Author: WWNTBM

Posted on

From the Memo Board: April 2017

Dates to Know

April 1 – February financial reports will be due
April 14 – the Office will be closed for Good Friday
June 19-22 – Family Fellowship Week in Ocala, FL
August 20-24, 2018 – WWNTBM Encouragement Conference in Germany

Doctrinal Agreements

If you have submitted your doctrinal agreement statement, your new card for 2017-2018 is now available for you to download and print from your SecureCloud folder. If you have not yet submitted your annual agreement, please click here, or email Naomi Torberson as soon as possible, indicating that you have read and are still in agreement with our Articles of Faith. If you have questions or concerns, please contact John O’Malley.

Charitable Contributions

Charitable contributions may be carried into future years if they cannot be deducted in the current year because they exceed your adjusted gross-income limits. You may be able to deduct the excess in each of the next five years until it is used up, but not beyond that time. Details of this option are available in IRS Pub 526. We encourage you to discuss this possibility with your tax preparer, as it may be beneficial during furloughs when the Foreign Income Exclusion may not apply.

Amazon Shopping Donation

Did you know that it is possible to support the ministry of World Wide through your regular purchases from Amazon? Simply click here to begin your shopping experience at smile.amazon.com, and then link your account for Amazon to make donations to World Wide New Testament Baptist Missions Inc. Amazon will then donate a portion of their proceeds to the Office.

Vehicle Need

The Boylston’s are in need of purchasing a vehicle for use on their upcoming furlough in late September. If you know of a mini-van or similar vehicle for sale, please click here to contact them with information. Thank you for your assistance!

New Baby!

Congratulations to Michael and Nora Deatrick on the birth of Corban Matthew, who was born on March 18th. He weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. We rejoice that Corban was born healthy and is doing well! Please continue to pray for Nora, as she is still having some ongoing medical issues. The Deatricks are nearing the end of their deputation to go to the Solomon Islands, and are praying about the timing of their departure.

A Day in the Office

These past few months have been full of unique experiences for our Office Staff. We’ve had several of our missionaries visit, and we have also had several off-site trips to visit and assist different churches. If you are ever in the area please come by and see us. We love having visitors! Here are a few pictures.

Our Office Staff with several of the wives of our board members, on a recent trip to Florida. Left to Right: Kim O’Malley, Darleen Whetstone, Boone West, Mamie Bell, Beth Daniel, Naomi Torberson, Bekah Cmaylo, Debbie Krachenfels, Emily Sanderlin

 

Some of our Staff with the Office Staff at Grace Baptist Church of Newport, NC. Left to Right: Bekah Cmaylo, Alecia Robinson, Naomi Torberson, Yuri Wells, Ada Burns, Dorothy Silvera

 

Kristin Stalcup with Baby Timmy and her mother, Connie Roberson

 

Our Office Staff with Adrian and Emma Hendricks

 

Richard and Ann Bibey

 

The Rose Family – Matthew, Rebecca, Esther, Deborah, Hannah, Lydia

 

Ayser Mazahreh & Ghassan Haddad
Posted on

Prayer & Dates: April 2017

April Prayer/Praises and Special Dates

Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for April. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.

Posted on

The Homegoing of Kari Elwart

Many of you have had the privilege to get to know Tim Daniel’s assistant pastor, Jackie Elwart, and his family at Family Fellowship Weeks over the past few years. Others of you were able to meet them as you traveled through New Testament Baptist Church (Kinston, NC) on furlough or deputation. Jackie, his wife Kari, and their three daughters, Charlotte (10), Audrey (8), & Sadie (6), love the ministry and missionaries, and their enthusiasm and joy have endeared their family to World Wide in a special way.

You prayed with the Elwart family back in 2013 as Kari fought and defeated leukemia for the first time. Then you joined with them to pray for healing again late last year when it was discovered her leukemia had returned. Our prayers for healing were answered when she entered into heaven at 5:06am on Wednesday, March 1.

In the words of her husband:

She crossed the finish line with such grace. Kari went to be with the Lord at 5:06am.

No more cancer, pain, or suffering. She has been eternally healed. We are so thankful for God’s perfect grace, IT WAS AMAZING. She went so peacefully, and she was surrounded by family.

