From the more than 1,300 missionary candidates in the pipeline to the host of veteran missionaries training and equipping others on the field, 2023 has been filled with stories of how God is using your International Mission Board missionaries to impact lostness, globally.
Below are some highlights of how God worked through IMB missionaries this year as they went to the edge of lostness to share the hope of Jesus among 59% of the world considered unreached.
RELATED: Check out more stories on IMB missionaries here.
Presence
Southern Baptists exceeded last year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal of $190 million with $196.1 million for the 2022–2023 offering season. Because of big and small churches working together to generously give last year, missionaries and their local partners shared the gospel with 728,589 people.
Today, there are 3,515 missionaries, plus their families, and 103 global missionary partners deployed to address the overwhelming problem of lostness and planting churches. They’re equipped and encouraged through Southern Baptists who band together to pray, give, go and send.
Missionary pipeline
In March, IMB reported there were 1,200 missionaries in the pipeline. Most recent numbers indicate there are now 1,300. This number has more than quadrupled over the last 4.5 years.
Sending Celebration
Sending Celebrations are a highlight of what IMB does. IMB sends newly appointed missionaries to the nations. Nearly 250 full-time missionary appointees were honored in the four Sending Celebrations conducted in 2023.
Great Pursuit
Bringing the gospel to the world’s lost through missionary presence has always been a part of the IMB’s 178-year history. A call for renewed commitment, however, includes an urgency to find people groups with no missionary presence and no known gospel access.
“With the support of Southern Baptists, IMB is launching a pioneering initiative called Project 3000, through which we will send out 300 missionary explorers over five years to scout out 10 unengaged, unreached people groups each,” explained John Brady, IMB vice president of global engagement, when he announced the initiative in June.
Missionary emeriti
IMB also honored those who have answered the call and are now back in the United States. This year’s retiring missionary emeriti represented service in more than 40 countries. They set the bar high, as IMB President Paul Chitwood noted in a sermon addressing both missionary emeriti and new missionaries preparing for their first term.
Crisis response
Every day, IMB missionaries see the devastation of natural disasters, war and lostness. This year has been marked by crisis response. Because Southern Baptists give through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the Cooperative Program and Send Relief (the joint compassion ministry arm of IMB and the North American Mission Board), IMB missionaries are ready to respond in regions around them. Send Relief continues to provide aid to survivors of each of these crises.
Turkey/Syria earthquake
When a deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria early on Feb. 6, Send Relief was there.
Working with local partners in Syria and Turkey, they responded to immediate needs following the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. In the first 24 hours of the response, partners distributed 1,000 blankets and 5,000 bottles of water.
Sudan violence
On April 15, fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. An observer outside of Sudan who is familiar with the situation said the fighting is so devastating and all-encompassing that they think the winner of the conflict will stand on a pile of rocks.
In June, it was reported that an estimated 1.15 million people have been internally displaced or are refugees due to the conflict in Sudan.
To read full story from IMB, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by IMB staff and originally published by the International Mission Board.
