JEFFERSON CITY – The Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering supports 24 ministries in Missouri. This year’s theme is taken from 2 Corinthians 8:5: “They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.”
Following are two short stories about how the gifts of Missouri Baptists support missions projects throughout the Show Me State.
Caring for the abused, neglected
Missouri faces a foster-care crisis. No one knows this better than Ramona Conrad-Cooper, who leads children and family ministries at the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH). According to her, more than 16,400 children are in the state’s foster-care system. Many of these young people are abused or neglected.
MBCH is a major provider of Christian foster families through a variety of recruitment, training, and case-management programs. Foster families must secure and maintain state certification, at an annual cost of $1,150. MMO helped support more than 100 foster homes last year, and the need for foster families and financial support continues to be great.
Pray for:
• God to call out Christian foster families in Missouri
• Abused and neglected children across our state
Making much of Christ
in Big Sky Country
Steve Fowler is on a mission to make much of Christ in Montana. The Southern Baptist church planter knows first-hand that the work can be as challenging as the fierce winters and rugged landscape of Big Sky Country.
That’s one reason Fowler is cheering the new partnership between Missouri Baptists and the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. Missouri Baptist churches are forging relationships with churches in Montana, sending mission teams to aid in church planting, and offering help and support to pastors and their wives.
MMO funds recently helped Life Point Church in Ozark, Mo., sponsor a church-planter retreat in Montana. Dozens of churches across the Show-Me state are beginning to engage in this new venture.
Pray for:
• Montana Baptist pastors, church planters, and their families
• MBC congregations to partner with Montana Baptists