The Baptist Church in the Great Valley
Board of Mission

The Board of Mission of The Baptist Church in the Great Valley shall lead the Congregation in direct financial support of community service and social action programs, missionary efforts, and the work of church-related institutions.

Tsunami Recovery

The devastation happened in the blink of an eye. The recovery needs will continue for months, years, perhaps a decade. Your help is urgently needed to enable survivors to fend off hunger and disease, and then pick up the pieces of their lives.

Church World Service is providing an initial $900,000+ in emergency supplies (family shelter kits, emergency medical supplies, CWS Blankets, “Gift of the Heart” Health Kits, etc.) in affected parts of Sri Lanka and Indonesia. CWS rapid response teams deployed from Pakistan and Indonesia are assisting partners with distribution and ongoing needs assessment. CWS has also provided rapid response grants to help meet emergency needs in Indonesia and India.

Contributions may be made through your church or directly to Church World Service. Credit card contributions may be made online at www.churchworldservice.org or by phone:
800-297-1516, ext. 222.

Or, contributions may be mailed to:

Church World Service
Tsunami Recovery (Acct. #6970)
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Thank you!

World Mission Offering
The WORLD MISSION OFFERING provides basic support for more than 130 American Baptist missionaries serving around the world with national partners and sharing the Good News of hope in Jesus Christ. These missionaries are expressing their faith through lives of service, demonstrating God’s transforming love to a needy world.

This year International Ministries faces huge financial challenges. In order to keep all missionaries on the field, the 2004 WORLD MISSION OFFERING must increase some 36 percent, from last year’s $4.2 million to $5.7 million. More than 500 World Mission Conference attendees, missionaries, board and staff members have responded to this financial need, and we praise God for this. But we urgently need your help

Web site link: http://www.internationalministries.org/wmo/index.html
 

http://www.soldiersangelsfoundation.com

The Soldiers' Angels was started by a self-described ‘ordinary mother’ of an ordinary young man turned hero, Corporal Brandon Varn. Brandon was deployed in Iraq and has since honorably completed his mission and has returned back to his proud and loving family and is stationed at Ft. Sill Ok.

In the summer of 2003, he wrote home expressing his concern that some soldiers did not receive any mail or support from home. Being a caring and loving mother, she decided not to allow a situation like that to continue. She contacted a few friends and extended family to ask if they would write to a soldier or two.

Within a few short months, The Soldiers’ Angels Foundation went from a mother writing a few extra letters to an Internet Community of over thousands of angels worldwide and growing stronger with the addition of new members daily. With more and more merchants donating services, money and items for packages, the Angels reorganized as a 501 c 3 non-profit foundation.

Soldiers’ Angels currently supports thousands of American Service Members stationed wherever we raise our Country’s Flag and the number is growing daily. We also work tirelessly supporting our Wounded Soldiers, with transitional backpacks, personal visits, phone calls, etc. Additionally, we send our thanks via letters and email to the military of Great Britain, Poland and Australia who serve by our soldiers side in Iraq.

Soldiers' Angels are 100 percent volunteer run and dedicated to ensuring that our military know they are loved and supported during and after their deployment into harms way.

A community of Angels volunteer daily to provide aid and comfort to our military and their families. Join the many Soldiers’ Angels to ensure that no soldier goes unloved. If you would like to assist in adopting a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine or know of one who wishes to receive mail and care packages from home.

For the name and address of our soldier, contact a member of the Board of Mission.
 

Gift of the Heart
There are many ways to support the Church World Service Emergency Response Program, including the Gift of the Heart Program. It's the basics that are so important when our world is turned upside down. When our homes are ripped away from us, when the comforts of home are lost, a toothbrush, washcloth, crayons, paper, or a diaper for a crying infant are the necessities most longed for. Putting together 'Gift of the Heart' Health Kits and School Kits are a great 'hands-on' project for our congregation.

