For the next couple of weeks, we will be focused on our most significant missions moment of the year, our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Our goal as a church family is $62,000 – every penny of which will go to the International Mission Board to send and sustain missionaries on the field.

Last Sunday, we passed out brochures called “Your Gifts At Work,” which detailed some of the many ways your LMCO gifts are used to reach people for Christ. I hope you’ll take some time to look over it, and pray for the work of your IMB missionaries around the world. If you had to miss this past Sunday, there are plenty of them around the church. Be sure to pick one up.

This Sunday, we will begin our “Week of Prayer” for International Missions. To kick off this special week, I’ve invited Dr. D. Ray Davis from the IMB to come share with us in our service. D. Ray is one of the many wonderful people I have come in contact with as a result of my service as an IMB Trustee. He serves in the IMB’s Mobilization Department, working with churches just like ours to show how our local labors can be partnered with the incredible things that God is doing around the world. D. Ray has a huge heart for the Lord, and you will see his passion for Christ and His Kingdom as he shares this Sunday.

Also, if you want to learn more inspiring things about what God is doing around the world, I would encourage you to go to imb.org. On this website you’ll find incredible stories and videos that will help you in praying for the work of your missionaries around the world. And they are your missionaries. They are completely supported by what you give week by week and by your Lottie Moon gifts.

As an IMB Trustee, I can tell you that your missionaries rely on your LMCO gifts. This next year, for the first time since 2009, your missionary force at IMB will begin to grow again. This is wonderful news! Our intention is to commission over 450 new people next year, and send them around the world with the good news of Jesus. But our budget at IMB is based on the faith that Southern Baptists will give generously and sacrificially to the LMCO.

Will you come through? As we look around at the glut of commercialism in our culture, with people trying to decide what to buy for people who already have more than they need, will you instead make an impact for eternity on those in desperate need?

Don’t waste the resources God has entrusted to you. Instead, leverage them for His glory. Our Ingathering Service for the LMCO will be on December 11. Be in prayer about going beyond where you have ever gone in your Lottie Moon giving.

By His Grace, For His Glory, To The Nations,

Dr. Thurman Hayes, Jr.