CP giving 2.24 percent ahead
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 2.24 percent ahead of the same time frame in 2006. As of Jan. 31, the year-to-date total of $67,348,758 for Cooperative Program missions is $1,476,266 ahead of the $65,872,491 received at the same point in 2006. For the month, receipts of $19,996,591 were 2.20 percent, or $450,809, below the $20,447,401 received in January 2006. Designated giving of $37,036,266 for the same year-to-date period is 3.91 percent, or $1,506,038, below gifts of $38,542,304 received at this point last year. The $25,230,190 in designated gifts received last month is $2,722,785 below the $27,952,975 received in January 2006, a decrease of 9.74 percent. For the SBC Cooperative Program allocation budget, the year-to-date total of $67,348,758 is 103.11 percent of the $65,316,140 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America.
Tornado damages conference center
A tornado touched down at Florida Baptists’ Lake Yale Conference Center at 3:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, causing extensive damage to its North Camp area as a series of storms tore across central Florida. Conference center manager Don Sawyer reported that no one was hurt, even though about 100 people were staying overnight at the conference center. Four North Camp dorms received roof damage, and the chapel’s steeple was torn off the roof; doors and windows also were blown out. Power lines were ripped out by the tornado and will require extensive electrical repair. Florida Baptist disaster relief volunteers quickly responded to help with cleanup at the damaged area. The storms also did extensive damage in nearby Lady Lake, Sawyer reported, and 500 people need housing. “These are our neighbors,” said Sawyer, adding that South Camp and North Camp, when repairs are completed, will be used to house many of the displaced persons.
2 Ga. Baptists die during mission trip
Two members of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga., died Feb. 6 in a remote area of Honduras after the truck they were riding in flipped over. Ric Mason, 58, and Perry Goad, 46, were part of a group of 28 volunteers working through Honduras Outreach International, a nonprofit organization based in Decatur, Ga. Martha Fuller, a member of First United Methodist Church in Newnan, Ga., also died when the open-roof vehicle, generally associated with transporting soldiers, rolled over in rugged terrain. Two other members of Tabernacle Baptist, David Apple, 52, and Cary Roth, 33, were injured in the accident. Church members gathered late Tuesday night at Tabernacle to pray after hearing news of the accident.