Serving Others

William was born on April 5, 1989 and was raised at Church at Charlotte from the age of 2. While here, he gleaned so much from Jim’s sermons, Karen Apple’s Children’s Ministry, singing in the Children’s Choir with Robin Ivey, Sunday School with Drew Rush and Kathy Templeton to name a few and AWANAS. 

Jim baptized William in Karen Apple’s pool when he was 9. He had come to know the Lord at about age 4.  His verse for baptism was Psalm 18:2 and it held us together during the weeks of chemo/total body radiation. William was diagnosed with AML (a very aggressive form of leukemia, not usually found in kids) at the end of October 1998 and went to Duke for a stem cell transplant (from his mom, yahoo!) in December.  He passed away on April 10, 1999.

William loved NASCAR (Jeff Gordon was his favorite driver) and enjoyed playing soccer and video games.  The church playground is dedicated to his memory (and Zach Hilbert’s) and was the loving effort of Steve Weaver, Russ Everett and his committee.

Not long after William was diagnosed we were having a devotional in the kitchen reading, “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning,” Psalm 30:5 (a favorite verse of William’s great grandpa’s). During this time William said, “We don’t know how long the weeping will go on, Mom, and the joy may not come until in heaven.” I know today that he is enjoying his morning of joy forever.

While sick, blood donations and transfusions helped make Williams’s treatments easier. Therefore, we are hosting a Community Center Blood Drive in his memory on May 16 from 8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. During this time his family will be present and will host refreshments in the Courtyard of Church at Charlotte. Please join us on May 16 as we remember and rejoice over William’s life and give the gift of life to others.

To reserve a time, click here.

By: Tamia Bock

This is Amelia. She came to a Joni & Friends Family Retreat with her mother two summers ago. Amelia has Down Syndrome, and when a friend (a Joni & Friends Short-Term Missionaries) first told Amelia’s mother about the retreats, she was not interested in attending and had many reservations about Christianity. However, not too long after that, Amelia’s mom attended a conference on Down Syndrome. There she was hit with the full impact of what her daughter would be faced with for the rest of her life and was extremely overwhelmed by it. Arriving home depressed, she realized she could not handle this alone and approached the volunteer to ask if it was too late to sign up for the retreat. The volunteer responded that it was not too late and proceeded to line up a local church to sponsor the family to attend.

When they arrived at the retreat, Amelia’s mother was very nervous; she did not want anyone else holding her daughter and she did not know how to react to what she was experiencing. After being at the retreat for several days. Amelia’s mom soon became overwhelmed by the love and acceptance that was shown to her and Amelia by all of the volunteers and other families attending the retreat. During one of the women’s small groups that she attended, she broke down into tears sobbing “How do you handle it? We’re not people of faith. I’ve been playing a game these last 16 months.” It was the first place she had ever been able to be honest about the reality.

By Thursday evening, the last night of the retreat, Amelia’s mom had seen enough. Everyone that week had shown so much love and support to her and her daughter that when she called her husband that night she told him, “I’m probably going to become a Christian before coming home.” Sure enough, later that night she placed her faith in Jesus Christ and her life was changed! God used Joni & Friends Family Retreats in a mighty way in the life of little Amelia and her mother, and He continues to do so in the lives of many others as well.

If you want more information on Joni and Friends visit http://www.joniandfriends.org. If you would like to learn more about volunteering at a Joni and Friends Retreat, contact Robin at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Partnering Ministry: Joni and Friends
Joni and Friends mission is to communicate the Gospel and equip Christ-honoring Churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disabilities. For more information, contact Robin Weaver at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) .

Supported Missionaries:

Paul and Norma Duffey
Paul and Norma Duffey joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1971 and began their work in Ecuador. They now serve at the JAARS center in Waxhaw where Paul is the assistant director to Land Transportation and Norma serves as office manager in the Maritime Office.

Aaron and Christine Faro

Aaron and Christine Faro serve with Missionary Athletes International providing vision, planning and implementation of summer soccer team camps for both high school and college teams. They train athletes in sports ministry and encourage them on their walk with Christ.

Focus Country: Costa Rica/Cuba

Church at Charlotte recently designated Costa Rica/Cuba as our third area of international focus. In this area, there is a great need to train and develop church leaders of existing churches as well as provide financial support for church planters until their churches can become financially self-sufficient. Our assistance will come largely through partnerships with a ministry called Proyecto de Vida (for leadership training) and two evangelical denominations who are actively planting new churches.