Greetings in the name of our great Savior & Lord!
So much has transpired since our last update in June. Everyone on our Staff & Board of Directors wants to keep you up to date with the developments of this great work.
First, we want to let you know that we have made our first eBook available! We released A Family Affair written by our co-founder Adele McFarland on July 29. In 1976, Adele wrote from her heart about the early years of the work of Mission Services. This ministry was, and continues to be, a family affair. At one point in the early days, the McFarland family (our founders) and the McGilvrey family (a family of vital importance to the development of MSA) lived in one house with the operation of Mission Services occurring in the basement!
The book has been out of print for some time, and it was our desire to share the story with new people just getting to know this ministry. Adele and her family were happy to hear of this possibility and quickly gave us permission to proceed. As Adele wrote in the preface, “This is a very personal story. This is because Mission Services was a very real part of our personal lives….Just as God used us to bring into being the work and influence of Mission Services, He used Mission Services to enhance our lives and give meaning to our being alive and wanting to expend our energies within His will.” If you would like to get an idea of how Mission Services became an information and communication ministry focused on world mission, you will want to read this book. It is available at no charge, and may be downloaded as a PDF at http://bit.ly/153nRDH.
Second, our Board of Directors and Executive Committee appointed Wayne Murphy and Stevan McClure to work with the Executive Director to examine, reaffirm. or restate our ongoing mission and vision statements, our core values and our goals for the next five years. Each of these steps are submitted to the full Board for comment and will be formally adopted at our meeting in September. Please pray for everyone involved to be guided by God’s will and wisdom! This is an arduous but invigorating task that is vital to keeping us on track as a ministry. These statements will serve as our guide as we encounter new opportunities and challenges as a ministry. It is encouraging that GuideStar, which gave us their seal of approval for ministry transparency, will give us their “Gold Level” seal upon completion of this process.
Finally, pray for the ongoing work we do. Printed newsletters and printed communication is used less frequently in this current environment, but MANY missionaries and ministries continue to come to us for assistance in printing and mailing. It is wise to continue to send newsletters, and we continue to provide top quality service at subsidized prices. At the same time, the work of the missions network continues growing at a rate surprising to most. During July, individuals turned to this work of Mission Services more than 8,500 times each day to learn about God’s work in world mission! Once again, people from more than 105 nations around the world were served by the network. We provide all our unique services because our supporters make this ministry possible!
Thanks for allowing us to serve the Kingdom via communication! Remember to “like” us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/msa1946) and follow us on Twitter (@MSA1946)! Whenever we share news from missionaries or ministries on our websites, we use Social Media to spread the news.
Praying for more to be His,
Reggie Hundley, Executive Director
Mission Services Association, Inc.
the missions network
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