October Mission Offering Update: World Mission Offering

Our October Mission is the World Mission Offering. This year’s theme is “Celebrating New Life in Christ – On Earth as in Heaven (Matthew 6:10)”.

This offering goes to support the work of the American Baptist Board of International Ministries as well as our special focus missionaries, Dan and Sarah Chetti, serving in Lebanon and Dan and Sharon Buttry, serving as Global Peace Specialists. This year there is a special emphasis on ministry in Cuba.

We have received $445 toward goal of $850.

October Mission Offering Update: World Mission Offering

Our October Mission is the World Mission Offering. This year’s theme is “Celebrating New Life in Christ – On Earth as in Heaven (Matthew 6:10)”.

This offering goes to support the work of the American Baptist Board of International Ministries as well as our special focus missionaries, Dan and Sarah Chetti, serving in Lebanon and Dan and Sharon Buttry, serving as Global Peace Specialists. This year there is a special emphasis on ministry in Cuba.

We have received $155 toward goal of $850.

October Mission Offering Update: World Mission Offering

Our October Mission is the World Mission Offering. This year’s theme is “Celebrating New Life in Christ – On Earth as in Heaven (Matthew 6:10)”.

This offering goes to support the work of the American Baptist Board of International Ministries as well as our special focus missionaries, Dan and Sarah Chetti, serving in Lebanon and Dan and Sharon Buttry, serving as Global Peace Specialists. This year there is a special emphasis on ministry in Cuba.

We have received $100 toward goal of $850.

October 2016 Mission Offering: World Mission Offering

World Mission OfferingAmerican Baptist International Ministries is supported solely through the generosity of churches and individuals. Their primary fundraising vehicle is the annual World Mission Offering. Currently about 100 full-time missionaries, along with short-term missionaries and mission partners, serve in more than 70 countries. Their central mission is to help people come to faith in Jesus, grow in their relationship with God and change their worlds through the power of the Spirit. Churches may also give through their budget to a missionary of their choice (Targeted Giving).

This year’s theme is “Celebrating New Life in Christ – On Earth as in Heaven (Matthew 6:10)”. This offering goes to support the work of the American Baptist Board of International Ministries as well as our special focus missionaries, Dan and Sarah Chetti, serving in Lebanon and Dan and Sharon Buttry, serving as Global Peace Specialists. This year there is a special emphasis on ministry in Cuba.

Our goal for this offering is $800.

OGHS Relief for Syrian Refugees

Syrian refugeesVALLEY FORGE, PA (9/17/15)—The Board of Directors of IM officially expressed its long-term commitment to supporting Syrian refugee and IDP communities in the recent International Ministries Resolution on Syrian Refugees. The resolution paves the way for a focused mobilization of human and financial resources to pray for, meet the needs of and prepare to receive Syrian refugees.

As a first step in this next stage of response, IM has sent an additional $10,000 in OGHS emergency funding to provide immediate relief for Syrian refugees and IDPs. Of this grant, IM partners Hungarian Baptist Aid and the Union of Baptist Churches of Serbia have each been given $5,000. The aid will be used to supply food and water, clothing, shelter and medical clinics. Future OGHS grants will support the efforts of all IM partners who are providing relief to Syrian IDPs and refugees.

Read more at ABC/USA

American Baptist News (5/2016)

American Baptist ChurchesNew Leadership

International Ministries has called the Reverend Sharon T. Koh as Executive Director to begin at the end of August when IM Executive Director Dr. Reid Trulson retires.  Reverend Koh now serves as senior associate pastor of the Evergreen Baptist Church in Los Angeles where she has served since 2004.  Koh was born to missionary parents in Singapore where her parents worked with Campus Crusade; she has also lived in the Philippines, Korea, and the United States.  She received degrees at Westmont College and Fuller Seminary.  In her current position, Koh provides leadership, especially in the area of cross-cultural mission outreach, both locally and globally, and nurtures the congregation’s growth in discipleship through small groups and teaching ministries.  According to Dr. Trulson, ”Sharon Koh brings a love of Jesus, a sensitivity to the Spirit, and a knowledgeable commitment to the mission of God that will enable her to give wise and creative guidance to IM in the years ahead.”

The Home Mission Society called Dr. Jeffrey Haggray as Executive Director to work with national and regional American Baptist-related organizations to provide a clear vision of mission, cultivate relationships, and develop resources for transformational ministry with congregations, communities, and regions across the United States and Puerto Rico.  For twenty years, Dr. Haggray served as pastor to congregations in New Jersey, Washington D.C., and Georgia including leading the Washington D.C. Baptist Convention for nearly a decade, which has provided him with a broad perspective about ministry.  “The USA is a strategic mission field for proclaiming the Christian gospel, developing Christian disciples, promoting justice, and collaborating and networking for ministry…..As we impact America for Christ, we impact the world, ….as American Baptists develop strategies, resources and leaders for discipleship, evangelism, mission engagement, community-building, and justice-making here (in the USA), we also strengthen the Christian witness globally,” he said.  His wife, the Rev. Shelby Martin Haggray, is also an ordained American Baptist minister.

