August 5, 2002

Mary Hill Davis:
Fount of blessing for a thirsty state
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___If Texas Baptists meet the $5.21 million giving goal for the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions, 75 strategic ministries will receive much-needed funding. If giving falls short of the goal, missions needs may go unmet or under-funded.
___It's that simple, according to Carolyn Porterfield, executive director-treasurer of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas. And the downside of that scenario is exactly what happened last year.
___The 2001 Mary Hill Davis Offering statewide goal was $5.75 million, and Texas Baptists gave $5.01 million. That was a 6 percent drop from the previous year's offering .
___Because giving fell short of the goal, several ministries received no funds, and many areas received amounts substantially less than anticipated.
___Ministries that lost all the funds they had expected included the Women Reaching Texas evangelism program, community ministries for families in crisis, and churches of refuge for ministers and their families who experience forced termination.
___Christian Women's Job Corps, a WMU-sponsored ministry that teaches life skills and job skills to low-income women, received only $4,000 of an expected $34,000.
___"This is a ministry that is experiencing growth in its work, with 22 sites operating in Texas now. And last year, the sites reported 83 professions of faith" in Christ, Porterfield said.
___This year, when WMU leaders developed projected allocations for the 2002 offering, they felt they could only realistically set the amount for Christian Women's Job Corps at $24,000 rather than the requested $34,000.
___"This means we cannot do as much to get new sites started or to respond to crisis situations and emergency needs at existing sites," Porterfield said.
___ The 2002 Mary Hill Davis Offering includes:
___ $1.3 million to help start new churches. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center helped churches and associations begin more than 200 congregations last year. "Texas Baptists are starting new churches of many different kinds, reaching many different cultural, ethnic and language groups," Porterfield said. "How can we say to them, 'We don't have the money to help you'?"
___ $913,000 for the Texas WMU operating budget. Training missions leaders is a key WMU strategy in the immediate future, Porterfield noted.
___"We want to train individuals to share their faith and live their faith, and to do it cross-culturally," she said. "WMU is still the missions leaven in our churches. But God must raise up new leadership if it is to continue."
___A key component is age-appropriate missions education, she said. In the last 10 years, enrollment in the Mission Friends preschool program has dropped 41 percent. While some churches that have discontinued missions education for children have replaced it with valuable discipleship and Bible memory programs, those programs generally fail to instill a missions vision in participants, Porterfield said.
___"I don't minimize the importance of teaching God's word to children," she said. "But how can we teach children the mighty acts of God from centuries ago without also teaching them the mighty acts of God in our world today? How can we fail to tell them that God is tearing down walls and breaking down barriers so that all peoples may hear the gospel?"
___ $170,000 for the small-church matching grant fund, which provides matching funds up to $5,000 for construction projects in churches with 100 or fewer in attendance. All the grant money made possible by last year's Mary Hill Davis Offering ran out at mid-year, according to Keith Crouch, director of the BGCT church facilities office. The previous year, there was enough money to continue providing grants through September.
___The 2002 Texas missions offering also allocates $420,000 for River Ministry along the Texas/Mexico border; $360,000 in associational support; $215,000 in "missional church" support for key churches and multihousing ministries; and $195,000 for Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio.
___It also includes support for the coordination and orientation of volunteers through Mission Service Corps and Texas Partnerships, scholarships to help ethnic and African-American students attend Texas Baptist universities and seminaries, and ministries to develop second-generation leadership in ethnic churches.
___Porterfield noted that items slated to receive funding from the 2002 offering are in line with the BGCT strategic plan to reach all people, start churches, improve church health, encourage healthy Christ-centered families, meet human needs, equip the laity and expand theological education.
___"As Texas Baptists give, together we can share the living water in a thirsty land," she said, quoting the theme of this year's week of prayer for Texas missions.

___For more information about the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions, visit www.maryhilldavis.org and watch the Baptist Standard for special articles each of the next seven weeks.

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