Dear Friends,

This letter will be different than most that we write.Usually, we tell a story related to what is happening in Thailand, but today we need to write about what is happening in America and ask you to help.In short, International Ministries is in a severe financial situation.There needs to be a huge increase in the World Mission Offering in order to prevent the recall of missionaries in the coming year and further cuts in programs.

How did we get to this place?There are a number of factors.For 190 years American Baptists have practiced a centralized system of support for their missionaries where the churches supported the denomination's mission program and the denomination's central office then supported the missionaries.Some benefits of this system are that the missionary can more fully focus on their work while in their field of service, local programs that may not have a missionary related to them get support, and a missionary doing good work but that is not gifted in fund raising can still be supported.

A major drawback of centralized support however, is that it is easy for church members to feel disconnected from the missionaries and the mission work. For an "old" institution like the American Baptists there is also the feeling that "These missionaries don't need support, they have this big denomination to support them."These feelings coupled with a general distrust of institutions in recent years has led to a steady decline in mission support and numbers of missionaries.In the 1920s, there were over 850 American Baptist missionaries.Today, there are 137.Without a major increase in the World Mission Offering, by this time next year there will be 100 - 110.

This is not to say that American Baptist Churches (ABC) are not supporting missions.We were recently told that in just two well known independent mission organizations there are 400 members of ABC churches serving as missionaries.In the support of these and others, some 80% of the mission dollars from ABC churches are going to people & organizations other than International Ministries of the ABC.But in spite of the interest in missions, of the 6000 churches in the ABC, only about half are participating at all in the World Mission Offering.

What is being done?Those of you familiar with our work will know that we act as the messengers for the Baptist mission organizations here.Since 1998, it has often been our role to inform our partners here in Thailand of new reductions in the funds they are to receive.For the past several years in particular, there have been annual reductions of 10 – 20 percent.In addition, while many local partners are requesting new missionaries, more missionaries are leaving the field than coming.Now International Ministries has a freeze on accepting new missionaries so it could be years before this trend reverses.

There have also been reductions in International Ministries staff in Valley Forge.Last January, 11 people on IM staff had their jobs eliminated.In addition, cuts have been made in the work funds made available to missionaries.

The last place left to cut is the number of missionaries themselves.With the current number of missionaries, and the current level of the World Mission Offering, expenses are $1.5 million more than income.To balance the deficit either additional income needs to be found or the number of missionaries needs to be reduced by roughly 30 people.

The World Mission Offering is the only place where it will be possible to generate additional income.Last year, the World Mission Offering received $4.1 million.To balance the budget though, it will need to increase some 36% to over $5 million.In recent years, the World Mission Offering has barely kept up with inflation.So from looking at recent history, a 36% increase is an unreasonable expectation.It is also unreasonable to expect someone from one country to travel to a foreign land, learn new languages, learn new cultures, present the Gospel and have the local people believe this Good News.Yet we in the American Baptist Churches have been doing this for 190 years and God has greatly blessed these efforts.There are no unreasonable expectations for God and He is able to bless this effort too!We hope you'll prayerfully consider making an extra contribution to this year's World Mission Offering.

Because this year's offering is so critical many missionaries are returning to the US during September and October to help promote the World Mission Offering.We aren't able to do that, but this will be the first of nine weekly letters to further explain the situation, share some stories about how your mission money is used to make a difference in the lives of people and suggest ways you can help.Feel free to use these letters in anyway you think might be helpful and share them with your church or others.We hope that you will join us in praying for the World Mission Offering and the future of the American Baptist mission efforts.We also hope you will join us in helping exceed the goal of a 36% increase.

Yours in Christ,

Duane & Marcia Binkley

PS:We've gone through our list of contacts and included anyone we thought might be interested in receiving this series of letters.But, if you'd rather not receive them, please let us know and we'll remove you from the list.