Giving Sunday

We often talk in our congregation about what the first Christians looked like. We aren’t interested in what they wore or anything like that. We want to know how they acted, what they found important, what moved them. And as we examine these things (most recently in our Wednesday night Bible studies together) we are continually struck by how they cared for one another. Even from afar, congregations saw the needs of other brothers and sisters and wanted to help in some way. 

This has been the example for our congregations’ 5th Sunday Special Giving Sunday. We knew that we could give out of our budget for various needs, but we had members who knew of special needs which they brought to the congregation. We then decided to have an opportunity, every 5th Sunday, to give specially, above and beyond our normal giving. We choose various needs (at least 1 and up to 3) and all the members have the opportunity to give as they see fit to these needs. 

It has been exciting to see how the love of God moves us to help others in so many different places and ways. Often these opportunities teach us that we have brothers and sisters in so many different places. We are one big family. We have helped after natural disasters, like in Myanmar, Laos and Sint Maarten. We have helped churches reaching out to the needy in their area, like Bibles and wells in Uganda, deaf orphans in Kenya, and a center in Ukraine that helps those escaping addiction in their lives and starting anew. 

We have also had opportunities to help locally, like paying for a wheelchair, financial assistance for visitors, travel costs for us when we wanted to visit family (and Shirley wanted to visit her dying sister), and helping kids go to a week of Bible camp.  Yesterday we gave for two children in Uganda with special needs as well as a water purification system at the facility we have helped before in Ukraine. 

These opportunities remind us that we are blessed and that all we have comes from God. We are blessed so that we can bless others. That is some of what we are seeing in the studies we have on the first church and it is working out in the lives of the members every day. We are so thankful for God’s grace that can work through all of us.