Christmas 2008

It's amazing how folks responded the last couple of months in sharing God's love with others...we collected 106 Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes and 120 Thanksgiving Food Baskets! You can also read about the Kingdom Assignments reports that have been turned in at:

http://www.fruitlandkingdomassignment.blogspot.com/.


As we approach Christmas there are several other opportunities to share the love of Christ this season:


1. Men's Winter coats - The BSU took a Fall Break mission trip to "Shine in the Dark" ministry in Memphis and will be returning January 7-10. One of the primary ministries of Shine in the Dark is giving out clothes to the homeless, while sharing the Gospel and minstry tracts. They have asked FCC if we could collect winter coats, gloves, or hats. There will be a box in the church foyer.


2. Monticello Christmas - All 7 churches that share in the Monticello House ministry will come together to do a Christmas program and party. The party will be 2:00 pm on Sunday, December 14. In addition to this date, our church will be going back to Monticello on December 28th at 2:00 pm.


3. Shining Light Christmas - We will leave after the 10:30 service on Sunday, December 21 for the Shining Light Outreach Center in Charleston. Shining Light is an inner city ministry. The kids from Shining Light will do a Christmas Cantata...we will serve a meal and deliver a Christmas bag of candy. Items needed will be candy and dinner items. You can drop the candy off at the church and sign-up to help with the meal at the bulletin board at church.


4. We will be giving away some Christmas hams again this year. If you are interested in purchasing a ham for someone in need, the hams are $10. You can indicate on your envelope "Christmas Hams."


5. Give to Missions. Christmas time is a great time to give to missions. You can give to mission through FCC...just indicate it on your offering envelope. It is a Christmas gift for Jesus that is used to spread great tidings of great joy to all people! We will have a time for missions each worship service in December.


6. Support the FCC Mission Team to El Salvador - There are 15 going to El Salvador, December 26-January 1. You can support the team through prayer and financial contributions to the team. You can read more about this trip on a previous post on this blog.


7. Card for military men and women - We will have cards in the foyer for our military men and women who are family or friends of folks at FCC. If you know of any one that should be included, please let us know.

8. Christmas gifts for families - We have a few families that we are helping with Christmas this year...we are doing that primarily through our small groups.

Please pray for all these ministries!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving Baskets and Operation Christmas Child

What an exciting couple of months for missions in and through Fruitland Community Church!!! I wanted to make sure that you received the results from a couple of mission projects:

1. Operation Christmas Child - Our church gathered 106 Operation Christmas Child boxes for Franklin Graham's international ministry. With the struggling economy and all the other projects that we have had going on, this is an great total!! Praying with the kids during the children's sermon last Sunday as they held the shoeboxes, reminded me that we must continue praying for these boxes through the Christmas holiday. Pray that God will use these boxes of love to bring a child to Christ! If you want to read more about this awesome ministry, you can visit their website at: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC
2. Thanksgiving Baskets Give-a-way - It was a picture of cooperation. Our church working with the Cowboy Church, as well as the scouts and 4-H youth to gather, pack, and deliver approximately 120 baskets for Thanksgiving!! It was amazing to see 80 to 100 people working together...it was quite an operation! Over 3400 cans were collected by the scouts and brought to our church. Volunteers sorted the cans, packed the boxes and delivered them the same day. What is amazing is that we have more food than ever left0ver in our food pantry! God blessed us in an abundant way!!

Thanks for giving to the Lord! Happy Thanksgiving!

El Salvador Team Coming Together!

The FCC team to El Salvador is coming together...the next trip is December 26 - January 2 (Lord willing). We will be working with our mission church in Antiguo Cuscatlan and our ministry may include:

Vacation Bible School
Church Retreat with Baptism Service
Leading worship in two different churches
Outreach activities
Delivery of Video Projector and subsequent outreach movie night in the park

The team that is coming together looks like this so far:

The Parrys (2 to 4)
The McQuades (all 4)
Paul and Alana Davis
Travis Bell
Jason Dailey
Levi and Andy Bollinger
Karen Ward

A few more are praying about going. And several have committed to the next trip.

The trip is more expensive than usual, because of the rising fuel costs and the Christmas holidays. If you would like to contribute to the group you can give to FCC and write "El Salvador Scholarship" on the memo of the check.

Please be praying for this team as they begin training and planning. We will post more information in the future!!

If you subscribe to this blog...you will get future updates automatically!

