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Student Ministry - May 2019

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Dear Church Family,

The Student Ministry is gearing up for missions this summer and fall, and I wanted you to have the opportunity to know about what we will be doing and a new way that you can partner with us!

The High School Mission Trip is June 2-8. We will be partnering with New Life Church in Huntington, IN to help them with their outreach ministry to the homeless and to other areas of their community. We will serve daily at their Meal Ministry center, and we will plan on doing a Bible Club during that week to help reach families. This will give our students many opportunities to share the gospel directly with individuals who need it.

Our Middle School Mission Week will be July 29 - August 2. We plan to host two Bible Clubs in the mornings and then do service projects in the afternoons right here in Evansville. We will have Student Leaders help guide the Middle Schoolers as they lead games, teach crafts, serve hard, and share the gospel with others. This is one great way that the students get to serve both in our community and in the church.

Finally, we are sending some students on our first International Mission Trip to Jamaica! This trip is an adult and student trip that will connect with churches in Jamaica to help minister to their communities as well as taking care of any renovation needs they have that we can meet. This will be an eye-opening experience for our students as they will witness first-hand the need for the life-changing power of the gospel in Jamaica’s culture.

In the past we have hosted a BBQ Fundraiser to help the cost of our missions endeavors, but we will unfortunately not be able to do that this year. So the Lord has led us to do an exciting new fundraiser that will raise nearly twice the amount as that of the BBQ Fundraiser. We simply need you, our church family, to partner with us to make this happen.

For the month of May there will be a table set up in the lobby that will have 100 envelopes on it. Each envelope will have a number on it from 1 to 100. The goal is for us as a church to fill every envelope with the money value of its corresponding number. People can take an envelope, put the amount of money that is indicated by the envelope’s number inside it, and place it in the locked dropbox we will have in the lobby. So if you wanted to partner with us financially and wanted to donate $10, then you would simply take the envelope with the number 10 on it, place $10 in it, and place it in the dropbox. If you wanted to donate $50 then you would take the envelope with the 50 on it, etc. While this fundraiser will not fully fund all our mission trips, it will put a big dent in the money students will have to raise in order to serve.

I first want to ask you to please partner with our students by praying for them. Would you pray that they would finish the school year well and be prepared for all that the Lord has in store for them this summer. And secondly, I want to ask you to consider participating in this fundraiser. All it will take is for you to pray about and pick a number between 1 and 100, and then give that amount of money for the express goal of serving and proclaiming the gospel.

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren

 

Posted by Brian Van Doren with

Spiritual Development - May 2019

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In light of my recent trip to Ecuador, I became convinced that I need to regularly be praying for missionaries around the world. Former IMB president, David Platt, provides these suggestions for how we can pray for those serving around the world to take the gospel to all people.

1. Pray that they would be confident in God’s Word (Acts 13:4–5) -
Missionaries are sent not just to learn culture or do humanitarian relief but to confidently proclaim the Word of God.

2. Pray that they would be filled with God’s Spirit (Acts 13:6–9) - Believers already have the Holy Spirit in them, but at times the Spirit fills someone in a special way to enable him or her to        proclaim God’s Word.

3. Pray for their victory in spiritual warfare (Acts 13:10–12) - When our brothers and sisters take the gospel into the nations, they are going into a war. The devil is dead set on destroying souls and diverting mission.

4. Pray for their success in gospel witness (Acts 13:12)  - Pray that many would come to know Christ in all walks of life from the faithful witness of our missionaries.

5. Pray for peace with other believers (Acts 13:13) - Satan attacks from all angles, both inside and outside. Pray for peace within families, in marriages, with children, and with companions and   ministry partners.

6. Pray for favor with unbelievers (Acts 13:14–15) - Nonbelievers are blind to the gospel, and many are violently opposed to its message. Pray that missionaries would find favorable opportunities to share the gospel with them.

7. Pray that the gospel will be clear through them (Acts 13:16–47) - Although cross-cultural communication is difficult, pray that missionaries, by grace, would clearly communicate the character of God, the sinfulness of man, the sufficiency of Christ, the necessity of faith, and the urgency of eternity.

8. Pray that God will open hearts around them (Acts 13:48) - God alone draws people to himself. Pray that he will open hearts and minds to believe and be drawn to eternal life with Christ.

9. Pray for their joy in the midst of suffering (Acts 14:1–2) - Missionaries often face various forms and levels of suffering in their work. Pray that they would experience the joy of intimacy with Christ in the midst of it.

10. Pray for their kindness in the midst of slander (Acts 14:1–2) - Though missionaries face suffering and difficulty, pray that the character of Christ and the power of his Spirit enable them to respond with grace.

11. Pray for supernatural power to accompany them (Acts 14:3) - Pray that missionaries would speak the Word with boldness and that supernatural power would accompany its proclamation.

12. Pray for Christlike humility to characterize them (Acts 14:4–18) - Pray that missionaries would overcome the temptation to be prideful in their work by the power of the Spirit.

13. Pray for their patience (Acts 14:8–18) - Missionaries face ups and downs and wins and losses in their work. Pray that they might respond with longsuffering.

14. Pray for their perseverance (Acts 14:19–20) - In 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 Paul wrote, “We are . . . struck down but not    destroyed.” Pray for missionaries to persevere through setback after setback, beatdown after beatdown, and struggle after struggle.

15. Pray that God would use them to multiply churches (Acts 14:24–28) - Pray for the multiplication of churches filled with people who know the Word led by pastors who teach the Word.

 

Recommended ResourceSpiritual Gifts by Thom Schreiner
What are the spiritual gifts? Do all Christians have them? Have the miraculous gifts ceased? The topic of spiritual gifts is often a point of contention among Christians. In Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter, Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner, a leading New Testament scholar, answers these questions.

Schreiner shares his personal experience related to spiritual gifts, but more importantly, he unpacks what the Bible has to say about them. In doing so, he brings a spirit of humility and charity, reminding us that though spiritual gifts are important, we can have unity in Christ even where we disagree.

 

Posted by Nick Scott with

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