In Matthew 25, Jesus says: “In as much as you did it for one of the least of these my brothers, you did it for me.” Jesus is clear that sometimes it is more important to show his love than to talk about it. There are a number of directions that God has led the People of Peace, both locally and internationally, in which we primarily focus on showing the love of God in the Name of Jesus.
LOCALLY, we have served "the least" through North East Emergency Distribution (NEED) since its beginning in northeast Tarrant County. We have been involved with Care Corps to serve the elderly, to keep them living independently as long as is reasonably and safely possible. We have served the homeless in Tarrant County by volunteering at the Presbyterian Night Shelter, helping in any way we can. The Battered Women’s Shelter has annually in August held their "before school begins" I Can Still Shine day at Peace. These are single parent Moms and their children, who have experienced much difficulty, whom we have a chance to serve in ways they do not often experience.
INTERNATIONALLY, the story of Missions begins with our 25th Anniversary as a congregation in 1984. We received a 25th Anniversary Thank Offering designed to get our people more hands-on involved with Missions. For the first two years we went with another church in the area who had been going to Honduras, in Central America for several years. Then we branched out to begin focusing on meeting Optical and Dental needs. The summer of 2012 will be 26 years ago that this Mission to Honduras began. This summer the Optical Mission Trip will be July 5-12 and the Dental Mission Trip will be July 12-19. God continues to bless us so that we can be a blessing to the people of Honduras. The next place God called us to serve was in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Our High School Youth began a Mission Partnership with Cristo El Salvador Lutheran Church. Over almost 20 years, our youth and the adult that accompany them have been active on both sides of the river, even helping to establish a new Lutheran Church in Acuna. They actually built the first unit for this church, and followed with the construction of their first sanctuary where they currently worship. They have built homes on both sides of the river, done Vacation Bible School, and worked with as orphanage in Acuna.It was ten years ago that we began a relationship with Mission India, serving in India which is literally on the other side of the world. Our involvement has been primarily to support the work of Mission India in three area. The Mission India belief is that the only way to reach India for Christ is through indigenous Asia Indian people. We therefore support this Mission by enabling them to do a two year training program for Church Planters. It is amazing that each of the Church Planters during their two years will make at least 1200 contacts to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. That is 600 per year, and 50 contacts per month to share Jesus with many who are hearing this incredible Good News for the first time. With a population in India that is 50% illiterate, we also support literacy training, which enables an individual to get a better job and improve their health and family living situation..The third area of focus for this mission is on children. We support the Children’s Bible Clubs, which share the Good News of Jesus with thousands of children. They learn stories about Jesus, and songs about Jesus, and they leave to share the love of Jesus. It is the other side of the world, but it is great to be making a difference in the Name of Christ.
In any of these ways, or in others we have not yet discovered, we invite you to be engaged in intentional mission at the local level. What are you, your family, your friends doing together to grow in your Intentional Mission to those God has placed around us?