For the Kingdom!

The Fruitland Kingdom Assignment!!

The Fruitland Kingdom Assignment is coming!! I've created a new blog to share stories of how folks invest $25 in the lives of people in our community. Follow along...

http://fruitlandkingdomassignment.blogspot.com/

For the Kingdom!!

Pastor Mike

Pastor's Conference

I returned from El Salvador and the Pastor's Conference this past Friday...it was a whirlwind week, but it was a blessing. Twenty eight pastors came to the retreat and we went over the 7 principles of Experiencing God together. It was awesome to be with these eager pastors. They seemed genuinely pleased with the experience, and are excited about the pastor's family retreat, November 10-11.

The pastor's will begin studying the Bible for credit beginning in February and they will be meeting in our mission church at Antiguo Cuscatlan! Folks have given to this project and we are buying tables and mattresses for the pastors.

Say a special prayer for the pastors as the learn and lead their congregations...thank you FCC for allowing me the privilege to attend this first pastor retreat and for being so supportive!

Let's also pray for FBC, Chalmette (our partner church) as they weather the coming hurricane...pray that the building that is being rebuilt will stand that it will be a lighthouse in the community...

For the Kingdom!

Experiencing God

Well I leave for El Salvador Pastors Retreat on Monday, August 25 and will return August 26. I will be traveling by myself to meet up with approximately 45 pastors! We will be going through Experiencing God together...I have 45 Spanish versions to give out to the pastors.

Last blog entry, I mentioned that we had financial needs for the pastors and we have had an amazing response...approximately $2300 has been given! Wow. Thanks to all have given. In addition to our FCC family giving, Trinity Baptist Church from St. Mary's has also sent a donation. The money that has come in will buy the Experiencing God books, give the pastors scholarships for the retreat, and purchase cots and mattresses for the pastors. We even have some left over to help us with the November retreat.Please pray for the following:

1. Travel mercies.
2. My daugther Bethany who begins college on Monday.
3. My wife Grace and daughter Tori who hold down the homefront.
4. An ability to communicate with encouragement to these eager pastors.
5. The churches that each pastor represents.

We hope to finalize our Dec/Jan church-wide trip next week.

I will write more when I return. Thanks for praying...thanks for giving!

For the Kingdom!

El Salvador Pastor Training

Who would have known what God had in store when our church agreed to partner and plant a church in El Salvador three years ago. Our church in Antiguo Cuscatlan is growing and learning what it means to be the bride of Christ. Their pastor, Rolando Rivas, is doing an awesome job of ministering to the congregation. But in God's timing and creative imagination, He had something larger for Rolando, our church, and the pastors of our local area.

Rolando is now coordinating training for Baptist pastors in El Salvador. Starting in January their will be accredited Bible classes that will meet in FCC's mission at Antiguo Cuscatlan! The pastor's will meet for a week at a time...sleep on cots...and study during the day. I believe there will be a class offered each quarter.

In the meantime, we are putting together some pastor conferences:

August 25-29, I will be traveling to El Salvador to teach 30 to 35 pastors, Experiencing God in three days...we will also have recreation and worship together.

In November, Dan Hale, FBC Millersville, will be leading a group to plan a retreat for pastors, families. There will be a track for pastors, spouses, and pastor's kids...plus family worship and recreation. This will be an awesome event!

You can help this effort with El Salvador Pastor Training in three areas:

1. Prayer--this is a God thing! We need prayer that God would raise up pastors in Missouri and in El Salvador to come together. We need prayer for the finances of this project.
2. Going--if you know of a pastor that you be interested in this project, please pass this on!
3. Finances - We are trying to raise additional funds for the project (this project is not in any church's budget). Here are some of the monies we are needing initially:

Mattresses $18.00 x 35 = $630

Tables $ 114.00 x 4= $456

Repair of pastor car = $400.00

Pastor scholarships = $500

Training Materials = $500

This does not include expenses for pastors in Missouri to travel to El Salvador. If you are interested in contributing above your normal tithes and offerings, you can send a check to Fruitland Community Church, 6040 Hwy 61 North, Jackson, MO 63755. Make sure you indicate "El Salvador Pastors" on the check memo or envelope.

If you have questions, you can e-mail me at pastormike@fruitlandcommunity.com or call me at 573-450-4134. It is awesome to partner together to build the Kingdom!

Dreaming for the Kingdom...