Our Thanksgiving Offering total is: $23,948.00
That includes all the offerings received by the close of November and listed in this issue of the Mission Sheets – 23 offerings to date. We bless God and thank each of you who has given. Others have sent in your offerings this current month and will be added to next month’s update. THE THANKSGIVING OFFERING WILL REMAIN OPEN AS LONG AS YOU GIVE. There is no “expiration date” for giving to the Thanksgiving Offering.
If you have not given to our Thanksgiving Offering, we hope you will do so. No one should think that your offering is too small to be significant. NO OFFERING IS TOO SMALL. And our need for your most generous Thanksgiving Offering you can give has never been more critical than it is now.
-_________________-
$50,000 MONTHLY SOLVENCY GOAL
I am frequently asked: “What is BFM’s greatest need?” The answer is always: “THE GENERAL FUND!” Our 14 missionary families depend on commitments we have made to them from General Fund supplies.
When you support the GENERAL FUND, you are contributing to the salaries, housing, ministry expenses, health care, furlough travel expenses, and other commitments we have made to them. All of these standard commitments are “big ticket items”. Every month we disburse from the GENERAL FUND for the benefit of our missionaries: $23,860.00 for salaries; $12,400.00 for standard expense accounts; $8500.00 for insurance premiums as well as other support services and benefits [like the printing of the Mission Sheets you are reading right now]. ALL OF THESE DISBURSEMENTS, MODEST AS THEY ARE, ARE SUPPLIED FROM THE GENERAL FUND.
When you give to the GENERAL FUND, you are enabling them to serve the Lord daily where they are without the distraction of wondering whether their essential basic needs will be met to keep them on the field.
If you are not giving to the GENERAL FUND, we hope you will commit to giving a monthly offering so we can meet their needs. If you are giving to the GENERAL FUND, would you consider increasing your offering as you are able. TOGETHER, WE CAN DO IT!
-_________________-
POSSIBLE REDUCTIONS TO OUR MISSIONARIES’ MONTHLY DEPOSITS
If we are not able to meet the standard, essential financial commitments we have made to our missionaries from monthly GENERAL FUND offerings, we will have no choice but to reduce their monthly deposits proportionately to the shortfall in that month’s GENERAL FUND contributions. That means we will necessarily ask each one of them to bear a proportionate share of the total deficit between that month’s GENERAL FUND offerings and the disbursements those offerings supply. We can’t disburse funds we don’t have.
WE HAVE DONE...AND ARE DOING...EVERYTHING WE CAN DO TO AVOID COMING TO THAT POINT. THIS IS THE ACTION THAT WE MOST DREAD. Our missionaries cannot afford to do without any of the commitments we have made to them. They already struggle with the challenge of making their personal/family/ministry ends meet on their present budgets, compounded by the continual rise in their costs of living, decrease of the dollar’s value against their field currency, and the fluctuating exchange rates they deal with.
HELP THEM THIS MONTH WITH YOUR INCREASED OFFERINGS TO THE GENERAL FUND!
God bless you, all our missionaries’ Giving Friends!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
"THANK YOU!" GIVING FRIENDS!
“THANK YOU, GIVING FRIENDS!” We don't say that often enough, but we want to be sure you know how much we appreciate your faithful support for our missionaries. AND ESPECIALLY TO ALL OF YOU WHO FAITHFULLY AND CONSISTENTLY GIVE TO THE GENERAL FUND – THANK YOU! We need and appreciate ALL your offerings to our missionaries...but your offerings to the General Fund keep our missionaries on their fields of ministry. Our General Fund offerings supply our missionaries’ “DAILY BREAD” - “BREAD & BUTTER” – “SIMPLE BARE NECESSITIES” – “KEEP THE LIGHTS ON” – how else can we say it to emphasize how fundamentally essential it is to supply the GENERAL FUND with sufficient offerings to meet our missionaries’ essential living and ministry expenses.
GENERAL FUND MONTHLY SOLVENCY: $50,000.00
WE STILL NEED INCREASED OFFERINGS TO OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND. We disburse $50,000.00 each month in standard commitments we have made to our missionaries. EVERY MONTH - MONTH AFTER MONTH – OUR MISSIONARIES EXPECT US TO PROVIDE THESE COMMITMENTS WE HAVE PROMISED THEM. We struggle every day of every month to “pay the bills” and meet the basic, essential commitments of salaries, expense accounts, and all the other standard benefits, and support services we have told them we will provide for them.
WE ARE NOT RECEIVING SUFFICIENT MATCHING OFFERINGS FOR THE STANDARD MONTHLY DISBURSEMENTS WE MAKE EACH MONTH. We need every one of our missionaries' Giving Friends to make a personal, proportionate, perpetual commitment to give to the GENERAL FUND each month.
WE CAN MAKE OUR MONTHLY STANDARD GENERAL FUND DISBURSEMENTS SOLVENT IF EVERY ONE OF US DOES A PART. You can check our progress with us simply by looking at the Contributions page in this and every issue of the Mission Sheets. Look for the total given to the GENERAL FUND. That is what we have to work with to provide for our missionaries' essential, basic, daily needs.
WE ARE ALL OUR MISSIONARIES HAVE TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT – as the Lord Himself works through us by His own Grace, of course.
$100,000.00 THANKSGIVING OFFERING GOAL
Again, "THANK YOU!" to every one of you who has given to our Thanksgiving Offering over the years of our BFM history – and who are giving your offerings again this year. We have come this far BY FAITH – BY THE GRACE OF GOD – AND BY YOUR FAITHFUL COMMITMENT AND GENEROSITY!
