Easter Sacrificial Offering: A Family Photo Album

Series: 2017 Easter Sacrificial Offering

by Kari Randall February 23, 2017

 

The Easter Sacrificial Offering is like flipping through the pages of a family photo album. The mercy and relief projects, selected each year by Global Outreach Commission, connect us with our brothers and sisters in the global church. The cost of living for Christ looks different in their context. They have different struggles than we do. But they are nevertheless our family.

For more than 60 years, Tenth has responded in thankfulness to Christ’s overwhelming sacrifice for us and reached out in mercy through the Easter Sacrificial Offering. We partner with national believers in efforts that enhance the proclamation of the gospel and enable them to meet a need which their local leadership has identified as critical. In this, we demonstrate the unity of Christ’s body and proclaim the coming of his kingdom.

Let’s take a look at snapshots of this year’s five projects:

Sight for Souls in Ethiopia

Tenth members John and Lori Kempen moved to Ethiopia nearly two years ago to start an eye clinic and ophthalmic training center to help a part of the world that has some of the highest rates of blindness. A portion of the Easter Sacrificial Offering will cover life-changing eye operations for those who can’t afford it. This allows not only opportunities for physical healing, but for spiritual renewal through sharing the gospel.

Rural Outreach in the Arab world

This nationally-run ministry provides vocational education for vulnerable populations in rural villages. While teaching vital skills such as car repair or hairdressing, villagers have the opportunity to hear the gospel. Many become believers as a result of the outreach, and that changed life revolutionizes families and friend circles. This work has become especially essential in the aftermath of cathedral bombing this past December. The incident, which killed at least 25, has spurred people to ask questions about how they should live out their faith.

Church Building in North Africa

A congregation in North Africa (home church of Elder Ghattas) hopes to finish construction on a church reaching out to a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. They have been waiting 18 years for the permits to come through and they finally did in 2015, but the construction must be completed within the government’s short timeline. A portion of the 2016 Easter Sacrificial Offering helped complete the exterior. Now the interior work must be finished.

Orphan Care and Education in Liberia

New Hope Liberia, which works in the Monrovia metropolitan area, provides for the day-to-day and educational needs for the Mother Comfort Orphanage. In fact, Dr. Bruce McDowell will travel to Liberia with a short-term team in April.

School for Syrian Refugees, Middle East

Perched at the fringes of the Syrian civil war, World Relief is again partnering with a refugee school in another country in the Middle East to provide standard education in a Christian environment, primarily in the Arabic language, for Syrian refugee children from preschool to 15 years of age. This ministry not only serves refugee children, but also provides paid employment for teachers and helpers in the school, most of whom are also Syrian refugees. The families that pass through this school hear the gospel of hope and peace in the midst of this brutal war.

In the coming weeks, you’ll hear more of the stories and details of each of these snapshots from the Global Outreach Commission. And please continue praying for our global partners and brothers and sisters throughout the world.

As we prepare ourselves for Easter, let us carry in our minds a picture of how we might respond to God’s amazing sacrifice for us.

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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Kari Randall. © 2024 Tenth Presbyterian Church. Website: tenth.org