ORGANIZED OFFERINGS ORGANIZED OFFERINGS By Vicki Marsh A
t our recent ARPWM Annual Meeting, a seminar was given with a list of agencies and groups to be emphasized for offerings and prayers each month. Some ideas for implementing this were given. A brief description of what each group or agency does is given. Wouldn’t you be more willing to give if you knew who or where your offering is going? The ARP Magazine is one of the four agencies that ARPWM supports each year. It always includes several Women’s Ministry articles as well as helping to keep you aware of what is going on in the denomination. It produces six issues each year and if your church has a magazine agent and your members order through that agent, you get a discount. ONA (Outreach North America) is the agency that helps to plant churches. They provide training to prepare church planters, help
to provide money, and can give you information about the many ways that a church can be planted. If we want our denomination to Synodical Hall is the only building at Bonclarken that is owned by the Women of the ARP denomination. It is used for board meetings, seminars, the Silver Tea, Camp Joy, retreats, and many more things! Since it was built and furnished in the 60s, it does need routine maintenance and updates from time to time. The Silver Tea raises some money for upkeep but more is always needed. For over 100 years, Bonclarken has been a place to go to for worship, fellowship, retreats and conferences, relaxation and so much
more. The staff is always helpful, the activities are great and one usually leaves feeling refreshed and renewed in spirit. Youth are the future of our churches. We encourage them to attend youth retreats and conferences, but do we help them to raise money to pay for their attendance? In addition to our prayers for them, perhaps we could help them with projects to raise money like I heard of one church where the women bring desserts to the church suppers and the youth sell the desserts with the money going to youth trips and conferences.
Camp Joy has long been a wonderful part of summer activities at Bonclarken and now in several other states as well. It provides a week of camp for those with special needs. The campers have a great time, the counselors have a wonderful learning experience and it is something that the campers look forward to each year. Consider using your offering to contribute to a scholarship for a camper. Family Bible Conference is held in late July each year and is another agency that ARPWM supports. There are great speakers, lots of activities, good music, and interesting seminars for all ages! Encourage your church members to go. Pray for the FBC planners and speakers. Publicize it! World Witness is our agency that helps our missionaries to spread the Gospel in many lands. They also do short mission trips, plan
- fully! Does your church have a Missions Conference or a Missions night? Erskine College is our denomination’s college with a great staff of professors who provide a quality education for our children. Sup- porting Erskine helps more students to be able to attend. Does your church have an “Adopt a Student” program where you are a pen pal and send care packages to college students from your church? Home Missions can be any kind of local mission work in your area. Some ideas might include a backpack ministry to provide students who are on free lunch and breakfast with food for the weekends, collecting toiletry items for the homeless, a program to help Jubilee Birthday is an event to raise money for the support of two of our missionaries (also supported by ARPWM), Rebekah Car- son and Shelia Osborne. Many churches have events featuring cake to celebrate this event and money raised helps to support these two ladies. Retired missionaries receive a “Christmas bonus” from ARPWM with money received for our retired missionaries. It is a well-
Please consider supporting these groups in 2024, both
January February March April May June July
August
September October
November December
ARP Magazine
ONA (Outreach North America) Synodical Hall Bonclarken Youth
Camp Joy
Family Bible Conference World Witness Erskine College Home Missions Jubilee Birthday
Retired Missionaries November/December 2023 21
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