 Prayer
- Of Self-Dedication
Almighty
and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide
our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our
wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated
to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and
always to your glory and the welfare of your people;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
(paraphrased
from The Book of Common Prayer, p 832)
Gift
of Time
- The Great Commission is the
normative mission statement for the church.
"Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you."
(Matthew 28:19-20a RSV).
It
is through our missionary giving of time that we can
make the Christ known to those who know Him not.
Explore the work of mission in our congregations,
our diocese and the world.
Missionary
Giving ...
-
is the activity
that enables those who do not know Jesus as Savior
and Lord to find and be found by him. Jesus
said, "...lay up treasure in heaven..." .
The treasure of heaven is not money, but souls.
Mission is the activity that enables those who do
not know Jesus as Savior and Lord to find and be
found by him. Mission creates eternal friendships.
-
is also a portion
of income or assets that we give to do new mission
work or to help ongoing mission work thrive.
It may be support for a missionary It may be for
buildings for a missionary endeavor. It may
be to purchase a site for a new mission congregations.
-
comes in three
forms.
- Praying - Praying for Missionaries
- Going - joining or organizing mission
trips, Guidebook for Short-term Missions
- Funding - supporting congregation
or diocesan activities, Our Funding and Diocesan Fund Raising Projects
On
the subject of "TIME"
"I
bought a brand new date book yesterday, the kind I
use every year - spiral bound black imitation leather
covers wrapping around pages and pages of blank squares.
Each square has a number to tell me which day of the
month I am in at the moment. Each square is a frame
for one episode of my life.
Before
I am through with the book, I will fill the squares
with classes I will teach, people with whom I will
eat lunch, everlasting committees I will sit through,
and these are only the things I can not afford to forget.
I fill the squares, too, with things I don't write
down for me to remember - thousands of cups of coffee,
some praying, gestures of help to my neighbors. Whatever
I do, it has to fit inside one of those squares on
my date book.
I live one square at a time.
The
four lines that make the square are the walls of time
that organize my life. Everything I do has to fit
into one square. I can not straddle the lines. Each
square has an invisible door that leads to the next
square. At a silent stroke, the door opens and I am
pulled through its, as if by a magnet, sucked into
the next square in the line. There I will again fill
the time frame that seals me, fill it with my busyness,
just as I did the square before.
As
I get older the squares seem to get smaller. One day
I will walk into a square that has no door. There
will be no mysterious opening and no walking into
an adjoining square. One of the squares will be terminal.
I do not know which square it will be. So I must fill
the squares as wisely as I can."
(Taken from How
Can It Be Alright When Everything Is All Wrong? by
Lewis Smedes)
We
all have different amounts of Time to live on this earth.
Your life will be half over before you know it. It may
already be. None of us can know. So don't squander a
moment. Get up, get moving.
The Missionary Giving Consultants
Alice Ann Fischer (Church of the Good Shepherd, Corpus Christi) has accepted the role of chair for this division and is working in close concert with the World Mission Department of the diocese. This committee of passionate “missionaries” is not only developing a speakers’ bureau to inform congregations of the challenges and rewards, but also shares oversight with diocesan-wide mission funding events. There must be a communication effort in conjunction with the World Mission Division of the diocese. Stories of missionary vision, missionary vision fulfilled, and opportunities for mission will be featured in all diocesan publications, through traveling missionaries and a speakers’ bureau.
Committee Chair:
Committee Members:
- Donna Bardgett, St. Mark's, San Antonio
- Ann Beitel, St. James', Del Rio
- Ted Burkhart, St. Luke's, San Antonio
- Marthe Curry, Christ Church, San Antonio
- Larry Morgan, St. Luke's, San Antonio
- Richard Mosty, St. Peter's, Kerrville
- The Rev. James Murguia, St. David's, San Antonio
Staff Liaison:
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