Conference-Wide Mission Challenge

In last month’s newsletter the Missions Team challenged every church in the Upper Midwest Conference to make a difference by joining together to provide life-giving water to 3 daycare centers or preschools in the province of Limpopo, South Africa. In celebration of our 3rd year as a Conference our goal is to raise $37,000, enough for Blessman International (our Conference-endorsed mission organization) to dig 3 wells!!! Is your Mission Committee or Team aware of this opportunity? Does your church have a plan for raising the needed money?

Pastor Josh Swaim at Christ Church in Davenport, Iowa is doing a sermon series on missions during February using Acts 1:8 as the theme to be Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth. Church members will be featured in a video highlighting their church’s Acts 1:8 work in local, national, and international missions. A special offering will be taken for our Conference Blessman Wells Project! Thank you, Christ Church!

How is YOUR church going to help make this happen? A Lenten offering? “Noisy” offering? (Kids love collecting this money in metal buckets!) A Community fundraising dinner, soup supper, or potato bar? Pancake breakfasts? How about a self-denial challenge? Give up coffee or pop/soda during Lent or for a month and donate what would have been spent to help dig a well. We’d love to share your ideas and pictures in future newsletters!

A powerful way to share the need with your congregation is through a less than 2 minute video. Show it during worship, at your Church Council and Missions meetings, put the link in your newsletters and emails, however you can best get the word out. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/EgeEq8C-5b0

Donations can be given online by using this link. Designate it for the South Africa Partnership Fund and add a memo that says "Well". If you mail in your donation please note "South Africa Partnership Fund - Well” on your giving form or check. Checks can be mailed to Upper Midwest Conference, PO Box 113, Enon, OH 45323. Your church will receive credit for your giving.

On a different note... We are looking for a Missions point person for each church in the Conference. Send those names, church name and location, email, and phone number to missions@uppermidwestgmc.org. Thanks! Questions and comments can also be sent to that email address.

Through the Blessman Wells Project, TOGETHER we can change lives in South Africa! Won’t you join us to “Be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth?”