WEBVTT 00:00:03.886 --> 00:00:12.428 Okay, today's a celebration, as a celebration of what God has done in 2023 and it's a looking forward to what he'll do in 2024. 00:00:12.428 --> 00:00:17.170 And there's a lot that he did last year, so we'll get right into it. 00:00:17.170 --> 00:00:36.161 I want to read to Psalm, psalm 105, verses one through five, if you'll read that with me oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all of his waterless works, glory in his holy name. 00:00:36.161 --> 00:00:40.247 Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 00:00:40.247 --> 00:00:51.764 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence, continually, remember the works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. 00:00:51.764 --> 00:00:54.945 That's what we're here to do today. 00:00:54.945 --> 00:01:03.825 We're here to remember what he's done this year, and so at TCC, we do everything kind of in threes it's Trinity, by the way, you know. 00:01:03.825 --> 00:01:08.841 So it is belong, grow and serve is a big part of what we do here. 00:01:08.841 --> 00:01:11.105 Everything kind of falls in those categories. 00:01:11.105 --> 00:01:15.950 So we're going to talk about belonging, growing and serving and what God has done in this last year. 00:01:15.950 --> 00:01:18.203 The first is belong. 00:01:18.203 --> 00:01:37.284 Belong, which really has to do with the fact that we have a home, that you feel like you are in a place where you're connected to people, and I just want to tell you first of all, from the pastoral team, I want to tell you how much we love you guys, we love this church. 00:01:37.284 --> 00:01:49.798 We are probably very biased, but we think we have an awesome church, and awesome church is made up of not just awesome vision or awesome building. 00:01:49.798 --> 00:01:56.647 It's made up of people, it's made up of you guys, and this pastoral team loves this church body. 00:01:56.647 --> 00:02:08.270 To me, the pastoral and the ministry needs of this the families here at TCC is such a privilege to us to be able to serve you guys as a real privilege. 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:17.127 This year we added an elder it was one big thing that happened John Grainer, who is out of town, but John and Laura were serving for so long. 00:02:17.127 --> 00:02:25.848 Anyway, they were already doing pastoral things in many ways, and so it was very natural for him to become an elder. 00:02:25.848 --> 00:02:32.623 This year Also, we added the New Deacons Scott Achele, who does so many things around the church, and four people in the church. 00:02:32.623 --> 00:02:50.063 But we have so many people that are serving in different ministries too, and I'm just thinking of the ministries that are part of this church the prayer teams serving in the Sunday morning teams serving in the children's ministry and in the Forge youth ministry. 00:02:50.063 --> 00:02:53.347 A lot of you have found your fit. 00:02:53.347 --> 00:02:58.307 But if you haven't found your fit, we have a fit class on February 6th. 00:02:58.307 --> 00:03:13.004 Little plug, okay, fit your Class is really about how to find how you fit in to the kingdom of God, how God has uniquely made you and your spiritual gifts and your personality and also your heart, passion. 00:03:13.004 --> 00:03:24.290 What really interests you, what sets a fire under you, is to be able to the fit class is to be able to identify those things and release you in those things. 00:03:24.290 --> 00:03:25.025 That's our heart. 00:03:25.025 --> 00:03:27.947 So February 6th you'll hear more about that. 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:37.829 Of all the ministries that we have here, we had a new ministry start which is really important this year, and that was the Gathering Place, which is a young adults ministry. 00:03:37.829 --> 00:03:41.264 We started in August, which was great, of course. 00:03:41.264 --> 00:03:47.531 We went to two services and so two services to create an atmosphere where we can continue to grow. 00:03:47.531 --> 00:04:03.530 We had so many baby dedications we had a bunch this morning, but I mean there was Daniel, joseph, novi, barrett, jackie and all the ones six, seven, eight, nine this morning, and there are other ones as well that maybe I'm forgetting, I don't know. 00:04:03.530 --> 00:04:35.413 We had baptisms from age eight to age 80 something I'm not sure of what 80, 80, 80 something this year John Lawrence, gryson, phoebe, chloe, ava, rachel, charlotte Malachi, jadzia Cody and Megan Sue, henry, sarah, jennifer, wayne, and then we had 10 at Camp Gadawada that were baptized there at camp, including Peyton and Bell. 00:04:35.413 --> 00:04:38.507 We had so many people and so many partners that were presented this year. 00:04:38.507 --> 00:04:41.627 Just beautiful, how the Lord's added to us. 00:04:41.627 --> 00:05:03.502 And one of the ways that we belong and connect together is in our community groups, which are just groups that offer a chance for you to engage more deeply in our church community and, whether you're drawn to similar interests or just spiritual discussions, community groups are a great way to be able to connect, and this is what we've. 00:05:03.502 --> 00:05:08.730 We had 30 of them this last year and we're going to have new ones starting in January. 00:05:08.730 --> 00:05:09.964 You'll hear more about that. 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:22.747 So many parts of one body, each joint supplying, and I want to tell you one story about how that happened just this last week, and many of you know Barry and Kim Cochran. 00:05:22.747 --> 00:05:42.327 Barry and Kim were part of Trinity from 1990, something way back when they first moved to Knoxville and so they were part of Trinity for many years and they also left to go help a church plant in Marival, which is the area where they live in, and then they're back here as TCC partners. 00:05:42.327 --> 00:05:55.473 And some of you know that Barry was diagnosed in June, in July, with esophageal cancer, a serious type of cancer, and this last week he had a surgery and it was a. 00:05:55.473 --> 00:05:56.839 It was a serious surgery. 