Four months pregnant with her second child, Erin (not her real name) gladly accepted the opportunity to participate in the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home’s Crisis Pregnancy Camp, even though she wasn’t interested in “this God stuff.”
But as Missouri Baptist volunteers loved Erin and other unwed mothers through a weekend getaway at a Branson hotel, her heart softened.
She attended classes on parenting and child nurturing, along with Bible studies. Most important, she developed relationships with the volunteers who modeled Christian motherhood.
Like others, Erin surrendered her life to Christ.
Erin’s story is one of hundreds that demonstrate the impact of your faithful giving to projects supported by the Missouri Missions Offering (MMO).
Earlier this month your church received a packet of information about MMO 2015, including a prayer guide, posters, bulletin inserts and other resources to help promote this important annual offering.
The packets give your church leaders ample time to prepare for MMO’s fall promotion and week of prayer, slated for Sept. 13-20.
The scriptural theme this year is 2 Cor. 9:13: “They will glorify God for your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with others.”
Your gifts through MMO support projects in four areas of ministry:
(1) Sharing Christ’s love. This includes disaster relief projects; the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home; hunger funds; Christian Women’s Job Corps; Crisis Pregnancy Camp; Language Youth Camp; youth evangelism and missions; the International Student Ministry Missions Conference; state fair evangelism; and evangelism/discipleship strategies.
(2) Sending Missouri Missionaries. Your gifts make partnership missions possible, along with sports evangelism, collegiate summer missions, and associational partnerships.
(3) Starting more Missouri churches. As we work together to make disciples, we also want to help Missouri churches multiply churches within our borders or along the I-29 corridor. Your MMO gifts support “next step requests” for church planters. They also help our state missionaries strategically develop church planting missionaries. Another great church-multiplication strategy is Reach the Nations, a project to evangelize, disciple, train leaders and plant healthy churches among the quarter-million foreign-born people now living in Missouri and studying on our campuses.
(4) Strengthening Missouri churches. This includes the highly popular mb125 Pastors’ Conference, along with men’s ministry projects; Minister’s Juggling Act; the Ethnic Pastors and Wives Conference; next-generation internships/apprenticeships; church revitalization projects; and training for MBC regional leaders.
The statewide goal this year is a stretch at $710,000, but I’m confident we can make it. In 2014, Missouri Baptists exceeded the goal of $700,000, marking the third straight year we hit the target.
Your faith in God’s abundance; your faithfulness to give; and your confidence in the Missouri Baptists who act as wise stewards of your giving are three good reasons we have set the bar higher this year.
By the way, be sure to check out all the great resources on the web at MoBaptist.org/MMO. You’ll find prayer guides, bulletin inserts, and some great videos – including one or two that make you chuckle.
Share these resources with your churches. Show the videos. And please let us know how your church supports MMO by posting pictures and videos to your Facebook page and other social media.
Finally, please keep in mind that the Lord uses even the smallest gift to do great things.
You may not realize it, but a gift of just $1 provides an evangelistic Bible study guide for an unreached immigrant.
A gift of $5 provides a witnessing bracelet for a camper at Deaf Youth Camp.
$10 delivers a basket with a Bible and toiletries to women rescued from slave / sex trafficking.
And a gift of $25 buys a scoop shovel for a mud-out recovery unit at a flood-ravaged house.
Oh, and a gift of $100 covers summer camp tuition for a young lady in a Crisis Pregnancy Home – like Erin.