I am praising God for the great association annual meeting we had at FBC Vienna. We had over 120 people from many of our churches in attendance. It was good to see that our attendance is growing again, and I know that those who attended were blessed by our time of worship and hearing from God’s word. It was great to have a 30-voice choir singing in the service. It was a blessing to have several of our church choirs participating as well. We heard two dynamic messages from Dr. Charlie Miller and Dr. Emir Caner. God spoke clearly through these men and from His word. Our worship was led by Rhon Carter, and the music was uplifting and glorified God. We did conduct a brief time of business and I am looking forward to serving with our new moderator and vice-moderator. Rev. Reed Benson was elected as moderator and Rev. Terry Ryan was elected as our vice-moderator. I know these men love the association and will serve us well!

I am looking forward to meeting with our administrative committee and all our ministry teams as we plan and look for ways to help our churches in their ministries. In my report at the annual meeting, I shared how we can get more involved ministries in our local communities as well as many other mission opportunities with partnerships with a church plant in Pennsylvania and with the country of Colombia. The following is an exert from my report regarding the mission opportunities:

Locally, we have had the opportunity to work together in the camp ministry of our association. I appreciate every church that has been involved either by preparing and serving meals or providing the material resources that are needed each year. We had a phenomenal staff this year at all our summer camps. I am thankful for the leadership of our directors who served and led the camps. We have been in a rebuilding stage since Covid in increasing the number of campers who attend. God moved in a mighty way this year and we had six children pray to receive Christ! We have also had the opportunities to support local ministries in our region as well. We have two very vital ministries that are impacting lives with the Gospel. The Daybreak Pregnancy Center is one of the ministries that several of our churches support. This center has been helping young women currently for five years that have come to a point where they were in a time of crisis due to an unplanned pregnancy. The pregnancy center helps women to deal with the situation by providing counseling and resources to help them to have stability in their lives as they navigate through this life changing moment of their lives. I want to encourage all our churches to get involved by praying for the center as well as putting this ministry in their budget like several churches already have. One other local ministry in Crisp County that is having a tremendous impact on lives is the C4 Christian Learning Center. This center represents a form of instruction known as “release time education.”. Upon completion of each course, the student will receive appropriate course credit according to school requirements. It is the desire of the C4 Christian learning that each student be given the education in character studies, historical context, and moral reasoning using the Bible and Christian doctrine as the foundation to ensure that each student is instructed in a way that their uniqueness is embraced, and their success is promoted, with the understanding that they are valued as a Creation of God. This ministry has been in existence now for four years. Over the past few years there have been 161 students that have taken classes and we currently have 33 students in class! Please continue to pray for this ministry as students’ lives are impacted by the word of God. I also want to encourage our churches to put this ministry in their budget! This is a ministry that is worth investing into!

Over the past several years our association has partnered with churches in Pittsburgh, PA. We finished a partnership with Faithbridge Community Church last year and it has been a joy to see how God has used our teams as we came along side this church to help in outreach. This church has been growing every year and we praise God for how He has been blessing this congregation. We will begin a new partnership with a church planter either in Pennsylvania or South Jersey next year. We will be talking with church planters in that area to determine how God can use our churches to come along side of another ministry and help them reach their community with the Gospel. I will be sharing more information soon regarding this partnership. I want to encourage our churches to pray, give, and get involved with mission teams that will be going to serve in the region of the church plant we will be establishing a partnership with over the next three years.

Our most recent international partnership is with the country of Colombia. We have had a mission team to go Cucuta, Colombia to do eye glass clinics last February. We were able to help eight new church plants in reaching their community by sharing the Gospel and providing eyeglasses to the people in their communities. We gave our over 600 eyeglasses in four days and were able to share the good news of the Gospel. There are many opportunities in Colombia to come along side missionaries that are passionate about reaching the vast number of people in their regions with the Gospel. We will continue to make plans to send mission teams to Colombia. If you are interested in being a part of a team, please let me know.

I pray in the coming year that we will get stronger as an Acts 1:8 association. Please pray and get involved in the evangelistic and mission opportunities that God is leading us to do! I am here to help our churches and Pastors in your local ministries as well. I would be glad to come and work with any church to help with a 3 year strategy plan, S.S. Training, or leadership development. Let us stay focused on our mission and work together to build the Kingdom of God.

Bro. Gary