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H ere at Woodland, we support the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) offering by providing envelopes of

different amounts so each person who attends Woodland can participate. Children can take a $1 (or more) envelope and participate. Students can

take mid-range amounts. And adults can take the larger amounts. Our goal is not only $40,000 but also for every person at Woodland to participate.

T he Cooperative Baptist Fellowship engages in three primary contexts: Global Poverty, Global Migration,

and the Global Church, spreading the love of Christ in 30 countries across the globe. Through the work of CBF field

We can share hope everyday, wherever we are. Here are some specific ways you can be “hope in action.”

Laredo Mission Trip—Christmas in the Barrio—Sat. Dec. 10 See ar ticle on page 4 and contact Lance Mayes.

Financial Peace University—9 weeks starting January 8. $49 per couple. Contact Phil Sagebiel or see WBC web site.

Mission Trip to Macedonia—June 17-27, 2017. See article on page 3.

ESL -- Christmas break is Dec. 9th through Jan. 10th. See article on p. 4. Web site: woodlandbc.org/esl

San Antonio Rescue Mission -- Woodland cooks and serves a meal every 3rd Friday. See Darren & Vaughan Ballinger. Next meal is December 16th — Join us!

Fall 2016 Issue 5

Hope in Action

Missions & Ministries Committee, Woodland Baptist

Harvest Tree — WBC Missions Newsletter

Habitat for Humanity House Complete

O ur 10th Habitat for Humanity build started September 24 and the construction phase

ended on November 5. The landscaping was completed on the morning of November 19 followed by the home dedication. Our family is thrilled that they will occupy their new home with their 5 month old baby before Christmas. Our family put in over 300 hours of sweat equity. They qualified for their mortgage with Habitat. They will pay a monthly mortgage payment to Habitat over 20 years. No interest is charged on the mortgage and no profit is included in the price of the house. Their monthly payment including taxes and insurance will be about $550 — real affordable housing.

A ngelo and Lee are refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and never believed they could

own a home in America. Even better, they

Continued on page 4

Offering for Global Missions

Continued on page 3

Please check out our new Missions bulletin board in the Information Center as you enter the sanctuary from Maresh Hall.

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Excerpt from November e-mail: The Body of Christ is a wonderful organism with all its various peoples in diverse places endowed with all their many gifts to serve a living Savior, Jesus Christ...Here in Cambodia, Noy and I train church leaders using the Bible Training Center for Pastors materials to give pastors and church leaders the tools they need to do their work productively. We teach the Bible’s timeless truths to families and small Christian fellowships

whether in town or out in the country. The settings are usually informal and our students are laborers and farmers who hunger for the spiritual nourishment of Scripture. We travel within the province of Siem Reap where we live and beyond it to proclaim the Good News of salvation to those who haven’t yet heard. Although Cambodia occupies only a small niche in a big world, its people are precious in God’s sight. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has caught that vision and sees what God sees in the people of Cambodia. For that reason

CBF has seen fit to place us and the Basses as the first CBF missionaries here. Thank you for enabling us to do the small things that make a big

difference to the people of this faraway part of the world! Contact Peelers at bill.noy.peeler@worldpersonnel.org.

Missionary Spotlight

Below are updates on families WBC supports—Peelers , Hansens, Lees and Sherins,.

Bill and Noy Peeler: Cambodia

Excerpt from Nov. FB post: It was great to visit with you this summer. This past year has been very busy. We have continued work with refugees at the transit camps on the border and increased work with asylum seekers here in Skopje. We partnered with the Jesuit Refugee Services to serve in the government operated asylum center to provide shelter for people seeking asylum in Macedonia. We have expanded the “cow bank” project. Through

fundraising efforts, we increased the herd to 15 cows. We have loaned out 4 calves and seek to loan out 6 more. We are currently fundraising to be able to pay for solar

panels for the farm. We still have a partnership with the Food Bank of Macedonia. We started working with a private orphanage called Immanuel House, helping complete the building of a home for children. They want to use biblical principles to teach children in a home setting. Your prayer and support make these ministries possible. We are excited that a small group from your church will be coming next year. facebook.com/PartnershipMacedonia

