FENTON, MI – Family stories are funny. Decades ago, my mother paid the family bills by laying out money on the dining room table. You might remember the past when we put cash in envelopes to be used each week for groceries and gas. One evening Mom noticed that money was mysteriously disappearing from the table as she tried to balance the family budget.
About this same time of the year, it seemed my younger sister, Tonya, had learned the art of blowing and wiping a runny nose. At the age of three, Tonya would put her hands in her armpits and flap her arms like a chicken to get more blowing-power.
To my mom’s surprise Tonya had spent part of the evening walking by the dining room table and using the cash to blow her runny nose. Being a neat and tidy child, Tonya had flushed the cash down the toilet. She was fascinated by the swirl of the toilet. There was no retrieving that money!
North American Missions Offering, March 5-12, 2017
During 8 days, Sunday, March 5 through Sunday, March 12, 2017 you, your family, and your church will be given an opportunity to make better use of your finances. Fifty thousand Southern Baptist churches will collect the annual North American Missions Offering. Some of us call the collection the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO), named after a prayerful, passionate, and writing woman who died in 1938. Please, watch this 2:31 video about one of the families who partner with us in Windsor, Ontario just across from Detroit. Garth Leno and his family partner with us.
Menu to Create a Movement
Please, click on this link to see the fantastic resources available to you: https://www.anniearmstrong.com/resources. Let me suggest you review this menu of resources available to you, your family, your class, your small group, and your church.
11 short inspirational videos
Planning guide
Bulletin inserts or handouts
Bookmark
Prayer Map
Prayer guides in different languages
Study guides for Bible studies
Sermon illustrations & information
Contact information for missionaries
Be a Leader Not Just a Follower
Take the lead and encourage everyone to give to this year’s North American Missions Offering. Have fun with this:
Host weekly meals at home for friends & family then ask them to contribute what they would have paid to eat-out at a restaurant to the missions offering.
Show one of the videos to your children each night and ask them what they would sacrifice in order to contribute to the offering. You’ll weep.
Inspire your youth group to serve others within the church family with house cleaning, snow removal, or carrying donations to the local Salvation Army. Ask those served to make contributions to the missions offering.
The creative ideas are endless. Simply inform and inspire others and watch what God does with your efforts. This year’s theme is “Together for His Kingdom.” Don’t do this alone; bring others along with you. Create a movement for God.
Don’t be like my sister Tonya and simply flush your finances during the month of March. Make a powerful difference by contributing to missionary support, missionary development, and missionary benefits in North America.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tony Lynn is the State Director of Missions for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as lead pastor for more than six years at Crosspoint Church in Monroe, Michigan. He and his wife, Jamie, also served with the International Mission Board in Africa and in Europe.