Go Beyond

Our missions ministry welcomed the year 2020 with great expectations. The first two months of the year were busy as Kingsland teams served in Cambodia, Guatemala, India, and Egypt. Beyond these trips we had a full and busy year of travel scheduled.

I was especially excited to lead a team of men to Nepal in March to conduct the first of four global Men of Courage Summits designed to call men to embrace God’s vision for biblical manhood. Our partners were hard at work enlisting hundreds of men to participate in each of these strategic summits.

And then a novel coronavirus came along and changed everything. As the pandemic swept across the globe leaving devastation in its wake, it became apparent that we would have to cancel all international travel for the foreseeable future.

Our missions ministry immediately pivoted to begin meeting pandemic-related needs in our community and among the nations. As I often remind those who travel with us — you must be more than flexible because flexibility is still too stiff. You must instead be fluid and ready to adapt to whatever challenges come across our path.

One of the most significant initiatives we engaged in on the local front was to work with local partners to address food insecurity in the community of Brookshire. From March to November we helped to underwrite and staff 19 food distributions that blessed more than 450 families per distribution.

On the international front, we worked with our partners in India, Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Egypt to underwrite food distributions and provide personal protective equipment for the poor. And, we never missed a beat in regard to caring for those with whom we partner to engage with our sixteen adopted unreached people groups.

I could write much more about many other meaningful initiatives that we engaged in to care for people in need through this incredibly challenging year. Suffice it to say that I am thankful for the generosity of our Kingsland family whose gifts have enabled us to consistently move in the direction of people in need throughout 2020.

As we look to 2021, we are hopeful. We know that the coronavirus cannot infect our prayers for our international and domestic partnerships. Nor can it stop us from underwriting initiatives that enable our partners to care for people in need in their respective missional contexts. The coronavirus cannot kept the Word of God from bringing the spiritual healing and hope that many long for.

This week, Kingsland members will receive a copy of our 2021 missions ministry update in the mail. In the past this update has focused on our international work. This year we have included an overview of the domestic partnerships that enable us to move in the direction of people in need throughout the greater Houston area.

I encourage you to read and to use this report to fuel your prayers, inspire greater generosity, and spur you to love and serve others. Determine to live in such a way that when you look back on this difficult chapter of history you will rejoice that God used you to glorify Him by moving in the direction of people in need.