Dear BCOC Family & Friends,
As we begin 2018, our hearts have been stirred and encouraged with what we hear the Lord speaking. We’ve heard Him speak clearly that we are to move forward in faith and love deeply with our eyes fixed on Jesus not letting yesterday’s mistakes, failures or disappointments define who we are (Hebrews 11). We’ve heard Him declare that this is the year of, “Holy Ghost and Fire”, where we will see the gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit flowing through the church like never before (Luke 3:16, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, & Galatians 5:22-23). We’ve begun the year taking time to see what the scriptures say about heaven and learning the importance of living with an eternal perspective. We’ve been experiencing the tangible presence of God in our weekly services like never before as we gather in corporate praise and worship. We are seeing Jesus and He is indeed changing us from glory to glory!
We want to take a moment to thank you with all our hearts for hearing from heaven and choosing to be a part of His church. Thank you for becoming a vital part of this family, a real family who cares about each other’s needs. Thank you for building relationships and not quitting when it got tough. Thank you for praying, loving, giving your time to serve countless hours not only inside the church walls but also in our numerous community and worldwide outreaches, and giving of your finances. We want to take just a moment to highlight a few of the things BCOC has been able to be a part of because of your generous contributions.
In 2017, we gave over $13,000 to those in our community who were in crisis, supported the Bastrop Food Pantry, Bastrop Pregnancy Center, Children’s Advocacy Center, Teen Challenge, and Hope House. We gave $10,000 to Austin Disaster Relief in response to Hurricane Harvey and sent a team to Beaumont, Texas in October to help a local church re-build after the hurricane. We partnered with Keith & Nancy Norman of Unshackled Ministries, who ministered in 89 state prisons and preached to over 8,000 inmates, saw over 2,000 salvations, 1,989 rededications and 60 inmates receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
In China, we helped care for special need orphans at Migyeong’s, “Dream Home.” We sent teams to Big Heart Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico assisting with food distribution in the colonias along the canal and garbage dumps, bringing gifts and celebrating Christmas with twenty-five, precious Big Heart children. We started a pig farm in Southeast Asia to help Love Bosom, one of our children’s homes, become self-sustaining. We helped Vision Beyond Borders carry Bibles into closed countries and sent relief supplies to refugees in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. We also helped VBB provide a safe home and education for over 700 orphaned and needy children in Myanmar, Nepal, India and Thailand and provided medical care, food and spiritual support to sex trafficking victims in the brothels of Pune, India.
Your giving helped send Pastor Scott and Maureen in March 2017 to Southeast Asia to minister to orphans in five different homes in three different cities and teach a Bible seminar to leaders who traveled for several days from remote villages to be strengthened and encouraged in their faith. You should have seen their faces when they dipped their feet into the Indian Ocean for the very first time in their lives! Dressed in their handmade straw hats, they were like little children giggling with delight as they played and splashed in the water inside the safety of their inner tubes.
All of this and much more was accomplished because of you. We did this together. We are an army of believers, a group of men, women, teens and children who are walking side by side for the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us continue to, “run the race that is set before us” with great joy (Hebrews 12:1-2). Let’s look away from all those things that come our way to distract us from our real, true purpose and do great, extraordinary things in this coming year.
You are loved by,
Pastor Scott & Maureen, Pastor Tony & Mary and Pastor Joan
P.S.
If we haven’t seen you in a while, come see us this week. We meet on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. Our Sunday services are also being live streamed on Facebook live. We look forward to seeing you soon!