I have now completed my first full year as your Director of Evangelism/Missions.  It has been a good year as we have seen new resources made available to the churches; I have had the opportunity to be in about 40 churches, and met almost every pastor in the association.

Two new resources that have been used to a great extent are the Sports Camp and Block Party Trailers.  We were able to acquire these because of our partnership with the churches of Catalina Baptist Association, Arizona Southern Baptist Convention, and the North American Mission Board.

We are adding other resources to our library such as Beth Moore studies, evangelism tools, and others as requested.  We plan to continue to add additional resources this coming year.

This year has been difficult in terms of the economy for many of our churches.  That, in turn, also impacts our association budget.  Like many of you, we have had good months and not so good months in terms of receipts.  Thank you for your faithfulness in continuing to provide for the association.  We have a great Finance Team that has met each quarter to review the receipts and spending.  We will continue to be good stewards in our spending.

This summer we also added Ben Barfield to the association staff to serve as Church Planting Strategist.  He brings a tremendous passion to see people reached for Christ in this association and beyond.  Ben will be developing a church planting strategy that will help us plant all kinds of churches, in all kinds of places, for all kinds of people.

This coming year kicks off a National Evangelism Initiative for Southern Baptists called “God’s Plan for Sharing.”  On March 26^th & 27^th of this next year we will have an Evangelism Conference at 22^nd Street Baptist Church that will focus on that theme.  This initiative has the goal of:  “Every Believer Sharing – Every Person Hearing” by 2020.  My prayer is that your church will participate in “God’s Plan for Sharing.”

Finally, thank you for your support, prayer, cards, and phone calls as I recovered from surgery this past summer.  Donna and I are blessed to be surrounded by so many friends that helped us through this difficult time.  The good news – God answered prayer and I am now cancer free – to carry on the assignment to serve along side of you as we advance God’s Kingdom in the communities that are in Catalina Baptist Association.

John Guillott

Director of Evangelism/Missions

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