Why Do We Support Missionaries?

Our annual Missions Week has come and gone and I thought I’d take the opportunity to process it a bit with you. Our hope during Missions Week is that everyone at First Church will see how we as a body touch the nations, sometimes without ever leaving our own homes.

First Church is unusual in our level of personal involvement in missions. One of our goals is to encourage our own to go into all the world and take the gospel.^† Please consider where you might be called to be a sender, a mobilizer, a giver, a goer, or one who prays.

We can reach our neighborhood through…

…Sidewalk Bible School’s regular Saturday outreach to children

…Good News Clubs for kids after school

…availability to women in crisis pregnancies through Hope Center

…sewing preemie clothes for Children’s Medical Center NICU

…repairing walkers and wheel chairs for those who depend on them

We reach a bit beyond our neighborhood to…

…Austin Street Shelter with food for the homeless

…Kairos Prison Ministry taking the Good News into jails and prisons where inmates are hungry for hope (and cookies, I understand)

…Christ’s Foundry Hispanic congregation in North Dallas

We reach the world through local friendships with those who will return to their distant homelands through Friendship Partners and Lori and Nathan Sorrel’s ministry with CRU.

We support those who GO through…

…Dane Daniels and Pioneer Bible Translators, taking God’s word to those who have not had it^†

…Barbara and Stan Orth ministering to Guatemala

…Ann and Bob Rosser with their staff in Kenya, training pastors and caring for children

…Rebeca and John Scarbrough sending missionaries worldwide with YWAM^†

…David Warner training workers for Mercy Ships to take medical care around the world

…Russ Wise answering questions from seekers and promoting Biblical truth^†

And we act as SENDERS as these individuals (many from our own congregation) GO to bring God’s love to the nations:

– Emara and Chiv In and the (5 going on 6) churches in Cambodian villages^†

– Becky, Charles and Elisabeth Jackson ministering in Brazil and India^†

– Jessica and Fabian Martinez training for further ministry in Colombia

– Bibiana Peña raising children in Colombia who would otherwise be on the streets

– Molly and James Bass leading worship and working with youth in Enniscorthy, Ireland^†

– A couple in a closed country that we can’t share about publicly for their safety

– Short-term missions in Honduras, Germany and Cambodia this year. (Could this be for you?)

All these efforts are supported financially through our Faith Promise giving. Your generosity over and above your regular giving makes all this and more possible. If you have not yet pledged to Faith Promise, please download a pledge card here and bring it or send it to church.

Blessings,

Lindy Thomas
Missions Chair

^† These missionaries are sent out from our own congregation