ORLANDO — More than 60,000 people were mobilized through Send Relief last year, helping meet needs for more than 2.5 million people and creating more than 816,000 Gospel conversations through local churches around the world.
During the Send Relief presentation at the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting, International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood and North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell highlighted stories behind those numbers, emphasizing that lasting compassion ministry happens through local churches serving their communities before, during and after times of crisis.
“Behind every number is a name,” Chitwood said. “And behind every story is a church that not only invested in an effort but stayed for the long haul.”
The leaders pointed to examples from Puerto Rico, Peru, Nigeria, Cuba and Jamaica as evidence of how Southern Baptists are meeting physical needs while creating opportunities to share the hope of the Gospel through ongoing ministry relationships.
“That’s what we want you to hear today,” Chitwood said. “Not what we did but what you did through the Church Christ is building.”
Mission trips create lasting impact
Ezell encouraged pastors and churches to consider mission opportunities through Send Relief Ministry Centers across North America and with Send Relief missionaries around the world.
“We have Ministry Centers all across North America,” Ezell said. “From Appalachia to Boston, to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to Las Vegas, to Puerto Rico.”
One example came from Puerto Rico, where a team from Graffiti 2 Baptist Church in New York spent a week serving through the Send Relief Ministry Center there. The team helped complete a home for Joselyn, a young single mother and her toddler son, after more than a year of work by multiple church teams.
By the end of the week, Joselyn had a safe place to live, and two volunteers on the trip professed faith in Christ.
“That’s a Send Relief mission trip,” Ezell said. “Eleven people. One week. One home. Two souls.”
Serve Tour mobilizes churches for global ministry
The presentation also highlighted Send Relief’s Serve Tour ministry.
Last September, 99 volunteers from 27 U.S. churches partnered with 11 congregations in Lima, Peru, serving through projects ranging from vision clinics and community outreach events to construction and renovation work. According to Send Relief leaders, Serve Tour mobilized more than 4,000 volunteers in 2025, serving more than 28,500 people and leading to 429 professions of faith.
Ezell noted that Send Relief’s Serve Tour continues in multiple cities around the world in 2026 and 2027 and encouraged churches to participate.
Global Hunger Relief opens doors for gospel witness
Chitwood also highlighted the ongoing work of Global Hunger Relief, noting that more than 700 million people worldwide experience chronic hunger.
He shared the story of Grace, a pastor’s wife in northern Nigeria who took part in a Send Relief agricultural training project designed to help women provide nutritious food for their families using soybeans.
After completing the training, Grace invited neighbors, including four Muslim women, to participate.
“Now we’re friends, and we’re finding ways to share Christ with them naturally in the relationship we’ve built,” Grace said.
The project has reached more than 6,700 people and led to the start of two Bible studies.
Chitwood encouraged churches to participate in Global Hunger Sunday later this year, emphasizing that gifts support Gospel-centered hunger ministry through local churches and ministry partners around the world.
Local churches remain after disasters strike
The presentation also highlighted recent crisis response efforts in the Caribbean following Hurricane Melissa.
In Cuba, 50 generators distributed through local churches helped power feeding stations, charge phones and support ministry efforts following the storm. In Jamaica, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers partnered with the Jamaican Baptist Union to assist families through roof repairs and water distribution.
“We don’t parachute in,” Chitwood said. “We stand alongside of churches and work with missionaries who are already there on the ground, and then we stay with them.”
The leaders said the response reflected Send Relief’s broader approach to compassion ministry, working through churches and ministry partners already serving in communities long before a crisis occurs.
Pray. Give. Go. Grow.
Ezell and Chitwood concluded by encouraging churches to engage with Send Relief through four actions: Pray, Give, Go, and Grow.
Ezell challenged churches to support Global Hunger Sunday and consider mission opportunities through Serve Tour, Send Relief Ministry Centers and international partnerships.
Chitwood encouraged Southern Baptists to pray for churches serving in difficult places, utilize Send Relief training resources and continue building cultures of compassion within their congregations.
“Compassion isn’t a program,” Chitwood said. “It really comes out of our discipleship.”
Closing the presentation, Chitwood thanked Southern Baptists for their continued support and partnership.
“Thank you for the compassion that you show through your churches,” he said. “The story we’re writing together is a story that God is still writing, and it is a beautiful, redeeming story.”
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