Recovery efforts still underway in Texas, A widowed missionary returns to the field; Being authentic will help your church reach young adults

Good News for Today

Texans on Mission chainsaw units continue working across Texas. Ten teams are working, including ones from Mississippi and Tennessee.

“The damage from Hurricane Beryl is severe and widespread,” said David Wells, disaster relief director for Texans on Mission. “This relief effort is a powerful picture of what it looks like when the body of Christ works together. We are delivering help, hope and healing in Christ’s name.”

The hurricane knocked out electricity to millions, leaving large portions of the region powerless for days. Without refrigeration and air conditioning, residents struggled to get food.

The Texans on Mission state feeding unit stepped up to the challenge. Waking up early in the morning, volunteers cooked more than 60,000 meals for Houstonians. They were distributed to 26 locations across the city, focusing on areas of particular need.

In conjunction with Texans on Mission, Sugar Land Baptist Church helped meet the needs of preschoolers across the city. The congregation put together roughly 3,500 sack lunches to distribute.

One of the meals was given to a woman who hadn’t eaten in two days. When she lost electricity, all the food in her refrigerator went bad. She’s elderly and doesn’t drive, so she was silently suffering.

“Christ cares about the suffering,” Wells said. “He commands his followers to meet needs and share God’s love with those who are hurting. That’s what the feeding team is doing.”

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Erica Patrick was called to international missions before she met her husband David, who also wanted to pursue ministry overseas. Together, they served in East Asia and raised their family overseas for almost 16 years before David died unexpectedly in 2020 at age 41. But Erica’s call to the nations remained.

In the days following David’s death, Erica returned to the words from Psalm 115 her husband had used to comfort her during an earlier season of suffering – “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever pleases him.”

After a season of grief, she felt led by God to return to the field.

“Daddy’s not with us,” Erica told her children. “But this is what God has called us to as a family, so we will keep going in that.”

Erica now serves in Taiwan with her three children. She has many roles – serving alongside the local church, teaching English as a Second Language classes, sharing the Gospel, discipling women in leadership and being a mother.

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How can your church reach young adults? Experts say be authentic.

Authenticity is the currency of young adults. More than 2 in 5 (45%) young people feel as if no one understands them. To reach them in our churches, we need to help them be noticed, named, and known just as Christ has done for us.

For your church to reach young adults, it must involve them in leadership, missions, and discipleship. The church exists today because it reached young adults in the past. Be encouraged that you and your church can reach and engage young adults.