| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
|
| Newsletter |
A Ground Swell of Concern
We are tremendously encouraged as we turn the corner into this new decade. We have a growing number of people participating in our Service Projects, Service Teams and local Connection Meetings. There have been significant contributions offered by many to accomplish our VisionVestors initiatives. We are grateful for efforts and energies making major impact in several places which we've pinpointed as areas of great need. Together we are making a difference. We have improved living conditions, people are being hugely helped and lives are being changed for the better. We are humbled to see the outpouring of support and participation flowing toward our projects. We have the potential to greatly advance our works of compassion in this New Year and in this New Decade. As you read through our first newsletter of the New Year you will find goals that we have accomplished, advancements we made and ways that you can be involved in 2010 as we merge marketplace skills into missions that change the world.
National VisionVestors Forum
February 2-5, Kansas City, MO
Make your plans now to attend the National VisionVestors Forum as
part of the Grace Covenant Ministry Conference 2010 in Kansas City, MO. The conference will be held in the ballroom of the Howard Johnson's Plaza Hotel near the Kansas City Airport. The conference kicks off on Tuesday evening, February 2 at 7pm and concludes at Friday noon, February 5. VisionVestors, a ministry of Grace Covenant will have a prominent role in the conference and hold its forum during the conference. VisionVestors representatives from various parts in the United States will be attending the conference, networking, reviewing Service Projects, planning Service Teams and discussing new developments as they preview the coming year. International partners from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Peru will be on hand and available for personal updates regarding the needs of their nations. It is a great opportunity to meet the people behind the projects from the nations represented. There will be ministry services, breakout sessions on relevant ministry topics, fellowship luncheons, enriching resources and numerous ways in which you may get involved. We have reserved a block of rooms at the Howard Johnson's hotel where we have a secured a special rate of $55 per night (taxes included) (1-4 people per room) when the rooms are reserved and paid for through our office. Lodging includes a free breakfast and free wireless internet. The hotel provides a free 24 hour shuttle to and from the airport. The hotel is conveniently located near great restaurants and shopping. This event will be a God moment with life-changing ramifications. Everyone interested is welcome and there is no cost for the conference. We encourage you to invite your friends. For more information or to register, email or phone our VisionVestors office.
Key Scheduled Times for VisionVestors at the Conference:
Wednesday, February 3
12:00-2:00pm VisionVestors Fellowship Lunch
2:00-4:00pm VisionVestors Forum
Thursday, February 4
9:30-12:00pm Missions Inspiration and Vision
2:00-4:00pm Missions Highlights
Christmas Gift Update and Impact!
We want to thank all of you who helped to make our VisionVestors Christmas Gift Catalog a huge success. Nearly $15,000 has been raised and some gifts may still be on their way. We were quite pleased with the results. We are keeping the Christmas Gift Catalog project open to the end of this month. Already there has been a mighty impact in several areas. All of our targeted nations received something. There were significant contributions made toward our Clean Water Project in Haiti. We will be able to begin digging wells to provide clean water. We will have our first one dug in the first half of 2010 with others to follow. So far, we were also able to make contributions to accomplish the following projects:
*Dominican Republic-Helped to pay down the debt on an orphanage
*Dominican Republic-Purchased shoes for poor children
*Liberia-Supported church planting pastors
*Liberia-Helped to build a room on a pastor’s house
*Liberia-Financed a pastor’s wife to start a used clothing business
*Peru-Supported a church planting pastor to move to a new city, get settled and start a new church.
We believe that in the coming months we will be building on these accomplishments.
A Contagious Compassion
Sometimes there are burdens that breakout into the world and that spark a ground swell of concern and contribution. This is a testimony of that fact chronicled by Erynn Wiggins in her college term paper entitled, "Water Bottles for Water Wells”. These are eloquent excerpts from "her story”.
"A large green trash can, adorned with posters and duct tape, sat full of spent water bottles and soda cans on the campus of Hickman Charter School, waiting to be emptied. Its brothers stood by faithfully in McHenry Village Shopping Center in Modesto, CA and on the grounds of Living Hope Church in Oakdale, CA, ready to be relieved. Trash bags full to bursting sat in a few private driveways waiting to be hauled to the recycling center as well.
