Jaffray Offering: https://thealliancecanada.ca/jaffray/
Sign up for Global Gathering: https://thealliancecanada.ca/global-gathering/
2034 Vision: http://thealliancecanada.ca/vision/
Transcript:
Rev. Darren Herbold:
November is here and in many places in Canada, winter is already settling in. We’re about to enter the advent season. Advent means arrival. It’s the season of remembering and celebrating what God has done and is doing. It’s a time to reflect on the nature of Jesus’s humble birth at Christmas, and also his finished work on the cross that has resulted in such powerful changes in our own lives.
As you look toward the end of this year, I want to encourage you to register for Global Gathering being held in Chiang Mai, Thailand this upcoming March.
Registration is open and you are invited to come. But secondly, if you want an even more immersive experience, we’re still accepting applications for short term trips before and after the conference.
Now, I don’t want to make you feel rush, but some of the trips are already full, so it’s important to apply today if you'd like to do so, and also to join us as we celebrate all that God is doing through our international workers and official workers gathering together at the global gathering.
Thank you for your participation in the Jaffray Offering. I’m filming this in October right now, so we’re right in the middle of Jaffray, and by the time this video airs, we’ll probably still be getting deposits and transfers and checks in the mail and I want to thank you in advance for your generosity and partnership with the majority world pastors in difficult contexts.
Now, for many of you, your Christmas Offering is an important part of your regular and faithful rhythm of tithing. It’s also the most important time of giving for us as a denomination.
But our Alliance Canada’s Christmas offering is much more than just a simple offering, as it’s also a tangible way where we choose to partner together in our shared mission to proclaim Jesus here in Canada and around the world.
In fact, as we boldly and faithfully enter into our 2034 strategic framework where we are trusting the Lord to double our reach and we need him to do new things. I am often praying from Ephesians 3, where it talks about trusting his imagination that he will do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.
Friends, I am praying the Lord would move us towards what, perhaps to the world, would seem as irrational generosity for the name and fame of Jesus.
The Lord has given us a bold vision, and this vision also requires faithful and bold generosity that will provide seed funding for new initiatives into the year ahead.
And so this year, as you ask the spirit for his leading of where you might give, I would ask you to consider the Global Advance Fund.
And I do want to say thank you in advance for your trust. And I am just sincerely grateful. And lastly, I want to share this story with you. Maybe some of you might remember from some of the conversations we had at Assembly that I had an opportunity to go to Ukraine back in April and participate in a few distribution program for those who live near the front lines of the war.
I also had the opportunity and privilege to attend a pastor’s retreat, where the C & MA of Ukraine voted to join the Alliance World Fellowship, the global arm of The Alliance. And during that trip, we captured stories of what God is doing in Ukraine. A sort of mini documentary, if you will. And we want to share that with you very, very soon. We’ve raised over $1 million for Ukraine relief through our Global Emergency Response Fund. So this video is a teaser trailer of the full video that will roll out later this winter, and you’ll hear more about that later. But for now, let’s watch this together.
-
Trailer:
Let us all be safe, let your protection be upon us. God, preserve us. Protect us from shrapnel, from shells, from bullets, because you are our protection. This field is already your angels’ base, as they guard us in every moment, Lord.
For two years now, You have been protecting us in various situations. A lot has happened, and you, Lord, kept us. Not even a hair has fallen from our heads.
And thanks to this, the Gospel, which saves, this Good News, reaches many people in all corners of our country, across all of Donetsk and its region.
Your word, God, and this humanitarian aid is spreading through villages and towns. No evil, no plague will come near us in the name of Christ, God. Thank you for your mercy that has been over us all this time and remains with us to this day. Lord, because you are our God, we are your people, and the Lord is with us, and also with the Ukrainians, O Lord.
-
Rev.Darren:
I still get so emotional when I look back at this trip, when I think about it. And so I’ll leave you with two final thoughts.
Number one, would you pray for peace in Ukraine? Actually, we need to be praying for peace in many places, don’t we?
So please pray that the true peace bringer, our Prince of Peace, would make a way when it seems so very, very difficult.
And secondly, when I think of the many, many, many ways you give sacrificially so that the least of these might hear and know the message of Jesus.
I can’t help but think of Christ saying when he says, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Thank you, Alliance family. Would God bless you and continue to fill you with his hope.
And today, in this moment, would you feel his empowerment to take the next bold and courageous step that he’s asking of you?
I love our church family.
Have a great rest of this month.