Bill and Evelyn Bullington served 39 years with the International Mission Board (IMB), most of that time in West Africa.
They began doing evangelism and church planting. They helped start the Togo Pastors’ School that eventually became a seminary for West Africa, mainly the francophone countries.
Bill said he still remembers his experience at age 32, meeting for the first time, people who did not know the meaning of Christmas.
“What a joy seeing several of them turn in faith and surrender to Christ as Lord and Savior,” Bill said. “One of them later shared how he had been disappointed in the local religious practices and how when he heard about the life possible in Christ his heart said to him, ‘That’s it; that’s what you’ve been waiting for.’ Life was never the same for him, and many others heard and believed because of his witness. Prayer and financial support through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering makes this possible today, over and over again,”
The 2024 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Week of Prayer kicked off Dec. 1, and 100% of gifts given through Lottie Moon support missionary presence around the world.
The Bullingtons are active members of First Baptist Church in Hot Springs. Their oldest son and his wife served 10 years with the IMB and are still active in volunteer service in the Dominican Republic.
Their youngest son and his wife are serving with the IMB in Southern Africa; they live in Namibia, and he now serves as the cluster leader for nine countries. One of their sons and his wife were appointed recently to serve with the IMB in Angola.
“Serving with the assurance of prayer and financial support encourages and makes possible a fully dedicated ministry and witness on the field without worry or concern for our needs being met. Our missionaries can serve full-time; they don’t have to spend time and efforts raising financial support. They have it. That’s made possible through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — all of it going to the field for missionaries and their outreach witness — that and the Cooperative Program,” the Bullingtons said.
“Prayer is essential. We can’t save people. God alone can do that. Our missionaries must be empowered and enabled to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit who will then draw people to repentance and faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Disciples will be made and multiplying churches will be planted with Christ as Head of all.”
That support enabled the Bullingtons to serve with confidence and assurance.
“We live with joy and peace knowing that our children and grandchildren are so supported now. They and our great-grandchildren will grow up with the same security and love that blessed us,” they said.
The Bullingtons said the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is essential in the effort to have missionaries going to the unreached lost peoples in the world today.
David and Becky Bauman of First Baptist Church in Russellville grew up participating in Royal Ambassadors (RA) and Girls in Action (GA). They developed a love for missions as youths that has continued through the years, leading them on local and international missions.
That love of missions has been passed on to their children and grandchildren. Each of their three children has been involved in missions. Their younger daughter and her husband spent two years in India serving with the IMB Journeyman program.
Their son, Brant Bauman, currently serves as IMB’s global digital engagement lead. He and his family live in Red Hill, UK. His wife serves as the European affinity TCK (Third Culture Kids) onboarding specialist. Previously, they served two years in Rome through the IMB Journeyman program and in northern Italy.
“We are a missions-minded family and a lot of it has been led by our church. It filtered out through our kids and grandkids,” David said.
In June, Brant put on a training conference called Refresh for folks involved in digital engagement. David said missionaries from all over – Japan, Chile, South Africa, Canada, etc. – attended the event.
“Because of Lottie Moon money all of them can be trained and come together and minister together and be encouraged together on how we’re going to reach the lost,” Becky said.
Additionally, she said Lottie Moon frees missionaries from the burden of fundraising and allows them to stay in the field 100% of the time. It provides essential resources for IMB workers around the world, including missionary housing, in-country transportation, healthcare, security training, visas and communication technology.
“All over the world, these missionaries have given up a lifestyle that we live here in the U.S. to go everywhere, and they don’t have to worry about their salaries, their personal needs, their medical issues, or transportation. All those things are covered by Lottie Moon offerings. It all goes to those missionaries in the field,” David said.
Most recently, Brant was involved with a project that used the Olympics as a springboard for IMB teams to explore the intersection of digital engagement with on-the-ground outreach. During the Olympics, almost 9 million people scrolled past one of IMB’s digital ads. According to an IMB article, more than 170,000 people engaged with the digital ads and almost 7,500 started conversations with a digital responder.
That outreach was made possible thanks to Lottie Moon.
“We need for people to give to Lottie Moon so that the future missionaries that God calls can answer the call,” Becky said. No matter a person’s interests, skills, or passion, God can use them to make a difference in the world’s greatest problem — lostness.
In 2023, IMB missionaries and national partners reported 1,036 unique people groups that heard some portion of the Gospel, 879,798 people heard the Gospel, 141,206 new believers, 116,992 baptisms, 269,571 discipled, and 12,618 trained in church planting.
According to the IMB resources, “Lottie Moon was sent as a Southern Baptist missionary to China from 1873 to 1912. She saw firsthand the world’s greatest problem — lostness. Meeting so many people who had never heard the Gospel compelled her to write letters to American churches describing the need for a greater missionary presence. She pleaded for increased prayer and financial support to send and sustain more missionaries. This challenge became known as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.”
For more information on the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, click here.