God's Mission Our Gifts: January 2022

Amazing News! Thank You!!!   [Image credit: Alexa_Fotos on Pixabay] Since the pandemic struck, you have helped raise over $500,000 in emergency gifts to support Mission & Service partners. Your generosity helps deliver personal protective equipment, distribute food, install sanitation stations, and support education programs. What’s more, through our Gifts with Vision catalogue, we have provided over 8,360 full vaccinations to those who need them most across the globe.   Altogether, that’s over $750,000 in COVID relief. Amazing!  Once again this year, your local region will receive $240,000 to support Mission & Service partners near you. From coast to coast, our partners are helping record numbers of families in need. Your generosity through Mission & Service is providing shelter to Canadians without homes, serving nutritious meals to families struggling to make ends meet, offering critical pastoral care in hospitals and schools, extending life-changing education and job training opportunities. Thank you! Your February Mission & Service Stories FEBUARY 6 Choosing The Lesser Evil   [Image credit: The United Church of Canada] We confront dilemmas every day: Do I wear this mask? Do we close in-person gatherings? Do I take this parking space? The United Church’s latest Lenten book and study Lesser Evils, supported through Mission & Service, is all about coping with uncertainty. Who doesn’t need help coping these days?    FEBUARY 13 Love the Way God Loves   [Photo credit: Stux on Pixabay] Over $500,000 in special emergency donations for Covid-19 relief. 8,360 full vaccinations for those most vulnerable and $240,000 distributed to every region to support those close to home. Thank you for turning compassion into action. Thank you for the love.     FEBUARY 20 Support Canadian Families     [Photo credit: pedro_wroclaw on Pixabay]   With new variants, rolling school closures, lockdowns, fear, unpredictable employment and growing food insecurity, Canadian families are more stressed than ever. And food prices are set to rise another 5 to 7 percent this year. There’s a special opportunity to show families love on Feb. 21.    FEBUARY 27 Your Gifts Help Overcome Discrimination: Petrona’s Story    [Photo credit: The United Church of Canada]   Although Indigenous people make up nearly half of Guatemala’s population, they face discrimination in all facets of their lives. Petrona is one of hundreds of women who have changed their lives after receiving training through the Guatemala Conference of Evangelical Churches supported through your Mission & Service gifts.  COMING SOON- Annual Meeting Worship Resource   Annual meetings are a critical time to focus on the call Jesus places on us as a church to live out God’s mission.  That’s why our team is preparing flexible liturgy you can use on annual meeting Sunday. The liturgy will be delivered to your inbox in the next couple of weeks and will highlight your church’s mission as well as the ministry we do together through Mission & Service.     Special Appeal to Support Canadian Families on February 21   In the last two years, visits to Canadian food banks have climbed 20 percent. Today, over 33 percent of food bank users are children. For families already struggling, there’s no relief in sight. That’s why on February 21, the church is launching a special appeal to support families. Stay tuned! Information will arrive in your inbox shortly! Congregational Stewardship/Generosity   This is your resource to help you grow generous disciples and gather the resources you need to do God’s mission. Please modify and use these ideas in your context.   1.     Nurture Stewardship in the New Year If your community of faith’s New Year's resolution is to nurture stewardship, sign up for a Called to be the Church: The Journey module.  Stewardship Best Practices module cohorts will be offered for four weeks starting the week of April 25.  Congregational Giving Program module cohorts will be offered for two weeks starting May 24. 2.    SEVEN Ways to Get Back to Basics and Increase Your Financial Resources to Do Ministry The Stewardship in Worship webpage has the free United Church worship materials you need to nurture giving and generosity. Loving Our Neighbours: Worship for Five Sundays of Lent. Best used as part of the Called to Be the Church: The Journey – Congregational Giving Program. Stewardship Seconds Offering Introductions Offering Prayers 3.    Do This!! Thanking with your Tax Receipts Please don’t just send out an envelope that contains a tax receipt for charitable giving. Fill the envelope! Include a nice note to thank your donors for the way they are living their faith by being generous and how their gift is changing the world. Find some sample ideas to get you started, in the “Sample Tax receipt thank-you letters” file in DOWNLOADS at the bottom of the Called to Be the Church: The Journey page. Stewardship Seconds, offering invitations, and offering prayers Stewardship Seconds, offering invitations, and offering prayers for February 2022 are available on the United Church’s stewardship worship theme page. Scroll down to “Related Material” at the bottom of the page. GOD’S MISSION, OUR GIFTS is your newsletter. We want to provide news and information that you can use in your community of faith, whether you’re a minister, a board member, an administrator, a treasurer, or anyone else who wants to make a difference.   What else would you like to see? What can we do to help your community of faith get where it needs to go? Send us your thoughts! Fill out your Mission & Service goal-setting form online! Visit the United Church’s COVID-19 page for tips and resources for members and communities of faith during the pandemic. And for help with government COVID-19 support, visit the United Church’s emergency funding page. Donate Facebook Twitter Website Email Instagram YouTube LinkedIn   Your generosity enables the United Church to love, serve, and minister in the world. Make an online donation or learn more about your options to support the work of the church.

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