Tough economic times have put a strain on relief efforts of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention.
During the last quarter of 2008, requests for assistance from NAMB's Hunger Relief Ministry increased 25 percent. The SBC entity is seeing requests for assistance rise throughout this year as the economy continues its downward spiral. Mike Ebert, a spokesman with NAMB, says so far, all requests have been met -- but some agencies have had to make adjustments. "One thing that some of our sites are seeing...is that they're having to maybe go from being opened three days a week to cutting back to two," says Ebert. "So I have heard of some churches and ministries like that that are cutting back the number of days a week that they're able to offer services." Last year, the NAMB had to turn down $150,000 in requests for assistance because of a lack of funds.
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