February 13, 1969
The Foreign Mission Board held its regular monthly meeting on February 13, at 3:00
p.m., in the Chapel of the Board, Richmond, Virginia, with Hunter Riggins presiding.
PRESENT: State Members: Perry Sanders (Louisiana).
Local Members: Wade H. Bryant, Mrs. R. B. Carter, Sr., Austin W. Farley, Joseph B.
Flowers, V. Allen Gaines, David S. Hammock, John W. Kincheloe, Jr., Robert T. Marsh,
Jr., John L. Moran, Lucius M. Polhill, James E. Rayhorn, Hunter Riggins, Meredith K.
Roberson, D. 0. Rose, Edwin L. Shattuck, Dalton Ward.
Staff : Baker J. Cauthen, Harold Basden, James D. Belote/, Louis R. Cobbs, Winston
Crawley, Everett L. Deane, Jesse C. Fletcher, Cornell Goerner, lone Gray, Eugene L.
Hill, Frank K. Means, Stanley A. Nelson, Floyd H. North, R. Keith Parks, Norman
Price, Fon H. Scofield, Rogers Smith, Truman Smith, E. L. Wright, Elizabeth Minshew.
Visitors :
В.
C. Smith, Jr., Atlanta, Georgia; J. B. Durham (missionary to Biafra) ,
Miss Eva Sanders (retired missionary nurse who served in Nigeria), Miss Audrey C.
Dyer (missionary associate, on furlough from Nigeria).
The meeting was called to order.
The meeting opened with the Hymn: "Great Redeemer, We Adore Thee," led by Mr. Dan
Evans of the Foreign Mission Board staff.
Board members and friends were extended a warm welcome.
Minutes of the Board for January 9, 1969, were approved.
Rev. Perry R. Sanders, member of the Board from Louisiana, read a passage of Scripture
from Galations 4, and led in prayer.
Dr. Cauthen shared information that Mr. Leonard Moore's sister-in-law was quite ill.
This circumstance accounted for the absence of Mr. Moore, the Board's first vice-
president .
Dr. Meredith K. Roberson led in a special prayer on behalf of the patient and the
entire family.
Dr. Cauthen welcomed Mr.
В.
C. Smith, Jr., a visitor from Atlanta, Georgia who is
associated with Texaco, Incorporated.
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - Dr. Baker J. Cauthen
Dr. Cauthen gave the following report:
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
During twenty-one years of advance in foreign missions, we have been grateful to our
Lord for the fact that increase in missionary personnel and financial resources has
occurred simultaneously. It would have been impossible to experience the forward
thrust in worldwide missionary labor if either dedicated life or financial resources
should not have continued to grow.
The budget of the Foreign Mission Board for 1969 is $32,102,119.00. This is the
budget that represents what is required for sending and maintaining missionaries on
the field, providing funds with which they are to work, and the necessary capital
budget for buildings which are essential. We live with the fact that the operating
budget needs to increase annually by the sum of two million dollars. Even with that
increase, however, it should be kept in mind that many requests made by the mission
organizations on the fields for additional funds for their work have been impossible
to provide. The actual increase in the operating budget for 1969 over 1968 is
$2,088,119.90.
During these years, the proportion of our total resources applied to the support of
an enlarging staff of missionaries has increased from 337, to 42 7°, while the propor¬
tion of our total funds applied to producing necessary buildings on mission fields
has dropped from
337»
to
257».
This fact illustrates clearly that great numbers of
capital needs on mission fields year by year cannot be met. Many times missions
have to repeat their requests for a building over a period of several years before
it becomes a possibility.
Only recently we received a communication from one of the largest fields of work,
pointing out the very great value that would come to their work if more financial
resources could be made available. This expression, while made by a very strong
mission, could be representative of the feelings on all mission fields.