Jim Swedenburg said that for three straight years, some sort of major weather event collided with the Sunday that churches took up the Hunger Offering.
“There have been hurricanes skirt the state and power outages that have kept churches from meeting on the Sunday of the offering emphasis,” he said.
So to get away from the storms and to also give it some space from what’s now also the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering season, the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions has decided to move the Hunger Offering from October to February starting in 2019.
Swedenburg, director of the office of Cooperative Program and stewardship development, said they haven’t seen the totals yet from this October’s offering, but he’s hoping they will be good.
He’s also hoping moving the offering from October to February will give it even more of a shot in the arm.
“Since the offering has been declining over the last few years we hope this will infuse some new attention and life,” Swedenburg said.
In years past the offering has been called a lot of names, from World Hunger Sunday to the Alabama Hunger Offering for Global Hunger Relief. Swedenburg said any of those names work — it’s all the Hunger Offering, which they’re calling it commonly these days for simplicity’s sake.
Alabama definitely has hunger needs to meet. Swedenburg said 25 percent of hunger offerings are distributed in Alabama, where 65 missions stations distribute food using the funds.
Throughout the world
The rest is used by the International Mission Board — which distributes the funds through Baptist Global Response — and the North American Mission Board for distribution throughout the nation and world. And even though the Hunger Offering emphasis is now in February Swedenburg said the SBOM does accept money for the offering all year long.
To learn more about the offering, click here. For downloadable resources or to order resources, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was updated on Oct. 8, 2020.
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