It has become obvious that God is leading Winn’s Baptist Church to become more and more involved with missions, from right in our own back yard to across the globe. Winn’s members have always been involved in missions, from giving through designated offerings to traveling to foreign countries as part of a mission team. All ages in the church have participated and the church has been blessed by the sacrifices they’ve made. In 2005 God began leading us very specifically into certain ‘hands-on’ mission projects. We’ve had teams go to India and Nicaragua while our local mission efforts have expanded. After hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast we partnered with the North American Mission Board to adopt a church through which we can work to help rebuild a community. Locally, teams of people have expanded our ministry of caring to our seniors who need help and to those who are in convalescent centers. God said, “Go!” and we’re going!
In December of last year the church voted to form a Missions Committee to oversee our mission efforts. Apparently this is the first time in our 230 year history that the church had a formal committee to manage its mission activities. On Thursday, March 9th this newly formed Missions Committee of six met with Pastors Brauer and Chadwick to discuss the committee’s responsibilities and to make some decisions on missions funding. It was a meeting time filled with prayer and seeking God’s direction. In the meeting it was decided to allocate the $5,000 line item in the budget for worldwide missions equally between India and Nicaragua. Beginning in April we will begin sending $275 per month to both Pastor Mindi in India and Pastor Leon in Nicaragua to support their ongoing efforts to spread the gospel and make disciples in their areas. The strategy behind this is to provide monthly support for these indigent pastors who can reach their communities more effectively than we can. You can think of Pastor Mindi and Leon as being part of the staff at Winn’s, but serving in the field. From time to time we will send teams to help with them and to provide accountability and support for their ministries. Coming up in June is the Nicaraguan Baseball Crusade we are working on with Beaverdam Baptist Church. It will be a crusade-type event over three nights where we will have an American team playing the Nicaraguan National team each night. Praise music, testimonies from the ball players and the gospel will be shared before each game. The stadium, which holds 40,000 people, is expected to be packed each night. It is going to be awesome!
Winn’s is also becoming very involved in the Katrina relief effort. We will have two teams going to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in May to help Shoreline Park Baptist Church rebuild homes in their community. It is anticipated that there will be additional teams going throughout the year. Locally two new mission ministries have been started this year. The first is ‘HOP’ (help other people). It is designed to take care of the needs of our own senior members by pairing up a need (ride to the store, repair a household item, clean, etc,) with one or more people who will give of their time to help. (Contact Sheila or Howard Hager for more information.) The second new ministry is the Dorcas Ministry. It is named after Dorcas, the Christian woman of Joppa whom Peter raised from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). She made clothes for the poor, so the Dorcas Ministry is intended to help mend clothes for residents of local convalescent centers. (For more information, contact Dianna Rogers.) Last month the members of our Peacemakers Ministry made wheelchair tote bags for the Dorcas Ministry to hand out as they went for the first time to a local convalescent center. God is truly providing blessings through our members who are actively involved in missions!
One last thing and that is an appeal to you for financial support for these ongoing mission efforts. The gift you give should be in the form of an offering that is over and above your tithe. It should be a sacrificial gift of love and not one that will take away from the general budget pf the church. You can place your offering in an envelope and clearly mark on it which mission it is for. The following funds have been set up to receive your gift: India (General), Nicaragua (General), Nicaragua (Baseball), and Katrina Relief. Thank you so much and God bless you as you continue to serve our Lord together all around the world!