OCTOBER REPORT

THANK YOU, EVERY GIVING FRIEND!
I’M GOING TO BEGIN MY REPORT TO YOU THIS MONTH BY THANKING EVERY GIVING FRIEND WHO GIVES SACRIFICIALLY, LIBERALLY, FAITHFULLY, AND CHEERFULLY TO OUR MISSIONARIES’ NEEDS.

Let me tell you what I do every month – and several times during every month. I THANK GOD FOR EACH OF YOUR GIFTS...and especially to you who give to our General Fund. You are those who are on the front line of giving and who are enabling us to meet the modest essential financial commitments we have made to our missionaries.

Each of our 14 missionary families is provided for equitably from the General Fund. And so, on behalf of every one of our missionaries, I want to thank you every one.

We don’t say it often enough, but you are the human means God uses to supply our missionaries’ needs. And you not only demonstrate the proof of your love to Christ and His Gospel and your obedience to His commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature – but you also provide very real, basic, and practical needs in our missionaries’ daily lives and ministries. For that, WE ALL THANK YOU – AND THANK GOD FOR YOU!

GENERAL FUND SHORTFALLS
Again, here at the beginning of October, we are encountering shortfalls in our monthly General Fund giving which supplies the Essential Maintenance Transactions. Our General Fund offerings keep our missionaries on their fields of service. You who have given have done so with commitment and sacrifice. I scan down through the monthly General Fund offerings, and your names and offerings are there – month after month.

Many of your names are included in your church’s name and offering. You are giving through your church. God knows who you are and keeps good accounts.

IF YOU ARE NOT GIVING MONTHLY TO THE GENERAL FUND, WOULD YOU PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER DOING SO? That is our greatest, most urgent pressing need right now. If every one of our missionaries’ Giving Friends would give monthly offerings to the General Fund, not only would our missionaries’ essential maintenance needs be met, but WE COULD INCREASE THEM.

As it is, now in October, we will need to reduce our missionaries’ monthly deposits in order to break even on their Essential Maintenance Transactions. THIS IS THE THIRD MONTH IN A ROW WE HAVE HAD TO DO THIS! [Please refer to the August issue of the Mission Sheets for a full explanation of EMT / Essential Maintenance Transactions and how they must be supplied by the monthly General Fund offerings we receive – also posted here under AUGUST]

WE WILL NEED TO REDUCE OUR MISSIONARIES’ OCTOBER TOTAL DEPOSITS BY ANOTHER $6275.00 TO MAKE OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUNDS ENDS MEET. We will make up this deficit by making a proportionate additional deduction from each missionary’s total monthly deposit for October.

We are carefully budgeting the remaining Thanksgiving Offering from 2008 to last until the end of the year. We use the Thanksgiving Offering to meet the other support services and more periodical “as-needed / PRN” commitments we have promised to provide for our missionaries “as the Lord provides”.

HELP US PROVIDE FOR OUR MISSIONARIES’ NEEDS!

“TROUBLESOME TIMES ARE HERE!”
We are very sensitive to the troubled economic climate and environment in which we live. Many of you are hurting deeply and badly. Many of our churches are struggling financially also. We all feel it.

We are not asking anyone to neglect your first and primary responsibility to maintain the Gospel ministry of your own church and take care of your pastor.

“GOD IS AN EXPERT AT MULTI-TASKING!”
But, we also believe that God is able to make all grace abound toward us – so that we, having all sufficiency for all things, may have an abundance for every good work. [2 Corinthians 9.8] As one of the young men in our church told me the other day: “GOD IS AN EXPERT AT MULTI-TASKING!”

NOT “EITHER/OR” BUT “BOTH/AND”
The Lord Jesus doesn’t give us the option of choosing between giving to the mission of our own local churches OR giving to the mission He has given us to preach the Gospel to the whole world. Jesus Christ commands us to be His witnesses “BOTH IN JERUSALEM AND JUDEA – THEN TO SAMARIA – AND ALSO AT THE SAME TIME...TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH”. God help us – we must! God helping us – WE CAN...AND WE WILL!

GOD GIVES TO US WHAT HE WANTS US TO GIVE TO HIM!
We must ask God to give to us – so we can give to His Gospel, His Kingdom, His servants, and His Glory. We know He is able. We believe He will if we ask Him and trust Him. [2 Corinthians 9.10-11]

2009 THANKSGIVING OFFERING GOAL: $100,000.00
Many of you have been planning your 2009 Thanksgiving Offering since you gave your 2008 Thanksgiving Offering. God bless you for your commitment to giving.

IF YOU HAVE NOT PARTICIPATED IN OUR THANKSGIVING OFFERING, WOULD YOU BEGIN THIS YEAR? No one should think that just because you can’t give what you would like to give – or what someone else is able to give – that your offering is insignificant. IF EVERYONE OF US GIVES WITH PURPOSE, GENEROSITY, AND CHEERFULNESS – THEN GOD WILL MAKE IT GROW INTO MISSIONARY OUTREACH OF THE GOSPEL INTO ALL THE WORLD – TO THE GLORY OF GOD!

GIVE TO THE GLORY OF GOD! GIVE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!

“Grace be with you all. Amen.” Hebrews 13.25