Evergreen Community Church

06/03/2026

Joni & Friends Mission Trip Fundraising:

Pastor Nick Krauss, Matthew and Alyson Mirch, and Sam, Betsy, and Gus Wilson are heading on a Summer Mission Trip to serve at Joni & Friends Family Retreat in Flat Rock, North Carolina!

Our Family Retreat costs are due by Monday, July 6. If you are able to financially support us, please visit the donation page for Nick Krauss, The Mirch Family, and The Wilson Family Week 2 and Week 3 to make a contribution.

Joni & Friends is a ministry for families affected by disability and was founded by faithful Christian believer, Joni Eareckson Tada. When Joni was just 17 years old, she suffered from a diving accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She understands disability and has dedicated her life to serving the Lord and His people affected by disability.

Joni & Friends Family Retreat is a fun camp week for Christian families affected by disability and a mission trip for volunteers who serve individuals with disabilities and their families.

The main goals of Joni & Friends Family Retreat are to:
Provide a fun vacation for individuals with disabilities.
Provide a fun vacation for siblings of individuals with disabilities.
Provide a time of rejuvenation for parents of individuals with disabilities.
Share the gospel and the love of Christ with those with great needs.
Equip volunteers to bring home an inclusive mindset to their churches.

Whether or not you can financially support us, please support us with your prayers!

Your Brother in Christ,
Pastor Nick Krauss

https://secured.joniandfriends.org/campaign/krauss-nicholas-household-family-retreat-north-carolina-2-2026/c780052

https://secured.joniandfriends.org/campaign/mirch-alyson-and-matthew-household-family-retreat-north-carolina-2-2026/c776765

https://secured.joniandfriends.org/campaign/wilson-family-family-retreat-north-carolina-2-2026/c770879

https://secured.joniandfriends.org/campaign/wilson-family-family-retreat-north-carolina-3-2026/c771607

We're addressing an important issue that affects many people. Our mission is to spread awareness and raise money for solutions we have identified. We created this campaign for everyone to contribute at various impact levels. Be sure to review the ways you can make an impact and please share this...

05/03/2026

05/03/2026

Evergreen,

I am writing to express our sincere gratitude for your financial support and prayers, which made our recent mission trip to Cali, Colombia, possible. I would like to share a summary of what we accomplished and our vision for the future of this ministry.

Mission Highlights:

Our primary goal was to encourage and build relationships with the first-generation Reformed churches (IBR) in Colombia. These churches are working to preach the Gospel and plant healthy congregations in a culture largely dominated by Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, and Prosperity-gospel traditions.

RE Steve Donahue and I prepared sermons and lectures, accompanied by Sebastian Herrera-Murillo, who served as our translator (and unofficially our food-tour guide). I want to specifically recognize Sebastian's incredible hard work; he spent six hours each day preparing translations to ensure our messages were faithful to the Lord and His people. We spent several hours daily reviewing material with him, and his commitment to excellence was indispensable to our work.

We visited five different churches in five different cities in the Cauca Valley of Colombia. We provided these congregations with lessons on 4 subjects that they requested us to teach, and then Steve and I preached at different churches on the Lord's Day.

Our teachings at one of the churches can be found on their Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/live/oGEf85CCvAU?si=1Tbh5co_Hs8uPIuj):

The Future:

This experience made us deeply aware of the many needs these congregations face, specifically the lack of financial resources required to support pastors so they can be committed to their ministry full-time.

Beyond financial needs, both the congregations and the pastors of the Colombian churches said that the most helpful thing we can do is to continue to build ongoing relationships with their congregations.

To address this, we believe it is essential to continue sending teams back to the region — elders to provide theological teaching to their congregations and laymen to lead practical and evangelistic initiatives, such as Vacation Bible School or medical mission trips (to see a doctor is a real hardship for many Colombians). All initiatives will operate in cooperation with our partner churches to advance the Reformed faith in Colombia and equip members of our churches with a heart for evangelism and global missions.


The Call:

Both before and after the Trip, I spoke with Nathan Bonham, our MTW missionary representative in Colombia. Much of what we saw in Cali is representative of the difficulties that are affecting the entire nation. For example, in Pereira, Sebastian's hometown, there is a Bible study of about 5-20 people that meets via Zoom with Pastor Arnold Lavaire because there is no gospel-preaching church within several hours. An honest examination of the state of things in Colombia reveals that the leftist, socialist government has damaged the economy and made the country more dangerous over the past four years, which may dissuade some from ministering there.

However, I remain committed to returning, and I invite you to join us because Christ is worthy of the sacrifice of our ease, comfort, and safety.

James Henley Thornwell's sermon The Cross-Shaped Missionary has given me a renewed sense of our call to sacrifice for the sake of global missions in the Great Commission. These words inspire me, and I hope they will inspire you:

"The love to God and the compassion to man which reigned in the Savior's breast were not permitted to evaporate in sentiment... they were active and operative principles... As the dispensation of the Gospel is founded in a real sacrifice, all its duties are stamped with the spirit of sacrifice... All these [difficulties] and a thousand more such obstructions are only proofs that the Church must tread in the footsteps of her Master, and bless the nations by the sacrifice of her own ease and life. ... These are the crosses which precede the crown, the tribulations through which we pass into glory."

Thank you again for making this mission possible.

Your Brother in Christ,
Pastor Nicholas Krauss