NORTH AFRICA – Their names can’t be shared for security reasons, their photos can’t be published and their ministry location can’t be disclosed, but the “R Family” wants Missouri Baptists to know just how thankful they are for the support provided through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
Originally members of a Missouri Baptist church in the Kansas City area, the R Family – dad, mom and six kids – felt God’s call to North Africa. After they were accepted into the International Mission Board’s training program, they picked up their lives and moved to North Africa. They spent several years in language school preparing to plant churches and training local leaders. Now that they know enough of the language to get around on their own, they are focused building relationships and read the Bible with locals.
“Thank you for your gifts through Lottie Moon,” R said. “You don’t know what that kind of support means to us.”
One hundred percent of Lottie Moon gifts go to funding missionaries on the front lines of lostness around the world. Each year, the offering accounts for more than half of the total IMB budget ($264.4 million in 2018-19).
Gifts through Lottie Moon not only provide the basics for IMB missionaries like the R Family, but it provides “luxuries” like a generator to provide their home with power, education for the R kids and a reliable four-wheel drive vehicle to get around the countryside.
The R Family is currently back in the Kansas City area on furlough, but will return to North Africa early in 2020. They asked Missouri Baptists to pray for relationships being built in there and that their language skills would continue to grow. They also asked for prayer that local believers would remain strong and bold in the face of a culture and government that are often antagonistic to Christianity. Gifts through Lottie Moon not only provide the basics for IMB missionaries like the R Family, but it provides “luxuries” like a generator to provide their home with power, education for the R kids and a reliable four-wheel drive vehicle to get around the countryside.