SENDING HOPE

This past Sunday, Susan Warren introduced the Sending Hope 2019 Prayer Guide for North American Missions. This prayer guide is for many, the beginning of an emphasis on Southern Baptist Missions in North America. The brochure has 8 days of guided prayer for mission work taking place all over North America. This morning is our staff meeting, we read Day 2. It was an informative story about Jorge and Rebeca Santiago serving in Puerto Rico. Your gifts were able to purchase a generator for the Santiagos and the new church they started. They, in turn, used the generator to minister to the community. In an area with no electricity, they were able to help wash clothes and to help get the public school back open. Cool story you will not hear about on the nightly news!

Two things you can do. First, use the prayer guides and lift the missionaries and their work up to the Lord in prayer. You have often heard it said that the number one request from our missionaries is prayer. We can provide that. Second, would you consider a gift to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions? It really is a great way to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. For the next several weeks you can pick up the prayer guides at the church and make an offering to missions. Thank you for being so generous and faithful in prayers and offerings. It really does make a difference. There are over 273 million people in the United States that have no relationship with Jesus. Your weekly tithes and offerings help support the 5,000 North American missionaries that serve our Lord through the Southern Baptist Convention. Every dollar given through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering goes directly to help resource their work.

It is just one of the ways you “Send Hope”. Don’t ever lose sight of the way you send hope locally. You help support the Transition House, still one of the only ministries in Charleston that accepts women, with infants on one of the step down drugs. We currently have two residents in the house. This is made possible by your tithes and offerings. You send hope every Sunday night for the 40 adults who gather as a part of Celebrate Recovery, JIBC continues to provide worship space for Luz Y Verdad. You are sending hope as we support a full time missionary to the overwhelmingly un-churched population of youth in the James Island community. You are sending hope every time you bring a jar of jelly or make a gift to the James Island Outreach as we seek to help the under-served and those in need. Just fyi, last year you JIBC gave $7,040 to James Island Outreach and 3,416 pounds of food! That is over 1 ¾ ton of food! Great job.

Sending Hope is not just something we do way off yonder…it is something we do every day, every week, every month of the year at James Island Baptist Church.

Send Hope,

Pastor Tom