Our Blog

Women On Mission June 2017

A FOCUS ON GLOBAL HUNGER RELIEF

Southern Baptists have always been concerned about the plight of world hunger.

In the mid-1970s,a worldwide food shortage caused us to develop an organized response to the problem.  We have served the hungry throughout history, but the first World Hunger Day in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was in 1978. 

SBC giving records for world hunger date back to at least 1977.  In 1997, a resolution passed by the SBC  referred to the “world hunger fund”, an informal way of talking about money given to helpconduct hunger ministries.

Only the offering for Global Hunger Relief uses 100% of all contributions to provide relief for hunger related causes, including not just food, but also clean water and education.  This is possible because personnel; are already in place and administrative and promotional costs come from other budgets.  The North American Mission Board receives 20 cents of every  dollar to    support hunger projects in the United States.  Eighty cents of every dollar go to the  International  Mission Board to be used for hunger relief, including water well drilling, agricultural education, water purification, etc.

When Southern Baptists give food or teach better ways to grow it, they are there for the long haul, seeking to build relationships with people and eventually lead them to a relationship with Christ. 
 -written by Ann Knowles

In the world today……..

An estimated 1.02 billion people, or about one-sixth of the world’s population, are undernourished.  Every five  seconds, a child dies from malnourishment.  In the United States alone, 49 million people– 17 million of whom are children– do not have enough to eat.  These are sobering facts for those of us who never miss a meal.  What can we do to help change these    numbers?    
 -statistics cited at GlobalHungerRelief.com

Hunger Banks will be provided for each family Sunday, June 4th.  These will be returned to the church on Sunday, August 20th.

Women on Mission will meet Monday, June 12th, 6:00 p.m., at the home of Kathleen Qualkenbush.  All our  ladies are invited to be with us.

MAY 2017 PASTORS POINTS

Dear Church Family,

I love you!  I mean that with all my heart.  I love my church family!  Every single one of you!  I never want you to doubt that.  Ever!  For almost eleven years I have been at this church as pastor and I have signed every letter by ending with… “I love you and I love being your pastor.”  And, that has been true every time I have written it.  You know love for one another is key for a church to be vibrant, growing, and healthy.  It is not optional for me to love you.  It is not optional for you to love me.  We must make it our aim to show and give love to all those who are in our church family, as well as those we are trying to reach.

This week I was reading a devotional by James Mac Donald and in it he shared these words…

“I did not feel loved in the church that I grew up in. Not at all. Oh, there might have been one or two exceptions. But most of the time, I felt inspected, I felt measured, I felt judged, I felt sometimes excluded, but I did not feel loved in the church when I was young. I could quote verses like, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35), but I wasn’t seeing it or feeling it. Now before you conclude I’m piling on my childhood church, let me confess they didn’t get a lot of love from me either. It took me a lot of years—I mean, I learned to love God, I learned to love God's Word, but I did not learn how to love people in the church that I grew up in. It doesn't surprise me that there are many people that feel that way. Now, that is an awful tragedy. Jesus says this is like the big deal—loving one another. You've got to have this! It's a rough world out there. Church must be a place where I come and feel loved by people with authentic love.”

 Mac Donald then shares his heart for his church when he writes this… 

“I want to declare this. Our church is going hard after loving one another. You are loved here—not perfectly, but permanently you are loved here. Not 100% faithfully, okay, because we're all sinners, but you are loved fervently here. We want Jesus’ words to come true and be true among us! I believe with all my heart, we must embrace this as job-number-one, horizontally speaking. People need to see and they need to experience directly the way we love one another! That’s the first step in the second part of the great commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.”

And I want to declare this for our church as well!  May our love grow for our God and for one another so we can fulfill what God has for us to do!!

I love you and I love being you pastor!!!

Pastor Alan