Founders Day Offering 2018
JUNE IS THE PRIMARY GIVING MONTH FOR OUR FOUNDER’S DAY OFFERING
Our current BFM Veteran Missionary Pensioners represent the first generation of our faithful missionaries.
[There is a second generation who are still serving and will also be transitioning to pension support status in coming years. We want to make advance preparations to care for them also.]
These who receive continuing benefits from our original traditional defined pension arrangements depend upon this commitment we have made to them.
None of their pensions are large, but we have committed to them that we will give back to them and provide for them as generously as we can for the remainder of their years here.
What we have committed to them reflects at least an expression of our appreciation and gratitude to them for giving many years of their lives – in many cases, all of the years of their adult lives – in service to Jesus Christ in partnership with BFM.
Paul teaches us in Romans 15.27, “For if the Gentiles [nations] have been partakers of their spiritual things, their [our] duty is also to minister to them in material things.” And again, in Galatians 6.6, “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.”
The financial commitments we have made to them are not supplied from our current contributions.
Rather, they are supplied from an investment account we established years ago to provide for these continuing expressions of our gratitude and appreciation for their many years of service to Christ and the peoples of the nations where they served.
We call this investment account our Veteran Missionary Pension Account.
It is extremely important that we maintain and replenish the capital base in this account so their monthly pension benefits can be supplied by the interest and dividends on those deposits.
All of your Founder’s Day Offering contributions will be deposited into the Veteran Missionary Pension Account that supplies their pensions month by month.
Please PRIORITIZE and COMMIT to give as generously as you can for the support of our veteran/retired missionaries.
Contribute to the 2018 Founder’s Day Offering!
“Now also when I am old and grey headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to everyone that is to come.” Psalm 71:18
Contributions may be mailed to:
Baptist Faith Missions
George Sledd, Treasurer
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
Contributions may also be made online by going to www.baptistfaithmissions.org and selecting the tab labeled ‘Donate / Support’ or by clicking here.
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Why I Support the Baptist Faith Missions Founders Day Fund
The Directors of Baptist Faith Missions spend a great amount of time and prayer toward meeting the needs of your missionaries. Our thoughts and actions are directed not in just meeting today’s missionary needs, but looking forward five, ten, and twenty years from now. We are committed to the present and future financial solvency of Baptist Faith Missions as well as its ability to fulfill our existing commitments to garner future growth.
Beginning in 2017, all funds received in the Founder’s Day Offering will be directed toward current and future missionary retirement support. An immediate strategic challenge we face is meeting promised obligations of our retired missionaries and their widows.
To that end, BFM Directors are recommending a pay-as-you go retirement program instead of funding retirement obligations due fifteen to thirty years from now. Currently, our missionaries are not vested in our traditional retirement program until having served at least fifteen years, with a sliding scale to full retirement being received after serving thirty years and reaching sixty-five years of age.
BFM Directors are not recommending changes for missionaries near or in retirement. Rather, BFM policies are changing by requiring all new missionaries establish a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) in their first year as a missionary.
This change offers substantial opportunity for the new and existing younger missionary.
- First, the new missionary begins receiving tangible retirement funds under his control starting the first year of missionary service. It is important to remember taxes will be prepaid only on the investment amount, not on interest and compounding returns.
- Second, with investment and compounding over twenty-five or thirty years, the missionary should have a minimum retirement fund of several hundred thousand dollars that can be withdrawn tax-free with the balance upon death passed on to his dependents.
- Third, should Baptist Faith Missions become insolvent or dissolved for any reason, these retirement funds are linked to the individual missionary, not Baptist Faith Missions.
- Fourth, existing missionaries who choose this proposal will be given an additional salary bonus for each year of previous service to date to be placed in their Roth Individual Retirement Account. This salary bonus will be spread out over future service years based on the maximum amount each individual can contribute to a Roth IRA.
