Gifts to Global Mission Fund can be doubled in November

A child is baptized in Chingale, Malawi. Donors to the Global Mission Fund can be assured that their support stays focused on worldwide mission work, notes Mark Hofman, executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

A supporter of the Synod’s Global Mission Fund — which undergirds Gospel outreach and humanitarian efforts worldwide — is offering to match, up to $100,000, contributions to the fund received during the month of November.

The dollar-for-dollar match becomes active once donations reach the total amount given during November 2016: $128,567.25.

Once that funding baseline is reached, every contribution made afterwards — $1 or more — will be matched with an equal amount up to $100,000.

That means the Global Mission Fund could increase by as much as $328,567.25 — or $200,000 more than a year ago — if the full match amount is met, notes Mark Hofman, executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement.

“Generosity and a joyful response by the Church to this opportunity is all that is necessary to put two-and-a-half times the amount of unrestricted funding into the Lord’s service for just this one month alone — exceeding every other November giving period on record,” Hofman told Reporter.

“Every gift, from every possible donor — congregations, groups and households — in any amount will make a difference.” All donations are tax-deductible.

Contributions to the Global Mission Fund support all three of the Synod’s emphases — Witness, Mercy, Life Together — through the ministries of the church body’s Offices of National and International Mission. Those ministries include the work of missionaries in the U.S. and around the world.

Although the Global Mission Fund receives gifts year-round, most contributions are given in November and December. Hofman says contributors “know their gifts are used only to fund mission efforts.

“These gifts can’t be used to buy office furniture, pay elected officers’ salaries, mow the grass or clean the windows of the International Center,” he explains. “People can be assured their support — put to work wherever the opportunity is most pressing or the financial gap is greatest — stays focused on mission work.”

Contributions to the fund, he says, “cost less to administer, can be combined with more restricted gifts to launch or complete work, and represent the values and priorities of the person making the gift.”

Donors to the Global Mission Fund, Hofman adds, “in many ways are the Synod’s ‘quiet champions’ when it comes to providing what our missionaries and their support teams need to do important work here in the U.S. and around the world.”

To contribute to the fund, visit lcms.org/givenow/globalmission or text SHAREJESUS to 41444.
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KFUO.org Interview: Global Mission Fund Donor Challenge
http://archives.kfuo.org/mp3/FAF/FAF_Oct_26a_2017.mp3

Audio interview courtesy of KFUO Radio

KFUO Radio, the listener-supported broadcast ministry of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, operates KFUO-AM 850 in St. Louis, Mo., and may be heard worldwide on KFUO.org.

Posted Nov. 2, 2017