October 2008
Mission 33 is bringing the message of salvation in Jesus directly to people’s homes. And it is bearing fruit!
Only weeks into the first campaign the small booklet Finding the Hope is literally sowing seeds of hope in the homes of tens of thousands in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
The Finding the Hope package was delivered to over 65,000 homes in these two provinces in October and responses are arriving at EHC’s office steadily. To our surprise, a number of responses are coming from people where no campaign has yet taken place. The word is out and people are reading the message of hope in Jesus.
In the first few weeks of the campaign we have recorded hundreds of new visits to the Finding the Hope website with many spending considerable time on the site. Requests for the booklet 7 Days With Jesus are coming in steadily along with very moving requests for spiritual help.
A number of churches have organized other activities around the theme Finding the Hope and sent out invitations to special events as part of the campaign. They are reporting new contacts with people in their community.
Some of the participating churches have recorded a notable increase in attendance at Sunday worship services and a number of pastors have also shared how Mission 33 has reawakened their congregation to the joy of sowing the seeds of the Gospel in their community
One pastor commented, “Our whole church appreciated the campaign as it was well planned and the materials are high quality.”
Following a special Sunday service emphasizing the Finding the Hope theme, one pastor wrote, “I was pleasantly surprised to see over twenty people in attendance who were either invited by others or came solely because of the door hanger and booklet. One of them has signed up for our nine week Alpha course.”
One lady who responded directly to our office asked to receive additional copies of the Finding the Hope booklet for every person in her cancer group.
Another lady wrote a note on the back of the response form telling us of her grief since loosing her life partner of several decades. She asked simply for the 7 Days With Jesus booklet and anything we could send her to read that would help her through this difficult time.
Like all other “paper missionaries” that EHC has sent all over the world for decades, the small Finding the Hope booklet is a missionary to the people that the church might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet.
Mission 33 is truly a mission of hope—hope for those who may otherwise never have a personal contact with the Good News of salvation in Christ.
After nearly two years of hard work, countless hours of prayer by EHC partners across the country and innumerable hours of creative planning and writing by EHC staff, this simple strategy is bringing the message of God’s love to the lonely, the broken, the thirsty. And it is only the beginning.
These seeds of hope will continue to produce a harvest for the Lord as people read and re-read the booklet and as churches continue to embrace the theme Finding the Hope and lay out the welcome mat for people in their community.
Planning and preparations for campaigns are underway in various stages for the New Year in at least 7 provinces. Actually, by the time you read this report, two communities in Newfoundland will have received the booklet as well.
The Holy Spirit is stirring many hearts as the faithful sowing of gospel seeds goes forward.