We have a CLEAR VISION!!!

Well actually what I mean is we reached our "Congo Vision for 2007" goal and have recieved over 200 pairs of reading glasses in the past month! These glasses will be packed up and sent with Alex and Russell on their trip in September! Thank you to everyone who participated, and for each of the teens who went to the Sunday School classrooms to "drum up" business! The exciting part of this, besides just being able to help out of our abundance, is that when we go in 2007 the glasses will have already been handed out--so God may give us a "glimpse" of how these glasses are being used to bring glory to HIS name! How exciting!

Thanks All!!!

Team Meeting Notes

Attendees: Russ, Joanne, Kelly, Lauren and Vicki
Regrets: Alex, Brynne and Scott

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Russell opened with a short devotional from 1 Corinthians 9. We then discussed items in the agenda. See below for action items, results, etc.

• New Members joining the team? -- Andy, Amber, Jessalyn, and Dan have expressed an interest in joining the team. Russell emphasized that all team members would need to be confirmed and committed by January 2007.
• The team asked about Brynne still being able to go even though her family is moving in January, and Russell assured us that they had already confirmed that they would work with Brynne so that she could still be a member of the team.
• ACTION ITEM: Alex to meet with Russell to determine path forward and to meet with prospective new team members ASAP. Until a decision is made by Alex and Russell, the team will stay as is.
• Update (as of 8/13): Josh and Ivan have also expressed an interest in joining the Congo team.
• Schedule for training/meetings
• Saturday Meetings/Work Days - Since Sunday meetings are very difficult, we discussed having combined meetings/team work days on a monthly basis on Saturdays. These meetings/work days would be crucial so each team member would need to be committed to attending, and would absolutely NEED to communicate when they are NOT able to attend. We would meet as a team, and then work on a project for the church to help build team unity.
• 9/16 - Russ/Alex to confirm as they will be in Congo still
• 10/14
• 11/18
• 12/16
• Friday Night Team Dinners - These would be times of fellowship and prayer to help form team unity. These are NOT mandatory, but the idea is that they would be such an encouragement to all of us that we would NOT want to miss them! During these dinners we would like to use Karen's email updates to keep the team informed of what ministries they are currently involved in Uganda and to make this a special time of pray for Gregg and Karen.
• Friday 9/22 - First Team Dinner -- Russell and Sharon's home @ 6pm??
• 2007 Meeting Schedule - In January 2007, after the team has been finalized, we will start having more regular meetings to do language training and team building.
• ACTION ITEMS:
• Russell and Alex to confirm 9/16 work day
• Joanne to have team members added to Karen's email DL -- COMPLETED
• Fundraising
• CAN-GO - Jean has offered to continue to transport the cans from the collection bins in the church (youth room and by the gym) to the recycle center. She says a car full normally equates to about $100. So our job as a team is to continue to encourage people to bring in their cans. It's very easy money!
• Candy Bars - Russell has suggested that we find out how much it would be to just order the Candy Bars with the wrappers already on them (as opposed to making them). We also discussed how much money we could raise from this as many schools will NOT allow the students to sell something for an outside organization.
• Shaun Groves Concert - Some ideas to raise money were to have a bake sale during the concert, set up a coffee shop, etc. We have not confirmed if the concert is even happening so we will need to revisit this once we have more details.
• Sunday Afternoon Dinners - It was agreed that we do not want to do these monthly as people are already busy enough with family obligations etc. We would like to do 2-3 before we leave.
• ACTION ITEMS:
• Kelly to create magnets to hand out to church family reminding them to bring their cans to the collection bins to help support the team.
• Team to determine if we want to proceed with candy bar sale.
• Team to determined dates and themes for Sunday afternoon dinners so that we can get them on the calendar before it fills up.
• Vision for 2007 project Update
• We just went over the 100 mark on Sunday 8/13, so the next-clearer picture will be posted for Sunday 8/20.
• Team members need to each go to a Sunday School classroom on Sunday 8/20 to ask class members to help us reach our goal of 200 by 8/27/06.
• As a team, we need to package the glasses so that Russell and Alex can transport them to Uganda when the leave in September.
• ACTION ITEMS:
• Kelly will review SS assignments with Team members on Wednesday to ensure that each member knows where they are going. YOU NEED TO BE AT THE SS ROOM by 8:55 so that you can make your announcement BEFORE they start teaching!
• Greg -> Mr. Henn's Classroom - Room 154
• Lauren -> Mr. Wilson's Classroom - Room 2
• Vicki -> Mr. Capoccia's Classroom - Room 152
• Brynne -> Mr. Erickson's Classroom - Room 34 (down first hallway)
• Scott -> back up (not sure if Scott is going to be there on Sunday due to college starting)
• Lauren to write thank you notes and put them in their family folders to the following people that we KNOW donated glasses/money to vision 2007 (if I have missed any let me know)
• Mr & Mrs Wilson
• Mr Erickson
• Ms Marcinkowski
• Ministry focus for 2007 Congo Missions trip
• The September trip to Congo/Uganda is going to help to direct the 2007 missions trip plans. The trip's purpose and/or location is still undetermined, as we want to make sure that we are being used in the best place possible to be an encouragement to both the Lewises and the people of Congo/Uganda. So everything still needs a ton of prayer~!

Prayer Request from Uncle Gregg

We’re in the middle of our change in administration and although it’s going well some of our people are wondering why we’re changing and feel like it’s a lot of upheaval for nothing so we need wisdom to encourage folks in the process. The goal is to get leaders closer to the grass roots of what’s going on in the mission so that missionaries will be better encouraged and supported in their work. Separate from that, we are doing a week long orientation for three new missionaries this week and I’m responsible for it so am kind of tired right now. Karen’s off to Mbarara for three days to investigate potential needs for short term missionaries and we have visitors coming. My culinary skills leave much to be desired.