2015 Thanksgiving Offering FAQ
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. “WHY DO WE HAVE A THANKSGIVING OFFERING?”
We have a Thanksgiving Offering because WE NEED IT for the coming year to supply the financial commitments we have made to our missionaries for the services and benefits we provide from the General Fund.
2. “WHY IS THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING SO IMPORTANT?”
The Thanksgiving Offering is ESSENTIAL because it is the only source of funds for supplying our missionaries’ needs during the coming year. All of the commitments we make to our missionaries are supplied from the General Fund – and the Thanksgiving Offering funds are the only available resources to provide many of those benefits.
3. “WHAT SERVICES AND BENEFITS DOES THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING PROVIDE?”
The Thanksgiving Offering enables us to provide the services and benefits we have committed to our missionaries “as the Lord provides.” These benefits include:
- reimbursements for missionaries’ Furlough (Home Assignment) airfare/transportation expenses to and from the field
- reimbursements for their hospitalization personal deductibles for the year (their personal deductible is $1000 and we reimburse them $600 of that amount)
- children’s school/education expenses (if funds are available)
- expenses for mailing The Mission Sheets (missionaries’ monthly letters, reports, updates — and detailed report of all offerings given through BFM that month)
- expenses for maintaining Stateside office for communication and daily services – there are a lot of activities that go on Stateside to keep our missionaries functioning on their fields of service
- providing and maintaining a Furlough Home in Lexington for those missionaries who choose to use it
4. “HOW ELSE IS THE GENERAL FUND SUPPLIED?”
The standard supply for the General Fund is from monthly offerings which are given to the General Fund. These offerings are listed monthly in the Mission Sheets under “General Fund”. These monthly General Fund offerings are used to supply the “Essential Maintenance Transactions” [EMT] which we have committed to the missionaries for their standard essential monthly expenses. These include:
- their monthly salary
- their monthly standard housing allowance
- their monthly standard ministry allowance
- their monthly hospitalization premium
- expenses for printing The Mission Sheets – their monthly newsletters, reports, and updates
Note: these monthly “Essential Maintenance Transactions” are not supplied from Thanksgiving Offering funds – but from the monthly offerings given to the General Fund.
Note 2: For detailed explanations of how our missionaries’ ministries are funded, please access our two brochures “Baptist Faith Missions” and “Caring for those who care for the world” on our website (baptistfaithmissions.org), click on FaithWorks Blog and open the thumbnail brochure icons on the right margin.
5. “WHY IS THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING GIVEN AT THE THANKSGIVING SEASON?”
- The BFM Thanksgiving Offering began many years ago in conjunction with the annual Thanksgiving Missionary Conference in the Detroit-area and has continued that way to this day.
- Also, the Thanksgiving season is good reminder of the thanks we owe God for His Indescribable Gift in Jesus Christ – and our Thanksgiving Offering is a good way to express that thanks.
- And, the Thanksgiving season and Offering is a good occasion for us to give missionary offerings so others, also, may hear the blessed Good News of salvation through Christ…and, in this way, MULTIPLY STILL MORE THANKSGIVINGS TO GOD.
6. “HOW CAN I GIVE MY THANKSGIVING OFFERING?”
If your church receives a Thanksgiving Offering for the missionaries supported through BFM, then we encourage you to give your offering through your church. Most of the Thanksgiving Offerings which are given by churches are made up by the voluntary offerings of individual members who give to the Offering. Pastors, we encourage you to give your church the opportunity to contribute to our BFM Thanksgiving Offering.
7. “WHAT IF MY CHURCH DOES NOT RECEIVE A BFM THANKSGIVING OFFERING?”
If your church does not participate in the Thanksgiving Offering, you may send your personal gift to the Treasurer of BFM and designate it “Thanksgiving Offering.” (Baptist Faith Missions / Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer / P.O. Box 471280 / Lake Monroe FL 32747-1280)
You can also give online at baptistfaithmissions.org and click on ‘Donate/Support’ and designate for ‘Thanksgiving Offering.’
8. “CAN I GIVE MY THANKSGIVING OFFERING ONLY AT THANKSGIVING…OR DURING NOVEMBER?”
No. Most churches and individual Friends of BFM give on or around Thanksgiving Sunday (either the Sunday before or after Thanksgiving Day). However, offerings continue to come in to the Treasurer during the month of December, and sometimes on into the next year. You can give your Thanksgiving Offering any time. But, all offerings designated “Thanksgiving Offering” go toward the same collective Offering for that year.
9. “HOW IS THE “EVERY FRIEND A GIVING FRIEND” PERSONAL GIVING MINISTRY PERTINENT TO THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING?”
We introduced the “EVERY FRIEND A GIVING FRIEND” ministry and plan during the 2003 Thanksgiving Conference. “Every Friend a Giving Friend” encourages each of our missionaries’ friends to personally participate in regular giving to the General Fund. This plan is nothing new or unique; it is just another way to express and articulate what the Friends of BFM have been doing since the inception of the Mission.
It is also patterned after the instructions Paul gives us in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9: that is,
- to purpose in your heart to give an offering (9:7)
- to give as generous an offering as God enables you (8:1-3 & 9:6)
- to ask God – and trust Him – to supply you with the funds you will need to give the offering (9:8)
- to plan and begin preparing even a year ahead of time (as Paul instructed the Corinthians and the other churches to do) (8:10-11 & 9:2)
- to give your offerings to the Lord and to the Lord’s missionaries willingly and cheerfully (9:7)
- to express your love and obedience to the Lord (8:8 & 9:13)
- to give as your response to Jesus Christ’s grace and gift of Himself to you (8:9 & 9:15)
We encourage every Friend of BFM to be a Giving Friend and give a personal
Thanksgiving Offering to help supply our missionaries’ needs which are met through the General Fund.
