He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot
If you’ve never had the chance to read Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor and/or Steve Saint’s End of the Spear, I would highly recommend and strongly urge you to add both of these titles to your list. (End of the Spear was also made into a movie if that’s more your jam.) Both works are the accounts of five young missionaries—Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian—who, along with their families, obediently followed God’s calling into the jungles of Ecuador. There, they would make the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives so that the Waodani (Auca) people might come to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After watching their husbands and fathers brutally murdered, several of the wives and children returned to the region to complete the calling God had placed on their lives. It is a story that is almost too amazing to be true. But it is. Giving and going.
As we look forward to our time together tonight, these are two calls to action to prayerfully consider as WE obediently follow God in fulfilling the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
Toward the conclusion of her story, Elisabeth Elliot writes:
I have one desire now – to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it.
Oh, that it may be said of us as well, Church Family, that we live lives of reckless abandon for the Lord!
As you prayerfully consider giving to our Acts 1:8 Missions Budget, we wanted to provide a simple overview of how those monies will be invested in Kingdom work:
Acts 1:8 Missions Budget
30% Convictions and Commitments Beyond the Annual Budget
- Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (imb.org)
- SEND Relief (sendrelief.org)
- Mission: Dignity (guidestone.org/Mission-Dignity)
- Acts 1:8 Summit 2025 (November 5 – 9)
30% LOCAL Partnerships & Opportunities to Serve
- Essential Pregnancy Center
- It is Finished
- Live2Give
- and several others…
40% GLOBAL Trips, Partners, & Opportunities to Serve
- Ringgold, Georgia
- Dominican Republic
- Juarez, Mexico
- among others…