This Sunday at Woodland Church we were privileged to hear from our missionary to the Netherlands, Beth Gyorke and listen to a message by Greg Mundis, AGWM Europe Regional Director for 458 missionaries.
Beth served in our youth ministries at Woodland and was employed by the Lear Corporation until she accepted the opportunity to work with university students at the Free University in the Netherlands. While volunteering with the ministry at the University, she attended the local church in Leiden and studied and successfully completed her Dutch language studies. Now she is returning with a lifetime commitment to serve as a missionary and work with university students.
If you are a part of Woodland Church, please pray about supporting Beth monthly. This Sunday we will be giving you an opportunity to become a part of her monthly support team. If you would like more information, please contact Woodland Church.
Greg talked about the influence and power for good of the local church. I appreciated his passion and love for the local church. He shared a brief story about a congregation in Bosnia Herzegovina. An area of the world that he said a semblance of peace was maintained due to the presence of U.N. Peacekeepers. Regarding the tenuous situation, a local official said that the only place where true peace was to be found was in the local Pentecostal Church.
Greg went on to say the only way to peace was through the change of a heart and only God can change our hearts. If there is no peace in our hearts there will be no peace in the world. He wrapped up his message with five points that I will leave you with. For a church to achieve the good that God has called it to do it must have a:
1. Passion to do something for God.
2. Prayer will feed that passion.
3. Purpose to effect that change.
4. Power from the Holy Spirit.
5. Partners to serve with.
You can learn more about his work at www.eyeoneurope.org
For more on foreign missions, I would suggest reading the excellent book
From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker.
Blessings!
DEC
Coram Deo 
I can’t thank Woodland enough for their continuous encouragement and support over the years! I am blessed to call Woodland “home”!
It was so great to hear from these 2 people on Sunday! It was inspiring and made me realize how much of a difference one local church can have on the world!
We’re looking forward to hearing from Beth in Baldwin. And one of my favorite things about the A/G is the ‘grassroots’ structure of missions. Raising support is hard and missionaries have my sympathy and prayers, but I love the fact that my daughters are in a church where they get the chance to interact with missionaries on a regular basis. I pray that God uses that contact to plant the passion in their hearts.