AUGUSTA, Ga. – International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood is excited about holding a “sending celebration” next month in Georgia for potentially dozens of new missionaries being deployed to other countries.
“Georgia Baptists are among IMB’s strongest partnering and most generous churches,” Chitwood said. “Each year, thousands of volunteers come to the mission field to serve alongside their IMB missionaries and millions of dollars flow from Georgia Baptist Convention churches to support those missionaries.”
That’s why Georgia Baptists are being called on this year to provide a send-off to the latest crop of international missionaries.
The ceremony will be at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta on Nov. 13, the first day of a three-day Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting.
Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr. is encouraging people from across the state to be in Augusta to provide the send-off that the missionaries deserve.
“We’re going to have an incredible time celebrating these people who have committed their lives to go to the foreign mission field to share and show and shine the light of Christ,” he told Georgia church leaders in a newly released video.
Such sending celebrations tend to be emotional events with new missionaries sharing their faith and talking about where they’re going. Some will be silhouetted behind screens to hide their identities, because the places they will serve are hostile toward Christianity.
Chitwood will speak at the Augusta sending celebration, extending an invitation for more Georgians to either become missionaries, pray for missionaries or provide financial support for missionaries.
“The sending celebration will be a great opportunity to thank Georgia Baptists for their support but also to let them meet their newest missionaries from all across the country who are heading all around the world.”
This year’s annual meeting marks a milestone for the Georgia Baptist Convention.
“We’re celebrating 200 years of gospel ministry right here in Georgia and all the things that God has done, is doing, and will be doing through Georgia Baptists,” Hammond said. “This is going to be an incredible time as we celebrate and as we look to the future with great anticipation.”