BRACKENHURST, Tigoni, Kenya (IMB)—Thirty-five missionaries and missionary children—over half of them from Wycliffe Bible translators—recently completed the second “40 Days, 40 Nights” intensive field orientation in the IMB’s proposed Central, Eastern and Southern Africa Region. The six-week program is designed to prepare new missionaries to live, work, and serve with different cultures and peoples on the African mission field.

Last week in my editorial, “Surging missions commitment?” (Nov. 25, 2004), I urged Florida Baptists to match their increased giving to the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) in this year’s effort. I need to update the statistics I used.

BANGALORE, India (IMB)—Ask people around Bangalore, India, what a Christian looks like and many would describe Dr. Rebekah Naylor, the Southern Baptist missionary surgeon who has labored at Bangalore Baptist Hospital for the past 30 years.

What a difference a year makes!

I am still overwhelmed with joy and praise to God as I think of Southern Baptists giving $136.2 million to the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. It represents the largest dollar increase in the offering’s 115-year history. But more importantly, it enabled the International Mission Board to appoint more missionaries to impact a lost world with the Gospel.

BANGALORE, India (IMB)—While his American corporate client sleeps many time zones away, Allen works 12, 14, sometimes 16 hours a day. Whatever it takes to get the job done—on time and on target.

What is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®?

Southern Baptist churches collect this offering for the sole purpose of supporting international missions. Every penny of the offering goes to support the International Mission Board’s overseas budget, thus supporting our missionaries.

UJJAIN, India (IMB)—Dawn came almost unnoticed to the sacred river Shipra. Even the waking sun seemed overwhelmed by the scene unfolding at the water’s edge:

When our son, Matthew, was a preschooler, he loved to go to Mission Friends on Wednesday evening at our church. Following prayer meeting one week, he came to his pastor’s office (who happened to be his father), proudly carrying a puzzle he had created.

MUMBAI (IMB)—Where can you find thousands of millionaires—and nine of the world’s richest billionaires?

If your most vivid impressions of India come from old National Geographics and Rudyard Kipling’s jungle stories, update your mental file with these facts:

Southern Baptists have always believed that together we can accomplish much more than we ever could apart. That’s what drives the Cooperative Program and the special missions offerings our churches give each year to support and sustain our denomination’s response to God’s Acts 1:8 command.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
(Acts 1:8 NIV)

DELHI (IMB)— Pride goeth before a fall.

India’s ruling Hindu nationalists tasted the bitter truth of Solomon’s warning earlier this year. Popular, confident and riding a wave of economic expansion, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called early parliamentary elections. He fully expected the nationalist alliance dominated by his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win.