Covenant Church

February 29, and March 1 and 2 will be a signal event for Covenant Church as we seek to progressively fulfill our part of the Great Commission. AND YOU ARE INVITED!!!!

Friday night and Saturday night our sanctuary will be turned into a banquet hall seating 300+ persons. International cuisine will be served by attendees who have prepared native foods representing their cultures. Drinks, breads and condiments will be provided by Covenant Church and coordinated by the Mission Committee.

Special music will be featured, and missionaries will be keynote speakers. Video presentations will represent projects of the past year and present proposed projects for the coming year.

Children under age 12 will be in the Old Testament building for ministry programs featuring missionaries and experiences to warm their hearts toward God's love for all peoples.

Adults and children are asked to please dress in native clothes characteristic of their culture. If you have clothes that represent a culture not your own, please feel free to wear them. This is a highly colorful event. If you choose to wear your "normal" clothing, you are still welcome to attend—your presence is what is most important!

With the international cuisine, clothes, missionaries from Sudan, Mexico, Zimbabwe, India, Colombia, China, Bulgaria, and other places each event will be a treasured experience and memory for a lifetime.

If you are relatively new at Covenant Church allow me to invite you to walk the hallway and study the walls with the portraits of missionaries. Every one of them has been to Covenant Church or been financially sponsored by Covenant Church. You may ask, "What is the return for Covenant Church? What is gained by this significant event?"

The benefits are too rich to describe in a brief letter. First, God is pleased that we are obeying the instructions of Jesus to "Go and Send". Second, we have the intrinsic joy of knowing that churches, schools, and medical clinics have been built to serve brothers and sisters in distant lands. Third, we will not know until we are in heaven how many have been brought to Jesus through our efforts. Fourth, God has brought to us people from many countries and cultures because of our heart to care and love.

YOU ARE INVITED! It is very important that you respond which banquet you plan to attend. It is important that you plan to bring friends with you. Please invite someone or a family to come with you. Be sure to register your guests. There is no fee, but we need to know the number of persons expected to attend. Saturday morning a breakfast will precede the seminars with missionaries. The last part of the morning will be a shared time of questions and answers with missionaries with Pastor Bare facilitating.

I have had the privilege of seeing Mayan ruins, Amazon jungles, remote villages in Indonesia, teaching Iranian missionaries in England, doing a wedding for a Russian couple in hinterlands of Moscow, renting a typewriter from a KGB agent to prepare a Christian document, and other experiences. None of the above exceed in excitement being part of a Mission Conference at Covenant Church!

The world comes to us with color of people and clothes, diverse foods, and missionary experiences shared that are New Testament in character.

If you receive this communication and would like to attend, please call the church office at (434) 973-5536 to register. If you need help making accommodations we can share information about motels, etc. Make it a weekend adventure.

Friday night Neco From India will be the Keynote Speaker. Saturday night Wayne Wozniak from Colombia will be the Keynote Speaker. Each of them is a wonderfully passionate speaker with an excellent command of English. Missionaries will also be in all adult Sunday Bible Study classes and will speak in both Sunday morning services.

The clock is ticking. Act now. Register. Pray with us. Begin to think about the clothes you will wear and the food you will bring. I so look forward to seeing you during this event.

Much love,

Pastor Bare

"How will nations hear the gospel if we do not send missionaries to tell them?" Romans 10 (paraphrased)