By Tessa Sanchez, International Mission Board
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Little Cakes with Big Attitude also appears to have a big heart for missions. The bakery and coffee shop in Alexandria, Louisiana, donated 10% of their sales on Dec. 10 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to support missionaries who serve with the International Mission Board.
Bridget Vaughn and Robyn Schwartz own the bakery and coffee shop. The women are members of Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria. Their decision to donate to the offering came after listening to the testimony of a couple from their home church.
The couple recently moved to Southeast Asia to serve as missionaries with the IMB. Before the couple left, they spoke to Vaughn’s life group on Sunday morning about the large numbers of people without knowledge of Jesus.
“After hearing them speak recently, I thought everyone had heard the name Jesus, but I was shocked at how many people haven’t,” Vaughn said.
From the couple, Vaughn and her life group learned about Lottie Moon, a Southern Baptist missionary sent to China to share the gospel. Moon saw the world’s most significant problem, lostness, and frequently wrote to Southern Baptists about the tremendous need.
Vaughn grew up in church, but the couple’s presentation about Lottie Moon and missions was transformative.
“Learning more about the organization and how that money went directly to missions and knowing a couple that is serving over there personally, it just all kind of clicked,” she said.
THE SAME CALL
The IMB couple answered the same call Lottie Moon answered to share good tidings of great joy, which is for all people.
“I was so inspired by them, so now it’s on my heart to make sure that we’re helping them be able to tell others about Christ,” Vaughn said
In addition to giving 10% of Dec. 10’s sales, Little Cakes is keeping a donation box for the offering in the store throughout the month.
In Little Cakes with Big Attitude’s monthly newsletter, Vaughn shared about Lottie Moon’s legacy, and since they are a bakery, she shared the cookie recipe Lottie used to make cookies to give her neighbors.
Vaughn’s life group leader at church knows the missionary couple well. In fact, his son is the one serving in Southeast Asia.
“Instead of giving our life group teacher a Christmas present, our class all kind of felt that our gift needed to be given where it mattered the most, and we gave to Lottie Moon in [his] name,” Vaughn said.
Paul Chitwood, president of the IMB, said he was thrilled to hear of the bakery’s generosity from Louisiana Baptist executive director Steve Horn.
Horn sent Vaughn’s contact information and Chitwood called the store.
“I introduced myself and thanked her for supporting the work of getting the gospel to the nations,” Chitwood said.
“From our brief chat, I learned that her Sunday School class and her church, Calvary Baptist in Alexandria, Louisiana, are making a huge push for Lottie this year,” he noted. “How grateful I am for church members and business owners with a heart for the nations and a love for Southern Baptists’ missionaries!”
For more information about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, click here. The offering supports 3,650 missionaries who serve around the world, and 100 percent of gifts to the Lottie offering enables gospel transformation among the unreached.
