Sorry for the delay this month. Our regular camp meeting at the Quality Inn was held last Thursday at 6:30 PM, and we had a great meeting. It was one of two meetings this year when the Auxiliary meets separate from the Gideons and talks about issues specific to them. We had a room full of members, we had our usual wonderful fellowship before the meal, two inspiring testimonies, and a timely program about church relations. If you were there, I know you were blessed (several said it was the best program we have had in a while), if you were unable to attend, you were missed, and we look forward to seeing you next month (Sept 13...mark your calendar). The program brought out several aspects of the Gideon/church relationship...from the pastor’s point of view. The bottom line of the program was that we should continue to be diligent in our efforts to establish good, deep, and permanent relationships with all our churches. Such activities as attending evening and mid-week services, being in prayer for the pastors, speaking at church activities other that the traditional service, and being an inspirational voice in church outreach were just a few of the points brought out in the program. We were each challenged to go out over the next month and actually apply what we learned as we interact with our pastors.
There are several new distribution approaches that came out of the recent International Convention in Dallas. One involves the Auxiliary and is available at “The Connection”. The other one is an innovative approach to the introduction and distribution of scriptures to children in schools. Unfortunately, the Word of God is seen as something controversial in many schools, and we are blocked in our distribution efforts. However, a new program that allows for the passing out of part of the New Testament by students themselves has met with great success and will be introduced in our area. Please be in prayer about both of these programs as we use them to further our mission of spreading God’s Word through scripture distribution.
One last item...and something that we can all be proud of. Following the International Convention, I was contacted by our International office about what we are doing to be so consistently successful in our church relations. Our camp was identified as one of the camps with a consistent strength in this area, and I was questioned about how we do such a good job. I stressed how we are in prayer for our pastors and our churches and how we let the pastors know about our prayers for them. I also related how we as a camp are all active and positive about the relationship we enjoy with our churches. We regularly go that extra length to let the church know that we partner with them in their outreach missions, and that we are not just a group that shows up once a year to get a donation. I thought you would like to know about that and to encourage each of us to keep strong in our church ministry.
Our PAB is on track and scheduled for Oct 8 at Ozark Baptist. Thank you for all that you do...and thank you for being a Gideon and Auxiliary. Gene
