Global Mission 2016: One Body

ONE BODY GLOBAL MISSION 2016 You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.

—1 CORINTHIANS 12:27

What is the speed of a thought?

Scientists have discovered that it takes 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image captured by the eye, and about 100 milliseconds, or a tenth of a second, for an action to leave the brain, travel a nerve and reach its target muscle.

In the hyperconnected human body, a single action can have an almost instantaneous effect on the whole.

In 2016, it sometimes seems like it takes about that long for bad things to travel our hyperconnected world. A reputation destroying image takes over the Internet in a single day. A deadly virus emerges in a remote village and quickly appears in a major city. War in the Middle East causes a refugee crisis around the world.

The good news is that our 21st century connectedness offers incredible opportunities for the body of Christ, too.

Over the next few Sundays and in the pages that follow, you’ll experience powerful stories of how God is changing the lives of people at Peachtree and around the world.

The connections we help make through our ministry efforts in places like Malawi, Iraq, Guatemala, India, Costa Rica, and more are creating security, fostering hope and equipping a new generation of leaders for the persecuted church.

Many of you have yet to take this step with us. Consider: how might God be asking you to be a part of the body of Christ at Peachtree? If each of you contributed just $100, we could impact thousands of families around the world over the coming year through the ministry of Peachtree.

Get connected. It’s an amazing time to be part of the body of Christ.

Your pastor,

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Vic Pentz Senior Pastor

Is it when you have achieved intellectual mastery over the nuance and complexity of a topic?

WHEN DO YOU REALLY KNOW SOMETHING TO BE TRUE?

Or is it when you have lived it, fully committed in body and spirit as well as mind?

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Christ is just like the human body.

A body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink.

God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted.

If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body?

But as it is, there are many parts but one body.

The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

Instead, the

parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary.

The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most.

God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other.

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it.

You are the

body of Christ and parts of each other.

—1 Corinthians 12:12–27

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As a church, we’re all part of the same body, or so says the familiar metaphor.

What does it mean to be part of a body?

An increasing collection of neurological research is revealing that the essence of how we understand something to be true comes first and foremost not through abstract principles but through physical, embodied experience.

As brain researcher Iain McGilchrist writes, “Truth is arrived at through engagement with the world, not through greater abstraction from it, and the infinite, through rather than in spite of, the finite.”

In other words, we don’t truly know something until we have experienced it in and with our body. When something is embodied, it is truly known.

We know God through the embodied, incarnate Jesus, and we discover how to follow Jesus through living in community with other followers, around the world.

Consider these stories from the body of Christ known as Peachtree.

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WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WHEN A PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST IN AMERICA…

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Over the past two years, Peachtree has packed seeds for over

120,000

family gardens

…GIVES HONOR TO A PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST AROUND THE WORLD? 7

MALAWI

EDUCATION A few years ago, a team from Peachtree met some young people in the country of Malawi and learned that students could attend high school

if they only had $150 per year.

This conversation birthed an internship program.

The first year of the program, none of the students qualified for college. The next year one student qualified. The next year 6, then 12. This year, the program has grown to 200 students, and

20 have qualified for college.

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One of the 20 college students is David. David took seeds from Peachtree’s annual Seeds of Hope and planted them and grew tomatoes. He has earned $223, in a country where people live on $2 per day.

“…those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…”

DEVELOPMENT

Through a variety of collaborative projects over the last five years, Peachtree and local churches in the Chitipa district of Malawi have impacted thousands of families and lives. With Peachtree’s support, new wells and systems now provide clean water — and hope —to communities that previously had none. Partnerships with local churches in Chitipa now involve over 17,000 local children, and using seeds from Peachtree’s Seeds of Hope initiative, many of these children have begun planting sustainable gardens for their families and communities.

One of these communities is Chota. The new clean water well in Chota is surrounded by gardens planted with seeds from Peachtree.

The impact of Chota’s water well is so great that the community has decided to plant something else — a new church.

They have named their new church Peachtree.

Over 50%

of the population of Malawi walks

1 hour

to draw water

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GUATEMALA

ANTI-TRAFFICKING

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Peachtree partners with a ministry called The Oasis through Kids Alive International in Guatemala. The Oasis is a safe haven for Guatemalan girls who have been forced into child labor or experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. All of the girls come to the Oasis with the deep scars of exploitation.

At the Oasis, the girls receive schooling, physical care, emotional support and counseling, legal help, and the transformative love of Jesus Christ. This letter was written by one of the girls at the Oasis to her social worker.

“If one part suffers,

all the parts suffer with it…”

An eight-year-old girl is thanking her social worker for accompanying her to her hearing. In this hearing she testified to being victimized by three different men, one of whom was her own grandfather.

What the social worker gives most is a love that flows from Jesus Christ.

The protection, encouragement and care these girls receive is the first experience they have ever had of being loved as Christ teaches us to love.

Over 25% of girls at Oasis have been transferred from another children’s home. The burgeoning problem exceeds the ability of many facilities to give girls the therapy and legal support they need to truly heal.

For the majority of Oasis girls simple affection and kindness have been unknown. “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…”

(Matthew 25:35).

As the Psalmist wrote, the afflicted want desperately for someone to “listen to their cry.” It is a cry that someone acknowledge they have been wounded deeply, they have been wronged and they need restoration.

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“…there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.”

RELIEF FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS AND REFUGEES We are in the midst of one of the great humanitarian crises of our time. Millions of men, women, and children have been displaced by the war in Syria and Iraq.

Peachtree has reached out to those living in desperation through our partners, The Outreach Foundation and World Vision. We have looked for ways to bring the hope of the gospel to these broken communities by working through Christians who remain, in spite of the danger.