Unicef and the World Health Organization report that for the year 2006, 42% of the Haitian population did not have access to clean, drinkable water. …One small team of local individuals aims to help do something about that. "We’re trying to build a well in Haiti,” said Lucas Wiggins, a twelve year-old eighth grade student home schooled through Hickman Charter School, "One plastic water bottle at a time.” He has been collecting his neighbors’ donated recyclables and foraging for plastics at the city park. "It’s like two jobs in one,” he said, "trying to get clean water for people who need it but don’t have it, and cleaning up the soccer field.”
Mike and Cheryl Brodie (VisionVestors-Oakdale/Modesto, CA) have been to Haiti on mission trips in the past. Cheryl commented on the value of the project: "We have seen first hand the poverty and the hopelessness that Haiti faces. They are so economically deprived that they need outside help in order to accomplish this task.
Another woman said, "I’m enjoying this project because it is something tangible that I can do, and it is a win-win situation. Who knew that someone’s garbage would mean fresh water to someone in a third-world country.”
Service Teams 2010
Touching the world for Jesus practical ways
DESTINATION: The Dominican Republic
DATES: March 16-23
COST: $700 plus airfare (Trip total approximately $1300)
SIGN-UP: Before January 15, 2010
Join this team as they serve to improve various projects at the Canaan Ministry Center which serves as a girls orphanage and feeding center for 60 needy children. Skills for carpentry, tile work, electrical and plumbing would be helpful as a there are a number of projects in need of these skills.
DESTINATION: Haiti
DATES: April 13-20
COST: $700 plus airfare (Trip total approximately $1300)
SIGN-UP: Before February 15, 2010
This team will take school supplies to be distributed to schools which meet in churches, visit schools and churches, survey and serve into our service projects and identify future projects. As the team forms and team members’ gifts are identified, other serving opportunities will be developed. There is something for everyone.
DESTINATION: Peru
DATES: September 21-28
COST: $800 plus airfare (Trip total approximately $1700)
SIGN-UP: Before June 1, 2010
Team members will serve in various projects at the facility of a new church plant in the city of Huancayo. There will opportunity to connect with Peruvian leadership, visit homes, pray for the new church and the region and encourage this new work forward in practical and prayerful ways.
DESTINATION: Liberia
DATES:: October 12-21
COST: Approximately $3,000 (Includes airfare, food, and lodging)
SIGN-UP: Before June 1, 2010
A trip of this magnitude needs a lot of preliminary planning. The team will serve into projects that are being identified, working with Liberian churches. After nearly 20 years of civil war, the government is stable and the country is rebuilding. The attitude of the people is positive and we have built a wonderful working relationship with our Liberian friends. The team will take helpful supplies to assist in the rebuilding of this resilient nation.
If you would like to be on a service team, call our office (816)431-6217 or email Vision-Vestors@GraceCovenantInt.com to sign up. Contact us soon to reserve your spot on one of these teams. Other teams will also be forming and dates for those teams will be announced in January.
Inspiration– Prayer & Service
-By Troy Wilson
Service alone is profitable and fulfilling. There are many organizations, groups, and individuals who attest to the fulfillment of serving the needy in their community, nation, and world. God is clear about His response to those serving the needy in the world. God tells us in Proverbs 17:19, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.”
There are numerous ways to serve the countless needs in our world. Each time we choose to lend a helping hand, we capture the attention of God. We see this in Acts 10 with a man named Cornelius. Acts 10:1-4, "At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion, in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”
Two things stand out in this scripture regarding Cornelius. First, Cornelius served through giving gifts to the poor. Second, he prayed regularly to God. These two things together are a powerful combination, because God takes notice and begins to respond to the service and prayers offered up to Him. This is why we want to continue to serve the needy around us, but also pray. Prayer is the means by which all things that the Lord desires are accomplished. E.M. Bounds says, "Prayer is using the divinely appointed means for obtaining what we need and for accomplishing what God proposes to do on earth.”
The combination of prayer and service will bring about a timely, powerful, and perfect response from our Father in Heaven. When service is coupled with prayer, we will find our acts more fruitful and fulfilling for the recipients of our service and ourselves. God is ready to accomplish His will on earth, as it is fulfilled in Heaven. He invites us to join Him in His work on earth. It is through prayer we can serve God to the fullest. As we begin the New Year, let us commit to not only serving, but most importantly praying.
To God your every want
In instant prayer display,
Pray, without ceasing, pray.
To God with faith draw near;
With all the power of prayer.
Phone: (816) 431-6217 | Fax: (816) 431-6651