Thankfulness! As we remember Thanksgiving, we are so excited and so thankful about how the Lord is blessing and growing this ministry, His ministry, through Great Commission Families.
In some ways our vision is simple. Reach and train families. But in other ways it is huge! Helping to reach the whole world with the gospel! We firmly believe the family is God's first choice to complete the task. Our job is simply to encourage and help train families to let God work through them to reach those he brings into their lives. We believe that if every believing Christian family would take seriously the command of Christ to go into the world and preach the gospel in their neighborhoods and with those they meet, our country and our world could be saturated and reached and changed in a very short time. That is our prayer and our goal, that we could encourage families to take the next appropriate step towards being a light in our world today.
This has been such an exciting year for us in many ways! We have seen many families take steps of faith to do things to reach others with the gospel that they haven't done before. We have seen people respond to the gospel as it has gone out. We have seen God provide many opportunities for us to share our message, with more opportunities awaiting in 2008.
Past - As we reflect with gratefulness on what God is doing in our midst this past year, we are grateful for the open doors. A full year of outreaches, exposing hundreds of people to the gospel, and discipleship opportunities with dozens of families.
Present - Please pray for the next two outreaches we have. This includes helping serve a meal and share Christ’s love at a local rescue mission, and more neighborhood gospel tract distributions in December. Linda has enjoyed writing a Christmas gospel tract again this year. We will include a copy for you in our Christmas mailing.
Future - As we look to the future, there are exciting prospects of the horizon. Several churches have contacted us to do family retreats for them. Speaking opportunities at various conferences are being lined up. Aaron is working on an evangelistic web site, so as we distribute literature, we have a place non- Christians can go to find out more about the gospel and receive follow up information. And Korea is still calling us!
Financial Needs - Korea, ministry expenses, Daniel’s medical needs, aging van. We weren't in a position financially to go to Korea as we had hoped in December, but for those who sent funds, they will be applied when we go. And we are looking at trying to go in 2008. That means asking the Lord to get together the rest of the funds soon, if He desires us to go. Airfare for all of us, and other travel expenses will be totaling roughly $10,000. In addition to that, we are needing additional funds to cover other ministry expenses, produce our print work, tracts and brochures, and we are also in need of some office computer equipment. Another issue that has surfaced is the treatment of Daniel's back. He has an 80 degree kyphosis (curved spine) that we are pursuing treatment for. There are additional financial needs for that. And as our faithful minivan has crested 200,000 miles this year, we may need to replace it in 2008.
So would you pray and consider at this time of year if the Lord would have you help us reach, train and equip Christian families work to together to reach our nation and our world for Christ by including us in your year-end giving?
You can do this by:
Thank you so much for you faithful prayers and support over this past year. We hope you enjoy our new ministry brochure. Feel free to pass it along to those you know who might be interested in our unique ministry to families!
God's richest blessing to you in Christ,
Bernie & Linda Beall and Family
“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
~ Luke 10:2
“And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
~ Gen. 12:3c