A Moment for Mission
“Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.” — Habakkuk 2:2, NRSV
Everyone has dreams. Children and youth dream about what they want to be when they grow up. Young adults dream of the perfect career or family. Older adults dream of a peaceful retirement when they can reflect on their accomplishments.
Today is World Communion Sunday. On this special day, we join with other United Methodist congregations in a special offering to support young adults and make a global impact for Jesus Christ.
Half of the offering benefits World Communion Scholarships for graduate students from the United States and other countries. The remainder assists Ethnic Scholarships for U.S. and international undergraduate students in the United States, as well as Ethnic In-Service Training.
One recipient is a young woman named Sibana Esina. Her dream is to serve people in Zimbabwe with disabilities. She saw how people were marginalized because they lacked accessible spaces or accommodations, especially individuals with hearing loss. Sibana found a way to “write the vision [and] make it plain” through interpreting worship services in sign language.
“The World Communion Scholarship,” she said, “is helping me attain my master’s degree in special needs education, with a specialty in hearing and speech impairment.”
Young leaders like Sibana are agents of transformation. We partner with them when we live by our faith (Habakkuk 2:4).
On World Communion Sunday, we combine our resources to support shared ministries, equipping us to step with faithful determination into a grace-filled new beginning. Please give generously.
Children’s Message
Give each child a cardboard tube.
Today’s Bible verse talks about having a vision.
Imagine that this tube is a visioning telescope. A telescope helps us see things that are far away and makes them clearer to us.
What are some things you hope for the world so that it is more like what God wants for us?
Each of us has different visions for the world. When you look through your visioning telescope, what do you see? We all look for our vision through Jesus, who walks with us as we work to achieve God’s dreams for us.
In church, grown-ups will help you to become leaders who change the world. We want you to have everything you need to know God’s vision for you and to work toward it.
Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for Jesus, who walks with us and gives us a clear vision of your hope for the world. Thank you for young leaders who make a difference. Help us to see Jesus as we learn how to become leaders. Amen.
Offertory Prayer
Loving God, you give us dreams and visions for a reason. Remind us to use those dreams and visions to give generously, transforming lives around the world. We love you. Amen.
From Discipleship Ministries: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost — Gracious and giving God, we bring our tithes and offerings to you this day and pray as we give them that you will kindle in us a deeper faith and a stronger commitment. We acknowledge that some of us have found our way back to you on our own; others of us have lived into a faith that surrounded us from the time we were born, lived out in parents, grandparents, siblings, and spouses. However this faith found its way into our hearts or into our DNA, help us to kindle it to flame, that the world might be set on fire with your love and compassion. In Christ, we pray. Amen. (2 Timothy 1:1-14)
Newsletter Nugget
The familiar hymn “Be Thou My Vision” (United Methodist Hymnal, no. 451) is a prayer for God’s wisdom and presence “thou and thou only, first in my heart.”
Through our gifts on World Communion Sunday, we invite promising young adults to seek—and discover—God’s wisdom and presence as they study and serve to fulfill their dreams.
Half of the offering benefits World Communion Scholarships for graduate students from the United States and other countries. The remainder assists Ethnic Scholarships for U.S. and international undergraduate students in the United States, as well as Ethnic In-Service Training.
“The United Methodist Church has nurtured my life in many ways,” said World Communion Scholar Sibana Esina of Zimbabwe, who is studying special needs education, with a specialty in hearing and speech impairment. “I am grateful.”
Young adults like Sibana benefit from our generosity, as they cast a vision for a promising future. Thank you!