Week of Prayer 2014 | Missions just got personal

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® enables IMB missionaries to live and work at the forefront of lostness and extend our witness through their full-time ministry. Southern Baptists send missionaries from their churches, through IMB, to go into the world making disciples in the name of Jesus. In that partnership, Southern Baptists provide the funding to send and support these missionaries and their ministries. The more resources they provide, the more missionaries can be sent.

Tony Mathews thought international missions weren’t for everyone, that as a pastor his focus should be on the local church.

North Garland Baptist Fellowship, where he has served for 22 years, supported the Cooperative Program. Members of the Texas church had gone on international missions trips, which the pastor had supported — from a distance.

That changed in 2012 when he helped lead activities for children of Southern Baptist missionaries in Africa.

Talking with those missionaries, including Adam and Suzie Hailes from Madagascar, rocked Tony’s world — how he saw it and himself. He realized how enriching a pastor’s personal involvement in international missions could be to a local church. That’s a message he now shares with other African-American pastors in the Dallas area. He recruits them to go on missions trips with him, most recently in partnership with missionaries Johnny and Donna Maust to reach Afro-Ecuadorians. The church also partners with the Hailes.

And, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® for International Missions is becoming part of the church’s vocabulary, both collectively and within families.

“Now, I desire that everyone craves to be a part of it,” Tony says. “I want to show my people that God is not only their personal God, but He is also a global God, and we need to be there to share that news with others.”

Pray how you can share the Gospel both near and far, according to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

Pray for missionaries like the Mausts and Hailes, who rely on support from fellow Southern Baptists.
Scripture to Claim:

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.  Isaiah 6:8