Season of Giving
Each year during Christmas-time we are inundated with marketing, advertisements, television commercials, and countless other sources which all try to convince us of the same thing: SPEND MORE MONEY! GET THE RIGHT GIFT! HAVE MORE STUFF!
Here at Hill Country Bible, we hope to change our thinking about this time frame a little bit. Rather than spending our time thinking about how much we can get during the holidays, we want to look at what we can give.
We call this time the Season of Giving. God does not bless us and add to our bank accounts simply so that we can increase our standard of living, but more often so that we can increase our standard of giving.
God has been faithful to us this year and in response to that, we as a church will be giving to several organizations throughout December. We'll also be challenging you to become actively involved in the giving process.
Each week we'll update you on where the resources God has blessed us with have been given.
Week One, November 30, 2008
Over $1400 to Churches and Church plants around our city. Check out the video...
Week Two, December 7, 2008
We welcomed Kerry Dodson to our church via a phone call from her home base in North Carolina. Kerry is the volunteer manager for Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief. She was actively involved in the recovery efforts in Friendswood, Port Arthur, and Santa Fe, Texas in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Click the picture to listen to Kerry's conversation with Keith:
, Volunteer Manager
Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief
In addition to talking with Kerry, we asked each of you to get involved with Samaritan's Purse this year. We passed out gift catalogues provided by Samaritan's Purse and encouraged every family to pray about providing for the needs of hurting people around the world using the catalogue as a tool. To lead out, our church contributed $500 toward gifts from the Samaritan's Purse catalogue. We provided funding to rescue 2 kids from bondage and abuse, 200 Gospel Storybooks for kids, to train 2 believers to preach the Gospel, and 2 bicycles for the mission field.
If you would like a gift catalogue, stop by the church office and let us give you one, or look to the Samaritan's Purse website at samaritanspurse.org.
Week Three, December 14, 2008
Our guest in service this week was Ed Rogers of the Texas Baptist Children's Home. Ed shared with us that the TBCH is currently ministering to over 60 children, as well as over 30 single moms and their 40 children. This ministry takes place directly across the street from us. The passion that the TBCH has to reach children and single moms with the life-changing reality of Christ is amazing. It was our privilege to hear Ed share with us the wonderful stories of connections that he has made around the state with people who have been touched by this ministry. Our church sent with Ed $500 for the ministry efforts of the TBCH, and as a family we contributed over 60 boxes of dry breakfast cereal for the residents. Thanks so much for being a part of this powerful work!