As we enter into the month of November, the busyness of the holiday season is already upon us. Before we know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be over and it will be 2010! But before I rush the holiday season along too quickly, there are a number of excited things to look forward to at Hope Church over the next 2 months. October’s “Missions Emphasis Month” has helped prepare us for our annual Missions Conference which takes place the 6-8th of this month. I am so excited to see what God teaches us about how we can be better equipped to serve in our mission field of Crawford County and beyond. We will also be continuing our small group study where we work through the book of James on Sunday nights. If you are able to attend our adult Sunday School class, Steve Solinger and myself are teaching on “Biblical Economics.” We hear so much about economics these days but rarely is it from a Biblical perspective. This class is sure to be of interest to you. Also this month, we will be having our Thanksgiving service the Sunday before Thanksgiving, on November 22nd. Sometimes we find ourselves so busy during this time of year that we don’t take the time to reflect on all the blessings of the Lord. We have so much to be thankful for including the joy and delight we have in knowing God. The following Sunday, the season of Advent will commence as we look forward to the celebration of the birth of our King.

As you know, the Bible is central to everything that we do at Hope Church. Our mission statement makes this clear. “Hope Church exists to glorify God by learning, following, and sharing the Word of God and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, both locally and globally, through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. We have some unique opportunities to “share” the Word of God both locally and globally. This past month we purchased 200 Bibles through an organization called the “Bible League” and they will distribute those Bibles in Southeast Asia. What really makes me really excited about this opportunity is that each bible reaches an average of 15 people. That means that thousands of lives will be impacted through our giving. We also purchased another 200 New Testament Bibles that we will distribute locally through an outreach called “The Good News of Christmas.” Along with each New Testament Bible comes an invitation to our Christmas Eve service. I believe this is a great way to reach out to our communities and help provide hope to those who have no hope. Please pray that God would use this outreach opportunity for His great glory. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of those people decided to actually read the Word of God and perhaps even come and visit our Church? Continue to pray that God would use Hope Church as a powerful missionary agent in the surrounding area. We need to be united in our mission to reach the lost and spread the gospel to this world that desperately needs to experience the love of Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you to remember what we’ve been commissioned to do – to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Pastor Dan