Christmas season giving

For Southern Baptists, this is the height of the push for giving to missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. For those of you who are not SB, let me tell you what a good thing we got going!

About 100 years ago, there was a little bitty 4 foot nothing woman named Lottie Moon who was a missionary in China. She heard that Methodists were collecting an offering for missions and thought that Southern Baptists could collect more. She challenged a group of women back in the States to take up an offering specifically for missions. The tradition began.





Now, it accounts for somewhere around 40% of the budget of the International Mission Board. The rest of the budget comes from a really cool thing we call the "Cooperative Program". It is where SB churches from all over the US voluntarily contribute part of their weekly offering to support things like the IMB, the mission board in the US (called the North American Mission Board), seminaries, and some of our other denominational organizations. Part of the budget also comes from endowments and investments.

What it essentially does for us, the IMB missionaries, is provide our salary, our housing, our health insurance, our transportation needs, our logistical support on the field and in the US, continued training, retreats, meetings, and a whole lot more that I can't seem to remember right now.

In any case, you, even though you may or may not be Southern Baptist, have an opportunity to contribute to this missions offering. You can mail your check to:


Development Office
International Mission Board
3806 Monument Ave
PO Box 6767
Richmond, VA 23230-0767

Or you can give online at: http://resources.imb.org/index.cfm/fa/store.prod/ProdID/256.cfm

Do something special with your giving this year. Make an eternal impact. Give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. You'll be glad you did.

For those of you who are SB, thank you for your generous, faithful, continued support through the LMCO and through your regular giving throug the CP. We really, really appreciate it and find it an honor being "your" missionaries. May God bless you this Christmas season!