I love the church I serve in. And I love it not because of the programs or the buildings or the great office that I have, but because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.
There are so many people and groups that make our church great and make the work that we do as a church possible. Most of those people and most of those groups work quietly behind the scenes. I want to mention three groups today that do that and do it with excellence.
Our Missions Team is made up of people who are not only passionate about doing missions outside the walls of our church but are passionate about bringing other people along in that journey. For a church our size we do an extraordinary amount of mission work, local and international.
Our Missions Team works to make sure we continue moving forward without taking on more than we can do with excellence. They also have the responsibility of making sure that the way we do missions is such that it strengthens rather than harms the communities we are serving. Many churches never give thought to how they are serving and if their methods are truly good for the community. Our Missions Team is constantly asking questions and making sure that when we serve in another community we do no harm. The team also tries to ensure that in all we do, the local church in the community is the hero rather than our teams.
The Missions Team has spent the last year working very hard to develop a mission team manual to guide our teams and to ensure things are done well, within the values of our church and that everyone is as safe as possible when serving.
The Vulnerable Children's Team works to lead our church to understand the needs of vulnerable children in our community and internationally and to work with our strategic partners to help meet those needs. Our church serves vulnerable children locally through our partnership with FACETS and internationally through our partnerships with Nairobi Gospel Centre, The Royal Diadem for Excellence and Samaritan's Purse.
Much like the Missions Team this team is made up of people that are passionate about the vulnerable children in our world but also passionate about bringing other people into the conversation to be apart of the solution.
Many times we don't even realize we are serving vulnerable children when in fact we are. For example when we collect supplies for the FACETS Backpack Program we are supporting vulnerable children in the Fairfax area. The children and families that receive the supplies would not be able to afford them on their own. By helping to meet this need we help these children get a better start to the school year by having the supplies they need. Providing quality education plays a major role in breaking the cycle of poverty. That's also one of the things we are doing in Kenya. Right now our efforts as a church support a program operated by Nairobi Gospel Centre. We are currently making it possible for a young boy named Ancent to attend a private school which is far better than his community school. Our goal is to be supporting ten children by the end of this year.
We also support vulnerable children through our work with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child. I love that OCC is more about relationships than anything else. The shoe boxes that we pack and send give local pastors in developing countries a tool for building relationships with children and families in their communities. The relationships allow the pastor and church to not only share the gospel of Christ with these families but it puts them in a position of being the hands and feet of Jesus as they meet real, physical and emotional needs.
There's no way to possibly list every group that makes our church great and the problem with doing a series like this is the risk of leaving a group out. There are many individuals, teams and groups that lead annual events, events that only happen once and who serve in so many different ways throughout the year to make our church great. There are volunteers who show up and fix equipment and make repairs to our building. There are people who minister one on one to others in our church who are in need. And there are people who quietly serve and without everyone doing what they do we simply could not do what we do.
That's why I love our church and that's why it's great. because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.
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