For nearly 85 years now, the Cooperative Program has helped Southern Baptists send missionaries all over the world to share the Gospel in fulfillment of the Great Commission. Such international missions support is certainly not the only purpose of the Cooperative Program (which was established to also support a wide variety of Baptist causes on the state and national levels) but it is definitely one of its top priorities

Even in a year when the Kentucky Baptist Convention is managing a recession-limited budget, Kentucky churches are expected to send more than $4.37 million to the International Mission Board through the Cooperative Program. We can add to that figure record-setting giving by Kentucky churches to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. I just saw a report today that showed that Kentucky churches have already given more than $4.9 million through Lottie Moon and that we anticipate hitting the $5 million mark sometime in May. (Last year, the total for the year was  $4.4 million.)

We are grateful to every Kentucky church for its faithfulness to support international missions through both the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. With CP providing foundational support and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering adding strategic focus, Southern Baptists have a system in place that enables Baptists to be true Acts 1:8 Christians who reach out simultaneously both at home and abroad.

Nothing bears this out more than the stories of the impact of giving from the missions field itself. Below is a story the KBC released last month focusing on a Kentucky missionary on the international field:

IMB Missionary: CP is ‘Reason I’m on the Field’

By Kristie Randolph, Kentucky Baptist Convention

LOUISVILLE - Elizabeth Warren* has literally gone around the world and back, thanks to many people she will never get the chance to meet.

Warren has been serving as a missionary to Asia for the past seven years through the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. As Southern Baptists prepare to celebrate Cooperative Program Sunday on April 11, Warren is spending her stateside time traveling to Southern Baptist churches in order to thank them for their gifts.

A lifelong Southern Baptist, Elizabeth Warren was discipled, educated and called to missions through ministries of the Cooperative Program. She is now an advocate for CP, seeking to help people understand how the program enables thousands of missionaries like her stay on the field.

“The reason I’m on the field is so people who have never heard of Jesus have the chance to hear,” she said. “When people give through CP and Lottie Moon, they aid what I do. Without their giving, it would be difficult to be there.”

Warren’s deep ties to Cooperative Program ministries and missions began during her fifth grade year at a Girls in Action camp, sponsored by the Woman’s Missionary Union in Texas and supported through CP. It was there that Warren first felt God calling her to be a missionary.

“God was doing something in my heart there, showing me he wanted me to be a missionary,” she said.

When Warren moved to Kentucky, her involvement in the youth group at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown fueled her excitement for missions as she sat under missions training and teaching, and was exposed to hands-on missions work.

While she knew the basics about how CP worked, it wasn’t until Warren got involved in the Baptist Campus Ministry at Eastern Kentucky University that she began to experience its benefits firsthand.

“During my college years, I had many opportunities to be exposed to missions and be a part of missions,” Warren said of the BCM, a ministry supported through CP.

It wasn’t long before she learned through the BCM of extended missions opportunities available to college students through the IMB and North American Mission Board. After her freshman year, Warren was commissioned by NAMB for missions work in Wyoming for a summer. Several years later, she went on to serve for a summer in Asia through the IMB.

Warren would again benefit from the Cooperative Program as she set her sights on attending seminary in order to prepare more fully for her calling. She would go on to complete a Master of Arts in missions at Southwestern Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas.

“I knew I wanted to go to seminary, and I knew I wanted to end up on the field, so I wanted to go to an SBC school,” she said. “Part of CP funds are given to the seminary, so that was obviously supporting my education. When I was in seminary, I had a defining moment when God showed me exactly where he wanted me to go.”

With her seminary degree completed, Warren headed overseas to serve as a journeyman in Asia through the IMB. While there, Warren’s call to lifelong missions was affirmed once again, and she applied through the IMB to be a career missionary.

Warren was appointed as a career missionary by the IMB and then returned to Asia in 2006 to continue serving, this time with a specific people group in view. Now several years into her assignment, Warren has seen God working amongst the people she serves and is hopeful that she will be able to continue serving there for years to come.

“I’d like to be there for life, but there are no guarantees,” she said, referring to strict government policy in Asia that has often resulted in missionaries returning home. “I could end up anywhere, but that’s okay as long as I am serving somewhere.”

Warren now lives in a town in her assigned country and frequently travels to the countryside where her target people live and work. Her goal is to form friendships amongst the people and build a relationship of trust that will ultimately allow her to share the gospel.

The work is difficult, but Warren feels certain she is exactly where God has led her. She enjoys her time on stateside assignment in the U.S., but always looks forward to returning to the field.

“I’m thankful that I don’t have to stress about raising money when I’m home,” she said. “The main thing I want to do when I’m at home is thank churches for giving through CP and the Lottie Moon Offering.”

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2,400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.  For more information, visit www.kybaptist.org.

*Note: The name of the missionary featured in this story has been changed to protect her identity for security reasons.

– Robert Reeves