This weekend was a “Special Offering” at Jefferson Baptist Church. Everything that went into the offering plates this weekend was for our Foreign Missions Budget, the total given on this annual offering event is the budget for our missions ministry. Our goal was $120,000 and we have been praying about it as a church for the last month asking God to bless individuals and stir people’s hearts. As of right now we have $118,000 and more will come in this next week from people who missed church this weekend. We have been holding “Special Offerings” for 40 years and I am pretty sure, guessing from memory, that whatever goal we have set we have made about 90% of the time. We believe in the power of everybody in the church praying for the same goal in agreement.

It is so exciting and rewarding what JBC accomplishes with this money each year. We have started dozens of schools in Sierra Leone and Liberia, West Africa, for kids who wouldn’t get to attend school otherwise. We have started many churches and a Bible College to teach and train pastors so we can plant more churches. The goal is to start 100 churches by 2040 and the same number of new schools. There are a number of other projects in West Africa that are planned as well as around the world.

It is healthy for people to give away some of their hard earned money to serve God and help others. Giving inoculates us against worldliness. Sacrificial giving helps us understand God’s gift of His son, Jesus to save us from our sins and to appreciate it more.