their upcoming neighborhood dinner. PRAY for their new “English Club.”
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for an enjoyable time at the Spring Missions Conference. PRAY for them as they transition to a year-long furlough with their parents and seek to relocate to Florida.
- AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY—PRAISE GOD for safe travels to and from the States. PRAY for their health, for their finances, for the ministry, for the plans they are trying to complete at the church, and for the attacks Satan is trying to hurl at them.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD—PRAY for their upcoming return to Kenya. PRAY especially for them and their daughters as they travel such a long way and adjust back to the culture of Kenya. PRAY for the people of Kenya they are blessed to work with.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON—PRAISE GOD for continued progress on the building for the Calvary Baptist Mission Church! PRAY that God would provide the remaining funds they need to complete the project. PRAISE GOD for a good missions conference in Huaral.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE—PRAISE GOD for a safe arrival back in Kenya. PRAY for them as they adjust back to the culture. PRAY that the Spirit would work in hearts to create lasting change.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER—PRAISE GOD for the way He is working in the life of Toni. PRAY for the mechanical problems they are facing in their Projeto Vida ministry. PRAY for Elias and his wife that seeds planted would take root and grow.
YOUR APRIL GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS…
When you review the Contributions page in this issue, you will note that the monthly General Fund Offerings total given in April is $31,604.16. This is a $5-6 thousand dollar increase over the past three months.
First, we thank God and commend every one of you gives to the monthly General Fund. Without your faithful and sacrificial giving, our missionaries would not be receiving month-by-month what we are able to provide for them.
However, that being said, our total monthly commitments to our missionary families – which must be supplied from the monthly General Fund – amount to $43,300.54. Every month, that same amount must be disbursed just for their essential maintenance. If each of us will remember that number as we give to the monthly General Fund – $43,300.00 – it will help remind us of the gigantic financial responsibility just to ‘keep them on the field,’ ‘keep the lights on,’ and supply their essential living and ministry expenses.
When the monthly General Fund Offering doesn’t meet that disbursement threshold [$43,300.00], then we have no other choice but to reduce the amount of disbursements to our missionary families by the proportionate amount we did not receive in General Fund offerings.
We know you have heard this before – and we also know that we keep repeating ourselves – but the first of every month, it comes around again! Please make a generous offering to your missionaries’ General Fund right now – or increase your present giving!
You can give online by going to our website: baptistfaithmissions.org and clicking on the ‘Donate/Support’ tab. Designate your offering for ‘General Fund’. Thank you on behalf of our missionaries!
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
JUNE IS FOUNDER’S DAY OFFERING MONTH: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FOUNDERS DAY OFFERING TO THE CONTINUING SUPPLY OF YOUR MISSIONARIES’ ON-GOING NEEDS
We are coming up on June again, and we are appealing to you to give an extraordinary offering to our Founder’s Day Offering to supply our missionaries’ Essential Maintenance needs.
72 years ago, Hafford Overbey began appealing for and receiving offerings to assist in the support of a missionary who had returned to the Amazon Valley in Brazil. Baptist Faith Missions has been assisting Baptist churches in sending their missionaries to the nations of the world for the purpose of church-planting missions ever since.
We recognize that many of you do not remember Hafford Overbey or Z. E. Clark, the first Treasurer of Baptist Faith Missions. But, what you do need to remember is that your missionaries who are currently serving the Lord in the nations of the world are carrying on with the same missionary vision and ministry that prompted the very first missions offering in 1942.
So, will you please help us? Last year [2013], it was the Founder’s Day Offering that enabled us to NOT have to reduce our missionaries’ monthly funds. We devote the Founder’s Day Offering to supplying our missionaries’ monthly Essential Maintenance Transactions. What that means is: we will supply any deficits in our Monthly General Fund Offerings with Founder’s Day Offering funds.
So, by giving to the Founder’s Day Offering, you are helping your missionaries receive the full commitments of monthly funds they must have to maintain their living and ministry needs.
[Click here to download the BFM Founders Day Offering Appeal 2014]
BFM BROCHURES
We now have TWO very attractive and informative professionally-produced brochures. We want you to help us get these promotional messages into the hands of anyone and everyone who is interested in the mission work the Lord is accomplishing through the missionaries who are supported by your offerings through BFM.
(1) The first of these brochures is one that will introduce you to BFM and inform you about the basic principles by which BFM functions. (click here to view)
(2) The second brochure is just now ‘hot off the press.’ This one is entitled “Caring for those who care for the world,” and is designed to inform and explain just how essential the monthly General Fund is to the daily living and ministry needs of our missionaries. (click here to view)
Both of them are full-color, either 6 or 8 pages 8 ½ x 11 format, pictorial, and informative. Will you please help us distribute these brochures as widely as you can?