“EVERY FRIEND A GIVING FRIEND” also challenges each Friend of BFM to personally participate in missions by giving monthly offerings over and above the regular tithes and offerings you give to your church to meet the needs of your local church’s ministries. We encourage each Giving Friend to make a personal commitment to either begin giving or increase your giving each month to the General Fund.
10. “WHY DO YOU SET GOALS FOR THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING?”
We set goals because the goal amount is keyed to the projected needs we expect to meet for the coming year of missionary ministry. And, when we increase the commitments, services, and benefits we need to give our missionaries so they can fulfill their ministries, our needs for the necessary funds increase also. And, please remember with us that we cannot approve and commit to increasing the modest support we give our missionaries unless we believe the Lord will supply those funds through your giving.
OUR 2015 THANKSGIVING OFFERING GOAL IS $55,000.00.
Would you please pray and ask the Lord of the Harvest what he would have you give to this year’s Thanksgiving Offering? And then ask Him also to supply you with that gift from his inexhaustible resources of Grace?
Thank You, GIVING FRIENDS!
—–
Giving Options:
You can give your Thanksgiving Offering either through your church’s offering, or by mailing your personal check to our Treasurer, or by giving online through our website www.baptistfaithmissions.org ‘Donate/Support’ tab and typing in Thanksgiving Offering in the memo field.
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [October 2014]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for allowing Bro. Hatcher to complete an English translation of his book on the Holy Spirit! PRAISE GOD for blessing Sis. Alta with another birthday and good health! PRAY that God would continue to give them opportunities to share the Gospel.
- JOHN MARK AND JUDY HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for a time of fellowship and making meaningful contact with new people! PRAY as they begin teaching English to children and continue meeting with teens and adults for “English Night”. PRAISE GOD for evidences of grace in the Mazère Bible Study!
- JUDSON AND RAQUEL HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for blessing their evangelistic cookouts and changing people’s hearts and PRAY He will continue to do so! PRAISE GOD for their monthly pastor’s meeting and for the pastoral mentoring that is taking place. PRAY for Jud as he has been facing some health issues.
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for allowing Paul to travel to Manaus to speak and encourage the church, plan with church leadership, and catch up with family! PRAY for the works in Brazil to thrive. PRAISE GOD for a blessed time at Tabernacle in Mims, Florida!
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD—PRAY for them as the holiday season nears and homesickness intensifies. PRAY for them as they train qualified men to start churches. PRAY the light of the Word of God would shine in the prison ministry and many would be saved. PRAISE GOD for Carrie being such a faithful wife, mother, and encourager!
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON—PRAISE GOD for a successful building dedication! PRAY for wisdom as the church calls a Pastor. PRAY for Andrew! PRAY as they make preparations to return to the States in November, especially that the Lord will continue to give peace and encouragement.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE—PRAISE GOD for electricity and sunshine! PRAY for the new class of church planters that has started at the training center, that those who remain will learn and grow and be committed to wholeheartedly serving the Lord.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER—PRAISE GOD for prospering the trip of young evangelist Alysson to the border of Brazil & French Guyana. PRAY for the leader of Projeto Vida, Paulo Novaes, as he faces new health issues. PRAY for his co-pastor’s family after the death of his aunt. PRAISE GOD for blessing their church with new growth!
Please be planning to give a generous Thanksgiving Offering to help us supply our missionaries’ needs. We must have a generous Thanksgiving Offering to finance the commitments and benefits we give our missionaries over the coming year.
Ask the Lord how generously He wants you to give. And, ask Him also to supply for you the offering He wants you to give.
2 Corinthians 9.8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may have an abundance for every good work.
When Paul was on his way to visit the saints at Rome, he asked them to be prepared to help him financially so he could continue taking the Gospel on his journeys beyond them.
Romans 15.24
‘Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you.
For I hope to see you on my journey,
and to be helped on my way there by you,
if first I may enjoy your company for a while.”
In other words, “When I come to Rome, please help me with your offerings to continue my missionary ministry on beyond you!”
We are pleading with you on behalf of our missionaries to please help them continue their missionary ministries on through 2015 with the Thanksgiving Offerings you will give during this giving season. Will you help us help them on their way?
2015 THANKSGIVING OFFERING
Philippians 4.19
And my God shall supply all your need
according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
By the time you read this, we will be in immediate need of your most generous Thanksgiving Offering…AT THIS MOMENT!
Because, at the moment of this writing [17 October], we have maybe just enough funds left over from last year’s Thanksgiving Offering to carry us into mid-November. Then, we will be out of funds of any kind to carry us through December 2014 and on through 2015.
We will necessarily begin using Thanksgiving Offerings now during October and November to finance our missionaries’ support services. Ordinarily, we don’t begin using Thanksgiving Offerings received at the end of the year until the first of the following year.
Matthew 6.8
…for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
So, let me appeal to you on behalf of our missionaries – with all the wisdom and passion God will grant me – to respond to their needs with as generous a Thanksgiving Offering as God will enable you to give.
2 Corinthians 9.8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may have an abundance for every good work…
Last year’s total Thanksgiving Offering was $49,058.41. It was given over six months, but I assure you, that’s OK! Your Thanksgiving Offering doesn’t have to be given during November! In fact, it will remain open for as long as you need it to be open!
THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING SUPPLIES OUR MISSIONARIES’ NEEDS THAT ARE NOT SUPPLIED FROM YOUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS.
Monthly General Fund Offerings
I know we have produced an attractive and informative brochure to explain how our Monthly General Fund Offering works. It is entitled “Caring for those who care for the world” and is available in PDF form on our website and also by requesting paper copies from the Executive Secretary. But, please allow me here to reiterate how we use your Monthly General Fund Offerings. The Essential Maintenance Transactions [EMT] that provide for their most basic living and ministry expenses are supplied from your Monthly General Fund Offerings. They include salary, housing and ministry expense allowances, hospitalization premiums, and Mission Sheets printing and distribution.
These total EMT disbursements add up to $43,300.54 every month. Only one month last year [January] was the Monthly General Fund Offering sufficient to cover these disbursements. We supplied the following monthly deficits from February-March from the surplus received in January.
Extraordinary Estate Gift
Then, in April, we supplied the deficit in the Monthly General Fund from the remaining portion of the extraordinary estate gift Ernest and Helen Palmer had left BFM in 2013.
Founders Day Offerings
By that time, you were giving your Founders Day Offerings from June through September. The special contributions you made to the Founders Day Offering [in addition to your faithful regular giving to the Monthly General Fund] supplied our missionaries’ Essential Maintenance Transactions over the next four months.
I repeat, all of these every-month basic living and ministry expenses are not provided for from the Thanksgiving Offering; they are supplied from the Monthly General Fund Offerings.
And, in the event that the Monthly General Fund Offerings don’t cover those Essential Maintenance Transactions – and we don’t have other designated funds to use – then we must reduce those standard commitments we have made to the missionaries that month by the amount of the shortage of funds. It appears we will be faced with that undesirable necessity this month of November 2014.
BUT – THESE DISBURSEMENTS ARE NOT SUPPLIED FROM YOUR THANKSGIVING OFFERINGS. Let’s get back to the Thanksgiving Offering now. The Thanksgiving Offering supplies all the commitments and benefits we provide to our missionaries throughout the year in addition to the Essential Maintenance Transactions we have noted above.
Those benefits include:
- furlough transportation expenses,
- children’s education allowances,
- hospitalization deductible reimbursements,
- postage to mail the Mission Sheets,
- maintaining the Missionary Furlough Home in Lexington KY,
- and all the professional services and supplies that are required to maintain all the activities that go on here in the States to keep their ministries going.
And, let me note here that in 2014, [1] we didn’t have the funds to disburse the Children’s Education Allowance benefit, and [2] we had missionaries who didn’t request reimbursement for their furlough transportation back to the States because they knew we didn’t have the funds.
AND SO – WE NEED THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING TO SUPPLY ALL THE OTHER COMMITMENTS, BENEFITS, AND SERVICES THAT ARE NOT SUPPLIED BY OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS. I repeat, last year’s $49,058.41 did not supply all the benefits we would have given during the year if we had received a larger Thanksgiving Offering – and what we did receive is now exhausted before the end of the year.
Like Paul in 2 Corinthians 9, we are praying to God supply our needs with the means to give a generous offering – and also that He will plant and infuse the Grace into our hearts to give us the purpose, the willingness, and the joy to sow and reap bountifully [verses 6-8].
That is, after all, the way God Himself gives – and the way Christ gave Himself.
2 Corinthians 9.15
Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift.
KROGER COMMUNITY REWARDS
All of you do not have Kroger stores in your locality – so this won’t apply to every reader. And if you do, not all of you shop at Kroger. But, if you do, you most likely have a Kroger Plus card to scan when you make your purchases to take advantage of in-store discounts and fuel discount points.
Some of you have also been participating in the Kroger reloadable gift card program. By depositing your money on the reloadable card and using the card to make your purchases, BFM received a ‘commission’ from those purchases.
Kroger has discontinued the use of the reloadable gift card. However, they have now made it easier to continue the benefit to your favorite Non-Profit Organization [BFM]. No extra steps. Simply register your Kroger Plus card online and choose BFM as your Non-Profit Organization. Then, use your Kroger Plus card as you always do and Kroger will direct the benefits to BFM.
We have posted all the instructions you need here. If you’re going to shop at Kroger anyway – and still get all the present benefits of using your Kroger Plus card – then we encourage you to add BFM as a beneficiary also.
(You can also download a printable Word document of the instructions with pictures here. Or a PDF here.)
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
Please note the new address and phone numbers for John and Alta Hatcher and Paul and Wanda Hatcher. Their address is: 15905 Mercott Court, Clermont FL 34714. Their home telephone number is: 229-529-8497. John & Alta’s email address is: jhatcher[at]uol.com.br.
Paul and Wanda’s cell number is: 239-227-6551 and their email address is: rphatcher[at]gmail.com.
We encourage you to pray for them and correspond with them.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [September 2014]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW— PRAISE GOD for a time of fellowship, especially with Henry. PRAY for the people being saved in Bolivia in spite of persecution. PRAISE GOD for full Sunday evening services at First Baptist and in the chapels. PRAY for Idevaldo and his wife, the newest missionaries who will be sent to the field later this year.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for His glorious Gospel He has given us the privilege of sharing with others. PRAY that you will be a faithful witness.
- JOHN MARK AND JUDY HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for the birth of grandchild #10! PRAY for committed first-generation leaders. PRAISE GOD for Philip and Amanda serving in France with them.
