Acts 2 Offering – sharing everything we have with those in need

Acts 2 Offering – sharing everything we have with those in need (taking the offering on Sunday 29th March).

Firstly, we long to be able to support each other. As some of you come under extra stain and challenges, we want to try and be there.

Secondly, as this isn’t just a local challenge, it’s a national and international one, and we are connected, as a church, in a number of places – Albania, India, Kenya and Austria – we want to be able to support them too.

Details to give:

You can give online [here] or

Lloyds bank, Account name:  Manchester Vineyard. Sort code: 309091. Account number: 67880768 (please use the reference: Acts 2)

We’d like to take an Acts 2 offering to help.

Church will you join us? We’re not asking for ongoing pledges.

This is a one off offering to help us to be church to each other and serve those wider needs, in this particular crisis.

We are called to be people who share what we have.

Share our money with those in need.

And to throw ourselves onto God’s economy and trust Him to look after our own needs.

We’d ask that if you do join us in doing this, you do it as a gift on top of your normal tithes and offerings.

You can give via our website, you can give via a bank transfer (please use the reference Acts 2). You can also go to www.mvuk.org/Acts2 to find all the detail of what I’ve just shared.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord prompts you and in accordance with the resources He has blessed you with.

We want to be a people who give sacrificially but also freely. We serve a radically generous God who calls us to be a generous people. We give as an act of worship, not out of obligation or guilt, but as an overflow of our hearts.

In Luke 12:45, Jesus tells us that: ‘When someone has been given much, much will be required in return.’

Often God invites us to let go of the things we put our trust in and, instead, trust Him to provide for our needs in out-of-the-ordinary ways.

In our experience, over and over again, He has been so faithful to provide for us when we have made sacrifices to further the work of His Church and to extend His love to the world.

A portion of what is given will be sent to the four partners I mentioned a moment ago.

We hope that from what is given we’ll also have a fund to help and support some of you through this unprecedented time. Whilst we can’t create reliance, we can seek to step in with one off gifts and encouragements.

It’s time to be family like never before.

We’ve created a plan where Steph and Paul, along with Naomi who is one of our trustees, will seek to wisely distribute the gifts when and where we are aware of needs.

Much of it depends on what we collectively give but there may be days ahead where some of you fall on harder times and we might be able to provide a little encouragement.

We know this is a big ask in a time where there is so much uncertainty, but a scared world needs a fearless church that lives out its mandate and acts in generosity in a time where the opposite is on offer.

Details of international projects:

Albania:

Steve and Ruth Courtney facilitate multiple projects in Albania and have for many years. They say that the requests for help have been flooding in.

• In the best of times, food for many families is scarce.
• Hospital care is sparse, badly equipped and costly
• and drugs are very expensive, even paracetamol. These are frightening times.

India:

We also want to give to support our church family in India who say the panic of this virus is just beginning to creep in. When this hits families in extreme poverty this will have a devastating impact on whole communities, and in one of the poorest areas ,that is far from equipped to deal with a crisis like this.

Kenya:

In Kenya this is a deeply challenging time. Eddie who was with us last November is facing some remarkable challenges with the Vineyard church he leads there. We don’t want to share too much in a public setting like this but we are seeking to do all we can to support him and the church there in this time.

Austria:

In Austria we are supporting a new Vineyard church plant. They were hoping to launch Sunday’s today (22nd March) but now the whole country is in complete lock down and they are in a fragile stage, scrambling to move relationships online and rapidly support local people.