Sunday, December 9, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 8

The Path to Hope

The world has more refugees today than ever before in recorded history. They’re on the move across dangerous seas. They’re trekking on foot over mountain ranges. They’re trying to create a life for themselves in a new country with nothing but the clothes on their back. 

And in the midst of their heartbreaking story, many refugees have walked right into the eternal hope that was waiting for them all along.

IMB workers all over the globe say they are seeing refugees come to faith in Christ in the ashes of their tragedy. It’s an unprecedented opportunity for the gospel to reach people from hard-to-reach countries. More...

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 7

Keeping the Well from Running Dry

At the end of a beaten-up road in Tanzania, a small hospital occasionally gets as full as it can get, and then runs on empty. In the past, it’s had moments where sick children slept two or three to a bed. It’s had moments where anesthetic drugs for C-sections and suture materials for surgery have run out.

But the situation has never stayed that way for long, reported Larry Pepper, an IMB doctor. Over and over, churches have stepped up to cover the hospital’s needs, all the way from wheelchairs to building a new pediatric wing. More...

Friday, December 7, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 6

Coming Back Changed

Keith Wieser said he’s found a surefire way to develop courage in sharing your faith—go to East Asia. Over the past three years, more than 80 students have participated in his church’s partnership with IMB workers in that region, going there to serve for 10 weeks in the summer or two weeks on Christmas break. That experience changes everything, said Keith, who serves as lead pastor of Resonate Church, a Washington state-based church with campuses in Idaho and Oregon.

“They come back, and their perspective on their life and on the world is completely changed,” he said. “They see lostness where they had just seen regularity, and they see themselves as missionaries more than when they left.” More...

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 5

Not a 'Flash in the Pan'

J.D. Greear says his church’s partnership with IMB missionaries is more than just a partnership—it’s a front-row seat to some of God’s most exciting work in hard-to-reach places.

“The most significant things in the world are happening through the church that God is building,” said J.D., pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, “We pray, we give, we go—not because we have to, but because of what God has promised he’s going to do among the nations.” More...

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 4

A Piece of the Puzzle

Every single week, Pastor Fabio in Brazil makes it into the prayers of a few hundred people in Kentucky. Chris Platt, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Shelbyville, says that’s because they’ve met Fabio—and that in turn has made missions personal.

Ever since Chris’s church partnered with the work of IMB missionaries Scott and Joyce Pittman in São Paulo, Brazil, several years ago, the needs there have had faces and names. As the people of Highland Baptist have traveled annually to carry out outreach in the city of 22 million, it’s made them see their part in the “whole ball of wax” that is the Great Commission, Chris said. More...

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 3

A "Miracle" Partnership

Four years ago when IMB worker Edwin Feather* set out to reach a large city in Southeast Asia, Daniel Tuchez was there. Daniel’s team wasn’t just the first Hispanic missions team to partner with Edwin in that city; it was the first team, period. And Daniel, who serves as pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Shaddai in Jackson, Tennessee, wouldn’t have it any other way. More...

Monday, December 3, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 2

A Small Church's Big Dreams

A few years ago, Pastor Steve Lakin’s small church took a big leap of faith. They had a large budget surplus, and they weren’t sure how to use it. But after some praying and dreaming, First Baptist Church of Andersonville, Tennessee, congregation of 125, decided to commit to something radical. They decided to raise $90,000, the equivalent to fund a missionary couple for a year. More...

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: Day 1

The Pepper Family

Larry Pepper was on a trajectory. He was a NASA flight surgeon who was good at his job, active in his church, involved as a dad—and possibly headed for space. It wouldn’t be long before he ended up as a candidate finalist for a space mission. But God interrupted his plans. As Larry thought more and more about his life and its eternal significance, he felt God saying, “You’ve committed everything to me except your job.” It soon became evident God was drawing him to walk away.