April 2024 – Pastor’s Discretionary Fund
MISSION: Please note on your offering that it is for the Monthly Mission Focus.
Our missional giving for February will be given to support the good work being done through the Adult and Teen Challenge rehabilitation services in Brainerd. Many families have been touched by the pain of addiction, and so feel a personal connection to the work of this place. More information and details can also be found on their website => Adult and Teen Challenge Minnesota.
Greetings, Friends at Grace! Here’s a brief update on our family and ministry.
First, we celebrate that the Lord continues to “send forth workers into his harvest.” This summer our Candidate Seminar was a week of training for ten new missionaries who will serve in Chad, Romania, Brazil, and Slovakia. Others will serve in a campus ministry known as “Campus Bible Fellowship” in South Bend, Indiana. One couple will serve in a retirement village for Gospel workers known as “Missionary Acres.” Finally, one candidate will serve as a Bible translation consultant with Bibles International, our Bible Translation team, which is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. All these met in July in our Global Ministry Center here in Cleveland. They will now begin the process of deputation as they raise a team of interested churches and individuals who will support and pray for their ministries.
During the week of Candidate Seminar, we get to know the new missionaries, and we learn the lesson once again that missions is not a calling for an elite few, but a step of faith for ordinary people who respond to God out of worship and obedience.
I continue to serve as CEO of Baptist Mid-Missions Foundation and as Stewardship Administrator for Baptist Mid-Missions. In those capacities I work with a constituency of “unsung heroes” who give sacrificially so that the effort to send and support missionaries can move forward. I enjoy interacting with these donors about the “ABC’s of ‘RMDs’ and ‘QCDs’ from their IRAs”! (What would we do without an alphabet?)
Kim and I are getting used to being “empty nesters” … sort of. Our youngest two, Gunnar and Natalie, are in college, so they “fly from the nest” nine months of the year, stopping in for holidays and summer. Their brief stays at home are a blessing and a reminder of God’s care for them as they begin to set out on their own. It is also a wonderful blessing to us as we both want them to go out and succeed in life, while at the same time we miss them. But launching kids into adult life is the whole point of parenting, right? The older three are busy: Nic & Kristin and their four kids are nearby, so we enjoy the energy of wonderful grandchildren! Brennan & Lydia are in Dodgeville, Wisconsin where they are busy working and enjoying life with Bandit, their German shorthair. And Kaye & Cody are planning for a wedding next fall between Cody’s deployments with the Air Force. Kaye is here in Cleveland, while Cody begins a year-long tour in South Korea.
That’s an update! Thanks for your supportive friendship through the years!
Blessings,
Steve & Kim Brennecke
As the humanitarian relief and development arm of The United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Committee on Relief – UMCOR – assists United Methodists and churches to become involved globally in direct ministry to persons in need. UMCOR comes alongside those who suffer from natural or human-caused disasters – famine, hurricane, war, flood, fire or other events—to alleviate suffering and serve as a source of help and hope for the vulnerable. UMCOR provides relief, response and long-term recovery grants when events overwhelm a community’s ability to recover on their own. UMCOR also provides technical support and training for partners to address emerging and ongoing issues related to disaster relief, recovery, and long-term health and development.
VISION: Carrying out the teachings of Christ, LAHFH strives to ensure that everyone, everywhere has at least a simple, decent place to call home.
ACTION: Partnering with families in need, volunteers build or renovate homes and serve as agents of change throughout the affiliate.
OUTCOME: Working in communities throughout the affiliate, LAHFH helps create a culture wherein affordable housing becomes a matter of conscience.
Bishop Lanette Plambeck invites congregations to pray about and participate in the Love Offering as an expression of our gratitude for God’s blessings in our lives. Our Love Offering this year will tangibly share God’s extravagant love with a hurting world by addressing the growing mental health needs in Minnesota.
Sixty percent of the Love Offering will fund a new grant that will support churches that have partnerships with mental health services offered in local schools or communities.
Thirty percent of the Love Offering will go to three Minnesota nonprofits engaged in mental health education and advocacy: Mental Health Connect, Mental Health Minnesota, and Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health.
There are envelopes labeled for this mission on the back table or you can simply put any special giving into the offering plate with a note on your gift that it is to be designated to this mission.
There are envelopes labeled for this mission on the back table or you can simply put any special giving into the offering plate with a note on your gift that it is to be designated to this mission. At the end of the month, after Ash Wednesday, the final Sunday will begin our designated giving for the Lakes Area Food Shelf.