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for always providing. PRAISE GOD for working in the life of Francisco Santiago and for the 66th anniversary of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Manaus! Through this ministry, your giving and prayers, children, grandchildren, great children, and even great-great grandchildren churches have spread in more than half of the state of Brazil. PRAY as His work continues to spread.
- AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY—PRAISE GOD for open doors to share the Gospel at a large new school! PRAISE GOD and PRAY for 52 young prisoners who put their faith & trust in Christ! PRAY that the Lord would open legal doors for vocational classes at the prison. PRAY for their upcoming “Mission Awareness” month. PRAY that the Lord would provide the finances for their blown motor.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD—PRAISE GOD for Carrie’s permit for the hospital ministry being renewed! PRAISE GOD for answering prayers for safety. PRAY that the Lord will provide other children in Kitale who are their girls’ ages. PRAISE GOD for their new four-legged family member!
ROGER AND JULIE TATE—PRAISE GOD for a sweet time of worship in a tiny village at night. PRAY for the witch doctor’s village and for the Pokot Christians to be burdened to share the Gospel with their own people. PRAISE GOD for light in the darkness and PRAY that His Gospel will penetrate resistant hearts. - BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER—PRAISE GOD for His protection during an armed robbery. PRAY for the safety of new missionary Alysson, a new missionary they just sent out to the Tupi Indians, and that the Gospel would go forth with great success! PRAISE GOD for growing their church and for the volunteers who are helping work on the building.
CHANGED DATES FOR THANKSGIVING CONFERENCE
The New Hope Missionary Baptist Church will be hosting the Thanksgiving Conference again this November – but it will not be during Thanksgiving week this year. The new dates will be Monday-Wednesday – November 10, 11, 12. Please note and mark these new dates – plan to attend. [You can view the full schedule here.]
Please be planning to give a generous Thanksgiving Offering to help us supply our missionaries’ needs. We must have a generous Thanksgiving Offering to finance the commitments and benefits we give our missionaries over the coming year.
Ask the Lord how generously He wants you to give. And, ask Him also to supply for you the offering He wants you to give.
2 Corinthians 9.8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work.
When Paul was on his way to visit the saints at Rome, he asked them to be prepared to help him financially so he could continue taking the Gospel on his journeys beyond them.
Romans 15.24
‘Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you:
for I trust to see you in my journey,
and to be brought on my way thitherward by you,
if first I be somewhat filled with your company.”
In other words, “When I come to Rome, please help me with your offerings to continue my missionary ministry on beyond you!”
We are pleading with you on behalf of our missionaries to please help them continue their missionary ministries on through 2015 with the Thanksgiving Offerings you will give during this giving season. Will you help us help them on their way?
KROGER COMMUNITY REWARDS
All of you do not have Kroger stores in your locality – so this won’t apply to every reader. And if you do, not all of you shop at Kroger. But, if you do, you most likely have a Kroger Plus card to scan when you make your purchases to take advantage of in-store discounts and fuel discount points.
Some of you have also been participating in the Kroger reloadable gift card program. By depositing your money on the reloadable card and using the card to make your purchases, BFM received a ‘commission’ from those purchases.
Kroger has discontinued the use of the reloadable gift card. However, they have now made it easier to continue the benefit to your favorite Non-Profit Organization [BFM]. No extra steps. Simply register your Kroger Plus card online and choose BFM as your Non-Profit Organization. Then, use your Kroger Plus card as you always do and Kroger will direct the benefits to BFM.
We have posted all the instructions you need here. If you’re going to shop at Kroger anyway – and still get all the present benefits of using your Kroger Plus card – then we encourage you to add BFM as a beneficiary also.
(You can also download a printable Word document of the instructions with pictures here. Or a PDF here.)
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
Please note the new address and phone numbers for John and Alta Hatcher and Paul and Wanda Hatcher. Their address is: 15905 Mercott Court, Clermont FL 34714. Their home telephone number is: 229-529-8497. John & Alta’s email address is: jhatcher[at]uol.com.br.
Paul and Wanda’s cell number is: 239-227-6551 and their email address is: rphatcher[at]gmail.com.
We encourage you to pray for them and correspond with them.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [February 2014]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW—PRAISE GOD for several professions of faith, baptisms, and church letters. PRAY that they will be able to come up with the funds to buy new camera equipment for their TV program.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for the opportunity to witness on a cruise. PRAY for the young man who does not believe in Christ, but heard the Gospel. PRAY that we would all be faithful to share the Gospel wherever we are.
- JOHN MARK AND JUDY HATCHER—PRAISE GOD for faithful ladies who hold a weekly Bible Study on their lunch break every Thursday. PRAY for leaders who are starting new Bible Study groups. PRAY that the Word would pierce hearts, especially as it is being read by unbelievers.
- AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY—PRAISE GOD for the growth of their mission church at its one-year anniversary. PRAY for the many physical and spiritual needs in their church and their personal ministry. PRAISE GOD for the opportunity to help at an orphanage.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD—PRAY about how the Lord would have you involved in the harvest. PRAISE GOD for His harvest in Kitale and all around the globe.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON—PRAISE GOD for answering prayers about a drywall teacher and for continued progress on the Calvary building. PRAY for the families of three saints killed in a car wreck. PRAISE GOD for the faithfulness of those in the Ladies’ Bible Class and Pastors’ Theology Class.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE—PRAISE GOD for uplifting visits to supporting churches. PRAY that God would prepare their hearts and minds for their upcoming return to Kenya.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER—PRAISE GOD for young ladies with zeal for reaching others for Christ! PRAY for them as they adapt to life without kids at home. PRAISE GOD for new converts after teams were sent out. PRAY for two more teams that will be sent out this month and for their school ministries to be effective.
