Chapters 13 & 14 of Acts tell the story of Paul’s first missionary journey. Over these two chapters Paul, Barnabas and their companions travel almost a thousand miles by land and sea to spread the good news of Jesus to the people of Cyprus and southern Asia (modern-day Turkey).
At the end of their journey they return to Antioch and then “they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles” (verse 27).
Celebrating what God is doing through our ministry is an important part of our life together as a church.
Today, I want to celebrate and thank the women and men of our congregation who have responded with creative action to the challenges the pandemic has created for us all.
While I do not know the exact number, over 1,000 hand-sewn medical face masks have been made by members of our congregation. Through our partnership with the Louisiana Rural Health Association these masks have gone to the frontline medical heroes working in rural health clinics across the state and are now going to the vulnerable residents of nursing homes in our community and beyond.
Through Red Stick Together we have distributed over 4,000 hot meals to the people of our community. This would not have been possible without your generous support and the women and men who have done everything from baking cookies to boxing and distributing the meals.
And thanks to the generosity of Walt and Betty Joiner, longtime members of Broadmoor who remembered their church in their estate plan, we were able to launch our live stream ministry the same week as the first stay at home order. Since the first broadcast, over 7,000 people have watched our worship services and bible studies online.
Paul and Barnabas faced incredible challenges during their missionary journey but those challenges did not stop God doing incredible things through them.
The same is true for our church these past few months. Even though we’ve faced fires and pestilence, God is doing incredible things through our church and opening the door of faith for people in our community and beyond.
