With 2022 well underway, our church's annual mission efforts are getting up to full speed. As is our custom at South Main, we allocate 10% of our yearly budgeted giving to our missions efforts. For 2022, given the scope of our overall budget, the total missions figure is $441,936.
While a good portion of that figure goes to denominational partners who expand the reach of our efforts globally and into particular areas around the state of Texas and inside our city, $166,243 is dedicated specifically to our local or "home-grown" South Main missions. Each year, your Missions Committee performs an intensive analysis of the work, the status, and the ongoing needs of each our mission partners, taking into account any amounts which have been extended to these partners via our church's separate missions offering, dedicated gifts, or benevolence offering. Then the committee develops a plan to disburse the allocated budget dollars.
Here's the breakdown for 2022:
1. Benevolence
$9,975 or 6%. This is the church's response to the acute needs of our members and community neighbors as they encounter unexpected hardships and crisis.
2. Aid to Students, Families, and Teachers at MacGregor Elementary School
$9,975 or 6%. This includes aid in the form of student school supplies, uniforms, and help responsive to acute family and teacher needs we are made aware of in this elementary school in our neighborhood.
3. Manna
$8,313 or 5%. This represents funding for South Main's on-campus ministry to the homeless in and around our neighborhood, including both our Sunday morning efforts and Wednesday night Chess Club, as well as special events.
4. Sojourn House Apartment Ministry (InSpirit Patient Housing)
$3,325 or 2%. This is a long-time South Main ministry which provides low-cost housing for patients in Houston's Medical Center.
5. Missions Projects
$2,494 or 1.5%. This figure provides support for efforts and supplemental funding for projects addressing acute, immediate needs as they arise in our city and state.
6. Operación San Andrés
$60,014 or 36%. OSA is South Main's mission in Peru which works to alleviate the effects of poverty through sustainable programs that address practical and physical needs of the population of Collique, Peru, nurturing spiritual and social transformation.
7. Sodzo
$41,561 or 25%. This international mission effort began in Maua, Kenya and seeks to give every child the opportunity to achieve self-actualization by restoring family cohesion and reducing homelessness and trauma in vulnerable communities across the world.
8. Emergency Aid Coalition
$9,975 or 6%. The EAC provides temporary assistance in the form of food, clothing, and other basic needs, with an emphasis on serving the working poor in Houston.
9. Baptist Student Ministries of Houston
$2,495 or 1.5%. Formerly known as the BSU, this Christ-centered, student-led Baptist ministry provides spiritual support to students on college campuses throughout Houston
10. The Amazing Place
$5,819 or 3.5%. AP's mission is to serve those affected by dementia and their caregivers, also providing community education on cognitive impairment issues.
11. SEARCH Homeless Services
$3,325 or 2%. SEARCH's work focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty and homelessness through developing permanent housing options and nurturing independence in individuals and families affected by poverty in the Houston area.
12. Gracewood
$3,410 or 2.1%. Gracewood empowers single mothers and their families, providing housing and mentoring options, with an aim at providing hope and healing to those in its care.
13. Rice Intervarsity Student Ministries
$997 or .6%. This inter-denominational campus ministry supports students/faculty through small group Bible study/worship gatherings on Rice's campus.
14. The Beacon
$4,489 or 2.7%: a non-profit organization that serves the Houston homeless community through daily services, civil legal aid, and access to housing.
