Bishop Ward gives an overview of the ways we can offer thanks at Annual Conference for the ways God is so generous to us.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
We love and serve a generous God. Our very life this day is God’s latest gift to us and so we are eager to give back to God from the abundance we experience. As we gather for Annual Conference, we will invite and receive four offerings.
One of these offerings will be for the women’s hospital in Rotifunk. In Sierra Leone at Rotifunk Hospital, babies are being born and women are being given the health care that they need. Your gifts will support this important mission of hope.
We’ll receive a Laity offering. Offerings for laity ministries will support the work of the Board of Laity as they continue to equip laity for leadership in churches across our annual conference and into the communities around us.
We will receive an offering during the Ordering of Ministry Service for the Theological Education Fund of the Central Conferences. Your generosity in this opportunity will continue to develop our theological schools in Africa, in the Philippines, in Europe, and in Russia
And the fourth offering will be for Disaster Recovery. The Youth Storm Response is an opportunity for your gift to be matched. The Annual Conference will match dollar for dollar every offering given for the Youth Storm Fund and these funds will be used to help people get back home after the devastating hurricanes of recent years.
Thank you for your generosity in these ways as we gather very soon to respond to God’s great generosity to us.