Mission's Conference was always a highlight of the year for me.
It was mostly because God was bringing me to the place where I am now.
He placed that burden for souls upon me and led me to serve here in South Africa.
I never imagined that I would be part of a Mission's Conference on my mission field.
Not that people across the world should not be burdened for souls,
but because I guess I never really thought about it.
It was so exciting, as we decorated the church in anticipation for the week ahead.
In our church library, Pastor Jeff had a bunch of Bibles in other languages.
We placed them among flags from countries around the world to remind us to pray for those taking the Gospel around the world.
Even the Junior Church room was decorate for the theme: Fishers of Men.
(To see how the fish are made click here.)
Our Mission's Conference was Wed- Sun August 21-25th.
We met each night for a shared meal together
and then preaching from Ron Bragg (BIMI Africa director) via Skype.
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| Children showing their international costumes to Bro. Bragg |
We heard some great & challenging messages about sharing the Gospel
and being involved in world wide missions.
FRIDAY NIGHT : International Dinner
Friday night, each family decorated a table for our international dinner.
We had tables representing-
Mexico,
Greece,
and
China.
We all brought food from these countries - YUM!!!
(my favorite food was from Greece!)
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| Mexico table |
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| Greek Table |
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| China table (sorry, no pics with people sitting here) To see how I made the China Lady click here. |
Mission's conference was so much fun!
We had a great time of fellowship and were fed physically,
but the best part is the spiritual food we received!
This was a special Saturday visitation
and we had another church join us to take the Gospel to Hillcrest.
(To read more about this visitaion day click here.)
In the afternoon, just as we finished the last street in Hillcrest,
the whole group sat down for a meal together.
You know, we are Baptists and that is what we do!
It was a blessing to serve the Lord together
and then to have some time of fellowship together before the group left for home.
As Sunday rolled around, we understood the great need for our faith promise giving.
Envelopes were passed out and prayed over all week.
We are thankful that our people learned this important principle of giving.
~~~
While I was on deputation, I found that many churches that I went to that did not have faith promise giving, were not able to support new missionaries and were themselves struggling to support the ones they already committed to.
Faith Promise Giving is a sign of a growing church.
A church that follows this principle will be a church with people who grow in their own personal faith in God, while becoming more and more burdened for the lost around them.
So many churches that do not follow this Biblical principle
are slowly dying in faith and in attendance.
I am thankful to be working with missionaries who are teaching others
that the Great Commission is a command for ALL of us!
~~~
Our Faith Promise Giving this year will cover all of the missionaries we currently support,
as well as, helping a little in some "one time" gifts to others that the Lord sends our way.
Below are videos of the Junior Church singing their Mission's songs
for the congregation on Sunday morning.
"Fishers of Men" in English & Zulu
"Tell me what a Missionary is" in English