00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:03.702 It was about eight hour surgery with two different surgeons and specialists and many just a big team. 00:06:03.702 --> 00:06:08.685 But Barry wanted me to tell you something, so I'm going to tell you why he told me to tell you. 00:06:08.685 --> 00:06:11.084 Okay, this is from Barry and Kim. 00:06:11.084 --> 00:06:15.108 They're probably watching on online, but from Barry's lips. 00:06:15.288 --> 00:06:28.728 He said from the first this was a story of being lovingly cared for by the body of Christ at TCC, as well as some others that are in their community there in in Marival. 00:06:28.728 --> 00:06:33.350 He shared this with me this week and he's making a remarkable recovery. 00:06:33.350 --> 00:06:34.745 By the way, thank you for his prayers. 00:06:34.745 --> 00:06:37.427 It's really remarkable by every metric. 00:06:37.427 --> 00:06:43.709 He said throughout their experience there was not a single need that went unaddressed. 00:06:43.709 --> 00:07:04.305 They were thoroughly prayed over and loved on from the very first day the elder teams, prayer teams, groups of friends, individual TCC partners, other people who were manning the caring bridge and the 24 seven prayer link greeting team members who, when they came in the church, would just pray for them. 00:07:04.305 --> 00:07:07.689 Our other prayer teams, media teams, everybody. 00:07:07.689 --> 00:07:12.266 There were so many encouraging and accurate words from the prophetic team. 00:07:12.266 --> 00:07:16.009 They were encouraging cards and texts and social media posts. 00:07:16.009 --> 00:07:18.903 They were watching services online where they couldn't attend. 00:07:18.903 --> 00:07:20.625 So thank you, media team, for that. 00:07:20.625 --> 00:07:35.911 You know God's responsible for the results, but we're responsible to love and to cover them spiritually, and Barry said they were covered, so I wanna thank you guys for that Personally. 00:07:35.911 --> 00:07:47.634 Just one story of many how the body of Christ is so beautiful and many members in one body and the members taking care of the other members, every joint supplying, as the others have a need. 00:07:48.930 --> 00:07:58.040 One thing you may not be aware of, too, that goes on here every week during the school year, is our homeschool co-op, trinity Christian Academy. 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:01.798 We have 94 families in our cooperative. 00:08:01.798 --> 00:08:03.675 Of course, they don't all attend Trinity. 00:08:03.675 --> 00:08:19.319 Most of them are outside Trinity 94 families and so if you came here on Friday during the school year, what you would see is you would see life, activity, noise, beauty. 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:26.617 You would see 375 adults and kids in almost every square inch of this building. 00:08:26.617 --> 00:08:41.514 They have classrooms everywhere in this building and just enjoying a community of like-minded people who are raising their children, schooling their children in the Lord, and it's beautiful. 00:08:41.514 --> 00:08:47.696 And we also have an umbrella school registered with the state of Tennessee that covers homeschool families. 00:08:47.696 --> 00:08:54.418 So, thanks to TCC and the Lord for his faithfulness and we're praying bring more families in. 00:08:54.418 --> 00:08:55.352 We'd love to have more. 00:08:55.352 --> 00:08:57.534 So all this is going on. 00:08:57.534 --> 00:09:10.172 It's a place where people can belong and we really hope that you guys, that you personally feel like that you have a safe place to connect to God and connect to people here at TCC, that you belong. 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:13.493 Second thing is grow, tcc. 00:09:13.493 --> 00:09:14.798 Our heart is that you grow. 00:09:14.798 --> 00:09:18.874 Actually, the goal is that you're further along in your walk with Jesus. 00:09:18.874 --> 00:09:24.038 Today, december 31st, then you were January 1st of this year. 00:09:24.038 --> 00:09:25.553 That's the whole goal. 00:09:25.553 --> 00:09:32.159 We hope that you grew in the knowledge of Jesus, the knowledge of the grace and the knowledge of Jesus. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.715 You grew in relationship with him and relationship with other people. 00:09:35.715 --> 00:09:40.158 That's our goal and we do a lot to try to make that happen. 00:09:40.269 --> 00:09:42.037 Of course, our sermon series is part of that. 00:09:42.037 --> 00:09:47.094 We did we went through two entire books of the Bible this year the Gospel of Mark. 00:09:47.094 --> 00:09:56.514 We went through and we went through the book of Ecclesiastes with our sermon series entitled Everything is Meaningless. 00:09:56.514 --> 00:10:12.618 I just like to say that, so that's why I say it Everything is meaningless In which we found that everything is literally not meaningless, because serving Jesus and living the life that God has made us for is not meaningless. 00:10:12.618 --> 00:10:12.857 Right? 00:10:12.857 --> 00:10:18.416 We also addressed a lot of challenging topics from a biblical worldview in our sermon series. 00:10:18.416 --> 00:10:19.198 Can we Talk? 00:10:19.198 --> 00:10:30.980 And then I think Christ was really magnified in our Christmas series and through the stories of the lives there, if you were here in our series called Reflections. 00:10:32.110 --> 00:10:33.777 Of course we also do training. 00:10:33.777 --> 00:10:41.315 We are committed to ongoing training of leaders and releasing leaders into ministries that reflect their heart passion. 00:10:41.315 --> 00:10:50.676 We do that through TMAP, our Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship Program, and we do it through the Timothy team that Tyler started this year. 00:10:50.676 --> 00:10:53.297 We also grow through our triads. 00:10:53.297 --> 00:11:03.438 This is small groups of people who gather together and they connect with each other, they encourage each other in spiritual matters and they also learn the word of God together. 00:11:03.438 --> 00:11:09.777 We grew this year through our Bible reading plan, which we finished today. 00:11:09.777 --> 00:11:12.960 We read Malachi today, if you're a part of the program. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:14.816 We finished the whole Old Testament. 00:11:14.816 --> 00:11:17.336 We read the whole Old Testament this year. 00:11:17.870 --> 00:11:24.918 If you've been with us the last two years, you've read through the entire Bible with us in the last two years, which is a great thing. 