Missions Month: A Review
Missions Month 2020 will be a year we will always remember. Our church and others have felt the impact of COVID19. Halfway through Missions Month, our services migrated online. Our students’ trip to Chicago was canceled. Ministry partners could not come on campus, and Serve Day with some of our partners was postponed. I wish we could have had Missions Month as planned, and I wish this virus was contained.
There is so much loss and pain with losing loved ones, jobs and the stability of safe places like school. There is cause to worry about domestic violence and child abuse increasing. Mental health issues across the board, such as anxiety and depression, continue to rise. If you’re struggling, you are not alone, and there is courage in getting the help you need! I encourage you to seek out counselors and to confide in loved ones. In addition to feeling the grief of this moment, I also feel some joys and hope. I am grateful for all the things that stay the same, no matter the circumstance.
Our theme for Missions Month and Lent was “Live Simply, Give Generously.” Little did we know how simplified life would become! On Ash Wednesday, we all wrote how we felt called to embrace this challenge. We financially committed how to simplify our lives so we could give generously to our Missions Ingathering fund. Some of them are funny in hindsight: “Eat more at home” and “Choose to make coffee at the house” make me laugh. Some of them are really poignant: “Slow down with loved ones” and “Lessen hurriedness and distraction so I can be still, listen and obey.”
My prayer during this time was that we would continue to embrace the opportunities that came with a quarantined life. I have developed some great habits like working out every day, going outside more and cutting back on TV. I miss being able to hug people, but I have loved remaining connected to friends and church family through social media, phone calls, FaceTime and six-feet-apart walks. Deep conversation can flourish during these times, and you can remain connected even if it’s at a distance. My spiritual habits are the first to be disrupted by NEW distractions and hurriedness, but our daily devos on Facebook and daily Bible reading have been incredible ways to connect and to keep me growing. I have slowly been making my way through this book on solitude and silence, which seems really timely. It isn’t all bad, and I strongly believe God is doing some incredible things in us and our society through this.
There are also things that don’t change: God loves us and is working in us and through us. The gospel is the same. How we celebrated Easter was different (mumus and pajamas instead of Easter dresses is one example), but what we celebrated was not. Our purpose to love all people to Christ is the same. Our church is so generous, and despite all the craziness of this season, we gave over $76,000 to our Missions Ingathering that goes to support our partners around the world and in our local community. I am SO thankful! We have been able to partner with the Regional Food Bank and our local schools to be a distribution site for their backpack program. I love being able to serve with our community in this way. We were still able to have our Hope is Alive Sunday virtually; if you haven’t tuned in to the live stream service from March 29, it is well worth your time! Our church connected and brought meals, gave to their scholarship fund and joined their prayer list. Our 10th annual Easter Run that supports House of Healing moved to a virtual run (they have a matching grant of $10,000), and it’s been fun to see our people stay engaged, give and run on their own! I loved hearing Pastor Rick share about Global Action at Midweek early on in March. Ladies in our church are sewing hundreds of masks for health care facilities. Other members are checking in on their neighbors, dropping off groceries to those who can’t get out, giving blood, providing awesome resources for our kids at home and praying for our community and world at large. For those who are on the front lines in health care and essential positions, we say THANK YOU! There are ways the Church is serving that we don’t even know about yet!
In two weeks, Luke is going to fill you in on a community partnership with Whiz Kids that will launch in August. We are REALLY excited about it. God is still working. We still get to join Him. I love you, Council Road!
Author Bio
Makenzie graduated from Wheaton College where she majored in Christian Ministry, Urban Studies and Photography and somehow managed to apply all of her degrees to work in the real world! She has a passion for community development after years of working in urban ministry in Chicago, non-profits in Austin and serving on staff at CRBC. She loves being able to equip and serve the church as the Minister of Missions which includes cultivating both local and global partnerships. Despite loving the adventures that come with the territory of serving as the missions minister, she is quite the homebody. She is an avid Harry Potter fan, loves Oklahoma City and being with her friends, family and adorable weenie dog, May.