I intended to write about the GIC as we went through the week-long celebration, but it was so packed with great people and events that I just didn’t have time. I want to thank our wonderful missionaries for investing in us! Their presence and participation was the highlight of the event! Hopefully you can now call some of them your friends.
We were blessed to have such a gifted group of people working on this event. Our GIC Director, Susan Byrd, and her three coordinators, Deanne Clem, Donna Zalatoris, and Bonnie Hailey, pulled all of this together and really allowed Urbancrest to shine for the Lord. What an awesome team they are! Diane Lynch and Susan Clemmons are the two people that touch every part of GIC with their gifts in administration and graphic design. I also wanted to thank the seventeen GIC team leaders who led countless team members before and throughout the event, taking care of every detail that can be imagined: cleaning, logistics, hospitality (manned by our Legacy Builders), host homes, transportation, and more. Preparing food for the events is always a huge effort! Dewayne Jeffers and his team put together the Wednesday night dinner and the Saturday breakfast. Sherlene Dishun and her two teams of homeschoolers took care of all the luncheons, while Angie Crumbley and Anna Pelphrey led the Taste of the World on Saturday night. Thanks to all of you! It is a blessing to see all the parts of the body of Christ working together in unity just as 1 Corinthians 12:27 encourages us to do.
Our GIC is about inviting Urbancrest members to enter into missions by committing themselves to be obedient to pray, give, and go. Though we do not have all the numbers in at this time, our members responded faithfully! Hundreds committed to pray for the missionaries. Many committed to short-term mission projects, and five individuals committed their lives to long-term mission service. In addition, so far we have $220,785.00 pledged toward our 2012 Faith Promise Offering. Though this amount is substantially lower than last year, we do know that other Faith Promise commitments may still be added to this total over the next couple of weeks. If God is leading you to make a Faith Promise Commitment for the upcoming year, please let us know promptly so that we can begin to plan our budget. We will need a total of $250,000.00 to maintain our current level of missionary support.
Remember, a Faith Promise Offering is just that. You will pray for God to impress upon you an amount and then promise to Him that you will give it to this fund as He gives it to you. Or, He may impress upon you to live more simply, or do something to raise the money. Pray about it, and as God reveals to you what He would like to give through you, let us know. After spending time in prayer, you may also decide that you would like to increase the pledge that you have already made. Please be in prayer for our Faith Promise Fund Stewardship Team as they determine whether we will increase, maintain, or reduce the support of our missionaries.
God is using our church in a mighty way to accomplish His mission of reaching all nations with the gospel of Christ! We are His heart, His hands, and His voice to a dying world! The eternal destiny of thousands will be impacted as Jesus saves souls and transforms lives. This cannot be accomplished unless we join together as co-labors in the work and say, “I am missions.”
