Even though the 2006 Mother’s Day Offering for South Carolina Baptist Ministries for the Aging appears to have come up short of its $750,000 goal, the president of the ministry says he is nevertheless “extremely pleased” with the amount that has been given.
Bethea Retirement Community, DarlingtonAs of Aug. 18, $528,182 had been received, about 70 percent of the goal. Last year, South Carolina Baptists gave more than $1.2 million through the offering after officials announced that the future of the ministry’s two retirement homes depended on a strong offering.
The survival of the ministry was not at stake this year, which casts the 2006 offering in an “extremely positive” light, said Richard McLawhorn, SCBMA president. “You can’t deny that this is a very significant amount of money if we’re not facing that emergency situation,” he said.
Overall, the financial health of the ministry is on the upswing, McLawhorn said. In the last 18 months, the ministry has cut operating costs, hired a management company, renovated some aging facilities and slashed entrance fees in order to attract more residents.
Also, for the “first time in recent memory,” McLawhorn said, trustees have adopted balanced budgets for 2006-2007 for both Bethea Baptist Retirement Community in Darlington and Martha Franks Baptist Retirement Center in Laurens.
In the first three quarters of fiscal year 2005-2006, the ministry saw a turnaround of almost half a million dollars toward the positive (compared to the first three quarters from fiscal year 2004-2005), McLawhorn said.
“These figures really respond to the question, ‘Is this for real?’,” McLawhorn said. “I say, look at the facts.”
McLawhorn said one of the “biggest issues” the ministry faces is to pay off a long-term debt of about $5.5 million, which costs about $600,000 to service each year. He points to the retirement of the debt as key to his vision of being able to offer a retirement place to any long-serving South Carolina missionary, pastor or widow, regardless of his or her financial resources.
“My vision is that we will one day be in a position to tell people who have spent their lives dedicated to serving our Lord that when they get up in years, we have a place for them,” he said. “That’s my dream: You give your heart to the Lord, and we’re going to stand behind you.”
McLawhorn said the board has not set a “definite time” to pay off the debt. “We can’t quantify that, but the dynamic is changing,” he said. “We’ve got the basis now. We’re building that foundation right now.”