The envelopes for the annual OGHS offering are in your pews. We will collect this offering through Easter Sunday. Our Sunday School is also participating in the OGHS offering and the kids will bring their donations and we will put them in the “refugee tent” collection box. During the year, there will also be envelopes for Neighbors in Need, Strengthen the Church and the Christmas Fund (for retired pastors and their families on very limited pensions). We also give to Our Churches Wider Mission through our fundraisers. That’s 5 UCC missions each year. In addition to those, we can give to VBS Mission, McKinney Clinic, CROP Walk and, in past years, Disaster Relief (which we hope won’t be needed this year). All these opportunities to give to these missions are provided because members have a “soft spot” for one or another, or perhaps all of them. We are encouraged to give to the ones that move our hearts and that we feel strongly about. These offerings are given “above and beyond” our regular envelope and plate offerings that are needed to support our church at Emmanuel and continue our local presence in our own back yards. Your generosity is appreciated here at home and around the wider world. May God bless you as much as you bless others.
MISSION OFFERINGS
In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock at night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And so the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. — Luke 2:8-11 (NASV)