One of those ways is a bakery which Peachtree funded in a refugee camp in northern Iraq. The bakery is operated

by Christians who are providing 10,000 pieces of bread daily to those that have been displaced by the fighting.

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These bakeries also provide employment for Yazidi girls that have escaped from ISIS and are deeply traumatized.

Through the simple and profound act of baking bread, these followers of Jesus are serving the most vulnerable in our world and demonstrating the hope of the gospel.

IRAQ

The bakery’s current goal is to make

6,000–10,000

pieces of bread per day

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INDIA Peachtree’s presence in India has developed significantly since it began in 2011.

Last year, through our partnerships, Peachtree supported two afterschool centers, built wells in villages, provided trafficking awareness programs to vulnerable families, and supported the Mahima homes for victims of human trafficking.

The majority of the girls at Mahima have a Hindu background and are invited to participate in devotions at the aftercare homes, which the staff believes are integral to their healing process.

Last year, some of the girls led the devotion on the fruits of the Spirit.

Below is one girl’s testimony on patience:

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“When I came to Mahima I had no contact with my family for nearly two years. I waited patiently for God’s will to take place in my life and the aunties at Mahima also told me each day to be patient and to pray and gave me assurance that I will be able to meet my family someday. It is because of my prayers and the patience that God gave me that I could wait for so long and I was able to get in touch with my family.

Patience is very much needed in our lives. Without patience, we will not be able to do anything in our life.”

80% of women in

these communities are abused

COSTA RICA Last year, Shalom Community Church, Peachtree’s partnership in Costa Rica, opened a grocery store to serve their congregation and local community. The store helps families save on food expenses and is currently serving 25% of their members with a goal of 50%.

The store provides an opportunity for the church to sell their produce, which is grown in greenhouses by many of the congregants, and to invest the profits back into the church’s ministries.

This year, the church is opening a women’s center to support the women in the congregation who often are overlooked in society. Based on Shalom’s conservative estimates, there are at least 3,000 women in six surrounding communities, 80% of which are subject to some type of abuse. The women’s center will

provide these women with a common space, a refuge, where they can gain the freedom and confidence to face their problems, seek solutions and receive all types of care.

Peachtree sent its third women’s trip in January to support and encourage the women through programs, activities, and discipleship.

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The community and family gardens will supply the much-needed nutritional supplements to an estimated

2,500

people in the community

LIBERIA Peachtree supports education and holistic development in the village of Balama through a partnership with the Balama Development Alliance (BDA).

Nine years ago, Jessy Togbadoya, pastor and Executive Director of the BDA, started an elementary school with 30 students. Today, two local schools serve a total of 829 students.

One of the highlights of BDA’s community development work is community and family gardening. BDA’s

ministry team trains rural dwellers on how to grow gardens in their soils.

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One of the village residents who has benefited from this training is James Gblah who grows corn, collard greens, cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables to feed his family. He has enough when he harvests to take some of his vegetables to Monrovia for sale. He then uses the proceeds to purchase rice, soap, and other supplies for his family. James has also begun to teach other residents how to grow gardens.

James is thankful to Peachtree for providing him the seeds that have given hope for his family.

PAKISTAN Dr. Jim Tebbe, Rector of Forman Christian College, likes to say that if you want to change a nation, you have to educate the women. Forman’s goal is to reach a student body that is 50% women and men. Currently, they are at 33% women and 67% men in the University, but 52% women and 48% men in the Postgraduate program.

This important goal is made more attainable by the completion of Hope Tower, their new women’s dormitory. The building gives them the ability to provide housing for up to 360 female students, and the very presence of Hope Tower has increased their credibility with parents from all religions who were hesitant to send their daughters off to college.

At Forman, the parents know their children are safe, comfortable and have a secure home.

By expanding the opportunities for women to attend Forman, they believe that they are providing the platform for changing the future of Pakistan, and are grateful to Peachtree, who is there with them, helping to make this possible.

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ONLY 6% of Christians

in Pakistan are literate

ONLY 4% complete high school

ADDITIONAL PARTNERSHIPS In addition to the partnerships highlighted through these stories and statistics, Peachtree also supports the following ministries whose mission aligns with our strategic focus areas of supporting vulnerable

children and raising up the next generation of leaders:

CUBA

Evangelical Theological Seminary Jaguey Grande Presbyterian Church

EGYPT

Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo

IRAN

The Outreach Foundation: Dr. Sasan Tavassoli

JAMAICA

The Salvation Army School for the Blind

KENYA

Mathare North Presbyterian Church

MALAWI

arion Medical Mission M Opportunity International

PAKISTAN 18

Presbyterian Education Board

PALESTINE/ISRAEL

ethlehem Bible College B Pilgrims of Ibilin/Mar Elias Schools

HOW CAN I HELP? What if each of Peachtree’s members acted on their part to build the Body of Christ in 2016?

Join God’s work in the world through Peachtree’s Global Mission in 2016 by:

GIVING to Peachtree’s Global Mission. There are several ways to contribute to parts of the body around the world.

Mail in the enclosed response card

Visit peachtreechurch.org/ globalgive

Drop the response card in the offering plate during Sunday worship

Text 404-800-7578 and enter any amount with the keyword “global.”

GOING on a short-term mission trip. Short-term mission trips

provide an opportunity to personally interact with our global partnerships, and to experience the power of Christ as He transforms communities and lives around the world.

PRAYING that our work and generosity at Peachtree will change lives around the world.

JOIN US in worship on Sundays, February 28, March 6,

and March 13 to hear personal testimonies of our members and global partners who have been changed through the support of Peachtree’s Global Mission.

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3434 Roswell Road Atlanta, GA 30305 404-842-5800 peachtreechurch.org/mission