Links to Web sites:
Health Kits:  http://www.churchworldservice.org/kits/health-kits.html
School Kits: http://www.churchworldservice.org/kits/school-kits.html

One Great Hour of Sharing
The One Great Hour of Sharing offering is sponsored by nine Christian US denominations, including American Baptist Churches USA, and Church World Service. Monies collected are used to build communities, teach skills, resettle refugees, respond to disasters, prevent disease, and promote hope and health among humankind. It has been in existence for over 50 years and funds projects worldwide. Based on sobering figures such as that 32% of people in developing countries live on less than $1 a day and that one out of every six children in the U.S. lives in poverty, One Great Hour of Sharing helps fund short term and long term solutions. These include direct feeding programs, agricultural support, and literacy training. Other examples of One Great Hour of Sharing-supported projects include developing ministry opportunities in Russia, providing community health services in India, and flood rebuilding in West Virginia. This offering is collected each June.
http://www.abc-oghs.org

Tredyffrin Township Needy Family Program
Beyond all the long tree lined driveways and well manicured lawns, behind the lace curtains and beautiful decorations, REACT has opened many kitchen cabinets and found them empty

REACT has been inside homes on the Main Line where the rooms were as bare as the cupboards because families were forced to sell their furniture piece by piece to pay bills.

For over 30 years, REACT has given the poor and the needy in Tredyffrin Township a "hand up" not a "hand out." REACT gives out between 80 and 100 food baskets each month and provides holiday meals and gifts to the needy and shut-ins.
More information about REACT...

Greater Philadelphia Food Bank's BabyManna Program
BabyManna raises funds to purchase infant formula and baby food for babies born into poverty in our five county Philadelphia area. The main emphasis is to encourage churches and synagogues to take up a second collection on Mother's Day for this cause. BabyManna has provided over 467,667 feedings to infants in need since 1996. 100% of the money collected is used by the Food Bank to purchase infant formula and baby food at the lowest cost available. Over 12,000 infants are born into poverty each year in our five county area. This program is trying to ensure that they receive the proper nutrition that every baby deserves.
http://www.greaterphiladelphiafoodbank.org/programs/babymanna.htm

CROP
The Main Line CROP Walk will be held on Sunday, October 17.

Experts estimate there are over 842 million men, women, and children hungry in the world today. That's almost three times the population of the United States. And 35 million people are hungry here in the U.S., some of them perhaps living just down the street from us.

We mustn't let the numbers overwhelm us because there are some things you and I can do about hunger. We can let our Senators and Congresspersons know we support effective aid and development programs that address the roots causes of hunger.

We can also take action locally. That's why I'm joining with my friends and neighbors on Sunday afternoon, October 17, in the Main Line CROP WALK to help stop hunger. During last year's CROP WALK the Baptist Church in the Great Valley alone raised almost $1,000, 25 percent of which went to help local food banks, and the rest benefits the overall hunger-fighting ministry of Church World Service, which reaches some 80 countries.

Hope to see you there.

Link to Web site: http://www.churchworldservice.org/CROP

What does CROP stand for? When CROP began in 1947 (under the wing of Church World Service, which was founded in 1946), the name was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program; its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia. Reflective of a program that for several decades has been both urban and rural, CROP is no longer an acronym; it is the name given to community, interfaith hunger education and fundraising events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by 22 CWS/CROP regional offices across the U.S. In some CWS/CROP regions, CROP has come to mean Communities Reaching Out to People. When was the first CROP WALK? On October 17, 1969, a thousand people in Bismarck, ND, walked in the first-ever CROP WALK and raised $25,000 to help stop hunger. Several other CROP WALKS occurred soon thereafter, and before long there were hundreds of CROP WALKS each year in communities nationwide. How do CROP WALKS help out here at home? This year CROP WALKS will share nearly $4 million with food banks, pantries, community gardens, and other local efforts nationwide. This support is made possible when local CROP WALKS choose our unique option of returning up to 25 percent of what their CROP WALK raises to hunger-fighting programs in their own community. How many CROP WALKS are there? Each year, some 2,000 communities across the U.S. sponsor CROP WALKS.

Copyright © 2006 by The Baptist Church in the Great Valley. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 04, 2006.