Hopwood's Global Ministry
by Bruce Shields
The Mission Committee of the Hopwood Memorial Christian Church oversees the congregation’s contributions to the work of the church around the world. We support to some extent mission work on five continents and the islands of the Pacific. Some of our missionaries are working in places that do not welcome Christian mission work and where they might be endangered even by our listing their names and the nations they minister in on our website or church newsletters. Therefore, this report will survey our missions without using names or nations, with the exception of our special support for the Lines family.
Kip and Katy Lines and their two sons, Patrick and Brian, live and work in the Turkana region of northern Kenya, Africa. Before their move overseas Kip and Katy ministered to the youth at Hopwood. They were educated at Milligan College and Emmanuel School of Religion, and they are in their second term in Kenya. Kip is now the mission team leader in Turkana for the Christian Missionary Fellowship. They are busy developing leaders among the Turkana churches so that those churches can eventually carry on the work without missionaries to lead them. Our support for them comprises more than half of our total mission giving. Our present pledge amounts to $19,000 for the year.
In addition to that commitment Hopwood has budgeted $16,600 that is divided among a number of other missionaries and mission agencies. We support four other missions in Africa, two in Europe, three in Asia, two in the south Pacific, three in South America, and two in North America, where people are working with immigrants from other parts of the world. This gives Hopwood a global outlook on the work of the gospel, an outlook that is stimulated even more through the Pioneer Bible Translators and the Christian Missionary Fellowship, two organizations that have workers in many different parts of the world.
We not only contribute money, but we are directly involved with our missions. Six members of our congregation serve on mission boards and two of us are forwarding agents for missionaries. Several of us travel regularly to mission fields to teach or otherwise help. In addition, we have assigned a person or couple as a link to each of the missions we support, so that we have up to date information from the field on each of our missionaries and are thus able to pray intelligently for their specific needs.
The Mission Committee urges you to get involved. Support our missions with your contributions; connect with missionaries as a link; join the committee by attending our meetings at the regular committee meeting time each month. We can always use more workers on this side to keep up with those who put their lives on the line every day for the growth of the church around the globe.