00:11:24.918 --> 00:11:28.397 So if you were part of that, I know we had a lot of people that joined us. 00:11:28.397 --> 00:11:35.052 If you read through our Bible reading plan or some other Bible reading plan this year, would you raise your hand? 00:11:35.052 --> 00:11:46.870 That's great, that's fantastic, that's worth celebrating, because it's the word of God that's alive and powerful, and it's the Word of God that does things inside of our hearts. 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:47.754 It changes us. 00:11:47.754 --> 00:11:49.200 So this is our heart. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:53.772 How else can we grow without getting immersing ourselves in the Word of God? 00:11:53.772 --> 00:11:59.860 And so Good news is we're starting a new Bible reading plan this year, called shape by the word. 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:06.679 I'll give you just a minute to scan this little QR code if you want to, and it'll take you right to this reading program. 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:09.929 It's the New Testament and Psalms. 00:12:09.929 --> 00:12:16.095 In a year, you also should have gotten a message from TCC with a link in it to this. 00:12:16.095 --> 00:12:22.629 If you hit that link, or If you scan this code, it'll take you to our group, the TCC group. 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:34.466 I just joined it this morning, so tomorrow we start reading the New Testament and the Psalms together, the cobalt being back up there and later on as well. 00:12:34.466 --> 00:12:41.248 So, but we really hope that you are feeling Feeling farther along in your growth journey with Jesus this year. 00:12:41.248 --> 00:12:45.645 So we got to go to serve, belong, grow and serve this. 00:12:45.645 --> 00:12:51.049 This we, you know the Lord did a whole lot through this church this year. 00:12:51.049 --> 00:12:52.052 That's all I'm saying. 00:12:52.052 --> 00:12:55.850 It was amazing and I wanted to share some of it with you. 00:12:55.980 --> 00:13:04.919 Serving really is has to do with making impact for the gospel here and also outside these walls, in our community, in the nation and in the nations. 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:09.610 So we'll start with our 20 23 hands and feet offering. 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:11.254 We do an offering every year. 00:13:11.254 --> 00:13:14.186 It's a concentrated missions giving offering. 00:13:14.186 --> 00:13:17.374 It's above and beyond our missions giving that we give as a church. 00:13:17.374 --> 00:13:22.570 We have a percentage of our income that we give automatically to missions. 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:24.253 We'll talk about that in a few minutes too. 00:13:24.253 --> 00:13:30.719 But hands and feet offering is a chance for us all to to pray or to serve or to give. 00:13:30.739 --> 00:13:39.369 And and in our 20 23 offering, many of you committed to serve in Ministries on Sunday and off also to serve in our serve day. 00:13:39.369 --> 00:13:52.909 So of course, our, our service in our Sunday services doubled because we have two services now, so you guys stepped up and really filled the slots there. 00:13:52.909 --> 00:13:55.486 There are other slots that could be filled. 00:13:55.486 --> 00:14:02.770 If you are not yet serving and you'd love to, you can talk to one of us and we'll be glad to connect you to a place where you can serve. 00:14:02.770 --> 00:14:23.659 But we have over 50 people serving each week in rotating schedules, but so whenever you come to church on Sunday, you have to understand that there are 50 people behind the scenes that are making this thing happen every week, and If most of you are part of that and thank you, and if you're not, you can be a part of that too, so let us know. 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:27.408 Also, we had what we called serve day. 00:14:27.587 --> 00:14:39.775 Our 20 23 serve day was huge, was a day when we actually wanted to get beyond the walls and get into our community, do something practical in different ways, and so here's what we did a lot of different things. 00:14:39.775 --> 00:14:48.168 We did a construction project at God's place ministries, which is a ministry that works with people who are coming out of prison and and who are coming out of addiction. 00:14:48.168 --> 00:14:54.004 We did a project with our daycare right next to us the kids first daycare. 00:14:54.004 --> 00:14:57.633 That been our neighbors for all these years and we have really good relationship with them. 00:14:57.633 --> 00:15:00.730 We did a community cleanup at Shumpert Park. 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:08.369 We did free oil changes for the singles and the widows and we did a free yard sale as well. 00:15:08.369 --> 00:15:18.299 We built a blessings box at our entrance out here, and anytime you come to church or leave the church you can bring something and you can put it in that box to share with the community. 00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:26.860 We also did some projects at the central high school one of the local high schools here and we worked with Knoxville dream center as well. 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:37.779 We did a lot on our serve day, and the good news is that we're actually going to be doing two serve days in 2024 One in autumn and one in the spring and you guys will hear more about that later on. 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:41.398 So thank you for you guys who served that day. 00:15:44.048 --> 00:15:59.740 Also part of our 2023 hands and feet offering was our work with a local ministry called Street Hope, and TCC is working together with the Melissa movement, which is a fund that was created in honor of my late wife, melissa, who was a spiritual mother to Manny. 00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:19.259 The Melissa movement helps to resource and enable older women to train younger women in many different contexts, and we're partnering with Street Hope here in Knoxville to resource the spiritual mothering of teenage girls that they serve, who have been rescued from sex trafficking. 00:16:19.259 --> 00:16:22.553 And I've met with Street Hope staff many times this year. 00:16:22.553 --> 00:16:29.316 They're doing wonderful work. 00:16:29.316 --> 00:16:39.869 And the girls at the house at Garland Oaks they're, they're receiving hope there, they have identity, they have a future, they have a fresh start, these girls who've gone through such terrible experiences. 