Thank the goodness of God we are not in this alone! Any part of the mission and ministry of the church would be immeasurably more difficult if we had to do it all by ourselves. We are blessed to have what I call Kingdom Partners. That can be churches, institutions or ministries whose mission intersects with ours. For instance, Charleston Baptist Association is a collection of over 70 churches in the greater Charleston County area. We partner with them to do things like strengthen churches, strengthen leaders and start new churches. Another ministry would be the Lowcountry Pregnancy Center. We love their mission and find ways to partner with them. There are several others but the one I am highlighting today is the James Island Outreach.
The James Island Outreach is committed to helping our under served neighbors. In 2025 JIO distributed over 370,000 pounds of food to 903 households. They provided financial assistance to 117 clients. They offered Financial Resource Workshops on developing a Personal Financial Plan. They do a whole lot more but I think you get the idea. This is a Kingdom Mission Partner we really love.
James Island Baptist Church, by God’s good grace and blessings, gave $11,4425 to James Island Outreach. In addition, we gave 3,749 pounds of food donations…mostly jelly and pancake syrup! Occasionally we throw in some green beans and other vegetables! You also gave 657 volunteer hours, mostly with face- to- face interactions with our neighbors. That is a little more than 4 months of 40 hour a week volunteering.
Now, what can we do? Would you be willing to volunteer some time? Better yet, could you get your Connection Group, family or friends, to make a “Pantry Team”? Only thing better than doing mission work is doing it together. Why? Because we are…c’mon, you can hear Logan say it…WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER! Of course, keep on, all year long, picking up a jar of jelly or a bottle of pancake syrup…and anything else you might see on sale or BOGO. Do you like construction work: painting, basic carpentry work, sweat equity kind of work? Then Jeff Gordon, the other Jeff Gordon, is your man. Check them out at www.jioutreach.org.
Thanks for being Kingdom minded followers of Jesus. See you Sunday, good Lord willing!
Pastor Tom
