WACO—Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, told Texas Baptists.
Neville Callam, general secretary and chief executive officer of the BWA, speaks to a luncheon devoted to raising awareness about the Texas Hunger Offering. (Photo/ Leah Allen / BGCT)At a luncheon held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, Callam commended Texas Baptists for “being committed to the service to humanity—not because you have to, but because you recognize you need to.”
“You have the capacity to see beyond immediate horizons of your own path,” Callam said. “You plant your eyes on the wide expanse of earth, to see people over there who are struggling and to say, ‘We need to help, because we are children of God.’”
Over the past 18 years, Texas Baptists have contributed about $2.5 million to Baptist World Alliance-related hunger ministries, funding hundreds of projects and feeding thousands of people simply because they love Jesus and love the lost, he said.
Ferrell Foster, coordinator of the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, presents Bob Billups, executive pastor for First Baptist Church in Midland, the award for Top Giving Church to the hunger offering. (Photo/ Leah Allen / BGCT)“No other Baptist group in the world comes anywhere close to what you have done through the partnership in which you share with us,” he said. “I ask you to see the difference you are making in the world … to see the difference that God is making through you.”
Ferrell Foster and Joyce Gilbreath Kokel with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission presented awards to representatives of churches that have contributed the most toward the Texas Hunger Offering.
They recognized First Baptist Church in Midland as the 2014 Mother’s Day Hunger Offering top giving church and as the top giving church from 1996 to the present.
They also honored Prairie View Chapel in Amarillo as the 2013 top per capita giving church and First Baptist Church in Kenedy as the 2013 top giving church.
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