00:16:39.869 --> 00:16:42.216 So there's hope there and it's beautiful. 00:16:42.216 --> 00:16:47.285 And we had a goal of raising $2,000 From you guys, which would be matched by $2,000 from the Melissa movement. 00:16:47.285 --> 00:16:51.693 So we would give $4,000, but actually we gave $5,000. 00:16:51.693 --> 00:16:55.993 So that was a real blessing. 00:16:55.993 --> 00:16:56.495 Thank you for you guys. 00:16:56.495 --> 00:16:57.558 You're giving for that. 00:16:57.558 --> 00:16:59.397 Thank you for that. 00:17:03.009 --> 00:17:05.276 In other local news, the Ellis family are in absolute wonder. 00:17:05.276 --> 00:17:19.336 I call them a wonder because I wonder how they do it, because they do stuff all the time and the output of missions, of local missions that happen. 00:17:19.336 --> 00:17:28.982 Of course they work also in the nation and in the nations, but right here they are really our missionaries to Knoxville and we're privileged to serve them. 00:17:28.982 --> 00:17:39.096 We're actually privileged that this year, in 2024, we're going to be able to up their support, their monthly support as well, and be able to support them more. 00:17:39.096 --> 00:17:43.368 They run YWAM Knoxville. 00:17:43.368 --> 00:17:46.560 They run the YWAM Knoxville Support them more. 00:17:46.560 --> 00:17:49.125 They run YWAM Knoxville. 00:17:49.125 --> 00:17:51.410 They are also incorporated with. 00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:56.202 That is CMO Children's Ministry, outreach Children's Ministry here in Knoxville. 00:17:56.202 --> 00:17:57.705 They partner with TCC. 00:17:57.705 --> 00:18:01.933 They partner with Kiko, which is Knoxville inner city kids outreach. 00:18:01.933 --> 00:18:11.526 They partner with Hopewell Church and Galilee Bible Camp in Bryceville Elementary School and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Knox County and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Anderson County. 00:18:11.526 --> 00:18:20.291 They do camps and VBSs and mission trips and sidewalks in these schools and Bible release time in public schools and they did 800 stockings of love. 00:18:20.291 --> 00:18:26.314 Last week, like two weeks ago, they gave out 800 stockings and you guys were a part of that. 00:18:26.314 --> 00:18:32.740 So they're amazing and it's a joy to be able to work together with them and their family. 00:18:32.740 --> 00:18:41.576 And if you want to be more involved in local ministry here, man, we can connect you definitely through the LSS. 00:18:43.383 --> 00:18:46.048 Tcc also works with Hope Resource Center. 00:18:46.048 --> 00:19:02.700 Hope is Knoxville's only holistic reproductive women's health care center and it provides cost free services by licensed medical professionals and they help people, a lot of women who are in crisis situations. 00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:08.892 We also partner with Compassion Coalition, which is a faith based nonprofit here in Knoxville. 00:19:08.892 --> 00:19:25.483 It's basically a group of churches, organizations and businesses, and they are committed to moving beyond the walls into the city to become the compassionate presence of Jesus To points of pain and brokenness in our community. 00:19:25.483 --> 00:19:27.007 So we work with them as well. 00:19:27.647 --> 00:19:36.911 On a national level, we had missions teams that went to Buffalo this year A lot of you were part of that, partnering with the Buffalo Dream Center. 00:19:36.911 --> 00:19:39.700 That's something that we do every year and is beautiful. 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:42.444 Some of them went and came back. 00:19:42.444 --> 00:19:44.407 Some of them went and stayed up there. 00:19:44.407 --> 00:19:46.111 I just went back to stay there. 00:19:46.111 --> 00:19:49.276 So we've been working together with them for a few years. 00:19:49.276 --> 00:19:54.429 So we got to switch over into international missions, because this is huge. 00:19:55.791 --> 00:20:27.154 Tcc partners have personally touched five continents this year, parts of five continents, and when I say partners, I mean we have literally been on the ground in these places and so regions and countries such as Altair Republic, which is part of Russia, colombia, cuba, france, honduras, israel, kenya, poland, Russia, scotland, tanzania, republic of Cuba, ukraine and the United States. 00:20:27.154 --> 00:20:36.525 We were in some very hot spots on the earth this year, bringing the gospel there and bringing some hope there. 00:20:36.525 --> 00:20:44.733 Our affiliated partners have also reached Cambodia, haiti, afghanistan, India, sri Lanka, liberia. 00:20:44.733 --> 00:20:47.696 A lot of places, a lot of places. 00:20:47.696 --> 00:20:52.605 But I'll just tell you about one Hands and feet 2023,. 00:20:52.765 --> 00:21:05.979 We had a goal of raising some money for a project in Tanzania For the ongoing development of a Christian community that will serve the people of the Maasai village in Kuri, tanzania. 00:21:05.979 --> 00:21:23.954 It's a village of about 4,000 herdsmen and their families, very arid valley, very harsh climate and lifestyle, extreme poverty, animists, spiritists, no real connection with the gospel. 00:21:23.954 --> 00:21:36.979 Until relatively recently, and for several years we've been partnering together with Gospel Herald Ministries to help with a church plant there in the center of that village, and so Pastor Matthias and his wife Beatrice here. 00:21:36.979 --> 00:21:46.155 They left their life in the city and they moved to Curia and they served there as pastors and missionaries and we're working with them. 00:21:46.155 --> 00:21:53.396 In the last two years we've helped to dig a well, we've helped with medical missions, pastors conferences, women's conferences. 00:21:53.396 --> 00:22:03.536 We've purchased property for the sake of agriculture to establish sustainable farming practices there, ministry of the Children's Home. 00:22:03.536 --> 00:22:09.136 We've helped with construction of a church building and we've helped to start micro businesses there. 00:22:09.136 --> 00:22:17.398 And Capstone Ministries as provided as partners together with Thrive Ministries. 00:22:17.398 --> 00:22:38.715 Thrive is the ministry that I founded that works through Trinity and this is one of the pastors conferences that we did there in the Kilimanjaro area and there were 500 discipleship booklets that were translated into Swahili and were printed and distributed and we trained these pastors to be able to train other people in the gospel. 