In late January, the estate of Vernon B. Sloan presented the South Carolina Baptist Convention with a check through his church, Washington Baptist Church in Greer, for $566,740.35 allotted to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions.

“Mr. Sloan’s gift represents an incredible example of legacy gifting to advance the Great Commission. While we are saddened to hear of his passing, there must be rejoicing in heaven not only at his arrival but in the realization that his generous gift to the International Mission Board will be used to spread the gospel to the nations,” said Dr. Gary Hollingsworth, Executive Director-Treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

A World War II veteran with the United States Navy, Sloan was also a retired bivocational minister of music who served churches in the upstate of South Carolina for 60 years. Sloan was a widower and the last surviving member of his immediate family at the time of his death in November 2018.

For more than a century, Southern Baptists have collected the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international mission work. All monies received from the annual offering directly fund missionaries and their work to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached people groups through the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptists have given more than $4.5 billion to support international missions since the IMB began in 1888. The IMB reports collecting a total of $158.9 million for the 2018 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Of that total, South Carolina Baptist churches collected $8,203,593.

For more information about the South Carolina Baptist Convention, visit www.scbaptist.org. For more information about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, visit www.imb.org.