Despite last year’s economic downturn, Southern Baptists still contributed more than $58 million to the annual Annie Armstrong Easter Offering in 2008 — 98 percent of the amount raised in the previous year’s campaign.
North American Mission Board President Geoff Hammond announced the unaudited results of the offering Jan. 12 at a meeting of some 100 national and state leaders of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega.
“It’s been a tough year,” Hammond told the WMU leaders. “We knew we were in a recession, and the economists didn’t confirm it until September. But it was going on all year. We were raising Annie Armstrong funds in the middle of $4-a-gallon gasoline prices.
“To raise $58 million in a recession was a miracle, and we praise God for that,” Hammond said. “While Annie was down about 2.2 percent over last year, the fund raising of many charitable organizations was down 10 percent or more.
“We praise God for the faithfulness of His people in giving to cooperative missions and to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering in 2008,” Hammond said. “We rejoice at the sustained giving of Southern Baptists.”
Hammond added that in times of recession, Southern Baptists have to focus on the most important things.
“We’re determined that although there is an economic recession, we cannot allow an evangelistic recession,” he said.
The 2009 goal for the Annie Armstrong offering is $65 million. This year’s Week of Prayer is March 1–8. Its theme will be “Live with Urgency: Sowing Together for Harvest.”
The Annie Armstrong offering accounts for 46 percent of NAMB’s budget. The other key channel of funding is Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program by which churches’ gifts support state, national and international missions and ministries. (BP)
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