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Welcome to EFC-ER's Weekly Encourager. We trust that this will become a bright spot each week in your emails. The purpose of the Weekly Encourager is to provide up-to-date information about region-wide events, prayer requests, and helpful resources from the local churches. We will close each email with a quick quote and/or survey to gather helpful resources from leaders to share with our wider Friends family. 
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"
Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves."  
- Proverbs 31:8

September is Friends Action Month, and this year the Friends Action Board is advocating against human 
slavery. They will highlight several organizations you can get involved with to help spread awareness. To learn more about it, download the brochure here. If you would like copies of the brochure to be mailed to your church, please call the World Outreach Center. 

Keeping Prayer a High Priority
We trust that every church is sharing these prayer requests within their local prayer community. Here are this week's requests: 

1 - Michael and Vivian Crigline return to Hong Kong today (8/26) to begin their new leadership positions with JHF. Please lift up their travels and this time of transition. As the new Executive Director and Executive Assistant of JHF, they will be serving Christian professionals who serve communities on the mainland with hope and love. Also please pray as the continue to raise support. 
2 - Remember our teachers and students as they head back to school and begin another school year. 
News from the Office:
* Welcome back to Wayne and Regina from visiting our mission fields in Europe. An update will be coming soon.

Upcoming Events:
* September 12th 
- Beth Moore Simulcast
available at three of our churches:
* September 18-19 
- Hispanic Pastors Retreat
at the World Outreach Center.
* September 25-27 - Focus on Discipleship Conference at East Richland Friends Church. This is a wonderful opportunity to go "back to the basics" and learn what it means to follow Christ and make disciples.There are various workshops led by different speakers, (including our own Wayne Evans, Pastors Jerry Wenger, Kevin Young, and Randy Heckert) with Eddie Broussard of the Navigators as the key speaker. Visit www.focusconference.info for more information. Use the code EFCER50 to receive $50 off the registration cost.
* October 15 
- Adult Ministries Fall Retreat 
from 11am - 3:30pm at the Amish Door in Wilmot, OH. For more information, visit www.efcer.org or download the brochure here. The cost is $24 before September 9th and $29 after. 
* October 23-24 
- Equip2Serve
ministry conference at Malone University. The cost is $50 and includes breakfast, lunch, and all workshop materials. For more information and to register visit www.malone.edu/equip2serve or download the flyer here.

Hughesville Friends Church hosted their 5th annual High Power Soccer VBS Camp in July.  Family Life  Pastor Matt McGovern shared this year was an amazing year for VBS that had several highlights:

1)  First Time Commitments - Our volunteer coaches reported that there were several kids who made first time commitments to begin their journey with the Lord! In addition we have had a handful of coaches from the community who have started attending church!

2)  Mission Balls - An anonymous donor bought 120 mission soccer balls for our campers. The balls have the gospel written on them and they are available in over 20 languages. For every ball purchased another ball is sent out into the mission field in the recipients native language!  

3)  Family Fundraiser - This is the 2nd year that we challenged the teams to bring in their "pocket change" to raise funds for a cause. This year we decided to raise money to help a local family who has a 7-year-old boy with a rare form of Leukemia. We were pleasantly surprised when the children brought in $2600! Then to be doubly blessed an anonymous donor stepped up and matched the $2600! God is so good! 

4)  Slime - The incentive for the children with the fundraiser was that the winning team would get to slime "Refy" (Pastor Matt), and our Head Coach George Walters. It's amazing what a little slime will do for the Kingdom! 

5)  Kids, Kids, Kids - We had 124 kids from pre-K through 6th grade come through the doors with an average attendance of 100 each night!
WMF Love Challenge Offerings
This year, the Women's Missionary Fellowship's goal is to raise $4,000 for each of the following missions ministries: 
  1. Haiti Nutrition Center
  2. EFC-ER Mission House
  3. Arun and Shoba Massey
  4. Dr. Samson and Priscilla Retnaraj
  5. Women's ministries in Nepal
Offerings may be sent to the EFC-ER. Thank you for your love and support for these ministries. 
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Weekly Encourager for August 26, 2015
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October is Our Missions Emphasis Month 
Great Commission Budget (GCB) promotion materials will be sent in September for your use during October. Please watch for those boxes as they will include materials for adult and children. 
We Would Love to Hear from You
In the future, we hope to have a blog or section in our website to share stories. We would love to celebrate and thank God with you. Please consider the following questions:

 - What has worked best for your church as a back-to-school or harvest outreach?


  - How many of you did summer missions trips? Where did you go and how many from your church participated?

 

Please send your responses to Donna Neff at [email protected].

Thank you to Hughesville, Rollin, Alliance, and Raisin Valley Friends for sending their updates! Look for their stories soon. 
Meet Roy Twaddell

Roy and Jinky Twaddell, in cooperation with Evangelical Friends Mission and Evangelical Friends Yearly Meetings, assist local communities to reach out and plant churches among people from the many Middle East countries. Roy will be available to speak in our Eastern Region churches during October.  To take advantage of this opportunity, contact Julie Jenkins at the WOC to schedule. As Sunday dates are limited, consider hosting Roy for smaller gatherings where you will get to know him one-on-one.

WMF Retreats
The Northern Retreat will be held
October 9-11 at the Heartland Retreat Center.

NOTE: Evelyn Titus' (Northern registrar) number is (937) 363-2140 and her address is 19607 State Route 292, Ridgeway, OH 43345.
 
 The  Southern Retreat will be held
October 16-18 at the Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks.

For registration information, visit www.efcer.org. 

There will be several workshops offered during the retreat. The Northern Retreat options are available here.
Malone University Chancel Players Now Scheduling
The Chancel Players perform faith-based comedy and drama for schools, churches, civic groups, and community organizations, as well as youth events and conferences.
The Chancel Players travel during the academic year (September-April) and are now available for bookings. Please contact Chris Abrams, Vice President for Student Affa irs, at  [email protected]  to  secure a performance date. Or visit: 
A Note from Raisin Valley Friends: 
Friends from Raisin Center, Raisin Valley, and Riverbend Churches have been meeting together to ring the bells that were purchased from memorial money at Pastor Don Esch's passing in 1983. It is a three octave set of bells made by the Schulmerich Bell company, but many are in need of repair due to the aged rubber springs. Repairs and shipping expenses are costly.  We are looking for anyone who has experience with repairing this brand.  In addition, we are looking for a set of hand chimes, sometimes also called choir chimes or melody chimes. Please contact Heidi Chandler, the Pastor's wife at 
Raisin Valley Friends Church 
at 
(517) 263 - 8532  
CONTACT US
World Outreach Center
5350 Broadmoor Cir., NW
Canton, OH 44709
1-800-334-8863
Julia McDonald, Editor
A Little Extra.... QUOTE  FOR THE WEEK:

"Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, 
so the moment God finds you abased and empty,  His glory and power flow in." 
- Andrew Murray

We hope you've enjoyed catching up with news from the EFC-ER office.
More information and news will be coming each week. 
Please send Julia ( [email protected] ) any of your suggestions, quotes,  and/or ideas for weekly encouragement .

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