Thank you to each and every one that has prayed for Kari, our girls, and I throughout this amazing journey. We have been so blessed, and we would appreciate your continued prayers.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm‬ ‭30:5



We grieve with the Elwart family and the New Testament Baptist Church of Kinston, NC, while at the same time rejoicing that Kari is with her Savior and in no more pain. Please keep their family and friends in your prayers in the coming days and weeks.

Funeral Arrangements:

  • VISITATION – Friday from 5-8pm at New Testament Baptist Church located at 126 Neuse Rd., Kinston, NC 28501.
  • FUNERAL – Saturday at 10am at New Testament Baptist Church located at 126 Neuse Rd., Kinston, NC 28501. Graveside service to follow at Westview Cemetery

If you would like to contact the family, you can email Bro. Jackie or mail cards to the church:
New Testament Baptist Church
126 Neuse Road
Kinston, NC 28501

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

Posted on

Prayer & Dates: March 2017

March Prayer/Praises and Special Dates

Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for March. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.

Posted on

From the Memo Board: March 2017

Dates to Know

April 1 – February financial reports will be due

April 14 – The Office will be closed in observation of the Resurrection of our Lord

June 19-22 – Family Fellowship Week in Ocala, FL

Tax Notes

As you prepare to submit your financial documents to your tax preparer, here are some things you may want to remember to give them:

• List of dates you were in the US vs. out of the country
• Details of any housing expenses
• Information on any retirement plans
• Information on any investments
• Information about any foreign bank accounts on which you are a signatory
• Details of any family births or deaths (Names, dates, and SSNs)
• Details of estimated taxes submitted
• Information about your health coverage and medical expenses
• W-2s, 1099’s, and other tax forms received
• Information about tuition and fees paid for a child in college (including name and SSN of the child) and a copy of Form 1098T if received.
• Details of charitable contributions

Encouragement Opportunity

For several months, we have been hosting a weekly virtual meeting for those on deputation. This is a 30 minute call that is a time of fellowship, encouragement, and prayer. (Click here to listen to past recordings.) We would like to expand this opportunity to all of our missionaries, as a means of building community within our missions family. Our thoughts are to offer two different meetings per month, to allow for participation regardless of time zone. Our goal is for this to be a time of connection, encouragement, strengthening, and prayer as we seek to build each other up in the work to which God has called us. Please click here to provide your feedback on what times would work best for you to be able to participate.

Women of World Wide

You asked – we answered! We have been approached several times about finding a means by which ladies in our missions family can connect with each other to share ideas, struggles, encouragement, and fellowship. We have launched a special Facebook group called Women of World Wide. This will be a closed group, open only to ladies within our missions family. To join, email Laura Cmaylo and request to join the group. Once your request is approved, join in the conversation! Feel free to share prayer requests, recipes, recommendations, and ask questions of the other missionary wives in the group. We hope this will be a help and encouragement to our ladies!

New Babies!

Congratulations to Tim and Kristin Stalcup on the birth of Timothy Richard, Jr., who was born on February 5th. He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. The Stalcups also have a two-year-old daughter, Anna Faith. They are on deputation to minister to the Muslims in New York City.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations as well to John and Sarah on the birth of their second child, Eliana Noelle, on February 21st. She was 19.2 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces. She joins her older brother, John Gabriel, who is 19 months. Everyone is doing well! Keep them in prayer as they continue to serve overseas.

Posted on

Tax Time Reminders

Tax season is once again upon us! Here are several reminders concerning tax issues that you may face. We trust that this information will be useful to you, both in giving you a better understanding of your reports and helping you to be aware of items that may affect your personal taxes. Please be sure that you are following published guidelines found in your Missionary Orientation Manual when listing expenses on your financial reports. Thank you!

Tax Paperwork for 2016

Tax related paperwork generated by WWNTBM will be in your SecureCloud folder on February 1st. This includes W-2 forms, MFR Summary Reports, and Estimated Tax letters. Be sure to look at the 2nd page of the MFR Summary, to see if there are any specific notes for you and your tax preparer. If you requested that we submit your tax information directly to your tax preparer, please note that those documents may not be sent until mid- to late February. This is to ensure that there is time for us to include any forms that may arrive in our office from other sources. If you have any questions, please contact Naomi.

The Affordable Care Act and Your Taxes

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will affect your taxes in regards to your Health Insurance coverage. If you are enrolled in the Health Insurance Marketplace, you should expect to receive a Form 1095-A from the Marketplace, which you will need to submit to your tax preparer. If you were not enrolled in the Marketplace, you will still need to discuss your Health Insurance plan with your preparer, as it is our understanding this will affect your tax return this year.