YOUR JANUARY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS…
When you review the Contributions page in this issue, you will note that the monthly General Fund Offerings total given in January is $26,723.10. 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.
The way we were able to NOT reduce their deposits this month is because last month, the Lord supplied us with an extraordinarily generous monthly General Fund offering. (These were offerings given in December 2013 and disbursed in January 2014.) So, with the ‘surplus’ we received last month, we carried it over to supply deficits in future months – this month, February, being one of them.
But, when those ‘surplus’ balances are depleted, if the monthly General Fund Offering doesn’t increase to meet the disbursement threshold [$43,300.00], then we will do what we’ve had to do before – we will reduce the amount of disbursements to our missionary families by the proportionate amount we did not receive in General Fund offerings.
Please help your missionaries by increasing your offerings to the monthly General Fund.
You can give online by going to our website: baptistfaithmissions.org and click 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.
2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING UPDATE: $48,638.41.
We have received three months’ Thanksgiving Offerings:
November 2013, $17,036.91
December 2013, $26,701.50
January 2014, $4,900.00
That brings us to a total of $48,638.41.
Just to give you a little comparison perspective – the 2012-13 Thanksgiving Offering was $52,348.17 and we ran out of those funds before 2013 was completed. This year’s offering so far – where it stands now – is still below last year’s total amount.
So, will you please help us with your continued offerings to the Thanksgiving Offering? We use the funds we receive from the Thanksgiving Offering to supply the other services, benefits, and commitments we make to our missionaries which are not supplied from the Monthly General Fund Offering.
When we don’t receive sufficient Thanksgiving Offering funds, we cannot grant the missionaries’ requests for those benefits we otherwise would give them to help relieve that additional financial burden on them.
2014 is shaping up to be a demanding year for those needs – so please help your missionaries all you can!
We must receive a very generous Thanksgiving Offering to give our missionaries the services and benefits we have committed to give them “as the Lord provides”. The Lord provides through our sharing of the Grace He has given us.
NOTE: the Thanksgiving Offering is always open any time for your contributions. Just designate your offering ‘Thanksgiving Offering’, and it will be applied and included.
“I speak not be commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.” [2 Corinthians 8.8].
“For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding Grace of God in you.” [2 Corinthians 9.12-14].
You can also contribute online at baptistfaithmissions.org on the ‘Donate/Support’ tab. Designate your offering for ‘Thanksgiving Offering’. Thank You! on behalf of our missionaries!
______________________________
THANKSGIVING OFFERINGS YEAR-BY-YEAR
1996-97 $73,380.83 2005-06 $66,313.44
1997-98 $66,118.67 2006-07 $99,246.86
1998-99 $59,498.19 2007-08 $64,650.57
1999-00 $56,026.50 2008-09 $87,588.47
2000-01 $67,251.50 2009-10 $92,264.30
2001-02 $56,906.13 2010-11 $63,720.13
2002-03 $55,164.30 2011-12 $56,365.38
2003-04 $62,195.80 2012-13 $52,348.17
2004-05 $77,347.47 2013-14 $48,638.41 [To Date]
2014 SPRING MISSIONS CONFERENCE
April 28, 29, 30
Thompson Road Baptist Church – Lexington KY
“BEHOLD…NOW…IS THE DAY OF SALVATION!”
2 Corinthians 6:2
Please mark these dates and plan to join us for times of refreshing from the Presence of the Lord, challenges from His Word, and opportunities for commitment and participation in taking Christ’s Gospel to the nations of the world!
TRIBUTE TO GLENN ARCHER
Glenn Archer passed through the valley of the shadow of death – from this life into the Presence of his Lord and Savior – on Friday, January 31. He had suffered from pulmonary fibrosis for the past year or so.
Glenn served his Lord and the missionaries who are supported through BFM as a Director for 34 years and as Treasurer for 11 years. He was a pastor of Baptist churches for 50 years, serving church families in Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.
For those of us who served with him in the service of our missionaries, Glenn was our friend, brother in Christ, confidante, counselor, and our ‘true yokefellow’ [Philippians 4.3] in the ministry of the Gospel and missions.
He was always the model of impeccable integrity, a ‘sterling character of a man,’ and the consummate voice of wisdom, reason, and grace. We could always depend on Glenn to be faithfully insistent on his convictions and principles, and yet be a moderating influence. He was always “easy to be intreated’ [James 3.17], and deliberately so. He often quoted the Scripture “Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4.15) as one of his cardinal rules for wisdom and counsel – and he lived by it.
Glenn taught us how to live in the faith…and he modeled for us how to die in the same faith. And, he was a life-long lover of missions and missionaries.
Here is, in full, the daily blog he sent out to many of us for years as he led us through the Bible with his Daily Devotions. Listen to his faith in Christ in his dying days and his continuing love for Gospel missions:
11.4.13
Dear Friends:
Death is an ugly enemy. “The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26). However death is ours. “All things are yours: life or death. All are yours.” We are in everything to give thanks unto God. How we handle death will either resound to His honor and His glory or to our shame. We can die grumpy old men and women, or we can die counting our blessings, knowing that we have received better than we deserve.
