During this Week of Prayer for International Missions, it is fitting for us to note some of the ways that the Eliza Broadus Offering helps to reach internationals in Kentucky. At the top of my list is the work of Baptist Campus Ministry.

Through campus missionaries, interns and volunteers, international students are welcomed, fed and helped with English. Through BCM activities they make friends and hear the gospel.

One important event for international students is the annual International Student Conference held each November in Cave City. Through this event, international students from many different Kentucky campuses gather for a weekend that includes serious discussions about faith in the midst of cultural sharing and fun activities. This year EBO will provide $60,000 for international student ministry.

The need to reach internationals is so vital that the KBC has recently hired Brett Martin to serve as the international campus missionary to develop strategies to reach students from other countries. In announcing this new position, Brian Combs reminded us that “many of these students plan to return to their home countries as leaders. If international students understand and receive the gospel while they visit our campuses, they will take their faith and their influence with them when they leave.”

Kentucky Baptists also reach out to internationals through Friendship International ministries. Groups in Lexington, Louisville and Paducah are sharing the gospel with internationals through weekly outreach activities that include Bible study, choir, meals, English classes, sewing and other activities. EBO grants to each Friendship International group have helped with supplies and other expenses.

Church planting among various language and ethnic groups is another way we share Christ with internationals in our state. Established language churches are also instrumental in reaching internationals that come to Kentucky.

With the news that 600-800 IMB missionaries will be returning home due to budget shortfalls at the IMB, it is our prayer that Southern Baptists will welcome these missionaries home and provide places of service for them. We need the tremendous language and cultural skills that they bring to help us reach the nations in our midst.

Please pray and give faithfully to all of our missions offerings. Remember that EBO is at work reaching the nations right here in Kentucky.

Joy Bolton is executive director-treasurer of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, P.O. Box 436569, Louisville, KY 40253; (502) 489-3534; kywmu.org