Recognition to Ramesh Kumar of Balasore Technical School

The treasurer of IM, Paul Vick, attended the India Property Committee and ABFM Legacy Trust Board Meeting in India in April. Recognition plaques were presented to the Reverend Imo Aier of Northeast India and Ramesh Kumar, Principal of Balasore Technical School, for their “tremendous contributions on property settlement and reviving churches in India.”  Income from the property settlement, related to properties formerly belonging to ABFMS, has provided significant financial support to the ministries of our partner conventions in India and to the important ministries on religious liberty, anti-human trafficking, youth and women issues and leadership development in India, according to Reverend Ben Chan, IM Area Director for East Asia, China, and India.

“Partner conventions” in India include the Telegu churches in South India, the BOBBCA (Bengal Orissa Bihar Baptist Churches Association), and the CBCNEI (Council of Baptist Churches of North East India).  Ramesh Kumar along with Imo Aier (who also served as a “missionary” in BOBBCA) provided many hours of work on behalf of IM, settling these property matters in the courts.

World Mission Conference

 This year’s World Mission Conference will be held:

July 4 – 9, 2016
Green Lake Convention Center
Greenlake, Wisconsin

Registration for the conference opened on March 10th. For more information, see:
http://www.internationalministries.org/read/60276-2016-world-mission-conference-dates

Mission News from Kikongo

Kikongo soccer teamIn January 2013, our children and youth helped FBCPA to raise $931 for soccer balls for children and youth in the villages of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glen and Rita Chapman have been involved for 20 years in a rural pastoral training institution in Kikongo. The soccer balls were delivered via a PPC: a powered parachute which Glen uses to transport fragile audiovisual materials out to the villages. The Kikongo soccer team is shown at right:

The training school is being raised to the competitive level of a university and will begin with 3 majors: Theology, Agriculture, and Teacher Training. More than 60 men and women have already enrolled. (The parents of both Glen and Rita were classmates with the Hunwicks and the Fungs at BBDS/ABSW in 1950-51).

Kikongo university staff

To read more about the Chapmans and the new university, see:
http://www.internationalministries.org/read/60176-new-university

Freedom House Donation

Freedom HouseFollowing a recommendation from the Mission Task Team, a grant of $2,500 was given by FBCPA from the proceeds of the Annex sale to a local ministry called Freedom House, specifically for “The Nest,” a Santa Clara County program for girls age 12–17 who are involved in human trafficking.

International Ministries recently provided information that describes 8 Facts about Slavery, stating that “trafficking in persons” means all types of enslavement — in factories, agricultural work, domestic labor, and the sex trade. There are an estimated 35.9 million slaves in the world today, and the State Department says that 750,000 people are trafficked across international borders, with as many as 17,500 people trafficked into the US every year.   Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry after illegal drugs and arms trafficking, with annual profits of $32 billion, $15 billion from industrialized countries.  Children represent 26% of all forced labor victims, according to this information.

Eleven ABCUSA International Ministries missionaries or missionary couples are listed as serving people involved in human trafficking in Thailand, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Ghana, Laos, and the Netherlands.

October Mission Offering Update: World Mission Offering

World Mission OfferingSTRETCH FORWARD!

October’s Special Mission Offering is the World Mission Offering.

American Baptist International Ministries (IM), is supported solely through the generosity of churches and individuals. The primary fundraising vehicle is the annual World Mission Offering. This year’s World Mission Offering focuses on schools in Hungary, which were previously managed by the Communist government, but are now run by Hungarian churches. Your support enables IM to offer support to partner organizations like Hungarian Baptist Aid, which now manages 49 schools in Hungary. In addition to regular curriculum, these schools provide English classes and after-school Bible classes.

In addition to our contribution to the World Mission Offering general fund, one-third of our October offering goes each to: Dan and Sarah Chetti who serve at the Baptist Theological Seminary and the Center for Ministry for Migrant Domestic Workers in Beirut, Lebanon and Dan Buttry, Global Consultant for Peace and Justice.

To date we have received $1008 toward our goal of $850.

 

October Mission Offering Update: World Mission Offering (10/21/15)

World Mission OfferingSTRETCH FORWARD!

October’s Special Mission Offering is the World Mission Offering.

American Baptist International Ministries (IM), is supported solely through the generosity of churches and individuals. The primary fundraising vehicle is the annual World Mission Offering. This year’s World Mission Offering focuses on schools in Hungary, which were previously managed by the Communist government, but are now run by Hungarian churches. Your support enables IM to offer support to partner organizations like Hungarian Baptist Aid, which now manages 49 schools in Hungary. In addition to regular curriculum, these schools provide English classes and after-school Bible classes.

In addition to our contribution to the World Mission Offering general fund, one-third of our October offering goes each to: Dan and Sarah Chetti who serve at the Baptist Theological Seminary and the Center for Ministry for Migrant Domestic Workers in Beirut, Lebanon and Dan Buttry, Global Consultant for Peace and Justice.

To date we have received $778 toward our goal of $850.