CEE Story From The Mission Field
Forward by Faith, Part 3
July 9, 2004
Dear CEE support network,
Greetings in Christ from Prague!
School is out. Graduation ceremonies have concluded. Summer is upon us. Before we move on, we want to take the time to honor and congratulate our Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) graduates at every level and proud Moms and Dads and Aunts and Uncles! We pray God's richest blessings and continued guidance in grace for each and every one.
Our graduates remind us of God's grace and provision. The Lord's provision and abundant blessings extend, of course, to every area of life—including how He provides wonderfully for the International Mission Board (IMB), CEE, and our families. You will recall that "Forward by Faith" is our theme for all of 2004...as well as at our annual general meetings (AGMs). God has provided all of our basic needs through our IMB/CEE budget in 2004, but wants us to exercise our faith to a greater degree than before and depend even more on Him. All of our training, AGMs, MK retreat, and ministry projects have been undertaken by faith this year at the Lord's leading.
Let's give glory and praise to God as we recount how He is providing this year. You will recall that only after we "got out of the boat" and plunged ahead with planning and making financial deposits and payments for two AGMs and for strategy coordinator (SC) training in Prague, February 2004, did we then see God do a financial version of "loaves and fishes" at the end of 2003 and beginning of 2004. First, He provided for all end of 2003 needs as well as enough for our February 2004 SC training! That happened despite the fact that we had to expend four times the budget on visa renewals for every man, woman, and child serving in Russia and establish and register three new entities due to changing contexts; we also saw the US dollar (the currency in which our budget is received) weakened further against European currencies, saw our total IMB personnel serving in CEE continue to rise (45.69% increase in personnel from 2000-2003), and received only 41.85 cents on the dollar reimbursement in 2003 for all funds expended on these new missionary personnel and had to make up the difference regionally. Only God could do that. Praise the Lord!
Then, God continued His faithfulness to us in our obedience to follow Him further in faith in 2004. As of June 1, 2004—above and beyond our 2004 IMB/SBC provided budget—God has responded to prayers of faith and supplication with individual special gifts/donations ($265,000) and IMB/CEE reallocated funds ($298,000) for a total of $563,000!! We are applying those funds as follows: IMB/CEE reallocated funds—$120,000 for 2004 AGM's, $10,000 for one needed vehicle, and $168,000 for Field top priority Lottie Moon Challenge (LMC) Strategy-Ministry Projects. Special gifts/personal donations of $265,000, of course, are applied to the Strategy/Ministry projects (LMC list) as designated by the giver. PTL for God's abundant, ongoing provision, and let us all take great encouragement to press on by faith. He is faithful!!
We’ve been overwhelmed by messages outlining the tremendous offering and outpouring of unprecedented support from Southern Baptists totaling $136.2 million through the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering!! That's an increase over 2002 of almost $21.2 million—the largest dollar increase in the offering's 115 year history!
We sincerely want to communicate our gratitude and appreciation to the churches and brothers and sisters who have given so amazingly even while the trend for giving to charitable and religious organizations continues to decrease. Our hearts are full of thanks to you and your partnership in missions.
May God enable us to continue moving Forward by Faith in 2004!!
Rodney Hammer, Regional Leader-CEE