It is our understanding that US residents living overseas who have returned to the US for more than 35 days in 2016 may also be subject to specific fees regarding the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision of the ACA. Information about this is available on the IRS website by clicking here.

Questions about this should be directed to your tax preparer.

1099 Forms

If churches issued funds payable to you in excess of $600 during the year 2016, they may issue you a 1099 form. If those funds were either mailed to the office or included on Line 2 of your MFR as extra income, they are already included in the total of your W-2. Our office can assist you in verifying whether the funds were included on your W-2. Your tax preparer can assist you on your return in recording this so that you are not taxed twice on the same income. We recommend that you ask churches if they could make checks payable to WWNTBM to avoid this issue in the future.

Foreign Tax Exclusion

In order to claim the foreign tax exclusion, you must be out of the US for 330 days over a 12 month period of time; however, these days do not have to be in the same calendar year. In order to gain the full benefit of the foreign tax exclusion, your tax preparer may be able to revise your returns based on the actual time you have spent overseas. Because of this, it is vital to provide your tax preparer with all of your travel dates to and from the US. You may also wish to discuss with your tax preparer what dates would be the best travel dates when planning to leave for the field or to return on furlough, as this could affect how much you are allowed to claim under the foreign tax exclusion.

Estimated Tax Payments

Missionaries are considered to be self-employed, and are therefore subject to self-employment taxes. Submitting quarterly estimated tax payments throughout the year will help to prevent having a large tax payment due each April. Estimated tax payments can be submitted on your own, or, if you are interested, you may contact our office for information on how we can submit them for you.

Tax Paperwork for those with Foreign Bank Accounts

US Treasury Dept. regulations require that if you have any foreign bank accounts, and if the sum total of all of your foreign accounts has ever been $10,000 at any given time during the past year, you must complete the IRS Foreign Bank and Financial Account Form (FBAR) and give it to your tax preparer. This includes all foreign accounts on which you are a signatory, such as a ministry account. This form, and further information about it, is available on the IRS website at www.irs.gov. It is our understanding that there have been several changes to these requirements in recent years, and you may also need to complete Form 8938. Please refer to the IRS website and your tax preparer if you have any questions.

Ministry Bank Accounts

If your ministry has been chartered and established as a non-profit organization, we recommend having your ministry get a bank account in its name. Funds for purchases such as land may be able to be sent directly to your ministry, thus eliminating your personal tax liability. Please note that there are limitations to this option. Of course, regular support could never be sent this way. Please contact our office for more information.

Utilizing a Tax Professional

Studies have shown that the average person who uses a tax professional, instead of filing their own taxes, receives a much greater tax return. When comparing the returns of those who self file vs. those who use a tax professional, it is estimated that a self-filer loses between $297 and $791 in missed refunds. The savings far exceeds the amount spent to hire a professional. Many have also found that using tax software does not always compare to the benefits of using a professional either. In many instances it is not that the software or the self-filer is wrong, but that other choices may be better. (Information taken from daveramsey.com.)

It is also good to note that not all professionals are familiar with tax situations that might affect you. We encourage all missionaries to use a certified tax preparer who is familiar with special tax situations that affect missionaries. A list of tax preparers used by other missionaries is available on SecureCloud, under the Forms and Manuals section.

Posted on

From the Memo Board: February 2017

Dates to Know

February 15 – You should receive the 2017 MFR Template with the new mileage rates.

March 1 – January Financial Reports will be due.

June 19-22 – Family Fellowship Week in Ocala, FL.

Benefits of Financial Reports

The Monthly Financial Report (MFR) is the tool that missionaries can use to become accountable to WWNTBM for their reimbursable expenses, rather than having all funds listed as salary. Over the course of 2016, 80% of those eligible chose to submit MFRs. By doing so, they were able to reduce their W-2 Wages by a combined average of 32.27%. If you are not currently utilizing MFRs and would like information about how to begin, please contact our office.

Financial Status Report

We have uploaded a Financial Status Report to your SecureCloud account. This is meant to show you the financial details that we have on file, such as your support estimate and the average amount of support you received this past quarter. This is information we provide to pastors who may call about your ministry. We ask that you update your support estimate once every four years, or as your lives and ministries change. Please review this information and contact us if you have any questions or changes.

