Thank You for Giving, Going, Sending, and Praying

Vol. 6: No 11 Year-End Edition
December 27, 2017

Houston homeowners and hurricane relief volunteers gathered recently for an Open House celebration

Thank You for Giving, Going,
Sending, and Praying

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thess 5:18 (ESV)

As we come upon the close of 2017, we would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the many who engaged in the work of Short-Term Missions and Disaster Response this year by giving, going, sending, and praying!

We continue to be amazed at the generosity of churches and individuals exemplified by the hurricane relief donations that poured in, unsolicited, which now seem to be more than enough!

Thanks to all who came alongside us this year with your many contributions!

To God be the glory!

Hurricane Harvey Relief

This letter from a grateful homeowner in Houston is a wonderful example of the impact OPC Disaster Response efforts
have had on affected families.

Houston homeowners Kindra and David Blecher and their daughters

Dear Friends,

As I (Kindra) walk down our deserted street at night, I can’t help but feel sadness over the loss to our neighborhood from Harvey. The empty houses with new piles of debris and neglected yards are a stark contrast to last year. Instead of Christmas lights and lighted trees in the front windows, there is emptiness. As I write, only one house on our street, besides us, has any sign that it is the Christmas season. When I commented on their adherence to their usual Christmas display in the midst of this disaster, the owner said,” Jesus was still born.”

But during the daylight hours, there is a buzz of activity with numerous construction workers busily repairing houses. Unlike most of our neighbors, we have been very blessed to stay in the upstairs of our house while we rebuild after Harvey. Our lives have not been terribly disrupted and we are in continual amazement at all of the gracious help God has sent our way.

My family and I don’t know how to adequately thank all of you. Thank you for coming and pulling out sheetrock, spraying vinegar and mold control, pulling out nails, demolishing bookcases, packing, cleaning, running errands, moving furniture, sweeping, repairing sheetrock, mudding, sanding, bringing supplies (bleach, mold control, shop-vacs, plastic trash bags, plastic cutlery, fans, dehumidifiers, gloves, masks, tools, ice, and water). Thank you for all of the wonderful meals and gift cards. Thankful for my sister who drove 18 hours from Kentucky, a few days after the storm. Thankful to the OPC for renting us a refrigerator until we could buy a new one. Thankful for all of the people who prayed and asked their churches to pray for us, even as our house was filling with flood waters. I still feel sentimental when I look in our garage and see the box of leftover supplies that people brought.

As I was riding my bike through our neighborhood one day, this Scripture came to my mind and has been a huge encouragement. “For this light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not at the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

No matter what the bleakness of our circumstances may cause our hearts to feel, "Jesus was still born.” He still brings redemption, forgiveness, hope, grace, mercy, joy, and a love beyond understanding.

Merry Christmas and thank you to all of you,
Love and blessings,
The Blechers

Print this letter to distribute or display for your congregation!

Print Thank You Letter

OPC Short-Term Missions:
2017 Stats

2017 English for Kids Bible Camp in St-Georges, Quebec

Over 400 people
served on OPC short-term mission fields in 2017

7 foreign mission fields
Asia
Czech Republic
Haiti
Japan
Quebec
Uganda
Uruguay

4 domestic mission fields
Wildwood, NJ
Key West, FL
Magna, UT
Zoar, WI

81 OPC churches
were represented on short-term missions teams:

This list is exhaustive to the best of our knowledge!

Hurricane Harvey Relief

Columbia OPC Team Photo 1: Paul Childress, Clint (neighbor), Rebekka Short (homeowner), Rick Belliveau, Tim Richards, Bryan Singer

Columbia OPC Team Photo 2: Tim Richards, Jeff Davis (Houston Site Coordinator), John Song, Bryan Singer, Rich Belliveau, Paul Childress

In October, Deacon Paul Childress of Columbia OPC in Columbia, MD, was flying home from serving on a team that his church had sent to work with Reach Global in New Orleans, and he felt the Lord putting on his heart the desire to lead a team to Houston. The deacons at Columbia OPC have organized multiple trips over the years after other storms and disasters. Paul and his team of four men came to serve in Houston from December 10-15.

Afterwards, Paul wrote to our hurricane relief coordinators in Houston:

"Hello OPC family, I just wanted to thank each of you for the part you played in making our trip to Houston so rewarding and fulfilling. We felt like the Lord really worked in each of our lives as we came alongside everyone we met in Houston. We really appreciated all the work each of you did in making the trip run so efficiently. We really enjoyed getting to know the 4 families in the community and the folks at the Vietnamese church. We really got to know them and feel like we are good friends now. Jeff (Davis) did a wonderful job of leading our team and made our time last week very productive. He was a true blessing to the families we got to meet and to our team. Our team also got to know each other at a much deeper level and we are thankful for that blessing also. Blessings to each of you as we celebrate our Lord's birth!"

Thank You, Hurricane Relief Volunteers!

Many thanks to the hurricane relief coordinators:

Steve Larson: Regional Disaster Response Coordinator in Houston
Jeff Davis: Houston Site Coordinator
Peggy and Mark Sumpter: Volunteer/Hospitality Coordinators in Houston
Joel King: Regional Disaster Response Coordinator, Presbytery of the South
Ed Kauffman: Regional Disaster Response Coordinator, Presbytery of New Jersey for Puerto Rico relief efforts

Over 100 volunteers served in Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico in 2017:

Individuals and teams
Men and women
Skilled and unskilled
From at least 21 states
From OPC churches as well as a variety of non-OPC churches
From Reformed Mission Services, Hudsonville, MI
From Justice for All, Rock Valley, IA

And many more are scheduled to serve in 2018!

Outreach After Hurricane Harvey
in Houston, Texas

New Horizons, pp. 4-5, December 2017

"A Completely Providential Window of Opportunity"

Excerpts:

He believes that Harvey has given the Houston believers a unique chance to minister. “The bottom line is that we see ourselves with a completely providential window of opportunity,” Sumpter said.

“We don’t want to be known as ‘OPC Building and Construction,’” Sumpter said. “We want to be known as ‘OPC Building and Ministry.’… Our number one goal is not to restore a house, but to reach out in Christ’s name.”

The process for outreach is “hospitality, meeting people, then seeking to seize those opportunities for material service,” Sumpter listed.

Click here to read the full article:

Outreach After Hurricane Harvey

Outreach After Hurricane Irma
in Naples, Florida

New Horizons, pp. 6-7, December 2017

"God Has Blessed Us To Be A Blessing"

Excerpts:

The work of the team from Ada and the Haitian Hurricane Heroes became so well known that when Hausler walked into a community board meeting with one of the team members, everyone cheered. “And all we did was help people cut up branches and trees!” Hausler laughed. “We were able to get to know so many of our neighbors.”

When a local reporter interviewed Hausler about the team from Michigan, she asked why—why did they come all the way down to Florida? Hausler answered by asking a question of his own, which didn’t make it into the paper. “Why has God been so good to us? You look around the world and see people living in poverty and war-torn areas. Why do we have such a sweet life in west Michigan? Why do we have such a sweet life in Naples? Why has God blessed us? So that we would be a channel of God’s blessing to others.” That’s why the church in Ada sent a team, he said. That’s why they gave the team chainsaws and paid for their gas. Church members who couldn’t go themselves wanted to help. “God has blessed us to be a blessing.”

Click here to read the full article:

Outreach After Hurricane Irma