Dear Friends of InFaith Northwest Oregon,

 AN INVITATION
The annual meeting of our Sunday School Fellowship churches is just a few weeks away, March 22 at 10 AM at Carver Church.   Soon many of your leaders will be receiving a letter from SSF president Seth Lewis, encouraging each church to send two voting delegates to the gathering.  There we will share updates on the Lord’s work through the Fellowship over the past year and vote on new board members to carry on this important work of ministry.  For those of you who may not already know, Sunday School Fellowship works to assist InFaith, offering zero interest loans to churches, missionaries and pastors to help with various aspects of their ministry.  It also administers a Pastors’ relief fund to help with unforeseen situations; works directly with the area missionary to put on our annual Advance conference on the Oregon coast; and over many decades has helped churches grow by holding title to some church property and buildings.  Sunday School Fellowship is made up of churches helping churches and we would like your community of Christ to be involved.  Please check with your church leaders to make sure your delegates will be joining us…and maybe you could volunteer to represent your congregation this year!

AN OBSERVATION
I just looked at my calendar this morning and realized our ministry is making a spring surge!  While I am usually free on short notice to help relieve pastors in their preaching duties, that “short notice” idea will have to be suspended for a while!  Praise God, my Sunday speaking schedule is already filled through the end of April…but I still may be able to find a guest speaker for you from time to time, so please don’t hesitate to call.

 AN EXPEDITION
Outside of my work with the twenty different InFaith: Northwest Oregon fellowship churches, I occasionally get called upon to advise other congregations.  That will be happening again in the end of March, as Caroline and I travel to Dayville in Central Oregon.  There we will be working with Central Oregon Area Missionary Dan Morse as he advises two small fellowships that are considering seeking a InFaith “missionary-pastor.”  I know of one pastor in our Northwest Oregon field who is just beginning the application process for that very type of position.  A  missionary-pastor with InFaith shepherds one or more church congregations, serving as their pastor as his primary duty as an InFaith missionary.  This model has been used in the past to help numerous churches whose finances were not enough to support a full-time pastor, but who saw the need for a leader in their efforts to share the gospel in the communities.  If you are called to serve as a missionary-pastor, or are interested having a missionary-pastor serve your church, please give me a call at 971-645-2777.

A CELEBRATION AND EDUCATION
Also this month, Caroline and I will be attending InFaith’s “Refresh” conference, March 24-27 in Georgia.  It is a great opportunity to worship and learn alongside dozens of other missionaries and their family members, but it also offer a chance for me to have face-to-face meetings with members of the InFaith Home Office staff and give them a better view of what the Lord is doing in our part of Oregon.

And we will still be meeting with many of you this month…
March 13 – 10 AM       Portland Pastors Prayer at Woodland Park Chapel
March 18 – 3 PM         NW Fellowship (location TBD)
March 19 – 9 AM         Sandy Fellowship Breakfast at Tollgate Inn       

Lord willing, more details on these events will be in next week’s memo.  Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you strong in the power of His Spirit, and the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to come!

Tom Hiscox, NW Oregon Area Missionary thiscox@infaith.org