SERVING thru BRCC around the world …

• Strong Foundation – serving the homeless in San Antonio. How can you be involved?

• Orphanage in Mexico – serving orphans in a very under-resourced part of the world. There are five trips planned this year. Why not come along? During the December 27, 2006 trip we delivered 170 pairs of shoes to the children at Casa Hogar and the children from the Sierras.

• Abandoned kids in Moldova – serving children who have been abandoned or orphaned. Would you consider going international this year?

• South Africa – the needs in Africa are huge. This year we have a group planning a trip in July 2007 to serve an orphanage in Swaziland, Africa. Are you daring enough to consider a trip like this?

• Leadership Development in Brazil and Moscow – our church is responsible to serve church leaders in several cities in Brazil in partnership with our friends from the Willow Creek Association in Chicago. Last year about 3000 Brazilian pastors and leaders were impacted greatly. For the first time in history about 1000 pastors in Russia crossed denominational barriers, buried prejudices and came together to learn how to be more effective leaders. YOU HAD A PART by sending several pastors and lay leaders.

• HIV/AIDS – this past year Pastor Doug Robins, Elder Bob Parman and I traveled to Southern California for the second annual HIV/AIDS conference led by Rick and Kay Warren. As a result, we’ve dedicated 2007 to explore how BRCC might participate in serving those who are either dying of AIDS or those orphaned by AIDS. America is vastly unaware that HIV/AIDS is destroying a whole continent. In Lusaka, Zambia, for instance, there are no more places to bury the dead. One church in Soweto, South Africa conducts between 10-20 funerals every week. Orphaned children number into the millions and it is getting worse. The stats are staggering. The world has never seen anything like this. We must do something. Pray for us as we seek God’s guidance. Pastor Doug and Elder Bob Parman will help us understand what we can do.

• Local Social Action - other than the Strong Foundation, the above serving opportunities are international. BRCC also has a vast array of local opportunities to serve people with huge needs here in San Antonio. What has God called you to do? Where should you participate? My job is to inspire, teach and equip (train) you to BE THE CHURCH wherever God tells you to go, doing whatever God tells you to do.

We are not the biggest church in the world. We are not the best, richest, smartest, most effective, etc. But one thing we are: WE ARE DEDICATED TO MAKE A DIF! God called us to be faithful and obedient. I am grateful to lead a church who is willing to follow God’s leading in serving the needs here in San Antonio and then to the remotest parts of the world.

David Saathoff

     -David Saathoff