SERVE: Summer Missions

Summer is here! Can you believe it? It snuck up on me before I even knew it. Summer is a great time at Good Hope: VBS, the churchwide family campout at Hartwell, outdoor Home Group meetings, and church fellowships involving ice cream :) usally make for some great times in our summer calendar. We also like to spend quite a bit of time doing some kind of recreation or trips with our families. You deserve it and should relax a bit.
Having said that, I want you to also consider how you can use your summer to impact the world for the Gospel. I want you to experience the JOY of serving others in the name of Jesus. Hopefully your Home Group is carrying out an outreach for the "I (Heart) L.A." campaign in the coming weeks. Our Home Group is distributing bread tomorrow to some apartment complexes and trailer parks in the hope of sharing the Good News. Good Hope is offering some great opportunities to serve others and share the Gospel in the coming weeks. You'll never regret reaching out! There are a couple of mission opportunities available that I you want you to check out:

1) Vacation Bible School is a great outreach for our church. There will be many children and families from our community who will be on our campus that need to see we care. We have a real opportunity to reach these families for Jesus this week. You might not be a "children's ministry worker," but you might can help with crowd control or engaging parents as they drop off their kids each night. VBS starts this Sunday and runs through Thursday night. If you can help and haven't contacted Jody Slice, then jump in now and help out with this awesome outreach.

2) Backyard Bible Club is a little pet project that Sierra Sevy is coordinating this summer. Our plan is to do a weekly Bible club for a couple of hours in one of the local apartment complexes in Iva. She'll be doing this program the last 2 weeks of July and the first 2 weeks of August on Tuesdays. Let her know if you can help prepare lunches, lead/play games with kids, help with crafts, or teach Bible stories.

3) The Bluffton Mission Trip is an opportunity for you to help a new church plant in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Our goal is to help Crosspoint Church in Bluffton do a jam up VBS. We'll need people to lead the various VBS stations: craft, snack, Bible lesson, and games. We also need some cooks to help us prepare the meals for the team and some skilled labor to help renovate a homeless shelter nearby. The dates for this trip are July 19-25 and the cost is about $100. Contact me if you're interested in this trip. Did I mention that Bluffton is one town over from Hilton Head? Come suffer for Jesus at the beach with me...

4) Our Firstfruits Ministry is getting off the ground. Beverly Arthur has been working to make this food pantry ministry a reality. We need perishable and non-perishable items to give away. (Remember to bring in those fruits and vegetables from your garden so we can give them away this summer!) We also need helpers to keep things organized and to walk clients through the process when they come on our distribution Sundays.

I know you can't do all of these things...but you can do something! Make sure you use your summer to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. You'll never regret serving others!