DECEMBER 2008 THANKSGIVING OFFERING UPDATE

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.
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$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!
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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!