The missional mindset is at the heart of Wheatland Salem’s soul. It radiates in every area of our ministry and 2013 was a banner year. Last year, our mission’s team was able to:
Deploy more people on short-term missions
o West Virginia (55)
o Costa Rica (7)
o Sierra Leone (1)
o Haiti (30)
o Poland (6)
Oversee a Faith Promise of $269,000 with over $186,000 received thru mid-November.
Support all ten of our long term missionaries completely (over $130K)
Fund and support a Rebuild Together Aurora home remodeling project
Collect food for the local food pantries and partnered with Hesed House for one night a month of service
Increase visibility of our missions activities through:
o Increased connection with Next Generation by jointly holding a missions fair during Faith Promise wek
o Continued the development of a quarterly email newsletter to Faith Promise givers, update the mission’s page, add video of this past summer’s short-term missions and post our short term missions application
o Updated the missions web page with blogs
The Missions team elected a new leadership team based on three years rotation and continues to invite more Wheatland Salem Church members to join the team.
Missions Ministry Opportunities for 2014
In the year ahead, we hope to do more of the same. Specifically, the Mission’s team hopes to:
Increase our partnerships by adding a couple missionaries (local and/or international) to our “A” support list
Increase awareness of our mission’s activities in the community through strategic placement of press releases, articles and the use of social media
Add more short term international trip offerings to Middle East, Paraguay and Tanzania
Begin creating strategic long-term partnerships to provide resources and supplies from outside the Wheatland Salem church body (local business, schools, grants, etc.)
Continue to refine the use of web-based technology to help organize and coordinate our local missional volunteer activities
Offer a family oriented short-term mission trip in the summer of 2014
To accomplish these goals, we have begun to pray for champions in each of these areas to lead, develop and administer the activities associated with its completion.