Since the announcement of the "Great Sendoff" in 2011, the missions team has been greatly encouraged by the response we've seen within the congregation. We met last night and shared stories of small groups planning to go together, a Sunday School class beginning to contribute to a fund for the project even now, individuals who are looking for opportunities to take young families somewhere and one particularly encouraging note from one of our senior citizens who promised her prayers and support to the missions team as we keep moving forward with the plans. We are very encouraged by your response so far and want to bring you up to speed on the latest on the Great Sendoff...

The missions team would like to make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to plug into missions opportunities in and around Summer, 2011. In order to do that, we're going to be taking the next several weeks to do our homework on potential missions opportunities. The team met last night and brainstormed on opportunities for next summer and came up with a strong list of nearly 20 different options.

Our next step is to sort out what the strongest possibilities are for next summer and also to present a variety of options to you. We'd love to see several international teams as well as several local or national projects. Our hope is that in the next several weeks we can narrow down the options, get concrete information from missionaries on the field and determine which options to set before you so you can begin praying and planning what you might like to do for next summer.

Please pray for the missions team during the next 4-6 weeks. We will be working hard behind the scenes to contact missionaries, mission agencies and friends to determine what some viable options for the Great Sendoff can be.

If you have any thoughts you'd like the missions team to consider as we plan, please contact one of us. Team members include: Vernon Smoker (Chair), Mary Engel, Kathy Gehman, Donna Hartley, Amos Ebersol, Jesse Miller, Darren Neff and myself.

Thank you for your prayers and we're excited about what God can do in our lives through the Great Sendoff!

On behalf of the missions team,