Thanks For Participating

I want to thank everyone who participated in last Saturday’s craft bazaar. All the different activities provided over $5,000 for specific mission programs this coming Christmas and we are grateful. Two bed sets were donated for a drawing, one is today’s graphic.

All of this was a lot of fun, some hard work, considerable time spent – but the result is funding for three specific mission projects that will help them in many ways.

Physically closest is a church’s mission to assist the homeless. The pastor was once told that it would be impossible to fund a church for homeless people who have no income. Regrettably, they forgot the one Man who founded His church:

And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matthew 8:20 KJV)

That was His answer to a man who wished to follow Him – a reminder that on this earth, He had nothing – but His life to give for us.

Geographically a little further away is the Blessed Hope Boys Academy in Alabama.

Blessed Hope Boys Academy is a program that is a minimum of 1 year requirement. In this 1 year, young men receive schooling through our A.C.E. Curriculum, hear preaching, learn how to work, memorize Scripture, learn songs, build character and are away from all of the distractions of the world.

Several of the boys visited our church this summer and were such a blessing to us as we listened to their stories and heard their testimonies. They reminded me of the Bereans in their descriptions of searching for truth:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11 KJV)

Third, and half a world away, is a project very dear to our hearts – orphanages in a war-torn country. I won’t draw attention to the location, but assure you it provides what John describes as pure religion:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27 KJV)

There is something I really do appreciate about our church – missions is a top priority. One quarter of our tithes go directly to missions, including the three mentioned here. Missionaries we support come visit us, as do others seeking support. We get to meet them, shake their hands, hear their testimonies and their stories of working in fields that are white:

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. (John 4:35 KJV)

It is a blessing to be a part of their ministries. They could not be in the fields without our support. We could not be in those same fields without their calling. Together, we work on the Great Commission:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV)