In recent years, there has been a trend toward encouraging people to give money instead of "things." But Mr. Ernie Schache, missionary to India from New Zealand, knows something that can be illustrated with the following story. Florence Lay, an Advent Christian who was a long time member of the Pasadena Advent Christian Church, tells the following story.

After World War II, I mailed dozens of packages containing food and clothing to our Advent Christian Churches in Japan. Although I received many letters of thanks, and pictures of pastors, congregations, and individuals, one special friendship developed with a young Japanese mother in Kurayoshi Tottari, named Midori Komatsu. We corresponded for several years until difficulties in getting her letters translated discouraged me. Also about the same time some personal problems in her home caused her to stop writing. This was a disappointment to me (and to her, too, I later was told). We had shared our faith and talked of the hope we had at seeing each other when Christ returns. click here to read the full story from Mr. Schache and from Mrs. Lay

"AND HE WILL SUPPLY THE INCREASE."

There are ways to contribute to our churches and to General Conference without opening our wallets or checkbooks. These may take a few extra seconds or minutes of our time. For a time I have been watching a website called goodsearch.com that claims that they will pay charities a penny per Internet search from their website. The search's are powered by Yahoo! so if you are a googler, this is not for you. It appears now that they have actually paid out dollars to some non-profits. Now a penny per search doesn't sound like much but on their website they illustrate that if just 100 people do two searches a day for a year, $730.00 can be raised. In the 8/1/07 Weekly Update of the Advent Christian General Conference they note that if there were just 500 of us doing four searches a day $7,300. could be raised. Like our Penny Crusade, that makes the penny powerful! They make it easy to start with Good Search by giving you the option of adding it to your toolbar or making goodsearch.com your home page. So, go to www.goodsearch.com, make ACGC your charity and start searching. Please be faithful to God's calling of honesty in your searching.

If you are one of the increasing numbers of people shopping on the Internet, by starting your shopping on certain websites, a percentage of your purchases will be contributed to your chosen charity. A websearch (yes, I did it starting at goodsearch.com) reveals that there are a number of sites that offer this opportunity. There are only two that I have personally used and I will mention them here. If you choose to use another, please take care to verify that they are who they say they are and have actually distributed to charities. One is boxtops4education which specifically contributes to schools. igive.com is a site where you can choose your charity - including your church or CACMS or ACGC. As with the searches, singly, the donations from your purchases won't add up to much money, but combined with other like minded shoppers, the amount can add up and make a difference to your chosen charity.

From the 10-17-06 edition of the Weekly e-Newsletter from the Advent Christian General Conference Headquarters
CENTRAL REGION SPOTLIGHT

This week’s “spotlight” is not on one of our churches, but rather on a child who does not even live in our Region. The Central Region office recently received a letter from the mother of a 7-year-old girl residing in Washington State who wished to remain anonymous. The letter explained that her daughter wished to donate 1/3 of her summer allowance to 20 charities across the U.S. and Central Advent Christian Missions Society (CACMS) was chosen as one of those charities. Included with this letter was a $1.00 bill. As I prayed over this contribution and asked the Lord to direct its use, I was reminded of the story of the loaves and the fishes and of the miracles God can perform to accomplish his will. I was led to match that donation and send it on to General Conference for the TLC (Touching a Life for Christ) program. If each person who reads this newsletter would do the same thing — just match the $1.00 that this child started — it would indeed provide miracles on our mission fields. There are over 2,300 subscribers to this newsletter. What a blessing this would be, not only to our mission fields, but to this one little girl, to learn that the Lord multiplied her gift over 2,300 times to accomplished his miracle! It just takes the rest of us following the example set by this one precious child. Please pray about this, and if you are so led, let’s flood General Conference with $1.00 bills for TLC. The address of General Conference is PO Box 23152, Charlotte, N.C. 28227. Even though I don’t have a name, I do have an address for this child and look forward to blessing her with this news. (Submitted by Carol Vandable) Note: if you would prefer to send the $1.00 to CACMS, Elaine Norwood, Treasurer, 2237 High Ridge Park Way, Hillside, IL 60162

Also from the same e-newsletter:
Aurora – Congratulations to Roger and Marilyn Parolini, who were honored during Aurora University homecoming activites this past weekend. The new music building at the University was named for the Parolinis, and the building was dedicated during a convocation on October 6. Also dedicated at that time was the Crimi Auditorium, located in the new Institute for Collaboration Building on campus. This auditorium was named for a former president of the College, Dr. James E. Crimi, who was also a member of Aurora AC church and was known to many within our denomination. (From The Courier, the newsletter of Aurora AC Church, October 11, 2006)

The Venture Bookstore has stickers available with this message on them. They call them bumper stickers but they are of such a size and shape they could be used just as stickers. click here for another way they might be used.

Also, available through the Venture Bookstore is a wonderful "Maybe Today" CD. This is a collection of songs from the 40s though the 70s by the Christianairs Quartet, The Student Christian Association Quartet and The Carter Gospel Team - some wonderful second coming music as well as other gospel music. The Venture Bookstore is expanding and taking a new place in the denominational reorganization. You can reach them at 704-545-6161.

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone? What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets? What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it? What if we flipped through it several times a day? What if we used it to receive messages? What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it? What if we gave it to kids as gifts? What if we used it as we traveled? What if we used it in case of an emergency? What if we upgraded it to get the latest version? Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phones, we don't ever have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

PRAIRIE STATES CONFERENCE MUSIC CD NOW AVAILABLE

 

 

"He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
the wealth in every mine;
He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills,
the sun and stars that shine

"Wonderful riches, more than tongue can tell;
He is my Father so they're mine as well.

"He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
I know that He will care for me."

photos courtesy of Peggy Vermillion of the Villisca Review