Resignation and Future

Dear Friends,

The IMB Board of Trustees officially received and approved last week our resignation from missionary service effective November 1 of this year. We remain on Stateside assignment until then, with potential for two months of salary and benefits beyond that to the end of the year if we are still not in a new job by then.

We essentially were not going to be allowed to stay with the IMB while publicly opposing candidate policy. The Lord has given us peace, led us to resign, and is leading us through multiple discussions and possibilities about our future role. We will keep you posted. In the meantime, we continue to support and call for all concerned Southern Baptists to make known their dissatisfaction and write their State's IMB Trustees to ask that the candidate "guidelines" on baptism and ppl be revoked.

Some concerned Southern Baptist leaders are seeking meetings with their Trustees to do exactly that this summer. The next IMB BOT meeting is in September of this year and hopefully Johnny Hunt, new President of the SBC and reportedly against the policies, will be in attendance then.

So, while we pray that the policies will be overturned, we also encourage all to continue their CP and Lottie Moon and direct support of the IMB...to do otherwise will only hurt the missionaries and their ministries and we never want to see that happen. I believe the best way to deal with these issues is to make direct contact with IMB Trustees and call for this needed change.

Meanwhile, we Hammer's continue to seek the Lord, pray through several possibilities, and pray for our colleagues and friends at IMB.

Thank you for your prayers and notes of encouragement. We'd love to hear from you!

Rodney, Debbie and Luke