What are you thankful for? Certainly we can all be thankful that God didn’t leave us dead in our trespasses and sin; mercifully, He sent Jesus to pay the penalty of our sin on the cross that through faith in Him we find forgiveness, salvation, eternal life and a personal relationship with God. I’m thankful for my family and friends, and I’m thankful for the wonderful family of likeminded Christians known as ORBA!

As we approach the holiday season, I want to encourage you to spend some time reflecting on how you are blessed and thank God for the people in your life through whom He blesses you. I also want to encourage you to consider how God would have you care for the less fortunate and also how He wants you to support our missionaries who serve abroad. You can care for the less fortunate by volunteering at CSM or making a donation to that ministry. You can support our International Missionaries by giving generously to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. For the past several years Kay and I have given our largest Christmas gift to Jesus through the Lottie Moon Offering.

As we look forward to 2020 our Associational Strategy Plan has us focusing on two things: Empowering Kingdom Growth and Compassionate Ministry. I will be leading the Empowering Kingdom Growth Team which will seek to assist our churches in discerning what God would have them do to Grow His Kingdom. Edward Rich will be leading the Compassionate Ministry Team. Compassionate Ministry and Kingdom Growth are all about making Jesus known. It is not about sprucing up the church building or property. A church may be led of the Lord to embrace a Kingdom Objective having a VBS for the first time in several years, or adopting a missionary whereby they financially and prayerfully support him/her. The Lord may lead a church to be more involved with the GSU BCM; CSM; the Mann Center or send participants on an associational mission trip here in Georgia, the United States or internationally. The church may sense God’s leading to care for those in its community by taking small moving boxes containing food, hygiene items and a Bible to the less fortunate. Edward and I, as well as our teams, will be looking forward to working with your church in the coming year.

Kay and I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving together!

Serving alongside you,

Greg Abercrombie