LOOKING FORWARD

Richard Kirkland

In the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet with elders from four different congregations to visit with them and their members about partnering with us in the work of training preachers and evangelists in the Biblical Institute of Central America. The results of the meetings have been generally good with the expected responses of “We would like to help. Our contributions have suffered this year. We will do what can.” And they have--some by adding us to the number of outreaches they already support and some by increasing their giving. I have been greatly blessed by the response. But not all of the news has been good. Some congregations, even large ones, who have been, in the past, significant contributors have had to cut their giving significantly. We are sorry that this has been the case, but we understand. And we are working hard to replace those lost revenues. We are confident that God will continue to bless us and we will be able to continue at current levels of operation even during these difficult financial times.

We are entering into the major holiday season of the year and this means we have many programs, events and appointments that affect us as a congregation. Some of you have been so kind in planning congregational meetings and events in your homes. Some have worked hard throughout the year to assure the success of events held at our building. Some have worked regularly and diligently to keep the building and lawn looking good inside and out. And others have taken care of the responsibilities of financial records, bulletins, order of services, and other necessary and important duties. And we are so grateful to those of you who teach the Bible Classes from week to week. All of you have done these things so well. Thank you very, very much. Keep up the good work!

I will be involved in campaign in Buford, GA on November 29-December 4 with Eddie Cloer and a group of co-workers from Harding University. Then in January I will be in Central America for two weeks getting the school year started for our three schools – Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. We have about 30 students in each of the schools. This will be a huge task. After this my schedule will be pretty much clear for the first half of 2012.

We have so much to be thankful for as we look at the leadership of our congregation. For a small congregation, we are blessed to have three men serving as our elders who each love the Lord, the church, our souls and our community. We are also blessed with deacons who follow our eldership willingly and serve with dedication. We cannot help but to be optimistic about the future. With God’s blessings, 2011 will end with this congregation poised to “impact our community” in 2012!