November 12 – “Seaside Simplicity”

It is exciting to see Seaside getting excited about missions of all kinds.  We already are connected with the Humphries family in Alaska.  And we give a percentage of what people give to the church to the local Baptist association (That means county-wide stuff like the block party trailer we always use and other assistance programs for local churches).  Plus we try to get involved in local mission needs as they come to our attention. 

Yesterday we decided to expand a little bit and approve moving up one step in the way we cooperate to do missions.  Actually it’s a return to what we have done in the past.  The Baptist General Convention of Texas was among those who helped us out a lot after Hurricane Ike, and they were also active after Hurricane Harvey.  In fact it was after Ike, when we lost eight key families, that we stopped giving to them so we could focus more on local missions.  In the last few years we have hosted the Texas Baptist Men in our retreat center for some of the training they do for feeding people in crisis areas.  The BGCT also does such things as train chaplains, provide help for churches who are building, support colleges and seminaries and hospitals, pay salaries of missionaries oversees and in North America, provide retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for church staff members, and do specific missions projects in Texas and all over the world.  Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it?  The proposal was to send $500 a year to the BGCT.  Maybe later we can work up to some kind of percentage like we used to.

The only discussion?  “That sounds like it would help you, too.  Let’s do it.”  And “What took us so long?”  Gotta love that Seaside Simplicity.

We didn’t stop there, though.  It was also time for another of our local mission projects to kick in.  Galveston Urban Ministries is again collecting new toys for their Christmas Store.  The unique thing about this project is, the toys are then discounted and sold at 20% of their retail value.  This allows families with fewer resources to still participate in providing Christmas for their families.  The boost to a parent or grandparent’s self-esteem has proven to be remarkable.  The store is open the first week in December, so we only have a few Sundays to promote it.  By the time we got home we noticed that the announcement was already on one of our Seasiders’ FaceBook page, encouraging her neighbors to get involved.  And shortly after we got home another Seasider called to ask if they could drop off at our house some toys.  They had already been shopping. 

My favorite Seaside story of the day, though, happened before we ever left the building.  Our financial secretary came up to me and said, “You know, we had one of our really big insurance bills this past week, and we were getting really low on funds.  In fact I hit one of those moments when you almost panic and think, ‘How are we going to do this?’  And then this morning we had one of the best offerings we have had in a long time.  Everything is going to be all right.  I should have known.  Someday I guess I’ll learn not to doubt Him.”  Yup.  Great lesson for us all. 

Psalms 113:2-3 says, “Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.   From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”

Father, thank you for the Seasiders’ hearts for missions.  And thanks for touching the secretary’s heart as well.  Amen.