The Lee Family: Macedonia

Excerpt from Nov. e-mail: We enjoyed our home assignment in the US and were especially encouraged by our time with the Woodland Baptist Church family. We returned to Kijabe, Kenya in late August when Amanda and the children began a new school year and Erik returned to work at Kijabe Hospital. Erik is currently training doctors from Cameroon, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo and Kenya. During the week of November 28th, all the previous pediatric surgery trainees gathered in Kijabe for a weeklong spiritual and educational retreat. Please pray for Edmond Ntaganda from Rwanda who will be taking his oral certification exams the first week of December. We pray that you all have a blessed holiday season and we give thanks for your generosity and love. towards us. amanda.k.hansen@gmail.com The Hansens : Kenya

Excerpt from Nov. e-mail: In Fort Thompson, on the Crow Creek Reservation, we continue to work with Hunkpati Investments, Tokata Youth Center, and Diamond Willow Ministries. We are using the Lakota books here also to build relationship with the community and school administration. We have participated in several community meetings in Fort Thompson as they meet with architects from Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative. This architectural firm is featured on the PBS Show “Native American Green: New Directions in Tribal Housing.” You can view it online at naturalheroes.org/videos/native-american-green/. Two architects from this firm are meeting with community

members to discuss and design plans for a culturally sensitive, environmentally sustainable housing development. Here is the image of one prototype that incorporates the Sioux tipi design. All designs are very neat looking homes that the community can be proud of culturally and environmentally. See sustainablenativecommunities.org/ Ashworth Road Baptist Church in West Des Moines has been vital in connecting these architects with the community. They have hired the architects and are

donating the funds for the building of the first prototype home in the new development. We are hopeful that it will be a model of support that we can duplicate. ksherin2@gmail.com

The Sherins: South Dakota

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Habitat House Completed (continued)

know that their mortgage payments will be used to build a home for another family willing to partner with Habitat. Our house was number 990 for Habitat for Humanity of SA, which is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. The first house in 1976 took two years to build. This house was built in two months and typically 50 to 60 homes are built annually.

Thank you to our co-sponsors of the house at Coker United Methodist. They provide over half of the funding and a lot of volunteers. Thank you to dozens of Woodland members who participated in the work. Our family’s lives are changed forever thanks to all of you.

W oodland is going to Macedonia in June 2017 to serve alongside Jeff and Alicia Lee, CBF Field Personnel. This will be a varied experience of working with

refugees and adults with developmental delays, worshipping in an international church, serving with the Macedonia Food Bank, experiencing the culture of Macedonia, and more. We will be challenged in our traditional thoughts and be-liefs about mission. We will dive deep into dis-cipleship by thinking critically about mission practice, the theological foundation of this prac-tice, and how it relates to Woodland and our community.

WHEN? June 17 through 27, 2017

HOW MUCH? The all-inclusive investment (except for personal expenses like souvenirs) is $2800. woodlandbc.org/Macedonia

Join us for this amazing opportunity!

Lance and group in Macedonia

Mission Trip to Macedonia

E mily Richardson, daughter of member Laurie Richardson, is currently in Thailand on a five

month mission trip called World Race, and asks for prayer. Emily has already partici-pated in a year-long World Race. (www.worldrace.org)

Adventures in Missions- The World Race Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe. Emily left in October and will return in March, spend-ing one month in each country. Follow her blog at emilyrichard-

son.theworldrace.org; Her prayer requests: Encoun-ters with the people we meet around the world and they are impacted by Christ through us; Radical life changes in the squad I am leading and they find their only desire in Christ; To be fully funded.

