Ministry Highlights Q4 2014 Inspire Pastor Bruce led us through a Preaching series entitled Are You Ready to Run, which was a study in Hebrews. We able to grow the number of Connect Groups in both campuses, as they used the Sermon notes and Discussion Guides from this series. Women s Spiritual Development team held their first Fill my Cup event in the Barn, Nov 8. 85 women attended We held a Night of Hope concert for two evenings, Nov 16, 17 1323 in attendance We held a Apologetics Training Seminar, Nov 16, with about 60 people in attendance. From the Heart this year took place on Dec 9, 10; 1200 women in attendance. Connect Greenland Campus Young Adults Roughly 23 connect groups finished our first fall series, and most of them are continuing on into this next series LIFT continues to reach on average around 30-40 young adults on a monthly basis. Our leaders are planning hosting more intentional connect groups at their homes as LIFT transitions from Scott s leadership. A team of five young men, some from LIFT, and some from additional young adult connect groups, led First Monday s Chili Cook Off in December. Over 140 men showed up, some of whom are unchurched. We also followed up with over half of them from the night with personal letters the men addressed to themselves concerning the topic of the night Do Not Fear. Students For the final quarter we continue to average 100 students and leaders in the Barn at 9:00am on Sunday mornings and 65 students and leaders on Wednesday evening Small Groups. The students continue to join the rest of the congregation on the last Sunday of the month or if Pastor Tim is preaching. October kicked off with our annual Fall Retreat up at Brookwoods Conference Center in Alton, NH. We had 80 students and leaders attend the retreat. It was a great weekend of spiritual growth and developing deeper community with in the student body. We focused on the topic DIFFERENT and how God designed men and women in His image and made them in some ways the same and in some ways different.
We brought in an intern to work with Student Ministries, Sam Larrabee. He is a graduate from Liberty University with a degree in Youth Ministry and a minor in Biblical Studies. He is expected to continue working with Students and Tim through February 1. In November, Student Ministries hosted a coat drive and collected almost 100 coats for Operation Blessing. In December, the girls attended From the Heart on Tuesday, December 9 or Wednesday, December 10. There was very positive feedback from them. On Wednesday, December 10, Pastor Tim hosted the guys night in the Barn with pizza and other food, as well as a guest speaker Andy from Living to Last Ministries. Over 40 guys were in attendance. On Wednesday, December 17, Sam hosted our annual Christmas Party in the Barn and we had 75 students and leaders attend. Also in December we kicked off a shoe recycling program to raise funds for our annual Mission Trip. Tim sent out 24 invitations to students inviting them into the Boot Camp program for this coming year. This is a program that Pastor Tim and some leaders developed with the goal to offer students a more intensive and focused opportunity to grow into wholehearted disciples of Christ. This group of students and leaders meet on Sunday mornings, twice a month from 7:00-8:30am, starting January 11, 2015. Children This quarter, 357 children from 216 families attended our Sunday morning program this. Of these, 232 were attendees, 58 were children of members and 67 were visitors. Our midweek program used KidLead curriculum for ages 3-9 this quarter, teaching the kids concepts such as responsibility, shepherding, leading and strategy. It was awesome to see the little ones understand this. Our LW room (114) gives families an opportunity to interact regarding the monthly life app from our lessons. Families work on a project that helps kids internalize and live out the life app values. This quarter, they learned how to use creativity, gratitude and generosity to love others. In November, the Fireflies honored our Veterans with song and dance, and presented them with cards made by the kids. They also shared joy with Christmas songs in December. In October, the kids had an opportunity to reach out to prisoners who attended a Kairos Agape retreat. They made nearly 100 placemats for the prisoners. Here is feedback from the organizer: Thank you for your prayers and for the placemats. The weekend went far beyond all expectations and the agape was a big part of it During the closing ceremonies the residents had an opportunity to share their feelings and numerous references to the placemats, posters and other agape were made. Many were through tearful eyes with the residents talking about hope for their future and how much the placemats and other agape meant to them. Please let the children know that what they did really made a difference and they made a lot of men very happy. Our Pen Pal Club has 30 kids who are dedicated in corresponding with their pals in Costa Rica as they build long term relationships. In December they made Christmas gifts for their pals.
