Thank you, Giving Friends, for responding to our recent appeals for sustained, regular, long-term, increased efforts to our GENERAL FUND.  In June we gave $35,846.79 to the GENERAL FUND.  The GENERAL FUND is the source of all the standard commitments we have made to our missionaries to maintain their regular living expenses.

WE NEED TO REITERATE THAT WE MUST STRIVE FOR THE GOAL OF MAINTAINING SOLVENCY MONTH-BY-MONTH IN OUR GENERAL FUND RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS.  That way, we can use our Thanksgiving Offering for the extraordinary and periodic benefits we have committed to give our missionaries – like four-year Auto Allowances, Furlough Transportation, etc.

THANK YOU to our longtime faithful Giving Friends – and THANK YOU to you who have either begun to give regular offerings to the General Fund, or who have increased your personal offerings.

THANK YOU to the churches who have increased your monthly commitments to the General Fund.  Some of you have done so AGAIN after already increasing your monthly offerings in recent previous months.

WE ARE STILL ASKING THAT ALL OF US GIVE TOGETHER TO HELP US REACH THE IMMEDIATE GOAL OF AT LEAST $37,000.00 IN OUR CONSISTENT MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS.  THANK YOU FOR GIVING YOUR PART!

2007-2008 THANKSGIVING OFFERING

I promised you I would keep you updated on the Thanksgiving Offering total.  I also told you that we would keep the Thanksgiving Offering open indefinitely as long as you are giving to it.  Well, some of you did continue to give to the Thanksgiving Offering right on up through the middle of this year.  THANK YOU, GIVING FRIENDS!  THE TOTAL THANKSGIVING OFFERING IS:  $64,650.57.

2008-2009 THANKSGIVING OFFERING:
$100,000.00 GOAL

Begin planning right now – if you haven’t already purposed – to give a very generous offering to our 2008-09 THANKSGIVING OFFERING.  PLAN AHEAD and then WORK YOUR PLAN methodically and systematically between now and then to help us reach our goal of $100,000.00 for our THANKSGIVING OFFERING.

“THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO _________ ______ _______.”  How would you complete that cliché?  The most usual way would be with the words:  “skin a cat.”  Frankly, I have never skinned a cat by even one method and it has never crossed my mind to even inquire about how many different ways a cat can be skinned.  But, I do want you to think in terms of “THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO GIVE TO MISSIONS.”  The most usual and customary method is to give PERSONAL OFFERINGS – either by adding them to your church’s regular offering to the BFM GENERAL FUND, or by giving directly to the BFM Treasurer.  But, our “TEXAS GIVING FRIENDS” have been giving regular monthly offerings for several years now by another creative method of giving.  Periodically, they contribute a number of blue-chip stock certificates to BFM.  Those stocks are deposited into an interest-bearing investment account.  Every month, an offering amount is disbursed from that account to the BFM Treasurer.  When the value of the last contribution of stock certificates is depleted, they just send some more.

Those dear “TEXAS GIVING FRIENDS” wish to remain anonymous and we will respect their wishes, but they would also like to inspire others by their example to do as they have done.  They have been faithfully giving offerings to BFM for over forty years.

Other Giving Friends have given properties to BFM.  Still other Giving Friends have contributed personal investment accounts and even retirement accounts to meet the ongoing needs of our missionaries.

“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart.”  THANK YOU, AND GOD BLESS YOU – TO ALL OF OUR BELOVED AND GENEROUS GIVING FRIENDS!

In Him,

David Parks