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Annie Armstrong Offering sets 7th straight record


TALLEDEGA, Ala. (BP)–Southern Baptists gave a record $43.5 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions in 1999, reported Robert E. Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board. The agency uses the funds to support more than 5,000 missionaries in the United States and Canada.

Speaking to the executive board of Woman’s Missionary Union meeting in annual session at Shocco Springs Conference Center, Reccord expressed appreciation to WMU — the agency which initiated the missions offering more than 100 years ago.

“Thank you and your thousands of WMU members across the country for helping Southern Baptists give $43,550,000 to the Annie Armstrong Offering last year,” Reccord said. “This is the seventh year in a row the offering has set a new record, and we are so wonderfully thankful for what God is doing through this offering to reach people for himself.”

Every dollar of the offering — received in most Southern Baptist churches in the spring — directly supports the work of Southern Baptist missionaries, most of whom are jointly appointed and supported by the North American Mission Board and partner state Baptist conventions.

The offering supplies 38 percent of NAMB’s budget with another 34 percent from the SBC’s unified giving plan, the Cooperative Program, and the remainder from individual gifts, investments and other income.

Acknowledging that the 1999 Offering fell short of its $45 million goal, Reccord said, “While all of us wish there were more, we realize there will never be enough to meet the overwhelming challenges of reaching North America for Christ. Therefore, every one of us must redouble our efforts at personalizing the mission and ministry of the 5,000 missionaries supported by this offering.” The national goal for the 2000 offering is $47 million.

Reccord also reported that the mission offering was not the only record set by the agency last year. He reiterated the recent announcement that for the first time in history, the number of NAMB missionaries exceeded 5,000 in 1999 — a key goal of the denomination’s 25-year growth plan called Bold Mission Thrust.

The number of missionary appointments for the year also was up, Reccord said, as were the number of missionary candidate interviews, mission volunteers and endorsed chaplains. He said he is also anticipating that Southern Baptists started more new churches last year than any year in history, although final reports have not yet been completed.

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