"For
we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction
which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively,
beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed,
we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the
dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will
deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet
deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers,
that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the
favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many."
(NASB)
Praises
& Prayer Requests
In the fall of 2007 we began our 20th year of Acclaiming Christ Through Sports to the youth and families of the Mid-Columbia region. It is a lot easier to just say, “ACTS” when we are talking about this ministry but it is imperative that we never lose sight of what the letters stand for, especially the first two: Acclaiming Christ. This is important because if we forget why the Lord started this ministry, we will soon just be doing “ACTS”, a ministry which does a bunch of fun stuff but is no longer first and foremost about acclaiming Christ.
In 2007 we made the decision to not host the ACTS Games. From a marketing standpoint it doesn’t make sense to hold an event for seven years, build up name recognition and a following, and then drop it. (Hopefully not permanently.) There were numerous reasons why we came to this decision but one of the most important was that at times we can become so busy with events and activities that we don’t have time for acclaiming Christ. As we seek God’s very best plan for this ministry, we don’t want to get caught up in the numbers game and see how many kids we can have at our events and activities each year, but instead we want to touch lives deeply with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not want their lives to be affected for just a day but rather transformed for a lifetime.
Over the next few years we are going to see several major changes in the ACTS ministry. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we seek God’s direction on how He wants us to always be focused on acclaiming Christ. Thank you so much for your support of this vital work in transforming lives for eternity!
Sincerely,
Joe & Tara Martin
