The North American Mission Board estimates there are nearly 270 million people in North America who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. With phrases like “reaching the unreached” or “impacting darkness,” NAMB is leading a movement to aid churches in reaching the lost and planting new churches.
This year’s Annie Armstrong Easter Offering goal is $70 million. The theme for 2018 is “On Mission Here and Now.” One hundred percent of offering receipts go to “train, resource, and deploy more than 5,000 missionaries involved in church planting and compassion ministries,” according to NAMB.
Missionaries with South Carolina connections include Trent Deloach and his wife, Elizabeth, who serve Clarkston International Bible Church in Clarkston, Ga. In 1970, Clarkston was chosen to be a refugee resettlement area. Today, people groups represented in the Clarkston area speak 60 languages. Elizabeth is from Mount Pleasant, and East Cooper Baptist is her home church.
Heiden Ratner and his wife, Neena, are church-planting missionaries in Las Vegas. They list Awaken Church in North Charleston as one of their support churches. Their church in Las Vegas started with 14 people and has baptized more than 30 people since 2015.