 Hello !
It's been awhile but I hope you are all doing well! There has been a lot going on with GoCorps so I thought it was time for an update! The GoCorps staff was able to gather in person for our annual Staff Retreat in January! It was a great time to focus on what God has in store for GoCorps for 2022 and beyond. On February 22, we announced that GoCorps is partnering with the Urbana Missions Conference. If you haven't already seen our announcement video you can see it here. But Mike...what have YOU been doing? Good Question! I have been able to do a little bit of everything since my last newsletter! While my main role with GoCorps is in Operations, I get to put on my mobilization shoes and visit college campuses and talk with students and faculty. Here are some highlights:
Starting April 24th, GoCorps is having its 3rd annual Walk Week.This year we'll be sharing 7 stories of Goers who are serving overseas and sharing 7 ways you can pray for your neighborhood and the world. I'd love to have you participate with me! Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. Some things you can definitely be praying about are:
Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Please know that I try to keep all fo you in my prayers as well. Let me know of any specific ways that I can be lifting you up in prayer. Mike & Jackie Olivia, Eden, & Brielle John 15 is one of GoCorps’ core passages. Every year at GoWeek, we share a devotional with the Goers about the importance of abiding in the vine. We share this because as Goers begin their journey in ministry, It’s easy to let the ministry aspect of their lives be obfuscated with their prayer life and personal relationship with Christ. It’s a core passage that we encourage Goers to read each month they are on the field to remind themselves to that no fruit and life can come if we are not living and connected to the vine. It’s a reminder I think all of us need from time to time! I know that personally, as the worries of the world and the weariness that comes from this time as the pandemic is entering its third year, I need to be reminded to consider if I am abiding in the vine! Our next big thing: The GoCorps 100 Yesterday (2-22-22), at 2:22pm, we did a fun Facebook Live event where we unveiled a brand new partnership with the Urbana Mission Conference! Urbana has been the standard bearer of collegiate global missions conferences since the 1940s. Every 3 years, over 10,000 students gather for 5 days of speakers, missions exhibitors, workshops and scripture study, all centered on helping students discern their place in God’s global mission. For many years, it was said that over 41% of all American missionaries pointed to their Urbana experience as central reason for their being on the mission field. So, it is with great excitement that we announce that Urbana has decided to make mid-term missions and 2 year global placements the central part of their mobilization and messaging in the 2022 conference happening Dec 28-31, 2022! And they’ve asked GoCorps to take the central role of enlisting conference attendees to begin their journey to the nations. Together, we hope to see over 3000 students make a commitment to pursue a mid-term commitment and we hope to see at least 100 students find a way to serve through GoCorps beginning at the conference and getting to the field in 2023! This new partnership is going to be a game changer for GoCorps! We can’t wait to see it all come together and we’re glad you’re on this journey with you! GoCorps on your Phone! Last week we started using an app to send texts directly to your phone! Did you get a couple nexts from GoCorps with links to videos of me? If not, then please tell us your mobile # by filling out this form and we’ll make sure you get opted into future texts. We anticipate sending updates and stories, announcements and other ‘breaking news’ in this way. You can expect 2 or 3 texts a month as a way to stay connected with what God’s doing through our Goers and ministry partners! Walk Week Team Captains - Sign Up Now! Walk Week 2022 is happening on April 24-30. We are looking for 50 people to sign up to be a team captain and recruit a team from they church or friends and family! Team Captains are the backbone of Walk Week, committing to recruit others to be a part of this unique prayer and fundraising event! Watch this video to learn about being a team captain, and please fill out this form if you want to sign up to be a captain or send me an email to find out more! Together for God's Global Work, Paul Van Der Werf President and CEO  Greetings from GoCorps! We recently had our first in-person staff gathering for a time of spiritual retreat and to begin planning for the year ahead. We were so grateful to have no issues with travel and no COVID complications as our 9 staff and a few spouses flew in to Minnesota from Alabama, Texas, Virginia, Michigan and Indiana. It was tons of fun to be together, play games, walk on a lake and experience Minnesota in the wintertime together! Needless to say, we were very grateful for a big fireplace in the cabin where we gathered!
Sanctification and Glory The theme for our time together was ‘Prepared in Advance for Great Things.’ We were blessed to have one of our Goer alum be our special speaker and share a series of devotionals on this topic. The key lesson that he taught was that whenever God does great things in our world and through his followers, and we can always find these fruits: his people are sanctified and God is glorified. As we enter into 2022, we are expecting God to do great things in calling this generation to see a different way and to give themselves with wholehearted abandon to his purposes. And it’s a great reminder that God wants to be sanctifying us as he’s using us. Check out this fun video. One of our staff, Melody, is also a talented dancer and dance instructor, and she had a vision to make a video of the staff team singing one of our favorite worship songs with her worshipping through dance. Of course, it was in Minnesota in January, so the setting of the dancing is pretty epic! Year-End Giving Praise We were excited to have a faithful donor to GoCorps give a special challenge grant to encourage others to give generously at year end. And we are equally excited to report that your giving helped us surpass the goal and end up with $28,000+ given for year end. That means we met the match threshold and will receive the $22,000 challenge match. This puts us in a strong position as we launch our GoCorps 100 initiative next month. Stay tuned! Praise God and Pray with Us
What’s Ahead!
Together for God's Global Work, Paul Van Der Werf President and CEO  Hello Valley Christian Church,
Christmas is a time of celebration, but it’s also a time of reflection. There’s a passage in Philippians which is sort of the shortest version of the Christmas story. Philippians 2:5-11 shares with us about the incarnation. Everything is different because of God coming to earth. The older I get, and in these times of COVID and other uncertainties, it is so good to look back and reflect on God’s coming to earth as one of us, and changing everything, then, now and forever! Besides reflecting on the incarnation, I love this time of year because I get to look back at what God has done through GoCorps in the last year, and the picture that immediately comes to mind is YOU. It is YOUR faces that flash through my mind, because I know that each of you reading this and watching the video greeting below are the ones who are the GoCorps team, the ones who make the day to day work of GoCorps a reality! With gratitude and joy, Paul Van Der Werf President and CEO CLICK HERE OR ON IMAGE ABOVE FOR VIDEO
|
MISSION &
|
RSS Feed
Connect with us!
Services: Sunday at 9:45am
Office Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 9am to 2pm
|
|
|
Address20270 Iberia Avenue, Lakeville 55044
Mailing Address: PO Box 770, Lakeville, MN 55044 |
Telephone952-431-5858
|
|