Deputation Meeting Archives

Bro. O’Malley holds weekly meetings with our missionaries on deputation, our office staff, and a different guest speaker every Friday. Audio and notes from these meetings can be found in this Dropbox file.

Communication Tools

Our goal is to communicate with you in the best and easiest way available for you. Many of our missionaries use a variety of apps to communicate easily with those on their field, as well family who are far away. If you have a tool you are using for communication such as WhatsApp or WeChat, and you would like to be able to communicate with the office using this tool, please contact us with your information, and we will connect with you there.

Easter Traditions

Over the Christmas season we featured Christmas traditions from several mission fields on our social media accounts. We would like to do the same thing for Easter this year. If your ministry has a special outreach or your field has an unique tradition for Easter that you’d like to share, please let us know.

Posted on

Prayer & Dates: February 2017

February Prayer/Praises and Special Dates

Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for February. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.

Posted on

Prayer & Dates: January 2017

January Prayer/Praises and Special Dates

Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for January. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.

Posted on

From the Memo Board: January 2017

Dates to Know

January 9 – Missionaries will receive their emailed statements of December Support Received.

January 11 – All missionaries will receive their final December support on this day, regardless of the day that they normally receive support.

January 16 – December financial reports will be due, along with any remaining receipts or financial paperwork for 2016.

June 19-22 – Family Fellowship Week with Memorial Baptist Church in Ocala, FL. Begin arranging your summer schedule to be with us!

New Missionary

Matthew and Rebecca Rose have been accepted with World Wide as our newest missionaries to Kenya. They are sent out of Grace Baptist Church of Hinesville, GA, with Pastor John Mills, where Bro. Rose has been serving as the youth director for the past five years. The Roses have four daughters: Deborah (5), Hannah (4), Esther (2), and Lydia (1). Please pray for the Rose family as they begin deputation.

 

New Baby

Congratulations to Matthew and Nikki Brown on the birth of Judah Lee, who was born on Christmas day! Judah weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Praise the Lord for a safe delivery, as there were several complications during the pregnancy. Mom and baby are doing great! Judah is the Browns’ third child, joining Joshua (3) and Julie (1). The Browns minister in Cambodia.

Family Fellowship Week Change

Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, our annual Family Fellowship Week for 2017 is being moved to Memorial Baptist Church in Ocala, FL, with Pastor Michael West. It will still be held on June 19-22, 2017. Please check your calendars and make arrangements accordingly.

SecureCloud Packets

At the end of each month, we scan any mail that has come to the Office and place it in your SecureCloud folder.  This would include check stubs for all bills paid by the Office, as well as any cards or correspondence from donors. Please be sure to check your account periodically, especially this month, as many missionaries have received Christmas cards and letters, which would be available to you there.

Missionary Orientation School Online Update

In 2016, we launched a website for our new Missionary Orientation School (MOS), so missionaries can take classes online to assist in beginning deputation or refresh their memory on various topics. We have recently updated this website, so that any user can take notes online while watching the lessons. (See the photo below for the icon to access this notes feature.) On the main homepage for the videos, users can now see two new links for “Public Notes” and “My Notes” from which you can access or download all your notes at once, or you can click through individual lessons to see your notes there as well.

We would like to encourage all current students to work on finishing these classes as soon as possible in the new year. If you do not have a user a account and would like to take these courses, please contact our office and we will be happy to send you credentials so you can avail yourself of this opportunity.

January Income Totals

During a typical month, we close the books on the 25th, and any checks received after that date are posted to the following month. Due to receipting requirements, we cannot do this in the month of December. As a result, please be aware that your December support total may be higher than normal, while your January support total may be lower than normal. Please be sure to plan ahead for this!

Housing Allowances for 2017

Housing allowances previously in place have automatically rolled over to the new year. Missionaries who are ordained are eligible to have a housing allowance in place, which can provide certain tax benefits. If you did not have a housing allowance in 2016 and would like to have one for 2017, or if you have questions regarding this, please contact our office.

New Excel Template

A new Excel template for the year 2017 will be available during the second week of February. This will give us time to review the need for any possible updates. January financial reports will be due on March 1. Should you wish to complete your report before the new template is available, you are welcome to submit it on the 2016 template.

New Mileage Rate

Beginning January 1st, the IRS mileage rate has decreased to $0.535 per mile for business/ministry miles. This change will be reflected on the new Excel template for 2017.