Hey everybody,
This past Sunday, we started our Christmas series "It's a Wonderful Life." Before I tell you about Sunday's message, I want to ensure you know you are invited to experience the "It's a Wonderful Life" theater production this weekend. There are 3 FREE shows for you to choose from. Friday, December 6th at 6:30 pm and Saturday the 7th at 2 pm and 6:30 pm. The shows are FREE, and we would love for you to invite people to come out and experience the show with you. You can register for your free tickets on the Believers website or in the Believers Church App under the "Events" tab.
In this past week's message, I unveiled The Gift. It might be helpful to lay out WHY we do The Gift, HOW we fund The Gift, and all the initiatives The Gift will accomplish this year when it's fully funded.
Purpose of The Gift: Christmas is the season of giving, and Believers is a Church on the give! The Gift's purpose is to showcase God's generous heart to our community by funding projects that make a difference in the lives of people in our community and around the world.
Funding of The Gift: Our goal is to have 100% participation from the Believers Church family. Everyone can give something, and every gift makes a difference. We ask that those who call Believers home give over and above their regular giving to the gift. These projects fall outside our regular budget. I get it; money is tight, and that's why we encourage families to scale back the materialism of this season to make room for giving to causes that will make an eternal difference.
During the month of December, online gifts can be designated to The Gift. Gifts given on campus using the giving envelope can be designated for The Gift or written in the memo of any check given. 100% of funds designated to The Gift will be used to fund the giving initiatives. Anything that comes in over the goal will be used to fund the ministry budget of Believers Church.
Even if you happen to be reading this and don't call Believers home, you can still give to The Gift and make the world more wonderful!
The Gift Goal: $100,000
That's a lot of goodness! What will we accomplish? I'm so glad you asked:
$50,000 Operation Blessing. $35,000 of these funds will be used for disaster relief to support families in Western North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene. $15,000 will be used as hunger relief for "displaced" students and their families at our partner schools in Suffolk.
$30,000 NextGen Camp Experience. What is the faith of the next generation worth? It's worth everything. This investment will help to make a life-changing camp experience accessible to more families. We know that 83% of Christians made that commitment to follow Jesus between the ages of 4 and 14. This is an investment that is guaranteed to give a huge return!
$20,000 Local Partners.
$10,000 Freekind. Helping 10 survivors of sex trafficking begin long-term restorative programs. This includes supporting clients through the application and acceptance process, providing transitional items (food, clothing, etc.), and transportation for the survivor and their trained advocate to accompany them to the program.
$5,000 Oasis Social Ministry. We will pay to repair/replace the AC unit on their refrigerated food truck, which is essential in Oasis' mission of providing food to the community.
$5,000 CAPS. We will stock them with Walmart gift cards to help families in need get groceries, clothing, and shoes.
If you missed the message where we share images and testimonies related to these projects, you can watch it here on our YouTube Channel. Radical generosity doesn't look radical when you are a follower of Jesus, it looks normal. After all, God radically gave His Son Jesus to us to make it possible for us to be in a relationship with Him. The normal response to that kind of generosity is to be generous to others so they can experience God's love through us.
I'm always excited to see how God moves in the hearts of this church to meet these goals. Stay tuned to The Outlet and the Made for Monday's Podcast in the coming weeks; we will share more details and ways you can be involved in these projects beyond giving!!
See you this weekend for the production and our series around It's a Wonderful Life!!
Blessings,
Pastor Jamey