nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
Foreign Mission Board
M. THERON RANKIN, Executive Secretary
^Jhe l^atkwau to J i eace
As we emerge from the years of war and the clouds of the storm clear away,
two facts concerning foreign missions stand out strong and steady against a
background of confusion and destruction.
First, that the achievements of world missions are indestructible. The light
of abundant evidence from China, Japan, and Europe has already been thrown
upon this fact. Within a few weeks after the surrender of Japan, missionaries
of our Board were back in the areas of China that had been held by Japan.
They are now in every section of the country in which our Board had operated.
Our missionaries have not yet been able to return to Japan, but Baptist chaplains
who entered with the armed forces have given us detailed information and have
transmitted communications from Japanese Baptists. To survey the needs and
opportunities in European war areas, Dr. George W. Sadler, secretary for Africa,
Europe, and the Near East, spent the first three months of 1946 in Europe.
Through all of these direct contacts have come living testimonies that the
achievements of Christian missions cannot be destroyed. Underneath the destruction
of buildings and property of all kinds, down underneath human suffering
and misery, the living foundations of God's Kingdom abide strong and indestructible
in the lives of Christian people.
In the three years from 1943 to 1945, the Foreign Mission Board appointed
one hundred new volunteers. Plans are under way to appoint sixty others in
1946. It is expected that within the present year the entire staff of missionaries
will be on their fields of work.
Total receipts for foreign missions in 1945 reached an all-time high figure of
$3,592,000. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering began the year 1946 on an
even higher level than heretofore with total contributions of approximately
$1,200,000.
In addition to providing for its annual over-all budget of $3,000,000, the
Foreign Mission Board has been able, during the past several years, to set aside
from current funds approximately $2,700,000 against a total of $7,000,000 which
will be needed over-and-above the current annual budget to rehabilitate and
enlarge our world-wide missionary undertaking. The Board earnestly hopes
that the Convention will project plans to provide the balance of special funds
needed, so that the entire amount of current receipts may be used for the
appointment of missionaries and the support of current work.
The second fact that stands out clear and strong against the background
of war's destruction is that Southern Baptists must do far more to help save
the world than we have been doing. In the light of the world's urgent need,
the Foreign Mission Board's present program can be seen in its tragic smallness.
If the whole world was ever in need of Christ, it is now. If people were ever
in need of salvation, it is now. If suffering humanity ever needed the help of
five and a half million Southern Baptists, with all their great resources, it is now.
In view of such need, it is unthinkable that we shall continue to send only 550
missionaries to tell the world about Christ; it is unthinkable that we shall continue
to give only an average of seventy cents per person per year to help all
the world outside our own territory.
Appointments of missionaries will be increased as rapidly as our financial
income and the supply of suitable volunteers permit. If the goals projected
through the Co-operative Program for 1946 are achieved, the Foreign Mission
Board's income for this year will exceed [225]
the high record of 1945 by approximately
$1,000,000. In this event, we hope that the Board will be able to increase the
number of appointees in 1947 to a minimum of seventy-five.
As the program in foreign lands is enlarged, the staff for home administration
must increase. A Department of Education and Promotion will be added