CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
A JOURNEY TOGETHER
Welcome to The WCF Quarterly, a place for sharing what WCF is doing to grow faith around the world by God’s grace. We hope the Quarterly will be an oasis of sorts—a place to pause, reflect and renew on the faith journey we are all taking. Regular features will include:
Summarizing the Bible principles that guide our work. These principles are powerful, and we want to lift them up for the good of all.
Sharing inspiring stories from our programs in action. WCF’s work spans the globe and reaches thousands of people. We all gain strength from seeing how this work and God’s invisible hand moves the faith needle forward.
Meeting the people leading the work. WCF is blessed with a wonderful team of disciples eager to help people grow their faith. We want you to see their commitment and the loving service that makes our programs come alive for good.
Showing how you can get involved. WCF has far more work than hands, and we have many ways for you to get involved and share your passion and talents. Our programs also require ongoing financial support—and we want to show how your generous donations make a big difference in the faith of others.
In all, The Quarterly illuminates how the many facets of WCF’s work contribute to our ongoing mission: Cultivating Faith Together. We help everyone increase and grow their faith to the glory of God. We’re focused on the best ways to grow faith in today’s world. And we believe faith grows fastest and strongest when grown together.
In this inaugural issue you’ll find these articles: my brief message on why we focus on faith; a look inside our work in the Philippines; an introduction to our Treasurer and director, Virginia Brierly; and a scriptural look at giving.
The biggest decision
Faith is the grand decision God left to humankind. He created a world full of life and majestic wonders—all sustained by His abundant grace and unsearchable natural laws. Yet with all that care and intelligent design, He left a big thing to us. He gave us a choice: Will you trust in God with all your heart—OR rely on your own understanding and instincts? This choice (as summarized in Proverbs 3) captures the very essence of life. It was the basic choice in Eden, the one that Adam and Eve failed. No matter their failure, God gave the core question to all who followed to answer freely. The choice remains to this day.
How we answer the question really does matter. It has eternal implications. The briefest statement of this comes from Hebrews: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). The Apostle Paul offers another cogent summary of the importance of faith: “By grace you have been saved through faith.” As one brother recently put it, faith is the conduit—a sort of fiber optic cable—by which God’s grace flows. Without the faith, we never receive the salvation made possible by the grace He bestows through the Lord Jesus.
All this shows how precious faith is in God’s sight—dare we say, the most precious thing to God. The Apostle Peter puts it this way: Faith is more precious than gold (1 Pet. 1:7). Life is a refining process, one where the ups and downs of life keep bringing us back to what matters most: Trust God or yourself?
The journey together
We are all on this journey to grow faith. Some are well along and have learned much from traversing the decisions of life and its demanding uphill climbs. Others are just starting, taking more timid steps with unknowns stretching out onto the horizon. Still others know nothing of faith and await someone to show them that Jesus offers a better way than going life alone. We have a special obligation to be the hand that reaches out to them. This is a vital reason why WCF supports many humanitarian projects around the world—an outstretched hand to ultimately show them the great news of the Gospel.
“Faith Journey” is a powerful way to sum up what life’s about. The Bible is full of journeys. Abraham learned faith by leaving Ur for Canaan. David learned real trust in God when he walked through the dark valley—in the shadow of the deathly giant. Saul discovered faith when he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus—an epiphany that powered a life of trusting the very man he sought to persecute. Jesus took many journeys to learn still more faith in His Father, perhaps none more important than his final journey from Jericho to Jerusalem to Golgotha.
The good news is that none of us journeys alone. Our Lord Jesus is with us to the end, ever showing that His yoke is easy and His burden, light. And we journey together as a faithful throng, cheering on one another, lifting others when they stumble, singing with joy to gladden our hearts.
We look forward to this journey together and meeting you here at this oasis every quarter.
– Mark Drabenstott