Let me tell you a story about a young boy who grew up in South Carolina.

When he was just a little boy, some Christians contributed to the Cooperative Program (CP), which they had supported for many years. This money was sent to a building in Columbia, where dedicated individuals ensured churches across the state promoted the CP.

In that building, a staff member collected the mail. Someone in the finance department deposited the money and made sure it was distributed appropriately. Part of that money went to an administrative assistant who mailed out camp forms.

The boy’s parents filled out one of those forms and sent him to a camp overseen by a staff committed to operating and maintaining it.

At that camp, the boy learned that God loves him, that God loves others, and that God wanted to use him to spread the love of Jesus around the world.

Christians continued to give to the CP. There was a staff member who collected the mail containing those contributions.

Some of that money paid for someone to ensure the bathrooms kept working so that another group of staff members could enjoy coming to work to plan a fun, biblically-based camp for teenagers.

That same little boy, now a preteen, attended another camp, where his faith in Jesus was strengthened in new and fresh ways.

Those Christians kept giving to the CP, and someone in that building kept opening the mail and distributing the money.

Some of that money paid for lightbulbs in the building and supported a maintenance worker who made sure those lightbulbs were working so the IT person could see to fix the computer of an administrative assistant who answered the emails and phone calls of a BCM Director. This BCM Director, covered in prayer and assured that his family’s insurance was taken care of by HR staff, ensured there was a BCM Director on the campus of Clemson University.

That BCM Director encouraged the preteen boy, now a young college student, to attend a collegiate retreat organized by people in that building. There, his eyes were opened in a new way to God’s heart for the nations.

Later that year, the BCM Director encouraged the same college student to spend his Christmas break sharing the Gospel in China. The college student went back to China two more times during his college years. During the second and third trips, he shared the Gospel with a young Chinese man who had never heard the name of Jesus.

In the meantime, the BCM Director moved on to another ministry role, and the staff in that building worked hard to ensure another BCM Director was put in place on that campus. This new BCM Director sent more teams of college students in subsequent years who continued sharing the Gospel with that same young Chinese man, who eventually trusted in Jesus and began hosting a Bible study in his apartment in the heart of China.

Christians kept giving, and others at that building kept using that money to make the youth camp better and better. One day, that young college student, now serving as a youth director at a church, had the privilege of leading many students to faith in Jesus over the course of several years at the same youth camp that had impacted him as a preteen.

Someone in that building kept promoting the CP, and Christians kept giving. Some staff at that building organized a vision trip to Boston to connect pastors with church planters.

The youth director, now a pastor of an SCBaptist Church, went on that vision trip, connected with a church planter, led his church to partner with that church planter, and went on a trip to help that church plant in Boston serve their community. There, a college student was invited to that church plant, where she has since been baptized and is being discipled.

Those Christians who gave are members of the churches of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

That building is the headquarters for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

Those dedicated individuals are the amazing staff of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

That little boy, now a pastor in this state, is me.

I want to say thank you to all those Christians who have given sacrificially to the Cooperative Program.

I want to thank the staff of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. No matter your role, you are making an impact for the Kingdom of God every day, whether you see the fruit or not.

On behalf of the Executive Board and the churches of our Convention, thank you, SCBaptist staff, for helping churches fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you for helping us work towards a day when every life has been saturated and transformed by the hope of the Gospel, beginning in SC and reaching the ends of the earth.

I am grateful for the eternal impact the South Carolina Baptist Convention has had on my life and the lives of countless others through the churches’ contributions to the Cooperative Program.