GO BIG OR GO HOME!

That is the bravado of some sports teams and athletes. They are going all in, going for the prize, holding nothing back, looking for the win. GO BIG OR GO HOME! The Atlanta Braves had an outstanding year and certainly could live up to that slogan. They played an outstanding covid season and gave their fans a great season. They played big all year and ended their season in a spectacular 7 game series. 

What would you think of a church family adopting that same slogan “GO BIG OR GO HOME”? I feel like that is the exciting challenge we have with collecting food for the James Island Outreach. We are going after the largest food donation in our history to meet the largest need in the Outreach’s ministry. Pastor Scott went BIG, really BIG. He ordered 1000 bags for us to fill. That is right, 1000! If each bag holds 20 pounds of groceries that comes out to 20,000 pounds of food to help the underserved. TEN TONS of love! That fits the goal of GO BIG OR GO HOME and then some.

In the past we have done an outstanding job when we would collect over 1 ton of jelly from our JIBC family. Really, think about that. We have on several occasions, for several years, collected over 1 ton of jelly and other food items. That is fantastic. In addition JIBC always gives an offering to James Island Outreach and has volunteers that serve. Now this challenge and opportunity may be the biggest I have ever seen. How will we do it?

Two families used their Neighborhood Association to announce the project and invited neighbors to come get the bags and then return them with food. One person took them to her work and explained the project. Co-workers bought in and took 10 bags. Pastor Scott’s neighborhood was having a chili cook off so he set up a tent to pass out bags. With this kind of creativity, I believe there is a real shot at a record breaking grocery offering to meet a record breaking need!

It reminds me of the miracle when Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves. I am praying that the result will be the same, that this Thanksgiving everyone will have enough to eat and there will be groceries left over to bless others.

I love a challenge, so Janie and I, because we are so blessed, will take ten bags and commit to filling them. The goal of 1000 bags of groceries sounds like an impossible goal…for us. It is not impossible for the Worker of Miracles. W still have several weeks to get the bags out and the groceries in!

See you Sunday with the bags around the stage!

Pastor Tom

WIN.WIN.WIN.

You may be familiar with the idea of a “Win-Win” situation. The basic idea is to find a way forward in a negotiation where you win and the person you are dialing with wins. It is not to be seen as a way to compromise and both sides lose a little. It is a way to work on a solution resulting in both sides winning.

With that in mind let’s add another win. I like to aim for a Win-Win-Win result. That means you win now, I win now and we both win later. It is a beautiful thing if that can happen. Pastor Scott introduced our church family to a mission opportunity that is a Kingdom Win-Win-Win. James Island Baptist Church is partnering to help James Island Outreach meet the largest demand they have ever had in feeding the under-served in our community. So here is the first win: we have a partnership with James Island Outreach that helps provide food and other services for the most vulnerable part of our community. They are currently providing more groceries than ever before in their mission. That is a WIN in my book. The second win is the incredible generous hearts of our church family. We have been known as the jelly church. James Island Outreach assigned us with the task of supplying them with jelly. I think in 2020 we gave 4,000 pounds of jelly and other groceries. That is literally two tons of food! WIN! Now, here is the third win. We are providing 1,000 bags to be filled with groceries by November 1. The goal and idea is that you and I will take these bags to our neighbors and invite them to join in the effort to make the largest offering ever to meet the largest need ever. If we are successful in involving our neighbors, not just our own church members, than that will make it a WIN-WIN-WIN for the Kingdom of God. Instead of just our 100 church families we could possible involve over 1,000 families from our community. Many will have heard of James Island Outreach for the very first time. Some may become regular contributors to James Island Outreach or may even be moved to volunteer.

So, if we, by God’s grace and blessings, could fill all 1,000 bags, and each bag holds 25 pounds of groceries, that would be 25,000 pounds of groceries! Is it possible that James Island Baptist, in the middle of a pandemic, with about half of our regular attendance, could, by God’s grace, collect 10 ½ tons of groceries? ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD. It would indeed be a WIN-WIN-WIN for those in need, for the Kingdom of God and for James Island Outreach. You could be part of a record breaking effort to answer Jesus’ call: I was hungry and you fed me. Janie and I took 10 bags for our neighborhood. Amen and Hallelujah!

Pastor Tom

 

THANK YOU

Thank you! Janie and I thank you all for the love and support. We are still enjoying the cards and letters from our church family and friends celebrating my 65th birthday and our 35th year of ministry. Janie bought me an awesome shirt that said “VINTAGE 1955: MOSTLY ORIGINAL PARTS.” She did not know how accurate that would be! We thank you for your prayers for my recent surgery to remove my gall bladder. The warranty had expired and so it had to go. Your prayers and love were greatly appreciated. I had the easy part of being the patient. She had the harder part of being patient! We both deeply appreciated your prayers and love.

I also want to thank our Lord for your amazing generosity. Even during the Covid 19 Pandemic, you continue to give generously. I am just back to work this week, so I have not seen the latest update. But the “Gift Match” was met with love and grace. It might not bring us up to even with our budget needs, but it certainly gave us opportunity to do more missions. We were able to send a $2000 gift to Charles and Judy Dillon to help feed the people in Sulphur, Louisiana. Because they are not a big name town, they were not on the radar to get help. That is exactly who Charles and Judy are drawn to. We will get pictures and updates soon. By the way, anyone interested in a hands on mission trip? Perhaps your Connection Group, Family, group of friends would be interested in a short term trip? Charles can set you up with a place to stay and they could use all kinds of help.

Your generous giving also made it possible to help James Island Outreach in their greatest time of need. We were blessed to have the Executive Director, Scott Graule join us for worship this past Sunday. He played the drums for us and gave us an update on the Outreach Mission.

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving: this gift also made it possible for us to replace an aging computer used every week in our worship services. I could really keep going on and on. It is my desire to give God glory, thank Him for His grace and mercy and to thank our church family and friends for their generous giving. You reflect His glory.

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we continue the verse by verse study of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It is a great message on how to re-connect with God! Invite a friend and join us.

Pastor Tom