Just now, we are waiting for the adoption, to wit: the redemption of the body. (Romans 8:23). When Christ died, He paid the price of our redemption. This old body that once served sin, has been by the presence of the Spirit of God made to serve righteousness. Yet, we are confined to this body of death (Romans 7:24). It is as though Christ has put us on lay-a-way, but He did so while we are still in this corruptible, mortal body. But this is not the body He bought. The body He bought will greet Him at the resurrection, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption. In that day we will have a body like unto His glorious body (Philippians 3:21). “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
Just now I ask an interest in your prayers, not that I might not see death, but that I will handle this approach to death in a manner well pleasing in His sight. Ask that God grant me the favor of His grace to live for Him during all these struggles. Pray for Judy. She is a gracious soul. Many are her labors because of my sickness. Both of us need the grace of God to carry on for Him. I am glad I am saved.
Don’t spend more time praying to keep saints out of Heaven than you do praying to keep sinners out of Hell.
I am yours in Christ, Glenn
Glenn’s family would like to express their thanks to our BFM fellowship with this note:
“Our family would like to express our gratitude to BFM, its directors, missionaries, and supporters for their love, encouragement, and prayers during the last several months. We also give thanks for the basket that was sent to the funeral home and to the directors who were able to attend the funeral and serve as honorary pallbearers despite the weather.
Glenn Archer’s greatest desire was for people all over the world to come to know the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May God continue to bless the work of BFM.
Judy and the entire Archer family”
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@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’ FURLOUGH SCHEDULE
Harold Bratcher has retired from active and faithful missionary service in Brazil and has relocated to live here in the States. His mailing address is: 1950 Falling Leaves Lane, Lexington KY 40509 | telephone: (859)806-9827.
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2013-2014 Thanksgiving Offering
2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING
Please be making your plans to give as generously as the LORD enables you to our upcoming Thanksgiving Offering. We encourage EVERY friend of our missionaries to be a GIVING FRIEND!
Pastors, will you be willing to announce and promote the Thanksgiving Offering in your church – and encourage your people to give to it? Our missionaries’ needs continue to be great and the Thanksgiving Offering is essential to providing those financial commitments we have made to them.
And, remember – you can give your Thanksgiving Offering either through your church’s offering, or by mailing your personal check to our Treasurer, or by giving online through our website www.baptistfaithmissions.org ‘Donate/Support’ tab and typing in Thanksgiving Offering in the memo field.
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
A PERSONAL APPEAL FROM YOUR DIRECTORS
We who serve you and our missionaries as Directors have embraced the responsibility of acquainting you with their needs and appealing to you on their behalf. We represent them and their needs to you.
Baptist Faith Missions administers support contributions for twelve families of sound, committed, and faithful missionaries who are sacrificially serving the Lord in the nations where the Holy Spirit has called and sent them to minister. They have gone to their respective fields of service upon the commitment from us, their financial supporters, that if they will answer the Lord’s call to go where He sends them, we will give the offerings needed to supply their needs.
But, the only financial commitments we Directors have resources to give them are: “We will do everything we can to make your needs known to our supporting churches and friends and then forward them to you ‘as the Lord provides.’ If the Lord provides the support funds we have committed, then we will send them to you; if the Lord does not provide what we have committed, then we will send you what we have.”
WHAT DO WE DO WITH MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS?
WE NEED $46,600.00 EVERY MONTH IN OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS TO SUPPLY THE MONTHLY ‘ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE TRANSACTIONS’ OUR MISSIONARIES NEED JUST TO MAINTAIN THEIR DAILY LIVES AND MINISTRIES. This amount is for those 12 missionary families’ salaries, housing and ministry expenses allowances, hospitalization premiums, and the costs of publishing their newsletters and correspondences with you in The Mission Sheets. These commitments are funded by our monthly contributions to the GENERAL FUND. If we do not receive sufficient funds EACH MONTH, then we must reduce the commitments proportionately among them in the amount of the deficit of the monthly GENERAL FUND supplies.
So far in 2013, it has become necessary to reduce their monthly committed funds by an accrued total of $6800.00 divided proportionately among them. It may be necessary to do so again before the year is completed.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING OFFERING?
THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING IS USED TO SUPPLY ALL THE OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES AND BENEFITS WE PROVIDE FOR THEM THROUGHOUT THE YEAR AS THOSE COMMITMENTS BECOME DUE. Last year’s Thanksgiving Offering was $52,348.17. We are here in October at the time of this appeal, and those funds are all but depleted. We have been serving our 12 missionary families throughout the year with these funds. And, some of those services and benefits which are supplied from the Thanksgiving Offering were either not granted or were only partially granted due to shortages in the Thanksgiving Offering funds.
WE NEED A VERY GENEROUS THANKSGIVING OFFERING TO EXCEED LAST YEAR’S AMOUNT TO FULLY SUPPLY THEIR NEEDS THROUGHOUT 2014.
WE ARE, FIRST OF ALL, ASKING OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
We want to tell you something else: we also know that before we appeal to you, WE MUST APPEAL TO OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. He is the One who created, owns, and transfers all of the assets that are in the world…and which He has committed to our stewardship. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us and promised us two different times in Matthew, chapter 6, that our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask Him (verses 8 & 32).
So, WE ARE, FIRST OF ALL, CALLING ON GOD to see their needs and hear our appeals. We are calling on our Father to please arise and give us “bread” to set before our friends as our Lord taught us to pray in the parable He preached in Luke 11.1-13. Then, we are asking Him to give every one of us His Grace and move our hearts to respond to Him. Our missionaries are His servants, they are ministering His Gospel, and they are aiming at His Glory in everything they do.
