What's happening with Missions @ LFC?
Missions News @ LFC
LFC Tribe,

I pray as you receive this today, you remember who you are!

"You are a chosen people,  a royal priesthood,  a holy nation,  God's special possession,  that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.    Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;  once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:9-10) 

Now that you have received mercy, take up your calling as a chosen people, chosen to give mercy to all peoples! 

There are some exciting things happening within our church around God's mission. Below are some updates. I often get notes from missionaries with updates as to what God is doing through their calling. But we are ALL callled. I would also love to get a note from you and hear a story about where you are in your calling in the world. What is God doing through you to bring his salvation, justice, peace, and love into the world?

In this update:
  • Foster/Adopt Team Update
  • CIN Honduras Winter Trip & John Hernandez Preaching Nov 13
  • Huntington Green Transportation Team Update
  • Christmas Village Toy Store 2016!
  • Room in the Inn Team Update
  • Want to Lead with Mission Trip Planning?
Yours in Christ,
Andy Muhich
and the LFC Missions Teams
Fost er/Adopt Team Update

Our new Foster/Adopt Mission Team at LFC has been hard at work on multiple fronts:  encouraging families at LFC to consider the missional calling of welcoming vulnerable children into their home and  family, creating a supportive community of foster and adoptive families at LFC, walking with and mentoring families through the adoption process, and  networking within the larger Charlotte-Mecklenburg area about the church meeting this need in our area. 

Here are some concrete things in which families at the church can get involved:

Join Our Foster/Adopt Community
We are building up a network of families within our church through just doing life and spending time together. If you know of a family at LFC who may be interested in plugging into our Foster/Adopt community, please reach out to our team leader, Becky Steve,  beckysteve2008@gmail.com.

Fostering Information Session November 6th
We're all called on God's mission, and some are called into a special role by becoming a foster family for a vulnerable child in our area. If this is something you would like to explore as a calling for your family, LFC is hosting the county who will be putting on an info session for families interested in becoming foster families and focusing on what's entailed in fostering and the MAPP classes required for foster families. Anyone is welcome who has an interest in foster care. This will be  Sunday November 6th at LFC-H, The Quad, at 12:15pm. There will be lunch provided! Please RSVP to Jenny Simon if you would like to come or for more information ( jennyjel@hotmail.com ).

Safe Families: A Unique, Church-Centered Strategy for Loving Children in Need
You and your family can show God's love to a family going through a troubled time. There is an exciting movement of Biblical hospitality sweeping through the church - the people of God loving the vulnerable within the walls of our homes and the meals at our tables. Several families at Lake Forest are exploring a ministry partnership with Safe Families ( www.safe-families.org) and anyone at LFC is welcome to explore this with us. 
 
Safe Families for Children is a network of churches and their host families who come alongside parents who need temporary care for their children as they work through unmanageable or critical circumstances. This is not foster care, it is a much needed intervention before foster care would be necessary.  Parents willingly have their children live with a host family because of any number of challenges they are facing. The goal of the ministry is to reunite children with their families in a stronger home environment and provide parents with mentorship and life-giving relationships with the people of God. This has been very effective in the US, but has yet to really come to Charlotte. Last year in the United States, over 20,000 Safe Families children were placed through partner churches.
 
Consider joining with your LFC tribe, serving with love and compassion in any of the following ways:
  • Be A Host Family: Open your home to a child (The average Safe Family stay is 45 days and 80% of the children are under the age of 5.)
  • Be a Safe Family Friend or Resourcer: Volunteer your time and resources to support an LFC Host Family.
  • Serve as A Coach:  Come along a struggling family and help them work through their crisis and reunification with their child.
If you are interested in learning more about this ministry opportunity please contact: Sheila Carlberg sacarlberg@gmail.com.
CIN Honduras Winter 2017 Tri p
 & John Hernandez Preaching at LFC-H

After some concern and working out of logistics surrounding the Zika Virus, our first trip back to the Honduras Life Center since last winter will be February 18th-25th, and it will be a team open to men, women and children. If you are interested in this trip, please make sure you understand the concerns surrounding Zika ( https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/zika-virus-honduras ). You can apply for the trip online at  http://lakeforest.org/get-involved/trips/ (the application link will be up shortly).

John Hernandez, founder of CIN, will be preaching at LFC-Huntersville on November 13th during both services. We are working out the details, but there will likely be a lunch after the service to visit with John and hear about what God is doing through CIN.

For more information about Children's Impact Network visit  http://cinonline.org/ 

Huntington Green Transportation Team Update

For the last four weeks, we've been picking up teens in Huntington Green who want to come to Lake Forest on Sundays, who would not otherwise have an opportunity to go to a church where they feel welcome. Many of these teens are ones who want to respond in worship to the God whom they are growing to know because God's people are serving on mission in Huntington Green.

Do you want to give a spiritually maturing teenager from Huntington Green the opportunity to worship God and be nourished by His presence on Sunday mornings? 

We would like to have some more committed people who would like to provide transportation about once a month on Sundays at LFC-H. You will also have the joy of getting to know these young people. If you are interested in being a part of this team, please contact our team leader, Cheri Contes ccontes@hotmail.com
Christmas Village Toy Store 2016


Lake Forest is in for another year of the Christmas Village Toy Store! The Toy Store will be much the same, but we are focusing in on some new vision around how we partner with our community to invite families to the store in order to make the toy store even more relational and community focused. We are even devising a way for ministry partners at Lake Forest to be able to invite a family they know who might benefit from the store. 

General information on the Toy Store, including how to sign up to serve and donate gifts, will be found at  www.lakeforest.org/toystore 

For more information specifically about inviting a family you know who may benefit from the store, please e-mail Andy Muhich amuhich@lakeforest.org .
Room in the Inn Team Update


For 10+ years now, our sweet Regina (pictured here) has boldly led us to love people experiencing homelessness in Charlotte by hosting them in our own space during the colder months of the year when the homeless shelters have overflow needs. Because of her leadership, we have been able to build a whole team of leaders around Room in the Inn. Regina is stepping into a more specific role on the team as the Spiritual Leader as Tim and Kristin Bryan step up into the team co-leaders role. We are going to be celebrating Regina and her leadership sometime in the near future. If you would like to be a part of this celebration, please e-mail Andy Muhich amuhich@lakeforest.org

Our Room in the Inn has some exciting fresh vision for this upcoming January-March's Room in the Inn. I'd encourage you to stay tuned and and come serve with us this Winter.
Lead Mission Trip Planning at Lake Forest

Every year we send mission trips to missions partners in order to catch a vision of what God is doing in other places and envision our own role on God's mission. These trips require a lot of intentional leadership, training and planning. We are looking for leaders at Lake Forest to be a part of a new team who will envision and facilitate our mission trips. If you or someone you know are interested in this team, please e-mail our missions leader, Andy Muhich amuhich@lakeforest.org.
 
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