Dear Friends,

It is wonderful to see the members and friends of Grace Baptist put their faith into action every fall both here in our church and in our community. Many thanks to our team leaders and to all who gave of their time and talents to make this year’s FIA weekend a success.

Above all, thank you to Betty Helpa who once again lined up the projects and the people with diligence and faith. She took the FIA program out of my hands more than eight years ago when I became ill and was hospitalized. She’s done a better job with the project than I ever could and I have happily watched her use her gifts and enthusiasm to keep this effort going in a very positive way all these years.

Once again we have demonstrated that we can truly make a difference in our community for the sake of Christ when we commit ourselves to ministry and service. To be sure, we must seek more and more to make FIA a way of life and not just a yearly project. For as Christians, our faith in Christ defines who we are and how we should live.

As the Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians, we live by our faith and we live for Christ; all because of His precious sacrifice. Admittedly though, there are times when we forget this important truth. We are all susceptible to those moments of spiritual lows, regardless of how long we’ve been Christians or our individual levels of faith. There are times when we neglect our call to serve and aren’t inspired by our faith to reach out and to make a difference. Thus, we need to be reminded of what it means to put our faith into action. We need to remember to be living testimonies for Jesus Christ through the way we live out our beliefs. Once again, our Faith in Action weekend has provided that reminder and called us to adopt a lifestyle of service.

I am proud of what we were able to accomplish through FIA this year and I pray that as individuals and as a church we will continue to find new ways to put our faith into action and to reach out for the sake of Christ.

In His Service,

Pastor George Hawthorne