On March 6th I am leaving for Mali and I am so excited. My family and I have been at CCC for over two years now and while there is a lot going on at CCC, few things seem to excite our people more than the work going on in Mali.

In fact we have a team in Mali right now that gets back on Feb 27th. If you want to read the daily blog entries for this team, go to this link and start reading about the amazing work going on there.

http://cccstm.blogspot.com/2010/02/mali-team-update-feb-25.html

Nick Kelly (our Communications Director) and I will be traveling with half a dozen other Alliance Pastor’s and some leaders from the Alliance headquarters. The purpose of the trip is to develop a new vision for ministry in Mali now that the hospital construction project will be finished this fall.

There will no doubt be continued opportunity to minister at and through the hospital, but what is God calling us to next? Should we be involved in training national Pastors? Should we be involved in Alliance church planting efforts? Should we be looking for more humanitarian projects like digging wells and helping to feed those in poverty? Should we be involved in the Alliance ministry that is working to take teenage prostitutes off the street? Maybe the answer is Yes to all of these, or Yes to a few of these – only God knows right now.

I will share one other thought with you that has been going through my mind. Pastor Mark often talks about the vision to reach the entire city of Omaha for Christ. As I have been more and more exposed to the work of the Alliance in Mali, I’m starting to wonder if God is laying that same vision for Mali on the hearts of CCC and the Alliance. Just like Mark preaches last week, we have a huge God who can and will do huge things, but its often our small view of the God that keeps us from having visions like these.

I will make sure to update my blog while I am in Mali from March 6 – 15.

Last Sunday Pastor Mark shared with the congregation the final results of our first ever Missions Catalog here at CCC. I thought it was pretty cool listening to him talk about the people that were impacted by your generous giving. So I thought it would be a good idea if over the next several weeks I shared more details with you about that impact.

This Sunday, sign up for the Spring Men’s Elective The Quest for Authentic Manhood. This seven-week elective focuses on the primary issues that shape a man’s life, explores the biblical concept of manhood and provides building blocks for any man to construct for himself a nobler, more satisfying manhood.

This elective starts Sunday, March 7 at 9 AM and sign up is required, online at www.cccomaha.org or call Curt Hofer at 468.4367 or 510.2777.