A few odds and ends in Mission and Ministry I would like to share. Sometimes, God is moving and I don’t always take the time to give Him praise and thanks. So here are a few areas that I want to share with you.
First, the Transition House if full. We have three women and one infant in the home right now. For those who are new to JIBC, our church family runs a Transition Home for women coming out of the Charleston Center Alcohol and Drug Inpatient Center. We are one of the few, if not the only place in Charleston that is willing to take women, with infants who are on “step down” drugs. It is a part of our mission to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world. We now have a Transition House Team that helps to lead this ministry. What a wonderful gift they have been. We gauge the success of the Transition House by opportunity. We are 100% successful in giving women the opportunity to transition in an environment that is loving and supportive. It is a hard, hard ministry and the needs in the community are as deep as they have ever been.
Second, we had a successful assessment trip to LaPlace, Louisiana as a follow up to Hurricane Ida. We met and worked with Charles Dillon to love on the community around First Baptist LaPlace. We were able to see the need first hand and see how we might work together. Your JIBC team did a great job. While we might not go back to First Baptist Church, LaPlace, I do suspect we will go back to work with our church member, full time volunteers, Charles and Judy Dillon. No plans have been made for our next trip. I do think we will go and when the plans are being made, we will try to let you know asap.
Third, mission at home is always a good thing. The Annual Fall Festival is the largest community outreach of the year for JIBC. Remember, we started this in 1985 with the intention of going head-to-head with Halloween. We wanted to offer a positive, safe, “non-Halloween” event for families. We don’t spend a lot of time beating the drum of the down side of Halloween. We do try to emphasize safe, family fun at a price you can afford…free! We usually have an unofficial count of around a thousand people come to the campus. Three things you can do to help make this another successful year. First, pray that God is honored, that families are drawn and that everyone is safe. Two, you can volunteer. This is a Volunteer intensive event. There is no way to have too many volunteers. Even our safety team will need more help. You can sign up for 1.5 hours or for the entire 3 hours of the event. By the way, the axe throwing booth is an inflatable…not a real axe! You can dress up, we just ask that there not be “sexy” or “bloody” or scary costumes. Third, you can pick up a bag or two of your favorite candy. We make sure no child is deprived of candy because their parents brought them to a church event! You can drop the candy by the church office or on the counter across from the office.
Odds and ends, but good ones right? I love that all three of these are outward focused on how can we bless others. We do a lot for our JIBC family of course, but I love the outward focus!
See you Sunday, good Lord willing as we continue our teaching series on the Beatitudes.
Pastor Tom
