Service

At the women's retreat this month Dorsey Jones shared on "Redemptive Works," those big and small things we do for others that can be an enormous encouragement and means of grace. During one part of her message she presented an excellent list of the kinds of things we can do for others. Let her ideas inspire you.

In June two of our families, the (Joby) Ruhls and the Greguses, went to the Agua Viva Children's Home in Guatemala. Here is a letter from the Ruhls.

Dear Friends,

Below is a family update and a praise report from our mission trip to Guatemala. We are continually grateful for the friendship and support from each of you as we walk through life together. We look forward to continued growth in our relationship with each one of you as we walk through life together here at our new "home" in NC.

Family Update

We moved into our new…

My name is Joy Sasser, and I was one of the 32 from SGC that recently ventured down to Agua Viva Children’s Home in Guatemala. Speaking for the team is tough because everyone took something different away from the experience and of what God did through us and in us. There are a few things I can confidently say from the group.

The world’s first widespread Ebola epidemic has ravaged three neighboring West African countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with Liberia currently experiencing the brunt of this deadly epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the number of infections at 8,033 and the number of deaths at 3,865(As of October 5, 2014 - http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html, October 9, 2014). Moreover, the CDC states that cases in Liberia are doubling every 15-20 days, while those in Sierra Leone and Guinea are doubling every 30-40 days. Without additional intervention programs or changes in community behavior, the CDC predicts there may be…

From Daniel Baker: I asked Daniel Ramsay to write this for the church. It will be followed up by a second post that gives more detail on SIM's work in fighting Ebola. I hope you will consider playing some role in this situation.

Dear church members,

I know that Ebola has become a topic that all media is reporting on, and we are now getting saturated with news about it 24/7, particularly with the new cases in the United States.  Rather than looking at what is going on here, which I hope our government will act strongly to curtail,…

Most of you know that I work for a Christian publishing ministry. It’s called Church Initiative. We make video-based resources that equip churches to help hurting people. Our team recently finished up work on the third edition of GriefShare, a small group, grief-recovery program.

Completing the Ugandan side of Josie’s adoption took just over five weeks. Eli and Esther returned to the U.S. after two weeks, and God taught me so much in the remaining three weeks about what it means for His strength to be made perfect in my weakness; His grace was completely sufficient for me - and for the rest of my family (2 Cor 12:9).

The rest of this story moves so much faster than the beginning, but now that I have the benefit of hindsight, I am clearly able to see God’s hand in the waiting. 

It was absolutely thrilling to have a baby in the house at last, but we knew that God was only just beginning the story of our family, and we were eager to see what else He had in store for us.

When Eli and I were married in 2003, we already knew that adoption would very likely be part of our story. We started out the same way so many other couples do, desiring a sweet, tiny baby (or several!) to call our own. However, my infertility had been diagnosed many years before, so we knew that God would be writing our story differently.