Holy Week: Four Services, One Story
March 22, 2024
“It has been an amazing week here in Iraq. God is so good and seeing the work God is doing in lives and hearts is so encouraging. Being part of baptisms of believers is indescribable. Visiting multiple military men on border was extremely humbling as they were so open to receive us and also Bibles and also other Christian literature. I was almost moved to tears in the village while we were serving a Kurdish school where Randy and Pete were singing and I got to dress up like Santa. The kids’ faces were so precious and their warm embraces continue to warm my heart right.”
We received this report from Ben this week, who is with Pete and Randy on the ground in Iraq. Words are insufficient to capture how God is moving…but you can feel the joyful awe in Ben’s brief note, can’t you? People are coming to faith in Christ on the other side of the world, and your generosity makes it possible.
By now you have heard about our $1.2 million goal for this December. This is the amount needed to fully fund our $4.125 million ministry budget for 2022. We are off to a good start, having received ~ $379,000 as of Friday, December 9. As the rate of giving continues to accelerate, we are hopeful about exceeding the December goal. When we do, we will be able to do even more ministry down the block and around the world. Half of the over-and-above total will go to our Missions Special Fund. This is the fund that allows us to do even more than what is allocated in the annual ministry budget. Two areas that we hope surplus funding will provide for include:
Ukraine
Our primary focus due to the immediacy of the situation, is providing funds for relief from the physical horrors of war – food, clothing, shelter, heating, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies. In the midst of this, we do not want to lose sight of God’s mission to redeem his church in Ukraine, so we’ll be following the lead of our missionary Igor and others on how we can best support them as they minister to the spiritual needs of the people. As we heard over Missions Weekend, there are no longer any atheists in Ukraine!
Haiti
The situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate. Central’s missionaries, Luke and Julie Brouwer, have had to move back to the US for reasons of safety, but Luke still travels back and forth often bringing equipment and supplies. Infrastructure and the rule of law has completely broken down, so similar to Ukraine, there exists an overwhelming need for physical relief. These efforts are being hampered, though, due to corruption at all levels of government and lack of police protection for the population. The Brouwer’s will be speaking at one of our Mission Team meetings early next year and we hope to further engage where we can to assist them in their ministry.
There are scores of other needs as well. While it is impossible to meet all of them, it is exciting to think about how our December generosity can empower us to chip away, in Jesus’ name. Please join us this month. You can make a gift today by clicking the link below:
On behalf of your Session, shepherds and staff – THANK YOU! May God use our gifts in powerful ways in the days ahead, and may many more come to know the Lord Jesus through these efforts!