Emily Richardson’s Adventures in Missions

Christmas Concert Proceeds go to work in Uganda

O n Sunday evening, December 18, the offering for WBC’s Christmas concert, “The Glory of Christmas”

will go to the work of Francis and Missy Angalla with Re-storing Voices Ministry in Kampala, Uganda. Restoring

Voices helps to nurture and develop musical and artistic abilities in Ugandan refugees. Through teaching art, dance and music, refugees can devel-op their talents and experience God’s restorative hope and grow into their full potential.

Learn more at this web site:

RestoringVoices.com

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W oodland’s mission education program for children 3rd to 6th grades has transitioned from a weekly

program meeting on Wednesday evenings to a once a month program on the first Sunday of each month during the Sunday School hour. We are excited about the change and the opportunity to introduce children who are unable to come on Wednesday evenings to our missions pro-gram. We call the program Missions First. We launched our new program in August with a lesson entitled God’s People Share, Here, There and Every-where. During the 15 years of our weekly Wednesday evening program we were known by the name of CBF Kids. Since redirecting the program to the Sunday morn-ing schedule, we have begun to refer to ourselves as GPS Kids. We continue to learn ways our CBF personnel share their faith within the communities they live and ways we can share our faith where we live. This is the basis of our children’s mis-sion education program and we are excited with our new name, GPS Kids. We incorporate social studies, geography, and history in our studies of where our CBF Field personnel serve around the world. We use videos and food...we have a focal Bible story/passage each month that relates to our missional theme for the month. In September we were in Haiti with Jenny Jenkins. Jenny is a nurse whose work focuses on a medical clinic, widow’s group and educa-tion. In October we were in Miami with Angel and Jason Pittman and Wanda Ashworth Valencia learning about Touching Miami With Love and Open House Ministries. In November we learned about Mary van Rheenen and Keith Holmes, who live in the Netherlands where they are working to translate the Bible into print and audio in major Romany languages so the Romany can understand God’s Word in their own languages. (by Cheryl Sharp)

W oodland Students are actively on mission! They sponsor Geraldin,

through Compassion International. She is from Colombia and is in the 9th grade. The students made jar mixes to sell at

the Fair Trade Market to add to the funds they contribute reg-ularly. Their next goal is to buy a dairy cow for the Aya Farm in Mace-donia.

Students on Mission

Missions First

personnel and Together for Hope, CBF’s rural poverty initiative, Cooperative Baptists are bringing renewal to God’s world through ministries that transform lives and extend the hope of Christ.

T he CBF Offering for Global Missions is the primary source of support ensuring the long-term

presence of field personnel around the world. It provides funding for salaries, benefits, housing costs and for children’s educational needs. The CBF Offering engages many churches and

individuals in faith and action through giving, Bible Study, prayer, mission projects and celebration.

(Information is from the CBF web site: www.cbf.net/missions/ogm)

Offering for Global Missions (continued)

ESL Update by Diana Bridges

T he fall has seen a great mix of new and returning students, teachers, and conversation group leaders.

Thanks to Mary Johns and her friend, Cindy Dellenback, many of our advanced students have been able to re-ceive help each week refining their pronunciation. To-gether we’ve celebrated birthdays, carved pumpkins, worked on Woodland’s Habitat house, and prepared Wednesday night supper. We have learned about volun-teerism in our city and have students serving the com-munity in public schools, at the Humane Society, and Haven for Hope. There’s always some staff turnover from semester to semester, so if you’d like to see the world in the eyes of our neighbors, please consider join-ing us in the spring. For more information, contact me at diana.bridges@gmail.com.

Christmas in the Barrio

December 10, 9:00 am - 8:30 pm

W e will be helping Emanuel Baptist and all their home churches in celebrat-

ing Christmas at the Villa del Rio apartments. We will assist with crafts, making and serving pizzas, give-a-ways, and sharing the Christmas story. We hope you and your family plan to join us this year in Laredo!

woodlandbc.org/laredo-partnership