Ordinarily, the bulk of our Thanksgiving Offering is given during the months of November and December. ASK THE LORD TO GIVE YOU A GENEROUS HELPING OF GRACE TO GIVE TO OUR MISSIONARIES.
Make a PERSONAL, PROPORTIONATE contribution to our Thanksgiving Offering. [See 2 Corinthians 8.12-14] IF YOU SEE THAT WE ARE NOT REACHING OUR GOAL WE NEED TO GIVE, THEN GIVE AGAIN SO WE CAN FULFILL THE COMMITMENTS WE HAVE MADE TO OUR MISSIONARIES. The Thanksgiving Offering giving opportunity is open as long as you are giving.
2009 Needs
We will need the Thanksgiving Offering funds to help us meet our monthly deficits as 2009 unfolds IF WE DON'T MEET OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND SOLVENCY GOAL.
Pending Disbursements
Also, we still have several thousands of dollars in benefits commitments we have made to our missionaries – but which are still pending and unpaid because we didn't have the funds during the year to pay them. So, the missionaries are still carrying that personal expense themselves. WE NEED TO FULFILL THAT COMMITMENT WE MADE TO THEM AND REIMBURSE THEM.
The standard commitments we make to our missionaries are still, at the very best we are doing, only very modest disbursements. All of our services and benefits should be increased, but we can't even think about increasing them if we are not meeting the commitments we have already made.
We are praying and asking the Lord to burden each of our hearts to join this worthy giving ministry – so our missionaries' needs will be met…so they can fund their daily ministry activities…so the Gospel of Christ can be proclaimed in all the nations of the world…so more people will be saved from their sins and discipled to follow Jesus Christ…and so THE GLORY OF CHRIST WILL COVER THE EARTH AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA!
Now, therefore, KNOW...and CONSIDER WHAT YOU WILL DO!
1 Samuel 25.17
Grace – including Giving Grace – be with you all!
The Directors of Baptist Faith Missions
GENERAL FUND MONTHLY SOLVENCY: $50,000.00
WE STILL NEED INCREASED OFFERINGS TO OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND. We disburse $50,000.00 each month in standard commitments we have made to our missionaries. EVERY MONTH - MONTH AFTER MONTH – OUR MISSIONARIES EXPECT US TO PROVIDE THESE COMMITMENTS WE HAVE PROMISED THEM. We struggle every day of every month to “pay the bills” and meet the basic, essential commitments of salaries, expense accounts, and all the other standard benefits, and support services we have told them we will provide for them.
WE ARE NOT RECEIVING SUFFICIENT MATCHING OFFERINGS FOR THE STANDARD MONTHLY DISBURSEMENTS WE MAKE EACH MONTH. We need every one of our missionaries' Giving Friends to make a personal, proportionate, perpetual commitment to give to the GENERAL FUND each month.
WE CAN MAKE OUR MONTHLY STANDARD GENERAL FUND DISBURSEMENTS SOLVENT IF EVERY ONE OF US DOES A PART. You can check our progress with us simply by looking at the Contributions page in this and every issue of the Mission Sheets. Look for the total given to the GENERAL FUND. That is what we have to work with to provide for our missionaries' essential, basic, daily needs.
WE ARE ALL OUR MISSIONARIES HAVE TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT – as the Lord Himself works through us by His own Grace, of course.
$100,000.00 THANKSGIVING OFFERING GOAL
Again, "THANK YOU!" to every one of you who has given to our Thanksgiving Offering over the years of our BFM history – and who are giving your offerings again this year. We have come this far BY FAITH – BY THE GRACE OF GOD – AND BY YOUR FAITHFUL COMMITMENT AND GENEROSITY!
Ordinarily, the bulk of our Thanksgiving Offering is given during the months of November and December. ASK THE LORD TO GIVE YOU A GENEROUS HELPING OF GRACE TO GIVE TO OUR MISSIONARIES.
Make a PERSONAL, PROPORTIONATE contribution to our Thanksgiving Offering. [See 2 Corinthians 8.12-14] IF YOU SEE THAT WE ARE NOT REACHING OUR GOAL WE NEED TO GIVE, THEN GIVE AGAIN SO WE CAN FULFILL THE COMMITMENTS WE HAVE MADE TO OUR MISSIONARIES. The Thanksgiving Offering giving opportunity is open as long as you are giving.
2009 Needs
We will need the Thanksgiving Offering funds to help us meet our monthly deficits as 2009 unfolds IF WE DON'T MEET OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND SOLVENCY GOAL.
Pending Disbursements
Also, we still have several thousands of dollars in benefits commitments we have made to our missionaries – but which are still pending and unpaid because we didn't have the funds during the year to pay them. So, the missionaries are still carrying that personal expense themselves. WE NEED TO FULFILL THAT COMMITMENT WE MADE TO THEM AND REIMBURSE THEM.
The standard commitments we make to our missionaries are still, at the very best we are doing, only very modest disbursements. All of our services and benefits should be increased, but we can't even think about increasing them if we are not meeting the commitments we have already made.
We are praying and asking the Lord to burden each of our hearts to join this worthy giving ministry – so our missionaries' needs will be met…so they can fund their daily ministry activities…so the Gospel of Christ can be proclaimed in all the nations of the world…so more people will be saved from their sins and discipled to follow Jesus Christ…and so THE GLORY OF CHRIST WILL COVER THE EARTH AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA!
Now, therefore, KNOW...and CONSIDER WHAT YOU WILL DO!
1 Samuel 25.17
Grace – including Giving Grace – be with you all!
The Directors of Baptist Faith Missions
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
