(International)–Elsewhere, a shortfall in contributions has forced the Southern Baptist International Mission Board to cut 61 jobs, a week after the agency said it was limiting the number of new missionaries it will send overseas through next year. IMB spokesman Mark Kelly calls it a difficult time for the staff. “It’s painful to be reducing staff and holding back missionaries when there are so many missions opportunities around the world, doors that have opened that, a few years ago, we would have never have dreamed would be opened-God moving in some really dramatic ways in many places.” Many mission groups are hurting financially. Kelly says they’re proceeding prayerfully. “We’re going to use this challenge to assess our ministries and services, try to see what’s really most essential to our task. We’ll be trying to refine our overseas strategies and methods. We’re going to try to practice better stewardship and give more emphasis to ensuring that the new missionaries we are able to send out are going to the most strategic assignments.”
