LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING: Join us in December & January for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®. Our offering goal for 2020 is $7,000. Giving to this offering can be done online at gabcames.org/giving/or through a check made payable to Grand Avenue Baptist Church with Lottie Moon Offering written on the memo line and put in the offering boxes at the back of the sanctuary or mailed to the office at 612 24th Street, Ames, IA 50010.
Starting in 1888, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® was established to empower the international missions efforts for Southern Baptists. After more than a century, the annual offering continues its steady growth. Your giving enables missionaries to be sent to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached peoples and places for the glory of God. For more information about the Lottie Moon Christmas offering check here.
LOTTIE MOON PRAYER GUIDE FOR INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS
Day 5: A Life Given is a Sacrifice
Throughout their 175-year history, Southern Baptists have maintained an uninterrupted witness among the nations, in spite of famine, war, and civil unrest. This commitment has not come without sacrifice.
About 60 missionaries and children have died because of tragic circumstances while serving with the International Mission Board (IMB) since the organization’s founding in 1845, when it was known as the Foreign Mission Board. The causes include accidents such as drowning, automobile and aircraft crashes, and ships lost at sea. They also include deaths as a result of war and criminal or terrorist acts. In some cases, the missionaries were targeted specifically because of their faith or missionary service.
Of those 60, more than 20 IMB missionaries lost their lives “as a result of human hostility in a cross-cultural setting,” according to Scott Peterson of the IMB global research team. While the IMB does not typically refer to or describe personnel who died in active service as “martyrs”, the sacrifice of those who died while serving cross-culturally is now less significant that those who were targeted specifically for their faith.
Each life given is a sacrifice because of a life lived in obedience to Christ.
THANK GOD for the men and women who, with their children, have traveled to the ends of the earth to share the gospel with those who have never heard.
THANK GOD for the uninterrupted witness of Southern Baptists among the nations for 175 years.
ASK GOD to continue to protect missionaries and their families serving in cross-cultural and often difficult areas around the globe.