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
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FaithWORKS [October 2013]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- ODALI AND KATHY BARROS – PRAY that the Lord will give them wisdom and direction as they seek new places to evangelize and plant churches in the vicinities around Manaus, Brazil. PRAY for the Lord’s protection upon them as they move. PRAY for the continuing growth and outreach of the Lord’s churches in Garca. PRAY for the salvation of others in his family.
- MIKE AND BEVERLY CREIGLOW – PRAISE GOD for the good responses and participation in many family-oriented activities and outreaches. PRAISE GOD for good reports of people being saved in various churches and congregations. PRAY for struggling economies there, too. PRAY for strength for all their faithful workers.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAY for the Lord to establish church starts and plants in several locations, especially from the Urai church. PRAY for healing for Sonha dos Santos. PRAISE GOD for new pastor and his family and the reports of God’s increase in the Assai church.
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER – PRAY for Brother Herman’s family. He was a faithful servant in the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Manaus who has been called Home to Heaven. PRAISE GOD for another church plant in Japiim.
- JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAY for their upcoming new year of Sunday School classes and also Fall-Break VBS. PRAISE GOD for the steady increase of numbers of believers who learning to be disciples and servants in the church. PRAY that God will develop and grow them.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAY for all their preparations to come to the States for furlough…and for their safe travel here. PRAY also that the Lord will open up housing for them here in the States.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON – PRAISE GOD for the purchase of the property and beginning of the work to build a chapel for the Calvary Baptist Mission in Huanuco. PRAISE GOD also for the opportunities and prospects of expanding their teaching and training with new technologies. PRAY that God will supply all the funds they need for these new outreaches.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAY that God will continue to give them spiritual and physical strength to embark on their Stateside travels. PRAY that God will refresh their physical and spiritual strength. PRAY for the family of their dear friend from Kitale who was murdered in the recent terrorist attacks at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAISE GOD for the faithful servants the Lord is raising up in the churches there to increase their outreach into other cities. PRAY for the repair of their Project Life bus that was damaged in the recent accident – and for the funds to put it back into service.
We heartily invite you to join us for the 59th Annual Thanksgiving Missions Conference in the interests of BAPTIST FAITH MISSIONS.
November 25-27, 2013
New Hope Baptist Church
Dearborn Heights, MI
Pastor Terry Adkins
Conference Theme: “Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It” – Psalm 107:2-3
A full post with details can be found here.
For directions to New Hope Baptist Church and/or information on lodging please contact:
Pastor Terry Adkins | (313) 562-5579 | pastorterrynewhope[at]yahoo.com
THANKSGIVING OFFERING
Please be making your plans to give as generously as the LORD enables you to our upcoming Thanksgiving Offering. We encourage EVERY friend of our missionaries to be a GIVING FRIEND!
Pastors, will you be willing to announce and promote the Thanksgiving Offering in your church – and encourage your people to give to it? Our missionaries’ needs continue to be great and the Thanksgiving Offering is essential to providing those financial commitments we have made to them.
We continue to struggle every month just to maintain the commitments we have made to our missionaries – but we want to do so much more than just MAINTAIN. We want to INCREASE and ADD TO the provisions of their needs.
And, remember – you can give your Thanksgiving Offering either through your church’s offering, or by mailing your personal check to our Treasurer, or by giving online through our website www.baptistfaithmissions.org ‘Donate/Support’ tab.
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [September 2013]
PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…
- ODALI AND KATHY BARROS – PRAISE GOD for the ministries of past and present BFM missionaries in the lives of other BFM missionaries. Read how Bobby Creiglow and John and Alta Hatcher have been instrumental in these ministries that are still going on. PRAY that God will direct the steps and course of their future ministry.
- HAROLD BRATCHER – PRAY for God to give him strength to continue serving Him in his ministry here in the States. PRAISE GOD for providing the way for him to purchase and move into his new home.
- MIKE AND BEVERLY CREIGLOW – PRAY that God will give all of them full recovery from the sicknesses they have suffered. PRAY ALSO that God will provide the needed funds to make the payments on their new property purchase. PRAISE GOD for the new works that are flourishing and for increased fruitfulness in their established churches.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for the encouragements they receive from conversations and visits from their faithful children…and for the continuing good reports, especially from Assai.
- PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for the fruitful response from their recent Men’s Camp. PRAY that God will raise up more men and women to be faithful servants of the Lord. PRAY also for Herman and his wife during this health crisis.
- JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for the work of God’s Grace in the hearts and lives of people they have witnessed to for years. PRAY always for the seeds they are sowing every day in every conversation. PRAY that God will give them strength and encouragement in their daily Bible Studies and witnessing opportunities.
- AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY – PRAISE GOD for the continued growth of their church, and for the helpers the Lord has sent them from the States. PRAY for the pastoral assistant who is coming to help them in their church. PRAY also for their upcoming Pastors’ Conference.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAISE GOD for the new churches that have been established. PRAY that God will protect them during their upcoming furlough travels to the States.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAISE GOD for their safe arrival in the States. PRAY for all the transitions they will be experiencing here over the next few months, and especially for their children’s adjustments to all their changes. PRAY also for their spiritual strength and revival as they re-connect with their families and home church – and visit other churches.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAISE GOD for the response God has given them in their Bible-reading encouragement. PRAY for Charlene and her family in the recent death of her brother. PRAISE GOD for saving their PROJECT LIFE ministry team from more severe injuries in their recent auto accident.
We heartily invite you to join us for the 59th Annual Thanksgiving Missions Conference in the interests of BAPTIST FAITH MISSIONS.
