Every year during the month of March, BGMC runs its annual campaign called “March Missions Madness—Lost Change for Lost Souls.” This campaign takes place during college basketball’s March Madness playoffs. The month of March was also chosen because National BGMC Day is the second Sunday in March.

The purpose of this four-week campaign is to bring special attention to BGMC and what it does. The object of the campaign is to get every person in the church involved by looking for lost change (money) for one month in order to reach lost souls around the world. Lost souls are reached by supplying our missionaries with the supplies they need to spread the gospel.

We suggest that you give every person in the church a Buddy Box or a Buddy Barrel bank. We suggest giving out the Buddy Boxes. These boxes come folded flat so they take up very little storage space. Because they come folded flat, they fit into church bulletins. This is an easy way to get a BGMC offering container to every church person. The Buddy Boxes are the size of a juice box container. These boxes are also more cost effective for BGMC.

Challenge the congregation to search their homes, cars, sofas, washing machines, dresser drawers, etc. to find change that is “lost.” By giving this lost change to BGMC, lost souls will be reached with the gospel. Boxes or barrels are to be turned in when they are full. Some people will fill them in one week. Give them another container to fill. Announce that all boxes or barrels should be turned in on the last Sunday. Some people will continue to fill their containers throughout the year.

“Lost Change for Lost Souls” will create excitement among the kids and adults in the church as everyone gets involved in gathering money for BGMC. Adults will have opportunity during this month to show the kids their support. The adult support will instill excitement in the kids to get more involved in BGMC. This campaign is also a great way to boost your BGMC fund-raising for the year.

Every March we receive tremendous reports from churches who testify about how much this campaign excited their church for BGMC. Many churches reported that more BGMC money came in during March than what had come in for the whole prior year. Here are a few testimonies:

At Central Assembly of God in Greensboro, North Carolina, we had great success with the Lost Change for Lost Souls game plan. The congregation joined with the children's church kids to break our BGMC records. Because of the overwhelming participation, we have already received over 50% of our BGMC goal. The excitement created by this special giving event has continued. The BGMC buzz has inspired the kids to continue giving and encouraged the adults to continue filling their barrels!

We challenged our entire congregation to look for "Lost Souls.” We had many children, as well as adults, who participated. We stated a challenge by saying that we wanted everyone to pray over the change when they found it, claiming it as a lost soul that could and would be saved. We believe the message that has been shared during "Lost Change for Lost Souls" has been worth so much. (Cottondale First Assembly of God)

For March Missions Madness, we had a contest with the adults against the kids. If the kids gave the most money by the end of March, we'd throw them a party. They did, and we had a party for them. But what's even more exciting is the fact that during March we raised about $1,300. This is the most money that has ever been raised in one year for BGMC in the history of our church, and we did that in just one month. (Riverside Tabernacle, Flint, Michigan)

My name is Shawne Gatoura, and I am the Children's Pastor at Clarks Green Assembly of God in Clarks Green, PA  We had a goal of $1,000 for the month of March. I thought this might be difficult for us, but thought to aim high. Two boys in our church did jobs for people like cleaning cars, putting together shelving units, etc. One other girl had her own bake sale and made everything herself. We ended up raising $1,691.00. That is over 5 times the amount we gave all year last year!!! I am praising God for HIS goodness because without HIM we would never have done it.

Here in Shelton, WA, we had a fun time during March. The last Sunday in February, the kids presented the program. They hand-made posters of where to find lost coins, and we hung them up around the church. Every family got a Buddy Barrel. Each week in March, we had a gallon jar sitting in the foyer for them to be emptied into. I put the totals on the poster until the last week. On the last Sunday, I put all the coins back into jars (it took two gallon jars), and the kids announced the total and thanked everyone for helping. We raised $248 compared to around $20 for the month. I think everyone felt like they were a kid again with the Buddy Barrels. A couple of them told me they were convicted to give some coins that were building up, and one little boy gave money he was saving for a video game. It was a good month!

We also suggest that you show a BGMC video clip to the congregation and to the kids. Show a clip on the first Sunday that you announce March Missions Madness. You may want to show a clip every week. BGMC has great video clips on DVD. BGMC has also created a music video highlighting the “Like Never Before” campaign. (For a detailed listing of DVDs, look at the March Missions Madness packet on the BGMC Web site.)

BGMC has created special free March Missions Madness posters to hang up around the church and in your classrooms so that you can record the goal for March Missions Madness or the final giving total. Download the March Missions Madness promotional packet to for information on how to get involved in this campaign and great ideas.

Free resources are available by calling GPH at 1-800-641-4310.

Resources:
715-200           Buddy Boxes
715-022           Buddy Barrel Banks
715-596           March Missions Madness Poster
715-554           Reaching the Children of the World bulletin insert-English
715-551           Reaching the Children of the World bulletin insert-Spanish
715-599           Thermometer BGMC Goal Poster-English
715-598           Thermometer BGMC Goal Poster-Spanish