If you will send your name and mailing address to:
Dave Parks, 3985 Boston Road, Lexington KY 40514
email: daveparks[at]twc.com | phone: 859.223.8374 –
and tell us how many sets of these brochures you want – we will get them back to you by return shipping.
For now, you can access an electronic flip-through version of the new brochure by going to our website and clicking on the brochure cover.
Again, please serve as ambassadors for your missionaries by helping us get either single-copy sets to interested persons or bundles to distribute in our churches. The brochures will ‘speak for themselves’ – for our missionaries.
MISSIONARIES ON FURLOUGH
Two of our longest-serving missionary families are on furlough in the States together at this time: John and Alta Hatcher and Paul and Wanda Hatcher. Paul has written in his Mission Sheets newsletter, “Wanda and I have been in Brazil for 40 years. During this period, we have taken only one full-year furlough.” But, they all have come together to the States for a year’s furlough. John and Alta Hatcher have been serving our Lord in partnership with Baptist Faith Missions for 60 years and wanted to come Stateside for this furlough. Paul and Wanda have come with them to accompany and help them. Also with them is Wanda’s mom, Willa McGary. ‘Miss Willa’ and Wanda’s deceased dad, Wilford, served as church-planting missionaries in Eastern Kentucky Appalachia for 35 years. Willa has also been living with Paul and Wanda in Manaus since Wanda’s only sibling, Ross McGary, went to be with the Lord in December 2013. But, living in Manaus was very difficult for ‘Miss Willa’ since she was away from her friends and in an all-Portuguese environment with different customs.
So, they are all living and traveling together. They plan to set up their residence in Florida during this time to give them better access to Brazil, especially for family and friends in Brazil to come and visit with them during this year.
Paul says: ‘We will be available to speak and share missions. We can be contacted at: (239)227-6551 or rphatcher[at]gmail.com.’ We encourage you to pray for them and correspond with them.
SPRING MISSIONS CONFERENCE UPDATES AND RECAPS
The Lord blessed us during the April Spring Missions Conference. You came and attended with us as we worshiped Jesus Christ, gave ourselves to work with Him in His “Day of Salvation,” and asked the Lord to stir and encourage us all to greater commitment and usefulness in His mission.
Ten preachers, pastors, and missionaries delivered God’s messages from His Word. 35 preachers, pastors, and missionaries were in attendance with us during the services. We thank each one of you for your prayers to God and your encouraging fellowship as we all seek together to follow Jesus Christ into the nations of the world.
You can still update yourself on the happenings during our Conference services by going to our website and opening the FaithWorks Blog page. On the right hand side of the page, you will find a list of links “Categories.” Click on the link that says “Conference recaps,” and it will open up a list of the services and give you a brief recap of the service [OR CLICK HERE]. I want to thank Steve and Sarah Wainright for posting these services for us. They are continually providing invaluable services for our Lord and our missionaries by updating and maintaining our website and Facebookm.
FOUNDERS DAY OFFERING APPEAL AND RESOURCES
For many years, we have remembered and honored our principal founders, Hafford Overbey and Z. E. Clark, by giving special offerings for the missionaries during the month of June. We call it our FOUNDER’S DAY OFFERING.
But, the Founder’s Day Offering not only memorializes our original founders in 1942 – we are also honoring our eleven faithful missionary families who are currently serving the Lord in Brazil, Peru, France, and Kenya.
Their support needs are great – and the supplies are low. We use the Founder’s Day Offering to help supply our missionaries’ monthly essential living and ministry support. And, these offerings will also help prevent our having to reduce the monthly commitments we have made to them due to a lack of General Fund supplies.
Here’s what each of us can do:
PASTORS – we encourage you to observe a special Missions or Great Commission Emphasis Sunday and give your church the opportunity to give to the BFM General Fund. Emphasize Jesus’ command to preach His Gospel to all nations. That is what our missionaries are doing. That is the original burden and vision that inspired the founding of BFM. We are continuing to perpetuate that vision and burden. That is what we are supporting when we give to BFM’s General Fund. We will use these offerings to continue to supply our missionaries’ on-going needs.
GIVING FRIENDS – if your church is not participating in our Founder’s Day Offering, we encourage you to support your missionaries by giving a personal offering. Of course, you can give as the Lord enables you to give, and no offering of any amount is insignificant. But what if every one of our missionaries’ Giving Friends gave at least a $70 offering in honor of the 70+ years our missionaries have been faithfully preaching the Gospel? But – please do give as the Lord impresses and enables you.
You can visit our website’s Donate/Support page to easily contribute through the options we have made available to you. Or, you can mail your offering to: Baptist Faith Missions, Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer, P.O. Box 471280, Lake Monroe FL 32747-1280
You will find on our website [Faith Works Blog] some PDF resources that will be helpful as you help us promote Founder’s Day:
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – Bulletin Insert
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – General Letter
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – Letter from Our President
BFM Founder’s Day PowerPoint Slide
Read more