00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:46.077 That's in Curia, in Arusha, in Merangu, all around the Kilimanjaro area. 00:22:46.077 --> 00:22:51.958 So that's a huge part of what's happening with the Hands and Feet Project. 00:22:51.958 --> 00:23:02.895 One other thing that we did there is the Melissa Movement, also partnered together with Trinity, for the mentoring of these new converts among the women of the Maasai. 00:23:02.895 --> 00:23:23.842 So Beatrice, the pastor's wife, had to travel one hour, walk one hour to milk cows at a farm and back an hour several days a week to help supplement their income. 00:23:23.842 --> 00:23:40.838 And so what we did was, through Melissa Movement, we have been supplementing her income monthly so that she wouldn't have to milk that now she can focus on working with these women who are coming to Jesus and being a spiritual mother to them. 00:23:41.490 --> 00:23:43.135 So two years ago we were there. 00:23:43.135 --> 00:23:46.458 We had a women's conference. 00:23:46.458 --> 00:23:50.757 The ladies who went with us Patty and Goldie, the ladies who went with us had a women's conference. 00:23:50.757 --> 00:23:59.799 There were 12 women at this conference in this tiny little church, and then this last year, september, we went. 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:07.481 There were 40 women there at this conference and it's just beautiful because they're learning Jesus. 00:24:07.481 --> 00:24:15.914 Not all of them know the Lord yet, but they're all hearing the gospel now and many of them have come to Christ and there's a community. 00:24:16.390 --> 00:24:17.955 So there's a community there. 00:24:17.955 --> 00:24:43.798 There's a church there where people can not only come and get water from the ground, they can get living water from Jesus, and they can not only come and get grain from the corn and the rice mills, which we helped to fund this year, but also they can get the bread of life and this is making a huge difference in this community. 00:24:43.798 --> 00:24:47.809 So it's a long-term project and we're partnering with them to. 00:24:47.809 --> 00:24:55.054 Things take longer than you think there, but our heart is not to just go and bless people and leave and never come back. 00:24:55.054 --> 00:25:05.396 Our heart is to go and see what the need is and how can we help meet that need and build relationships and see change over lasting change over a period of time. 00:25:05.396 --> 00:25:09.039 So our goal was to raise $6,000 for that trip. 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:23.255 Last year we raised more than that and then through another special gift, someone gave $7,000 for those milling machines for processing corn and rice, which is actually. 00:25:23.255 --> 00:25:28.432 They have been installed and they'll be operational very soon, and they are. 00:25:28.432 --> 00:25:30.318 It's gonna change that village. 00:25:30.318 --> 00:25:31.934 It's gonna completely change that village. 00:25:31.934 --> 00:25:38.237 So thank you TCC partners for that and thank you Lord for that opportunity. 00:25:39.849 --> 00:26:23.621 In Ukraine, tcc is partnered together this year with Thrive Ministries and our pastor friends in Ukraine to distribute aid to war victims there, and these people have done extraordinary things and please understand that this war goes on, even if it's not reported much in our news cycles, and also please understand that, whatever your opinion is geopolitically about this war, these are people that are hurting and they're in desperate need and it's an opportunity for the gospel to come in the crossroads of their need and their desperation. 00:26:23.621 --> 00:26:27.295 The gospel is coming in very practical ways and it's meeting the needs there. 00:26:27.295 --> 00:26:29.795 It is beautiful what's happening there. 00:26:29.795 --> 00:26:39.596 Phil Adams and I traveled there in June to care for the ones who've been doing the hard work the pastors and also military chaplains. 00:26:39.596 --> 00:26:46.998 This is a picture of Philip training pastors there in crisis and trauma counseling. 00:26:46.998 --> 00:26:53.233 Our goal last year in hands and feet was to raise $4,000 to send them for aid. 00:26:53.233 --> 00:27:02.192 We raised more than that and also the church gave an extra $2,000 on top of that, so and these people are doing wonderful things with that money. 00:27:03.190 --> 00:27:08.097 So, speaking of Philip Adams, I'll just tell you about our other missionaries that are overseas that we support. 00:27:08.097 --> 00:27:12.237 Philip and Jennifer Adams we've been supporting for many, many years. 00:27:12.237 --> 00:27:23.941 They are planting churches and serving leaders nationally in France and other parts of Europe as well, and also in Afghanistan and also in Haiti. 00:27:23.941 --> 00:27:24.973 They're a little bit of everywhere. 00:27:24.973 --> 00:27:46.181 Our friends Bartek and Daria Piszczbyła in Poznan, poland Many of you know Bartek and Daria, but you can't pronounce their last name and I can't either, and I was with them this year as well, and they're doing wonderfully along with their young son. 00:27:46.181 --> 00:28:01.980 They're working with this church plant in Poznan, which we have helped from the beginning to start, and they're also working with Evangelical Poland, which is a national organization which unifies evangelical ministries for the sake of the gospel going further in Poland. 00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:03.494 So that's fantastic. 00:28:03.609 --> 00:28:05.938 We also partner with Evangelism of Earth. 00:28:05.938 --> 00:28:22.855 That's Steve Phaedos Ministries, and if you've been here long enough, you know that Steve used to be senior pastor of this church and he has been doing evangelistic crusades and pastures conferences for close to 40 years I guess, maybe more than that, I don't know a long, long time. 00:28:22.855 --> 00:28:31.878 He still does one every month in a different country, mostly in Latin America, and that ministry is an impact ministry. 00:28:31.878 --> 00:28:43.059 They come in not only preaching the gospel but really giving a vision for the leaders, for a fear of the Lord and for purity and ministry in the leaders. 