The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is as much a part of the holiday season for Baptists as the twinkling lights and familiar carols. As churches enter the season of giving to international missions, members have grown to anticipate an emphasis on a specific region. This year, the focus is on West Africa.
For the past several years, the International Mission Board (IMB) and national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) have collaborated on the area chosen for the International Mission Study, said Carol Causey, missions resource director for the WMU. “[T]he IMB focuses on a part of the world,” she explained. “WMU tries to select a more defined geographical area — usually a country — to devote to the mission study.”
This year, the IMB is focusing on West Africa, an area that encompasses 22 countries and has 287 million people. The WMU chose the most populous of these nations, Nigeria, for its focus.
The mission study is one of three components of the annual emphasis on international missions, which is Dec. 3–10 this year.
“The other components are the Week of Prayer for International Missions and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions,” Causey said. “The mission study helps us learn about the needs of the area and people featured. When we understand the needs, our prayers can be more specific and focused — we see the world through God’s eyes. Once we begin to see the world as God sees it, giving — and even going —become a higher priority for all of us.”
Because Southern Baptists have been involved in Nigeria for many years and Nigeria has been in the news quite a bit lately, Causey expects the 2006 study to be well received.
It has materials geared to all age groups from preschool to adult and takes a different approach from the studies of previous years. Study writer Sue Sprenkle has served as a missionary journalist for the IMB, focusing primarily on Africa. She said her relationships with Nigerian leaders encouraged her to invite guest writers — both IMB missionaries and Nigerian Baptists — to share their personal insights.
The study includes all of the information generally seen in a mission study, but it is designed to look like a newspaper and includes features such as “letters to the editor” from IMB missionaries, “classified ads” seeking volunteers, a feature article by the executive director of the Nigeria WMU and news articles about aspects of life in Nigeria.
“We were able to draw from many different resources and make this study very uniquely Nigerian, so those involved in the study not only know the facts about Nigeria but truly understand this country,” Sprenkle commented. “Nigeria has the potential to make the most impact on the continent of Africa.”
Causey noted that the goal of this mission study is twofold. “One is to give every Southern Baptist the opportunity to learn what God is doing in Nigeria through the efforts of Southern Baptists and our national partners,” she said. “The other is to motivate Baptists to pray effectively and give sacrificially to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering so that all peoples of the world have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.”
WMU has made the study materials available to churches and associations, and some associations will train church leaders in participating in the study, Causey said.
She highlighted the study’s flexibility, saying many churches incorporate it into regular meetings. Others hold the study as a churchwide event on a Saturday. “Some churches may take as little as 30 minutes for a study,” Causey explained. “Others will schedule 2.5 hours.”
Lynn Hester, director of the children’s choir at Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, in Autauga Baptist Association, is working with the church’s WMU Director Diane Causey to plan a Sunday night program for the mission study.
The children’s choir will present the program beginning with a parade of flags from different nations around the world led by the Royal Ambassadors and Girls in Action.
“The flags will come in while the children are singing songs from Nigeria,” Hester said. “We will also show scenes of missions work [in Nigeria] in the background.”
Information from the study will be interspersed throughout the presentation.
Materials may be ordered through WMU by visiting www.wmu.org.
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