He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’ Mark 16:15
Dear HBIC Family,
Over the course of the last few years, I have really enjoyed meeting to pray with BIC global workers, administrative staff, leaders, and pastors across the world. Zoom is a gift to us. It allows us all to be in this common virtual space, in different continents and time zones, praying together for the work God is doing in our world and for the people connected to us as BIC that God is using to do this work.
This has also been a blessing because I now get a chance to interact with many of the global workers we have been praying for since coming to the BIC on a weekly basis. We hear more details about the e-mail prayer requests we receive, and we learn more about the work they’re doing and the people to whom God is sending them. We get a chance to unite as one, empowered by the Spirit, to cast all these cares upon the Lord our God. What a gift to be united together in love, fellowship, and prayer!
Ben and Eunice Stoner are two of the BIC global workers I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with over these last few years. I knew about our work at the BIC Navajo Mission in New Mexico. I’m even blessed to know now, and to have known, several people who have served at this Mission. Praying weekly with Ben and Eunice and getting to know their passion for ministry and their heart for the Navajo people has been such a blessing.
This Sunday, November 6, we will celebrate our annual Missions Sunday. We hope you’ll plan to join us, either in person or online, for this special service! The Stoners will be with us to share the morning’s message. We’re looking forward to inspiration and challenge growing out of their decades of service among Navajo people! We hope you won’t miss it!
Each year on Missions Sunday, we take a special Missions Offering, which is used primarily to provide a love gift to all of the missionaries sent out from our church, with a small portion given to BIC World Missions. Our Offering Goal for this year is $12,000 or more. It will take many gifts, both large and small, to reach this goal. Each of us is encouraged to ask God for direction in what we are to share in order to support and bless our missionaries this year. You can give your Missions Offering in person at our services on November 6, or you can give online or mail a check to the church (marked for Missions Offering) anytime between now and the end of November.
As you prepare for this week’s services, I would like to invite you to read and meditate on this passage, Mark 16:9-20. As you reflect, please focus on the following questions:
- How has God been revealed to you through the testimony of others?
- How has God grown your faith where there had been doubt?
- How are you telling the story of Jesus and what God has done in your life?
- How does God’s faithfulness inspire you to serve God?
In Mark 16, we hear the story of the resurrected Jesus. We meet the women who went to the tomb to anoint our Lord’s body, but was met by a messenger proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We learn how fear leads to silence. We see Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and then to two other disciples, yet the unprecedented made the disciples still not believe. In the face of all this fear, anxiety, doubt, and unknown…Jesus shows up!
I love that our God shows up, in our moments of greatest weaknesses as well. I love that our fears, anxieties, doubt, and unknowns, are not enough to keep us away from our God. I love that our God has chosen and called us to go and tell the story of Jesus and what God has done in our lives. This is the message to proclaim to the Navajo in New Mexico, the Bemba in Zambia, and our people here in Harrisburg too.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May God’s face shine on you and be gracious to you. And may the Spirit gift you peace as you walk in love and light for God’s glory and kingdom come.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Hank (Mark 16:15)