GRACE TO THE REGIONS BEYOND: MISSIONS CONFERENCE

We began the missions program in the Grace Bible Baptist Church shortly after she was organized in December 1999. Each year we have seen the missions giving increase and the faith of the people increase.

Our desire has always been to see a church in Kenya that not only sends people to the regions beyond but also gives so people can go to the regions beyond. It is often thought that people in Africa are too poor to give and consequently must rely totally on outside funding in order to do a work for God. I do not believe that is true and I believe it goes against what the Bible actually teaches. I have seen many stunt the growth of churches in Africa because they pour money in from the Western world without first confirming that the people themselves are sacrificing.

God's way of giving has always been "equal sacrifice". What I mean is the amount given individually or corporately by a church will not always be equal in amount but the sacrifice involved must be equal. To require any less sacrifice from a church in Africa is harming that church. I am certainly not against churches receiving help BUT I am against churches receiving help when they themselves are not sacrificing.

The Grace Bible Baptist Church gave over 250,000 Kenyan Shillings to missions last year through its faith promise giving program. This does not include a percentage above that given to missions through the tithe giving of the people. Because of the sacrificial giving of the people God has allowed us to reach into various parts of Kenya and the regions beyond with the Gospel. We have been able to partner with others and see the gospel light begin to shine in some very very dark places.

This past week was an exciting week as we celebrated taking the gospel to the world through our annual mission's conference. Brother Greg Wagoner missionary to Tanzania was our main speaker and he did a fantastic job. Many of our people were able to attend the evening services and we had a great time at our mission's banquet on Saturday evening with an attendance of 297. It was a lot of work making sure everyone was fed properly but a lot of fun as we rejoiced together over the blessings of God from the last year. When the commitments were taken up on Sunday morning we far exceeded our goal of 265,000 KS for the coming mission's year. We are looking forward with great anticipation to what God will allow us to do this year.