00:28:43.059 --> 00:28:47.699 It's really a great ministry and we're happy to be able to support them. 00:28:47.699 --> 00:28:57.739 Of course, we support the Victoria Watoto Fund, alois Leonard, one of the TCC partners, who grew up there in Kenya. 00:28:57.739 --> 00:29:10.296 We're partnering with them with their children's feeding program and also the school there in Bete, kenya, and a couple of new things we get to do this coming year. 00:29:10.296 --> 00:29:29.220 We were helping to support Brad Martel, one of our TCC partners here, who works for the Center for Bioethical Reform, cbr, and they exist to change public opinion and ultimately change public policy concerning abortion. 00:29:29.220 --> 00:29:35.336 They have a very strong presence on college campuses and we're glad to be able to be a part of that. 00:29:35.336 --> 00:29:42.338 We're also supporting Faithful Promise Ministries, which is Patty Clemens' ministry. 00:29:42.338 --> 00:29:56.336 Patty is such an amazing servant of people and she just is consistent through the years and she serves widows, she serves singles, she serves anybody who's in the margins. 00:29:56.336 --> 00:30:02.380 She's a great ministry and we're glad to be able to also support that. 00:30:03.913 --> 00:30:06.259 Okay, so I'll tell you about what we call our SENT ones. 00:30:06.259 --> 00:30:15.179 These are three ministries that are based out of TCC that are doing apostolic work in our nation and internationally as well. 00:30:15.179 --> 00:30:18.798 First is Yuri and Olga Drozian with Siberian missions. 00:30:18.798 --> 00:30:23.221 Yuri and Olga are just great, great people. 00:30:23.221 --> 00:30:25.416 They were here first service. 00:30:25.416 --> 00:30:29.180 They're just first of all. 00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:34.041 That's the best picture I've ever seen for a missionary. 00:30:34.041 --> 00:30:37.894 I mean, the fields are ripe into harvest and they're standing in the field. 00:30:37.894 --> 00:30:42.798 It's just come on, I want somebody to Photoshop me into that. 00:30:42.798 --> 00:30:47.914 That's great, but that's actually what they do. 00:30:47.914 --> 00:30:52.901 They're in there, in where the fields are ripe into harvest. 00:30:52.901 --> 00:30:54.173 I was able to go with them. 00:30:54.173 --> 00:30:56.576 Well, they were going with, they went with me. 00:30:56.710 --> 00:31:06.319 We went together to Africa, to Kenya, this year, and it is a joy to work with these guys because they are perfect travel partners. 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:17.436 They are low maintenance, they are high output, they're spiritually keen and aware, they're prayers and they have a heart for the people. 00:31:17.436 --> 00:31:21.256 It's like exactly who you want to go on a trip with and they're so good. 00:31:21.256 --> 00:31:42.695 So we were in Kenya together and then we I went to Tanzania and they went to Russia and they spent several weeks Actually two months, I think in Russia, in the Altai, in Russia proper, and then these other federations, their regions in Russia Altai Republic and the Tuva Republic. 00:31:43.787 --> 00:31:45.693 Altai is a very hard place to reach. 00:31:45.693 --> 00:31:51.832 You can see this or some of the leaders that they were sitting around the table encouraging and training. 00:31:51.832 --> 00:32:05.692 It's a hard place to reach because of the mountains, but they've found people there who have a real heart to go into those places, to penetrate into those mountains, those remote areas with the gospel. 00:32:05.692 --> 00:32:06.807 That's great. 00:32:06.807 --> 00:32:12.778 There's another picture, I think, of the church meeting there in the Altai region. 00:32:12.778 --> 00:32:15.452 Then also they were in Israel. 00:32:15.452 --> 00:32:22.357 I think this next picture is also there, up on top of a mountain praying over the city in Altai. 00:32:22.357 --> 00:32:27.353 This is part of what they do they just cover the cities in prayer and they intercede over those cities. 00:32:27.353 --> 00:32:30.932 This is in Israel. 00:32:30.932 --> 00:32:36.397 I believe this is Olga doing a dance, an Israeli dance, with the sisters there. 00:32:36.397 --> 00:32:37.027 That's awesome. 00:32:37.027 --> 00:32:43.218 They were in Israel and they were there just before the war started. 00:32:43.218 --> 00:32:46.634 In fact, their journey was cut short because the war started. 00:32:46.634 --> 00:32:47.448 They had to come home. 00:32:47.448 --> 00:32:51.894 They did get out, thankfully, but it was a very effective time. 00:32:52.005 --> 00:32:56.256 We have partners that we work through through Yuri and Olga in Israel. 00:32:56.256 --> 00:33:08.474 As we have given aid to people in Ukraine who are war-torn areas, we also are making available the opportunity to give. 00:33:08.474 --> 00:33:16.776 If you give, you can just designate to Israel and we can give directly to the pastors there and they can distribute it directly to needs. 00:33:16.776 --> 00:33:22.356 This is just helping meet the needs of people who are pretty desperate there. 00:33:22.356 --> 00:33:32.535 Of course we have Neil Silverberg and Neil, as you know most of you know he was also one of the senior pastors at Trinity for many years. 00:33:33.727 --> 00:33:35.413 He's been a part of us for a long time. 00:33:35.413 --> 00:33:51.367 He's part of the Ezra Project and he does a lot of work in churches in the states and some overseas as well, training pastors and leaders, doing oversight of churches and ministering in churches. 00:33:51.367 --> 00:33:53.575 He averages about twice a month going out. 00:33:53.575 --> 00:34:00.998 Just came back from earlier this year from Cuba and this is his conference in Cuba. 00:34:00.998 --> 00:34:07.038 There's another picture of the brother who oversees the network of churches there. 00:34:07.038 --> 00:34:08.931 This is Pastor Jorge. 00:34:08.931 --> 00:34:18.012 His ministry in Cuba has been really significant and they're going back again in February, which is great. 00:34:18.012 --> 00:34:25.597 He also had ministry that's opening up because of the book that he wrote about Jewish Roots Movement. 00:34:25.597 --> 00:34:29.835 It's really about the gospel but it's applying it to the Jewish Roots Movement. 00:34:29.835 --> 00:34:33.652 There's some ministry opening up in Messianic congregations. 00:34:33.652 --> 00:34:40.496 He just came back from Fort Lauderdale, I think, with Rick and Karen Greenberg. 00:34:40.496 --> 00:34:42.911 This book is opening doors for him there. 