COVID-19 Weekly Update #11
First Free Family,
This week we want to hear from you! Our team continues planning for resuming in-person services later thsi summer and it would help us to know what you are planning to do. Please take a minute to fill out this short, five-question survey. It will stay open until next Friday, but we’d love to hear from you before then. As we’ve said, Pastor Ron is leading that team and would be happy to receive any additional input or concerns you may have.
This Sunday we’ll be looking at 1 Peter 5:1-5. We encourage you to read it over the weekend in preparation for Sunday. The video will be available online by 9am—we hope you’ll continue in 1 Peter with us!
COVID-19 Resource Page>>> (Ladies, don’t miss the new info there about our Summer Study.)
Staff Updates
Russ Widener is ending his time as our Choir Director as he and his wife, Maggie, move to South Dakota to be near family. We are thankful for their good ministry here and will miss having them in Wichita!
We also have our first transition coming up with our residency program. Chris Helding will be finishing up his two years and Dirk Jasperse will be starting his residency. We’ll be sharing more about that transition in the coming weeks. Dirk will begin the first week of June and we are excited for you to meet him and his wife Katie. Join us in praying for Russ, Chris, Dirk, and their families in this time of transition.
Financial Update
May Giving Goal: $263,194
Still Needed to Meet Goal: $105,335
General Fund Giving Last Week: $32,386
Missions Partner Highlight
Each week, we’ll be highlighting one of our missions partners in our weekly emails so you can learn more about their ministries and be praying for the gospel to go wide through their work. If you would like to send one of our missions partners a note, please email Pastor Lucas and he’ll connect you.
For over 47 years, Voice of the Truth Ministries has labored to see Arabs across the US and the world come to know the truth and mature in their salvation through knowledge of God’s Word. They work in over fifteen languages including Arabic, Farsi, and Kurdish. Some of their projects include a magazine with distribution to more than 15,000 homes; a radio ministry with 24/7 broadcasting of messages and worship; correspondence courses sent to and collected from people around the world; and Bibles, New Testaments, and Gospels sent to homes, refugees, and prisons. It is their joy and privilege to participate in the Lord’s work as he moves in Arab people through his Word. They rejoice in the rebirth and spiritual growth of native Middle Easterners and North Africans in their homeland and scattered across the globe as refugees. Voice of the Truth shares the following requests:
- Pray for the students doing correspondence courses. Praise God for a new student from Qatar this month!
- Praise God for orchestrating a joint effort with several churches that delivered twenty tons of Bibles and other Christian materials to refugees in Lebanon last year. Ask the Lord to use those materials to accomplish his purposes in their hearts.
- Praise God for a woman from Michigan who recently accepted the Lord as her personal Savior! Pray for her and many others like her who have received Voice of the Truth materials. Pray for their safety and that their faith may be protected and take deep roots as they grow in the knowledge of their Savior.
Blessings,
Pastors Josh and Ron
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