Will you join me in asking God to prepare the hearts of Hillcrest for our 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to support international missions? The opportunities for advancing the gospel message are greater than any time in history, and our church has committed to support Southern Baptist Missions through the International Mission Board (IMB). For the last several years, Hillcrest Lottie Moon giving has built a strong reputation in the top 2% of 45,000 Southern Baptist churches.

As someone that has personally been sent out by both Hillcrest and the IMB to the mission field, I can attest to the powerful missions impact Lottie Moon dollars can make on the field. Investment into Hillcrest Missions and Lottie Moon allowed us to host the first meeting in history of national believers working among the “Pal” People. I’ll never forget local ministers saying, “I thought I was the only person in the world trying to reach the Pal with the gospel, but now there are so many!” Those meetings happened because of generous believers giving to Lottie Moon.

Here is an excerpt from a recent letter by IMB President Dr. Tom Elliff:

This is the hour of the world’s greatest need for the Gospel. We currently have over 4,800 personnel who, along with their 4,000 children, are living out the Gospel on the field – most of them in some very dark places. Approximately 1,400 individuals are currently in our active application file. Right now, if we hit our goal we will be able to deploy only 576 of those new applicants in 2014 to join forces with existing personnel sharing the Good News to the very ends of the earth. That is why I am ardently praying we will far exceed our $175 million goal, which would enable us to send even more. My prayer is that we will be able to fund needed strategies to engage the very limits of lostness and thrust into the harvest field all who are being called out of churches like yours.

Excerpts from Dr. Elliff’s passionate call for commitment were recently compiled into this 3-minute video As you watch this video, pray with me that this year’s Lottie Moon season will be a time of recommitment–not just of our funds, but recommitment of our time, energy, and life purpose. God is doing great things around the world, and we get to play a part!

Justin Smith
Minister of Mission

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