26 kids and 9 adults participated in fall Love Works classes, where they worked on projects to raise support for the Sonshine Soup Kitchen in Derry, NH. The items, sold at From the Heart, raised $1500. We also delivered bought and donated toiletries that were needed. Kids Ministries was instrumental in overseeing the Shoebox project which sent 1,512 boxes to kids around the world. Our kids October/November offering provided contents and shipping for 25 shoeboxes, which kids packed and prayed over. The Fireflies had an opportunity to share faith based Christmas songs with shoppers and employees at Fox Run Mall in December. Kids December offering provided milk for babies, meals for kids, chickens for families and care for orphans through Samaritan s Purse. Raymond Campus Adults/Families On October 18, Seventy-three people from the congregation joined together in an effort to raise money and awareness for Child Voice International. ChildVoice International is a non-profit organization seeking to restore the voices of children silenced by war. ChildVoice acts on the conviction that children broken by war can be restored in safe communities with loving care, spiritual and emotional counseling, effective education, and vocational training. Our Events Team sponsored the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes in honor of the hundreds of thousands of children affected by war in Uganda and other east African countries who have had to walk hundreds of miles to escape violence. Since 2007, ChildVoice has given healing, hope, and opportunity to young women in northern Uganda in a comprehensive therapeutic environment. Students include former child soldiers, sex slaves, orphans, and others who have nowhere left to turn. It was wonderful to see generations walking and running together unified in one cause. Together we raised $4,467.24 In December 17 the Events Team held our 4th annual Christmas Outreach at Lamprey Elementary School in Raymond. We send out a letter to the entire school allowing families who needed help with Christmas gifts to respond. We were able to help 51 families which included 118 kids. The congregation was so generous and it made a big impression on the parents and the school staff. On the day of the outreach we invited parents into a Christmas party atmosphere while their kids enjoyed their own separate party. While the parents looked at their gifts, they were wrapped for them and brought to their cars. The wrapping process took a lot of time and allowed opportunities for conversations to happen. Students On November 7 th five girls joined Joya to bring some joy to the elderly. The girls spent the evening visiting with and painting the nails of residents at a nursing home.
On November 15, fifteen teens went on a mystery trip. The started the day making bagged lunches and then drove to Portland, Me to hand out lunches, socks, hats, and gloves to the homeless. It was the first chilly day of the season which enhanced the experience. The teens were able to share their God sightings after they experienced this. They spent their afternoon at a roller skating rink and then on to a burger stand for dinner. The day wrapped up as the teens worshipped together at Night of Hope. During this quarter we wrapped up a study on relationships. Culture is bombarding our teens with ideas about relationships that are not Biblical. They are surrounded by images and songs that encourage teens to throw away God s plan for communication and relationships. We explored what the Bible says about friendships and relationships. Teens face daily choices, and helping them to own their own faith, and it s relevant in their everyday life, will impact those choices. One area in this study focused on marriage and the concept of praying for your future spouse along with thinking about the characteristics you want in your future spouse. On November 9th the Students wrapped up this study by writing a vow to their future spouse. These vows allowed student to decide what boundaries they are going to keep for marriage along with an opportunity to think about how important their faith is in their relationships. Students created a treasure box to keep this vow in and presented their vows with their parents. The Students began a book study in December. Each student received the book gods at war to read. Learning to study and reflect on books is a valuable tool for our students. The book is a focus on the idols in our lives. Students often struggle with owning their own faith, apart from the faith of their parents. They also find it difficult to talk to others about what they believe and why. Because of these factors we chose to watch the movie, God s Not Dead, and use it to begin faith conversations. Children Ministry Every year, Kids Ministry collects Operation Christmas Child boxes. This year we encouraged the entire congregation to participate. Operation Christmas Child is a program through Samaritans Purse that allows us to fill shoeboxes with toys, candy, hygiene products and school supplies. These boxes are then shipped to needy children around the world with the Gospel, written in their language. As a congregation we collected 1512. At our Raymond campus we collected 361. Care Greenland Campus Celebrate Recovery began their group meetings in October. 35 were in attendance the first meeting. Caring ministries held their second annual Caring Retreat 100 attended Fifth annual Thanksgiving Dinner 200 attended - $1250.00 was donated to fund the dinner
Christmas charities that were helped: NH Foster Care, Seacoast Mental Health, OB, Raymond middle school, Lawrence church, Bethany families and Bethany grandparents, and Seacoast Fire Fighters Toy Drive. In all 860 gifts were collected for all of these requests