To qualify for a Matching Contribution, the congregation’s mission project will target one of the 14 causes of death in children under age 5 in one of those 40 countries.
Champaign, IL (PRWEB) May 27, 2018
empty tomb’s Mission Match® is soon to relaunch with a new Web site and a targeted focus.
The goal date for launching the revamped Web site is mid-summer.
This time, Mission Match will be offering to match money raised in Christian congregations for projects focused on one of 40 countries. To qualify for a Matching Contribution, the congregation’s mission project will target one of the 14 causes of death in children under age 5 in one of those 40 countries.
From 2002 to 2016, empty tomb’s Mission Match provided Matching Contributions for a variety of congregational mission projects.
Over those years, 86 congregations in 23 states received 124 Matching Contributions totaling $222,000. The churches agreed to raise at least an equal amount from people within their congregations for the mission projects named in their applications.
The projects included a variety of activities, such as: refugee resettlement; support of orphanages in Africa and Asia; evangelism trips to South America, Africa, and Asia; home construction, sanitation and water projects; building a school and supporting agriculture in Africa; medical clinic and training trips; and some domestic projects in the U.S. as well.
Some participating congregations reported that the energy from the Mission Match Matching Contribution had a positive effect on the dynamics in the congregation.
One church wrote in a follow-up report, “empty tomb Mission Match was such a huge blessing. It afforded life changing work in the hearts and lives of all who participated … As a result of this trip, a total of 17 people have committed to sponsoring 20 children.”
In 2005, the sixth and seventh graders at a church wanted to build a water system in another country. One of the adult leaders wrote, “This project is significant in that it is a youth initiative which is inspiring interest, enthusiasm and involvement among many of our parishioners.” When the adult leaders initially thought the youth were taking on too large a project, the youth replied, “Let’s think big, that’s the way God is.” The leader wrote, “We see this project as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to work in our youth, our entire congregation and the communities in which we live, as we join with many of our local brothers and sisters to help some of our distant ones.”
Now, the goal of empty tomb Mission Match is to bring the enthusiasm shown in past Mission Match projects to a more targeted goal.
Congregations will be invited to join with empty tomb Mission Match to help, in Jesus’ name, close what empty tomb terms the “Promise Gap.”
In 1990 and again in 2000, over 180 world governments “promised the children of the world” to reduce the global Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR), according to UNICEF.
By 2015, according to a UNICEF and WHO report, although progress had been made toward reducing child deaths, the goal had not been reached.
The difference between the goal and actual rate of reduction is labeled the Promise Gap by empty tomb.
In 2015, according to empty tomb estimates, 1.3 million children under the age of five were caught in this Promise Gap, and, as a result, died before their fifth birthdays.
Further, 40 countries are behind the curve in the level of progress needed to meet the next goals set to reduce their U5MRs, according to an empty tomb analysis.
The money raised to be offered as Matching Contributions is donated by individuals. The suggested level is $50 a year. The revamped Mission Match Web site will provide a place for donations toward the pool of Matching Contributions money offered to “help, in Jesus’ name, close the Promise Gap.” Even before the revised Mission Match page is launched, the empty tomb Web site donation page currently has a place for people to designate their gift to Mission Match. Any Mission Match donations received now will help expand the initial Matching Contribution pool when the new Mission Match site is launched.
The new Web site will also provide a place for congregations to apply for a Matching Contribution to support their mission project focused on one of the causes of death in children under age five in one of the 40 countries.