Wow! What an incredible Missions Weekend we just experienced together. Our God moved in a mighty way, and I am so grateful for all the lives that will be impacted because of what God did right here. The weekend started with our annual “Evening with JMI” last Thursday night. As a church, we started this non-profit, Justice & Mercy International, 16 years ago. To see what God has done in this time is truly miraculous. All glory to our great God! Mary Katharine Hunt, who is our CEO of JMI, and our entire Staff team in the United States is doing a great job leading this mission ministry. Also, we were so blessed to have Sarah Rodrigues, our National Director of Justice & Mercy Amazon, and Vadim Fortuna, our National Director of Justice & Mercy Moldova, in country to share that evening. We had a goal to raise $500,000, and as of now we are at $475,000! Wow! Praise God! (that’s a lot of money and a lot of ministry to happen). In Moldova, we have 4 Transitional Living Homes with over 60 teenagers and then 900 orphan and vulnerable children sponsored and 32 full-time Indigenous staff. Then, in the Amazon, we have over 400 pastors and wives that we have trained this year, plus 17 mission trips to deep in the jungle and 10 full-time staff. All glory to our great God! Please pray for Sarah, Vadim and all the work happening in these countries for Jesus. Plus, we are now expanding into Italy and Europe.
On Saturday, we had the Grand Opening of our new Rolling Hills Community Center. Wow! This has been a dream and a vision for many years. To see it come to fruition is only God. Our Community Center is at our Rolling Hills Nashville South Campus. It already has ministries serving the community out of this building. We are excited for the many more ministries that will join in as we serve our Greater Nashville community. The Grand Opening was such a celebration of so much prayer, planning and hard work. I’m so grateful for Roberto Pagan, the Executive Director of our Community Center. Please be praying for Roberto and plan to come serve at some point at the Community Center. May our God use this place to impact many with the tangible love of Jesus.
Missions Weekend culminated in Missions Sunday. What an incredible time of worship and hearing the calling of God to go be His witnesses. God’s plan for missions is you. We are called to live on missions every day. This is how God changes the world and God changes our lives. Jesus gave us the plan: Start in “Jerusalem” - Local Missions (start at home, serving in our neighborhood, the RH Community Center and everyday be the “hands and feet of Jesus), Then, “Judea” - National Missions (go serve on a National Mission Trip or be involved in giving when a Disaster hits somewhere in our country), Followed by “Samaria” - Serving people Different than you (someone of a different ethnicity, religion, political bent - Jesus loves all people), and finally “To the ends of the earth” - International Missions (pray, give, go and/or sponsor a child or pastor internationally. At some point maybe God will call you to go to the Amazon, Moldova or Italy on a mission trip and/or become a sponsor through JMI). Missions Sunday we opened the 2025 Mission Trip opportunities (you can see those here) and over 31 kids were sponsored in the Amazon and Moldova. Way to go, church!
I am so grateful to be a part of a church that truly lives out the Great Commission. Praise God for all the people who will be impacted around the world because of this Missions Weekend. We can’t do everything, but we can all do something. So, let’s pray, give, go, sponsor and live on mission. And, in the process of serving others, our lives will be changed to look more like Jesus.
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