It has been said that a missionary never retires in heart and spirit, but the years may take a toll on the body and mind forcing a change in life. This is reflected in the life of John and Alta Hatcher who have served our Lord in Brazil over 60 years. They are directly and indirectly instrumental in tens of thousands coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, planting dozens of churches, and raising a family driven to serve the Lord. Their missionary heart and spirit continues in their children and grandchildren. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! …” Matthew 24:21
Retirement for a missionary can be an emotional and spiritual struggle. While actively serving on the field, the missionary is often busy fulfilling speaking engagements, counseling, directing projects, advising local pastors, teaching classes, etc. Once retirement is necessary, the missionary and his wife are often shown benign neglect. Coming home from the mission field to their supporting church, the missionary and his wife are often surrounded by a younger generation who may consider them too old to be useful. This can make their transition much more difficult.
Missionaries are so focused on their everyday responsibilities their future physical and financial security becomes of lesser importance. Many are not able to claim Social Security benefits because of not having worked and paid into it in the traditional sense. They have put their future in the Lord’s hands. Baptist Faith Missions, by your contributions, has made a commitment to provide a defined benefit (pension) or a defined contribution (Roth IRA) retirement program to your missionary.
The following is a list of our missionaries who have retired or who have returned to the States for health or family issues or to transition to Stateside-based ministry. Pray for them. Reach out to them through every means you can (call, write, e-mail), and let them know you still appreciate them and their service. They would love to hear from you personally, or from your Sunday School class, or your church leadership.
- Mike and Pam Anderson (Kenya)
- Dana and Becky Adams (Philippines)
- Harold Bratcher (Brazil)
- Louie and Mary Carver (Korea / Philippines)
- Bobby Creiglow (Brazil)
- Harold and Ursula Draper (Brazil)
- John and Alta Hatcher (Brazil)
- Paul and Wanda Hatcher (Brazil)
- Deloris Lauerman (Walter, deceased / Peru, Honduras)
- Sheridan and Anita Stanton (Peru)
- Wanda Turner (Richard, deceased / Brazil)
- Bobby and Charlene Wacaser (Brazil)
Your missionaries and their families have served and sacrificed greatly on your behalf during their productive years. Please make a small financial sacrifice for your missionaries in their senior years by giving to the Founders Day Fund.
Contributions may be mailed to:
Baptist Faith Missions
George Sledd, Treasurer
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
Contributions may also be made online by going to www.baptistfaithmissions.org and selecting the tab labeled ‘Donate / Support’ or by clicking here.
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Founder’s Day Offering 2015
For many years, we have remembered and honored our principal founders, Hafford Overbey and Z. E. Clark, by giving special offerings for the missionaries during the month of June. We call it our FOUNDER’S DAY OFFERING.
But, the Founder’s Day Offering not only memorializes our original founders in 1942 – we are also honoring our ten faithful missionary families who are currently serving the Lord in Brazil, France, and Kenya.
Their support needs are great – and the supplies are low. We use the Founder’s Day Offering to help supply our missionaries’ monthly essential living and ministry support. And, these offerings will also help prevent our having to reduce the monthly commitments we have made to them due to a lack of General Fund supplies.
Here’s what each of us can do:
PASTORS – we encourage you to observe a special Missions or Great Commission Emphasis Sunday and give your church the opportunity to give to the BFM General Fund. Emphasize Jesus’ command to preach His Gospel to all nations. That is what our missionaries are doing. That is the original burden and vision that inspired the founding of BFM. We are continuing to perpetuate that vision and burden. That is what we are supporting when we give to BFM’s General Fund. We will use these offerings to continue to supply our missionaries’ on-going needs.
GIVING FRIENDS – if your church is not participating in our Founder’s Day Offering, we encourage you to support your missionaries by giving a personal offering. You can visit our Donate/Support page to easily contribute through the options we have made available to you.
Of course, you can give as the Lord enables you to give, and no offering of any amount is insignificant. But what if every one of our missionaries’ Giving Friends gave at least a $70 offering in honor of the 70+ years our missionaries have been faithfully preaching the Gospel? But – please do give as the Lord impresses and enables you.
Here are a couple of PDFs that might be helpful as you promote Founder’s Day:
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – Bulletin Insert
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – General Letter
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – Letter from Our President
BFM Founder’s Day Offering – Flyer: Where Your Contributions Go
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