Mother’s Day Offering: Missions Work

South Carolina Baptists know that missions work takes many forms. While traditional missions is “reaching the uncharted,” at South Carolina Baptist Ministries for the Aging, missions work is providing for our own in the later stages of life.

Tom Turner

In 2008, SCBMA created a special fund called the Mother’s Day Offering, designated specifically to support those elderly brothers and sisters who have devoted their lives to serving Christ.

It is a reality that many devoted pastors, pastors’ wives, missionaries, and missionaries’ wives find themselves in the retirement phase of their lives with limited funds. For this reason, SCBMA’s board of trustees created an annual offering to give South Carolina Baptists a vehicle to minister to these senior adults.

Administered in churches throughout the state on Mother’s Day, the offering is providing assistance for such individuals to live on one of our Baptist retirement campuses: Martha Franks Retirement Community in Laurens or Bethea Retirement Community in Darlington.

Since the fund’s inception, many South Carolina Baptist churches and congregations have embraced this annual offering. The level of support this offering has had over the last two years tells us that South Carolina Baptists want to demonstrate a genuine concern for this state’s aging population.

Like so many other Americans, our nation’s seniors are experiencing financial hardships due to our current economic situation. While SCBMA recognizes that many of our congregations are dealing with this economic downturn, we also realize that continued support of the Mother’s Day Offering is essential to a continued and healthy mission to our retired pastors and missionaries.

As in years past, each local church in South Carolina will have the opportunity to partner with SCBMA to provide the financial assistance through the 2010 Mother’s Day Offering. We hope that as this fund continues to grow, many seniors will benefit from South Carolina Baptists’ care and love.

– Turner is president of South Carolina Baptist Ministries for the Aging.