by Mark Milioni
You have prayed. You have given. You have made the following announcement possible:
Baptist Bible College is very pleased to announce that we have successfully accomplished our goal of raising $600,000 to meet the matching gift opportunity.
We shared this opportunity with you at the beginning of December with only eight weeks to meet the terms of this offer: If we could raise $600,000 by January 31, 2014, then a loving donor would match those funds. Honestly, I was not sure this was possible. Churches and individuals are struggling in this economy. We began to pray and to plan and set this opportunity before you, and you responded in an amazing way. We have truly experienced the words spoken by Gabriel in Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Thank you to the many churches and individuals who sacrificially gave at a difficult time of year to meet this extremely large goal. There were many new donors and many who gave that have not given in a long time. Thank you for believing in us and for being our friend.
Thank you to our donor, the Rawlings Foundation, for providing the very generous matching gift. This gift will meet such an important need at Baptist Bible College. We greatly appreciate the generosity, love, and friendship that the Rawlings Foundation has shown.
Thank you to the great team I work with here at BBC — from our tech department to social media to administrative assistants to our finance department. Your hard work was tremendous and worth it.
Thank you, Lord, for what this offering has done for our Fellowship. It has brought a great amount of interest, unity, and excitement to the BBFI. This offering has demonstrated that the Baptist Bible Fellowship is indeed alive and can accomplish great things when we work together.
Now I must ask that we move forward together in unity again. The attention that this offering has gathered has overshadowed some other very important needs that I want to bring to your attention. We will soon gather at a national meeting and be reminded of the important role that the Baptist Bible Tribune plays in our Fellowship and in our world. We need to support that need and help Tribune editor Keith Bassham exceed their goal. We also need to support our friends in Boston and at the BBFI Mission Office. My wife, Barb, and I have personally committed to give to help with these great needs. How about you? We have proven what we can accomplish when we work together.
Thank you again for the tremendous gifts, encouragement, and interest, and to the Rawlings Foundation for providing this tremendous opportunity.