We thank God for His divine provision and protection enjoyed during the past planning year and we pray that God Almighty will continue to sustain us in this His Kingdom business. May God greatly bless your labour of love and renew your strength for more exploit always.

Beloved of God, our work theme for this planning year is ‘Partners in Progress’ - I Samuel 30: 18 - 25.  The challenges facing evangelical missions in our generation seem to be increasing on a daily basis. For some years back, the number of Christians actively involved in missions has been on the decline. Withdrawal of missionaries from their God-assigned fields is regular news. More and more believers shy from their ‘first love’ in missions. Yet as Christians, we pray earnestly (perhaps many with lip service) that the kingdom of our God should march on and more souls be won to His glory.    In this planning year, we see the Lord raising more people as partners in SMC’s operations to strengthen the hands of several evangelical Christian missionaries labouring in hard grounds. It is customary for many Christians to believe that the place of partnership with Christian missionaries is minor as far as world evangelization is concerned. In the bible reference for the theme, we saw a division of David’s army into two; a team went to the battle and the other took care of the home front. While those that fought at the battle front claimed superiority David insisted that both teams were

essential in sustaining his army. Thus, he declared that the booty of the war should be shared equally. We pray that God will open the eyes of many Christians to the importance and benefits of effective partnership in mission efforts.