e-news for week of 10/5 - 10/11

I’m going to keep my section of this short. Great weekend! Phenomenal picnic – if you missed it – ouch – you missed it. Thanks to the Hemme and Fletcher life groups for all you did to make it happen. Thanks to Tracy Hill – who I love to dub hunter-gatherer PhD – for leading out in cooking all that fish. Yeowzah!

This weekend we finish out the “Gone fishing” series talking about “fishing with dynamite.” Rather than go through upcoming stuff now, I want to turn your attention toward some of our body’s efforts toward intentionally connecting people to Jesus through kingdom efforts all over the place. When you read it, you’ll pause and go, “Wow!"

The mission’s team has attempted to look at the impact of the missions program of Forum during the past year and to see the collective effectiveness of the ministries. What we know and have learned is that so much of God’s work is totally immeasurable in human terms. How do you measure a changed heart; a changed relationship; or a seed that is planted today that may not come to fruition until years later? An effective ministry cannot always be measured by numbers, but is often based on relationships developed over time.

As one of our missionaries stated, “One of the main goals is to make disciples who will make disciples; who will make disciples; who will make disciples….. We are thankful the work goes far beyond us as more and more are sent out as laborers in the harvest field.”

The following is just some evidence of God’s work in missions supported by Forum during the past year.
· 15,876 decisions/baptisms
· 40 new church plants
· 79 Bible Academy graduates
· 250 Bible college graduates
· 177 in children’s homes/orphanages
· 30 children adopted to Christian homes
· 100 missionary recruits
· 200 Apache children weekly receiving a message of hope
· Publishing 36 books in 16 different languages for a total print of 76,000 books
· 656 campers and 150 adult volunteers teaching about Jesus, encouraging and forming relationships
· Grants and scholarships to 4 Bible college students
· Teaching 10 life skills classes and 7 in depth Acts classes to prisoners
· Sharing the principles of Christian faith in a Muslim world
· Ministering to approximately 175 students on a secular campus who we touch through small groups, student ministries, activities and worship
· 12 regular weekly meetings with Chinese students and meeting new student needs, paving the way to share Jesus with them
· 75,000 plus lives touched through medical evangelism

And don’t forget to check out our new Web newsletter, The Forum Connection. Just go to our Web site, www.forumchristian.org, click on resources, click on The Forum Connection, then choose the current monthly issue.

Looking forward to Sunday -- Scott