00:34:43.865 --> 00:34:47.634 Lastly, I'll tell you about Thrive Ministries, which is the ministry that I have founded. 00:34:47.634 --> 00:34:52.773 There's so many beautiful things that God has done this year with Thrive. 00:34:52.773 --> 00:35:07.097 Hundreds of church leaders, mostly in local settings, who have been challenged to focus on Christ, to recalibrate their personal lives to Christ, to reveal Christ in their sermons and in their ministries. 00:35:07.097 --> 00:35:17.393 Dozens of conferences and forums and podcasts and broadcasts and meetings around tables in homes focused on multiplying and releasing healthy leaders. 00:35:17.393 --> 00:35:21.835 Thousands of discipleship booklets translated and distributed. 00:35:21.835 --> 00:35:33.032 Forty worship leaders and songwriters trained and now writing and producing and publishing songs in Poland, in Polish, from a Polish soul. 00:35:33.032 --> 00:35:34.547 That's beautiful. 00:35:34.547 --> 00:35:36.047 It's beautiful. 00:35:36.047 --> 00:35:41.994 Thousands of dollars in aid to Ukraine people. 00:35:43.865 --> 00:35:47.936 One young Maasai musician sponsored for music school. 00:35:47.936 --> 00:35:48.849 This is Hosea. 00:35:48.849 --> 00:36:05.815 Hosea is a young Maasai, he's about 19 years old and we were just singing these songs in these little churches and it takes me a while to catch on, but I caught on the fact this is not Swahili, this is actually Maasai. 00:36:05.815 --> 00:36:08.309 Who's writing these songs in Maasai? 00:36:08.309 --> 00:36:18.391 Because there's not much material written in Maasai, and so I found out it was this young man, hosea, and he's a real follower of Jesus. 00:36:18.391 --> 00:36:31.293 He's writing great songs, and so we have started sponsoring him for music school or setting him on a path to be able to record these original worship songs in the Maasai language. 00:36:31.293 --> 00:36:37.271 This is groundbreaking, it's really groundbreaking, it's beautiful and it's a joy to be able to do this. 00:36:37.271 --> 00:36:47.217 Also, my book on worship was translated into Spanish and is being distributed in some parts of speaking Spanish speaking parts. 00:36:47.217 --> 00:37:02.880 And then, of course, I wrote a book about grief as well, and there are doors opening to be able to minister to people in different contexts about finding hope and healing through the Psalms of Lament. 00:37:03.405 --> 00:37:05.273 So you guys are a huge part. 00:37:05.273 --> 00:37:18.117 I want to thank you not only for what you've done to help thrive, but what you've done to help all of these ministries All of our sent ones, by the way Yurena, olga and Neil and Thrive Ministries as well. 00:37:18.117 --> 00:37:23.032 You can, if you want to, although Trinity supports us as well. 00:37:23.032 --> 00:37:28.360 If you want to support any of these ministries, you're able to do that online at TCCNoxcom. 00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:35.239 You just designated to Thrive or Neil, silverberg or Siberian missions. 00:37:35.239 --> 00:37:38.726 Ok, so that was a lot last year, right? 00:37:38.726 --> 00:37:40.831 God's done a lot through us. 00:37:40.831 --> 00:37:46.596 Just a quick look forward OK, into 2024. 00:37:47.827 --> 00:37:49.373 We go every year in the fall. 00:37:49.373 --> 00:37:56.978 The pastor team goes to a prayer, a little prayer weekend and we have a prayer and planning retreat. 00:37:56.978 --> 00:38:01.036 Just Lord, what are you saying to TCC? 00:38:01.036 --> 00:38:05.215 What are the directions you want us to go and how do you want us to do it in October? 00:38:05.215 --> 00:38:19.293 So we went this year and we got three words, we felt, from the Lord, and the three words are encounter, prepare and jubilee, and you're going to hear more about those over the next few weeks. 00:38:19.505 --> 00:38:31.018 I'm not going to tell you about any of that, but those are the three words, except I want to just remind you that this is the jubilee year for Trinity Community Church. 00:38:31.018 --> 00:38:35.027 This is our 50th year, isn't that right, jack? 00:38:35.027 --> 00:38:38.291 You were there year one, weren't you? 00:38:38.291 --> 00:38:46.054 A few of us were here, a few of you were here in year one 50 years of ministry in Knoxville and Trinity. 00:38:46.054 --> 00:38:51.197 It's Trinity Chapel at the time and then it became Trinity Community Church. 00:38:51.197 --> 00:38:58.378 So we are planning celebrations throughout the year to mark what God has done through Trinity's ministry in the last 50 years. 00:38:58.378 --> 00:39:04.637 That's great, ok, the other thing big thing for this year, of course I've already mentioned it is the Bible reading plan. 00:39:04.637 --> 00:39:06.268 We're going to put that slide back up again. 00:39:06.268 --> 00:39:13.617 If you didn't scan it Once, you do, or you can just you can check the message you should have gotten from the church. 00:39:13.617 --> 00:39:18.153 We're going to start this tomorrow, so we'd love for everybody to go along this journey together. 00:39:18.244 --> 00:39:31.900 Let's read through the Psalms and the New Testament in the year, and one thing that you will notice if you go to the website is that you'll see that our website has been updated. 00:39:31.900 --> 00:39:33.164 We have a brand new website Now. 00:39:33.164 --> 00:39:35.514 Our website was amazing before. 00:39:35.514 --> 00:39:37.811 It was really great, really effective. 00:39:37.811 --> 00:39:48.260 It just went from here to here, guys, and you can get any kind of information you want pretty much about what's going on at Trinity here on this website. 00:39:48.260 --> 00:39:49.530 So this is the new website. 00:39:49.530 --> 00:39:50.608 You can go there. 00:39:50.608 --> 00:39:54.106 Tcc Knox dot com it's still the same site, just been. 00:39:54.106 --> 00:39:58.510 It's just been made better, so it's very easy to navigate. 00:39:58.510 --> 00:40:02.233 It's fantastic, and so a lot of people find Trinity through the website. 00:40:02.233 --> 00:40:08.293 That's been a great great addition for this coming year and super exciting to me. 00:40:08.293 --> 00:40:21.994 We have a new podcast coming out from from Trinity and it's called the known podcast, and I've got a quick little video here so you'll know what it's about. 00:40:22.235 --> 00:40:22.996 Hey, hi, hello. 00:40:22.996 --> 00:40:30.034 We are Brooke, hannah and Mackenzie and surprise, surprise, we are starting a podcast. 