Mission Festival is Coming!
FUMC Celebrates 10 Year
Anniversary
of Our Mission Festival and Faith Promise Sunday
This promises to be a special year for the Ardmore FUMC Mission Festival, as it recognizes ten awesome years of serving our town, our state, our nation and even other parts of the world, by stepping out and giving of ourselves and our resources.
Our Festival theme for 2008 is “Together Boldly Spreading the Gospel,” and the dates are May 2 - 4. Except for Sunday worship services, all events will be held in the Colvert Ministry Center.
The week-end events have something for everyone. A Pot Luck Dinner will start things off on Friday at 6:30pm and continues with a worship program; a Saturday morning breakfast; Mission Festival Work Day; Children’s Mission; lunch; catered dinner; and another worship program. Sunday services highlight the week-end with special early and late worship services in McClure Chapel and the Sanctuary.
This is a “feel good” opportunity for us to go beyond what we think we can’t do, and do it anyway. Those who are able can take on some of the many physical work day projects that DeB and Marilyn Edwards are scheduling, or participate in one of the missions, which this year include Mexico City, Rio Bravo (construction) and Rio Bravo (mini medical), Alaska, Uganda, Israel/Palestine, Lydia Patterson and Dulac, LA. We will finance the Oklahoma VIM and Disaster Relief, New Day Camp, Gideons International, African Mosquito Nets Project, Habitat for Humanity, Loaves and Fishes Emergency Fund and seminary students in the Congo, Nigeria, Mexico City and Estonia.
Can’t go? Can’t do? Then prayerfully step up to the “offering” plate on Faith Promise Sunday and commit to giving what you and God have decided upon. It is a leap of faith, but a leap that will come back to bless you many times and in many ways.
We ask that you be in prayer for those who will be participating, and also for the behind-the-scene workers who are so willingly giving their time and effort to make this 10th Anniversary Mission Festival the most successful ever.
The faith promise has allowed FUMC, Ardmore to reach out in “hands-on” mission to almost 70 missionaries, missions, and mission projects. It has enabled us to support 11 missionaries on 5 continents, provide scholarships for members to go on a variety of mission ventures from Guatemala, to Israel, to Kenya, to Mexico and to various places around the U.S., and finance mission projects in Africa, Europe, and right here in Ardmore. Locally, the faith promise has allowed us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide medical care to the disadvantaged, support children in abusive situations, provide temporary shelter for travelers, help with utilities bills for the poor, and build homes for the homeless.
You are invited and encouraged to begin considering your faith promise amount for 2008-09. It probably needs to be something just beyond or well beyond your ability to pay (something that takes faith) and over and above your regular giving to the church. Faith promise giving is completely anonymous. In other words, it’s totally between you and God. But if you make a faith promise on May 6, you are guaranteed to “make a Christian difference” in the life of someone here locally or around the world.