Deadline to order envelopes September 1
At the Lebanon District mission convention 15 May, each attendee was given a clay jar engraved with the message, “Don’t say thanks without giving,” to reflect the convention’s theme.
Conference attendees from the three Nazarene churches in Lebanon heard the story of Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume from her alabaster box and then wiped His feet with her hair. Drawing on the significance of this story, the church made jars and distributed them to every conference member so that they could take it home to fill with money.
These clay jars, engraved with the convention theme in English and Arabic, served as a symbol of the Lebanon District’s focus to promote global missions as a whole. They will be broken and poured out on September 30 when all the donations will be gathered and sent into the World Evangelism Fund (WEF).
“Our purpose is to encourage our people on how to give offerings to missionaries and to pray for these ministers,” said Joseph Chalhoub, the Nazarene Missions International (NMI) president and a member of the Nazarene church in Lebanon.
Inspired by the Lebanon church’s sacrificial giving, the Eurasia Region is embracing the convention theme, “Don’t say thanks without giving” to promote a special Thanksgiving offering challenge recently announced by the denomination’s Board of General Superintendents.
Called WEF PLUS, the offering will be given in every local church around the world this fall. The deadline to order envelopes for giving to this global offering is 1 September 2010.
The one-time offering is intended to help the global church offset a projected $13.5 million (U.S. dollars) shortfall in the World Evangelism Fund this next fiscal year. The shortfall would necessitate “a drastic cut in our missionary force,” according to a statement released by Nazarene Missions International (NMI) Director Daniel Ketchum.
The WEF PLUS offering, given by churches around the world, will be in addition to each church’s annual World Evangelism Fund contribution of 5.5 percent of its current year’s income. The denomination moved to the new 5.5 percent giving plan this spring.
“The emphasis at the convention was to say thanks from two perspectives: To say thanks for salvation in Christ, and to say thanks to the global church that for 60 years has been giving to Lebanon. I was very inspired by this,” said Dr. Gustavo Crocker, Eurasia Region director.
Crocker is encouraging all the districts and every local church in the region to participate in this special harvest offering to be a part of the WEF PLUS initiative.
The lynchpin to the denomination’s global ministry, WEF supports schools, hospitals and medical clinics, provides ministry in 156 world areas and an infrastructure that supports various donor-driven ministries, such as Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) and JESUS Film Harvest Partners.
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