Growing the Kingdom of Christ, One Small Church at a Time!

Time for a Refresh-er Course!
As I write, Caroline and I are preparing to attend the annual InFaith Refresh conference, where we will worship Jesus, fellowship with other missionaries and their families and sharpen up our equipping for ministry.  This year’s conference is being held a Mt Hermon Christian Conference Center in the redwoods of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains.
 Although I will be out of the office until April 29, we will be available to you by phone, text or email while we are gone.  Please understand if our response time is a bit slower than usual this week.

Your Sunday School Fellowship Trustees are Hard at Work!
The board of trustees of Sunday School Fellowship will be meeting by Zoom on May 9th and will likely be discussing an upcoming vacancy on that board.  Pastor Frank Campbell and his wife Gail will soon be moving to Washington to be closer to their family.  SSF is seeking not only additional board members, but also someone to fill the office of treasurer, which Frank has faithfully done for the past few years.  Sunday School Fellowship supports and assists a number of ministry endeavors in conjunction with InFaith and Camp Morrow, including offering emergency financial assistance to pastors in the field, providing interest-free loans to churches, camps, church leaders and missionaries, holding title to church facilities as needed to assist their ministries, and helping with the annual InFaith: Northwest Oregon Advance weekend. If you or a member of your congregation is interested in serving the Lord in this ministry, or if you know someone who might, please contact me or SSF chairman Seth Lewis, sethlws14@gmail.com .

Renewed Vision at the InFaith Sandy Fellowship
Shepherds at last week’s InFaith Sandy Fellowship Breakfast got an eyeful, as Pastor Brad Gentry presented an opportunity to participate in a ministry that spreads vision to the world.  Global Eyeglass Ministries collects used eyeglasses to distribute to underprivileged people throughout the world.  Brad does not represent GEM, but he and his church are participating with them.  If you or your church are interested in helping spread vision to the world, I am confident Brad can get you a GEM brochure, or point you in the right direction (gentry2009@comcast.net).  The next Sandy Fellowship breakfast is scheduled May 15.

 NWxNW Coming May 21
We have also just nailed down the date for the next NWxNW ministry leaders’ fellowship.  That group of leaders of small churches in the far northwest corner of our field will gather Tuesday, May 21, 3-5 PM at Mayger-Downing Community Church.

 Developments at Deer Island
Deer Island Community Church continues to seek the Lord’s provision of a pastor to shepherd their small flock.  In the meantime, elders Al DeWeber and Ralph Fawcett (and several rotating speakers) are doing an excellent job keeping the congregation fed and assisting with the Overcomers Outreach that meets in their facility.
Deer Island elder Bob Theissen went to be with the Lord in October.  Bob’s family is planning a service celebrating his life and ministry, June 29 at Warren Community Fellowship.  Please see the announcement in this post.

May the sunshine this week remind you of the warmth of the Father’s love for all of us: a love so deep that He gave His only Son to save us!

Tom Hiscox, NW Oregon Area Missionary thiscox@infaith.org