Generous donors ensured a record harvest for Mission:Dignity during the recent national Giving Tuesday emphasis — more than $1.2 million was raised to provide financial assistance to retirement-age Southern Baptist ministers, workers and their widows struggling to meet basic needs.
Gifts on Giving Tuesday were doubled thanks to $500,000 in matching contributions provided by generous donors.
“What an incredible testimony to the generosity of God’s people,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said. “Never in our history have we raised more than $1 million in a single day, yet when people catch the vision, they open their hearts to provide assistance to these dear soldiers of the cross.”
More than 2,500 people are helped annually through Mission:Dignity. The assistance from Mission:Dignity often means not having to choose between medicine and food, or between gas for their car or heat in their homes in wintertime.
“We’ve seen the Lord bless Mission:Dignity in so many ways over these years,” Hawkins said. “No Southern Baptist pastor and no pastor’s widow should ever go to bed hungry or forego medicine. It is the greatest privilege to steward this important and God-honoring ministry.”