Children of the World Choir at Urbancrest ~ April 2nd & 3rd

The Children of the World Choir will be appearing at Urbancrest Baptist Church on Saturday, April 2nd at 6:00pm and Sunday, April 3rd at 9:30 and 11:00am.

The Saturday concert is a partnership with A Child’s Hope Intl. and The Children of the World Choir to benefit Kid’s Against Hunger.

The Choir will participate in a packing session on Saturday morning at the Kids Against Hunger Factory and then appear in concert at 6pm at Urbancrest Baptist Church in Lebanon, OH. Special reserved seating is available. Go to http://www.achildshopeintl.org/Children.html to learn more about the Saturday packing session and reserved seating. The doors at Urbancrest will open at 5:30pm for the Saturday evening concert. A love offering will be taken during the Saturday concert to benefit A Child's Hope International.

The Sunday morning concerts will be during the regular service times at 9:30 and 11:00am. Do NOT miss these beautiful children of the world!

GIC Update #3

Urbancrest’s 2011 Global Impact Celebration finished with three great services! Saturday evening we enjoyed the Taste of the World where the Sunday School classes went all out to prepare international foods for those attending to sample. Immediately following, Saturday's evening service was focused on our local missions and our commitment to prayer. Travis Ogle, Teaching Pastor for Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, Nevada was our featured speaker. I have never heard a more challenging message on prayer! If you were not there, please listen to the podcast at http://www.urbancrest.org/. Many responded and prayer teams were raised for missionaries as they return to their mission fields all over the world.

On Sunday morning, the missionaries once again spent time getting to know their Sunday school class members and the services were powerful!  Pastor Travis once again preached a challenging message on the Church and her mission. We collected our Faith Promise Offering for the coming year and many responded to the challenge. By Monday morning, over $241,000.00 had been promised for the Lord’s work through Urbancrest ministries. This is less than last year by about $26,000.00, but is an amazing amount of funds to be promised in faith. God honors faith, and we feel certain that He will allow us to accomplish His will with the funds He provides. If you were unable to turn in your Faith Promise Commitment Card on Sunday, it is not too late. We will receive them for the next few weeks, after which we will begin to build our budget for next year on the promises given. Pray that we will not have to reduce or terminate missionary support due to the lack of funds. Remember, the question is not, “Do you have the money?” This is not about money. The question is, “Do we have faith and are we going to be obedient?” Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Sunday evening was our Life Commitment Service with Pastor Steven from Israel bringing the message. As our local ministry leaders and short-term mission trip team leaders lined the alter and invited people to join them in ministry locally, nationally, and to the ends of the earth, I was reminded of what a great church God has raised up for Himself at Urbancrest. The sun does not set on her ministries. Many people made commitments to short and long-term missions. Eight people came forward and committed to give their lives in service to the Kingdom. Pray for them as they seek God’s will for their lives.

I am truly sad to send the missionaries back to their work. Getting to know them is a great blessing in my life. My prayer is that they leave refreshed after having been here and encouraged to do the work they are called to. God was glorified, our vision was enlarged, hearts were touched, lives were transformed and finances were committed. All of our goals were reached! God is an awesome God!

If you have a story or a testimony about the GIC this year, please email it to me at destep@urbancrest.org. Now it is time for each of us to go to work! We need to be connected and committed to the place and people each of us have been called to. Do not be silent. Tell the Good News that “Jesus saves.” Remember that “the night is coming when no one can work.”

GIC Update # 2

The GIC week has moved like a whirlwind to those of us that are closely associated with it. There is little time to talk about what has been going on because we are so busy getting ready for the next event. But here is a brief update about what has happened these last couple of days and a quick look forward.

Thursday evening we experienced what our brothers and sister who do not have the freedom to worship Jesus openly experience, at least in a small way. Our UBC youth allowed us to worship in the underground church with persecuted Christians. We were led through a maze with guards roaming the areas looking for lawbreakers and dissidents that may be guilty of nothing more than worshipping Jesus. Steven Khoury led us as we whispered the words to “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” in worship and then preached in hush tones from Acts 16 of Paul and Silas in prison and in chains. His experiences as a pastor in Jerusalem and his own experiences growing up as a Palestinian Christian brought the reality to us that this is real and happening today all over the world.   Those that attended will not easily forget to pray for the persecuted church and to thank God for the freedoms that we often take for granted.

Friday evening our classes gathered in one of their homes with their adopted missionaries for a home briefing. It is one of the best times that we have during the GIC. Our missionaries are so encouraged to be able to get connected with the classes. And the classes really get to hear the inside scoop of the work of the missionaries. Those connections are long lasting and bless both the missionary and the folks who attend. The reports out of each class were great!

This Morning, (Saturday) we have had an incredible breakfast with our missionaries and GIC Leadership team, host families and Staff. Eric Stapleton, Wycliffe Missionary to Vanuatu, led our devotion from Proverbs 4:23. The food, prepared by DeWayne Jeffers and his team was wonderful. We then left the building to do missions distributing information about our new church plant in Lebanon We had 95 UBC folks  and missionaries from all over the world walking the streets of Lebanon distributing flyers to 2000 homes inviting residents to the preview service of Living Word Bible Church Palm Sunday evening, April 17^th.

This evening we will enjoy the great food at our Taste of the World at 5:30 pm. Then our children and preschool will have their own version of GIC while the rest of us gather to worship and hear God’s word presented by Travis Ogle, Teaching Pastor of Hope Baptist in Las Vegas NV. This is our prayer Commitment Service and possible the most important of the week of events.

On Sunday Morning, our missionaries will be in the Sunday School Classes. This is when we receive our Faith promise offering. Our Goal is $300000.00, so please pray with us for the Lords blessing. Only he can do that. Pastor Travis will be preaching again and the flags of the world will be presented. Please come and meet our missionary both Sunday morning and Sunday night. One of the reasons they have come is to meet and get to know you.

Sunday Evening at 6:00 pm is our Life Commitment service. Pastor Steven will bring our message. Please come to this very special service. I believe God is going to do something very special in this service as we worship Jesus. He is rising up his army to go into all the world. This commitment service is about our obedience to Him and being part of expanding His Kingdom. You will not want to miss it!