Hello friends,
I hope you’re having a good week! Our church is hosting the Compassion Experience this week. It starts this Thursday and ends next Monday. The experience features an interactive journey through the true stories of children living in developing countries like the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda and the Dominican Republic. Each child’s story starts in poverty but ends in hope.
The staff helped the team set up the trailers this morning. They are incredible! There is over 2,000 square feet of interactive exhibit space. It really is like stepping into another country. Visitors will step inside homes, markets and schools —all without getting on a plane. I hope you’ll register to go or consider volunteering. They’ll be on our campus this Sunday if you want to register to go after the Sunday service.
This Thursday we also have a mission team leaving for New Caney, Texas to help plant a church. Please remember this team in your prayers. On this trip we are going to engage in door-to-door evangelism and other forms visitation to help spread the word about the planting of Immanuel Baptist Church.
Remember, we will be sending a family from our church to help plant Immanuel Baptist Church in New Caney. It’s part of our 2020 Vision to plant or revitalize 5 churches in North America by the year 2020. If you’re interested in helping send the Boyd Family as they follow God’s leadership to help plant the church in New Caney, you can do so on our website.
This isn’t the first family to be sent by our church for the 2020 Vision. There are two other families from our church engaging in a church revitalization on the North side of Abilene. It’s not easy to lose these folks.
Of the families who’ve been sent by our church, all included people who were trained personal discipleship coaches. They embraced the first part of our vision to create a disciple-making culture of multiplication. Then, God called them to multiply themselves by being sent out for mission.
It’s pretty neat to see the vision materializing before our very eyes on so many fronts. Last year, every single small group engaged in some kind of Bless the City project. 50% of our groups did at least 6 projects for the year. You can read about some of them here.
On top of that, we’re going to be able to send two long term missionaries to Brazil this year instead of just one. Double the involvement doubles the impact. In like fashion, we’re also hosting two mission trips to Brazil in 2017. One will be this summer and the other this fall. You can register online.
There are many exciting things going on in and through our church family. It’s not uncommon for large churches to be busy. What encourages my heart is that we’re busy doing the right things. We’re busy doing the things that are going to help advance our mission and vision.
Remember, Financial Peace University starts this Sunday evening at 5:30. You can order materials online or through the church. But you need to sign up. We will have part-three in our series on God & Money this Sunday.
As always, if there’s anything I can pray for you about, please let me know! Just reply to this email and it’ll go directly to me. Have a great rest of your week!
Blessings,
Pastor Wes