November 25-27, 2013
New Hope Baptist Church
Dearborn Heights, MI
Pastor Terry Adkins
Conference Theme: “Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It” – Psalm 107:2-3
A full post with details can be found here.
THANKSGIVING OFFERING
Please be making your plans to give as generously as the LORD enables you to our upcoming Thanksgiving Offering. We encourage EVERY friend of our missionaries to be a GIVING FRIEND!
Pastors, will you be willing to announce and promote the Thanksgiving Offering in your church – and encourage your people to give to it? Our missionaries’ needs continue to be great and the Thanksgiving Offering is essential to providing those financial commitments we have made to them.
We continue to struggle every month just to maintain the commitments we have made to our missionaries – but we want to do so much more than just MAINTAIN. We want to INCREASE and ADD TO the provisions of their needs.
And, remember – you can give your Thanksgiving Offering either through your church’s offering, or by mailing your personal check to our Treasurer, or by giving online through our website.
Click here to make a one-time donation.
Click here to set up a recurring donation.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [January 2013]
SALARY INCREASE FOR OUR MISSIONARIES – IF WE HAVE IT!
As we reported in last month’s Mission Sheets, we have begun in January 2013 to increase our missionaries’ salary by 5% – from $1717.00 to $1803 per month. That means that we will disburse $21,449.00 every month for just their salaries. Also added to that salary amount are: $10,950.00 per month for Standard Ministry Expense Allowances, $11,918.11 for hospitalization premiums we pay for them each month, and $1722.50 which we disburse to publish their newsletters for them each month.
Those commitments amount to a total of $46,039.61 which is supplied from the General Fund. We want to emphasize that WE CANNOT MEET THESE COMMITMENTS WITHOUT THE SUPPLIES OF THE FUNDS EACH MONTH. If we don’t receive enough in General Fund offerings each month to meet these Essential Maintenance Transactions, then we will be required to reduce the amounts we have committed.
Will you help us provide this much-needed and belated salary increase for our missionaries’ basic and essential living expenses BY INCREASING YOUR PERSONAL OFFERINGS TO THE MONTHLY GENERAL BY JUST 5% – or more – as the Lord enables you?
If every one of us increases our contributions to the monthly General Fund by even that amount, we can more than supply this modest salary increase for our missionaries.
Our repeated ‘THANK YOU!’ to each one of you who gives to the General Fund each month!
TWO OF OUR FAITHFUL, LONG-TIME, VETERAN MISSIONARY-WIVES HAVE GONE HOME TO BE WITH THE LORD.
June Bean, who faithfully served 31 years as a missionary in Brazil with her husband George, entered the Presence of the Lord the morning of Wednesday, December 12. In 1964, the Beans went to serve the Lord in São Luís, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão, Brazil, until their retirement from active missionary service in 1995. They also spent a couple of years relieving furloughing missionaries. Brother George Bean went Home to be with the Lord in May 2000. Sis. Bean had dementia for several years and had declined rapidly in the last six months.
Ada Mayfield Hunter, who faithfully served 22 years as a missionary in Peru with her husband Del, entered the Presence of the Lord on Saturday evening, January 12. Brother and Sister Mayfield went to Peru in 1961 and served the Lord there – principally in the two cities of Pucallpa and Iquitos – until they returned to the States in 1983. The Lord blessed them with a fruitful ministry both in believers brought to know Jesus Christ and churches established.
2013 SPRING MISSIONARY BIBLE CONFERENCE
April 22-24
Hosted by Thompson Road Baptist Church | Lexington, KY | Dave Parks, Pastor
Block these dates and plan to attend.
THANKSGIVING OFFERING TOTAL-TO-DATE: $45,215.17
We have been receiving your offerings for our 2012-13 THANKSGIVING OFFERING for the past 3 months now. We think we may have received the bulk of what this year’s offering will be. If that is so, then we are going to come up short from even last year’s offering – which didn’t carry us through to the end of 2012.
2012 Offering was $56,365.38. This year’s Offering stands at $45,215.17. If this offering is not increased, then we will be unable to fulfill some of the benefits and commitments we have made to our missionaries.
These offerings are essential to fulfilling the financial benefits and commitments we have made to provide for their needs and to support all the activities required to keep their ministries going.
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY TO GOD – AND ASK HIM TO GIVE YOU A GENEROUS OFFERING TO CONTRIBUTE! ‘THANK YOU!’ to every one who has contributed this year to make this offering what it is!
PRAY AND PRAISE!
- ODALI AND KATHY BARROS – PRAISE GOD for professions of faith in Christ.
- HAROLD BRATCHER – PRAY for his relocation in the U.S. PRAISE GOD for his safe travel back to the U.S.
- MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW – PRAISE GOD for a new church established and for on-going evangelistic outreach into their city.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAY that God will give them a break-through in Assai and encourage them in their struggles there. PRAISE GOD also for these faithful and fruitful evangelists and church-planting warriors – 58 years and still going!
- JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for their safe return to France and for reunions with past converts to Christ.
- A.J. AND BARB HENSLEY – PRAY for their first services in their new church plant, Caragua Baptist Church. PRAISE GOD for reports of new converts to Christ.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAY for the renewal of their work permit to remain in Kenya and for the struggling church plant in Shangalamwe.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAY for God to cover them and shield them with His Spirit from the discouragements of ministry – and also that the Lord will establish the infant church at Shangalamwe.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON – PRAISE GOD for a safe return to Peru. PRAY for Anita’s sister, Hilda.
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAY for them and their church as they seek to reach other neighborhoods, especially Corbelia. PRAISE GOD for His protection in recent accidents.
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