00:40:30.034 --> 00:40:40.509 Woo, january 1st has never looked sweeter and we could not be more excited for you all to have this in your hands and be able to listen to it. 00:40:40.509 --> 00:40:45.786 This is something that we have been planning and prepping since the spring of 2023. 00:40:45.786 --> 00:40:50.947 So a lot of intentionality and prep work has really gone into this. 00:40:51.596 --> 00:41:08.034 Our goal for this podcast is that you will walk away from each episode with a desire to invite Holy Spirit in your day to day life, that you would increase your knowledge of scripture, deep in your connection with the Father and ultimately find your identity rooted in absolute truth. 00:41:08.034 --> 00:41:09.641 That is the word of God, right? 00:41:09.641 --> 00:41:15.306 So we want this to feel like a cozy sit down conversation with your girls. 00:41:15.306 --> 00:41:31.623 So grab a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, or just put it on the radio while you're driving down the road, and join us on January 1st and every Monday after, as we discover what it means to know God, know ourselves and make Him known. 00:41:31.623 --> 00:41:35.762 See you soon, bye, bye. 00:41:36.034 --> 00:41:38.338 That's really exciting to me. 00:41:38.338 --> 00:41:47.030 I tell you why it's exciting to me because I've heard a couple of them already and these girls have something to say. 00:41:47.030 --> 00:41:48.577 They really do. 00:41:48.577 --> 00:41:57.626 There's an anointing on what they're saying and it's beautiful because it really gives hope. 00:41:57.626 --> 00:41:59.998 It really gives hope, so it's great. 00:41:59.998 --> 00:42:02.036 The podcast, it's going to be great. 00:42:02.036 --> 00:42:10.898 It starts tomorrow so you can scan the code there and go there or wherever you get you listen to podcasts. 00:42:10.898 --> 00:42:12.376 You can find it Okay. 00:42:12.675 --> 00:42:16.304 Lastly, I'll say thank you for your faithfulness in your giving this year. 00:42:16.304 --> 00:42:20.719 This church not including this week. 00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:30.806 We took in $598,646 this year and that's pretty amazing for a church this size. 00:42:30.806 --> 00:42:51.487 But what's even more amazing is the way that that money was distributed and went like this there's a little chart there, a little graph 43% went to operations, 40% went to equipping and 17% went to missions, which is huge. 00:42:51.487 --> 00:42:53.518 We have this goal. 00:42:53.518 --> 00:42:59.014 For a long time We've been giving 10% to missions and that's a lot. 00:42:59.014 --> 00:43:06.034 We're tithing everything that comes in out to missions and this last year we said what if we stretched it? 00:43:06.034 --> 00:43:11.748 What if we made a goal of 15% to missions? 00:43:11.748 --> 00:43:25.608 And that became our goal and it ended up being actually 17% this year, which is really fantastic and you can hear today of all the things that have happened here and abroad through that. 00:43:25.608 --> 00:43:43.034 So it helps us in every way to belong, to feel at home, to feel safe, to grow, to be better in our walk with Jesus next year than we are now and to serve as you give. 00:43:43.034 --> 00:43:44.922 So we're really grateful for that. 00:43:44.922 --> 00:43:56.340 If you want more information about how our giving, our finances work that we're an open book you're welcome to talk to any of us and we can connect you and get that information to you. 00:43:57.034 --> 00:44:02.824 But we just know that most people don't really want the minutiae and this is so we thought pie chart everybody likes pie. 00:44:02.824 --> 00:44:03.677 That's great. 00:44:03.677 --> 00:44:04.619 Let's do it. 00:44:04.619 --> 00:44:06.396 Perfect. 00:44:06.396 --> 00:44:09.420 Okay, this is great. 00:44:09.420 --> 00:44:11.260 Okay, I want to pray if you'll stand up. 00:44:11.260 --> 00:44:16.090 Thank you for making it through this whole thing here with us. 00:44:16.090 --> 00:44:17.876 There's so much. 00:44:22.516 --> 00:44:28.659 Father, we thank you, we give you glory for all of this. 00:44:28.659 --> 00:44:28.960 Lord. 00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:34.545 Only this can only happen because of you. 00:44:34.545 --> 00:44:35.597 That's the only reason. 00:44:35.597 --> 00:44:44.260 Lord is you and it's really the only purpose we have is you, lord, from you and through you and to you are all things. 00:44:44.260 --> 00:44:46.706 To you be the glory forever. 00:44:48.601 --> 00:44:57.668 So, Lord, we end the way we started today, we give thanks to the Lord and we call upon His name and we want to make known His deeds among the people. 00:44:57.668 --> 00:45:03.014 Lord, we've sung to you, lord, we've sung praises to you. 00:45:03.014 --> 00:45:05.503 We've told of your wonderful works. 00:45:05.503 --> 00:45:08.320 Lord, we glory in your holy name. 00:45:08.320 --> 00:45:12.764 So, lord, we want to seek you. 00:45:13.295 --> 00:45:18.626 As the psalmist said, lord, to seek you, to seek your strength, to seek your presence continually. 00:45:18.626 --> 00:45:22.585 We pray that this coming year would be even more. 00:45:22.585 --> 00:45:26.945 We pray for more and more in 24. 00:45:26.945 --> 00:45:28.802 This is what we're praying. 00:45:28.802 --> 00:45:46.014 Thank you for what 23 was, but we pray for more, god, deeper walks with you, deeper understanding of your word, deeper communication among each other and commitment to relationships or deeper service and mission. 00:45:46.295 --> 00:45:51.945 God, thank you, and we will remember the wonderful works that you've done, god, and the miracles you've done. 00:45:51.945 --> 00:45:54.918 We give you praise, pray your blessing. 00:45:54.918 --> 00:45:58.023 Now, lord, it's your hands and we're entering into another one. 00:45:58.023 --> 00:46:09.349 I pray your blessing on this body and all of us, lord, and the families that are represented here, god, that you would bless them and keep them. 00:46:09.349 --> 00:46:36.949 You would cause your face to shine upon everyone and lift up your countenance to them, god, and be gracious to them, and that you would protect, that you would grant safety and health on all these households, lord and Lord, give them peace in the name of Jesus, amen, amen. 00:46:36.949 --> 00:46:41.034 I love you guys so much and if you have any needs, prayer needs, please come up. 00:46:41.034 --> 00:46:44.780 We'd love to pray for you, and God bless you.