WEF Plus: Challenge 2010 - We Need You!

We wanted to alert you to an opportunity that is coming your way in November.  The Church of the Nazarene is asking all Nazarenes worldwide to participate in a very special missions offering.  Most of you know that every Church of the Nazarene contributes financially to support the work of missions around the world.  The name of this contribution is World Evangelism Fund (WEF).  Our mission leaders have advised us that the amount of money that has been contributed toward the WEF this year is 20% short of what we need in order to continue ministering at the current level.  This shortage comes at a time when the Church of the Nazarene is experiencing unprecedented growth around the world.  This is not a time to retreat by calling missionaries home from the harvest field!  Our general superintendents, with an unshakeable faith in the great generosity of our people, have issued a challenge to Nazarenes worldwide to raise the single largest offering for World Evangelism in the history of our church.  The goal is huge - $6 million!  We are asking each of you to personally participate in this offering and to make sure that your local church is participating too.  Please talk this over with your NMI president and pastor.  Each adult is encouraged to give $10 and each child is encouraged to give 40 coins.  Here in Vanuatu, we will be taking part in this worldwide offering as well. 

I've been studying 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 and would like to ask you to humbly read through these precious words of encouragement from the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.  Paul begins this passage by bragging on the church at Macedonia that even though they were being severely tested and faced extreme poverty, they overflowed with joy and begged for the privilege of sharing in a particular ministry to the saints in Jerusalem.  Paul records that they gave "as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability" (verse 3), and totally surprised everyone!  How and why would Macedonians give so liberally to someone in Jerusalem that they had never met before? The Message Bible says it like this, "..it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us.  The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives." 


Please prayerfully consider how the Lord would want you to participate in this historical offering.  As always, we are trusting God that He will provide the means for us to continue in ministry here in Vanuatu.

For those in the USA/Canada region, a special website has been established to make resources readily available to the local churches.  WEF Plus: Challenge 2010 Web Resources