Christmas Gift for Love INC

Love INC and our neighbors in need have received a wonderful Christmas gift -- the offer of matching funds!  The matching fund pool, made possible by several generous donors, now totals $19,000!   The matching funds help all of us support the Love INC ministry into the new year.  Any donations received between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31, up to $19,000, will be matched!

Here's how it works:  any donation up to $100 will be matched; so if you give $100 to Love INC, another $100 will be given from the match.  However, for donations over $100, they will be matched 1.5 times!  So, if you give $200, it will be matched with $300 from the matching funds!

Help Love INC receive all of the $19,000 offered in the matching funds!

Love INC serves a vital purpose in our community: mobilizing churches, connecting volunteers to serve, helping our neighbors in need, transforming lives all around.  A $1 donation to Love INC results in over $4 of goods and services given to people in need right here in Gallatin County.

All donations are tax deductible and may be sent to: Gallatin County Love INC; PO Box 7117; Bozeman, MT  59771.  

Thank you!  We pray God blesses you as we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Christmas Shoppe for Kids

Love INC partner, Hope Lutheran Church, will offer its annual Children's Christmas Shoppe on Saturday, Dec. 3, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Local children, ages 4-10, are invited to come, pick out and wrap up to 5 gifts for their family members.  Gifts are new and provided free of charge to children from families in need.

Hope Lutheran volunteers will help children select and wrap the gifts.  Adults who come with the kids will receive coffee/juice and cookies while their children shop.

Love INC works with Hope Lutheran Church by creating and mailing invitations for the Children's Christmas Shoppe to 250 Love INC client families.  Many thanks to Hope Lutheran for this wonderful gift to families in our area. 

For more information, contact the church:  586-7154.

Christmas Open House

The Love INC office will host its annual Open House on December 8, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.  Come and enjoy some Christmas goodies (provided by Love INC volunteers), visit with the staff, and tour the Love INC ministry center (all dressed up in Yuletide decor)!

Are you a member of a partner church?  Are you a volunteer for Love INC?  A supporter?  Or, just a resident of Gallatin County?  Have you ever wondered what the Love INC office looks like?  This is a ministry hub of 43 partner churches' outreach ministries - come take a peek! 

Drop in, wander around, enjoy some refreshments, and see what the church volunteers are doing to transform lives in Gallatin County!  See you on December 8!

Please Pray

One of Love INC's beloved and extremely hard-working staff members was recently admitted to E.R., then hospitalized with a serious medical issue that will require surgery. She is currently on antibiotics, and has been told to rest up and recuperate for 4-6 weeks in preparation for the surgery.

Please pray for our staff member! She is in pain and facing a serious surgery. Please pray for her recovery from infection, and strength and healing.

New National Love INC Heads

Nancy VanDyken, Executive Director of Gallatin County Love INC, has been selected as one of three people to co-lead the national Love INC organization.  She is serving in this position along with two other individuals as Co-Directors of the national Love INC movement.  She will continue to serve, also, as the Executive Director of our local Love INC here in Bozeman.

To lead the national organization, instead of one person as CEO, Love INC decided to put in place a three-person top Executive Team, each with a primary focus.  Nancy will be responsible for new affiliate development -- bringing Love INC's to reality from conception to actual operation in communities around the county, and, as God provides, internationally.

As part of her responsibility, Nancy will travel to Nairobi on Sept. 22-Oct. 9 to provide equipping and training for five affiliates that are forming there, involving many churches and denominations.  Once trained, these affiliates will run themselves as their own grassroots organizations, without external monetary or personnel involvement.

As many of you are aware, the National Love INC headquarters and organization has undergone a complete restructuring.  As a result, new people were hired to provide leadership.  Nancy was hired in mid-June and intends to focus a portion of her efforts on forming Love INCs in other Montana communities.  Please keep her in your prayers, and contact her if you have any friends or contacts in other Montana communities that may be interested in starting a Love INC in their area. 

Pray for Livingston!  The initial work has begun to form a Love INC there.

Help Love INC & Have Fun at the Bozeman Maze!

 

Love INC Benefit Nights at the Bozeman Maze!

Date:  Tues., Oct. 11 (full moon); 3-8:30 p.m.
          Weds., Oct. 12, 6-8:30 p.m.

Bring your family and friends to the Bozeman Maze just off of N. 7th Ave. in Bozeman for a great time and support Love INC.  On these dates, 50% of the ticket proceeds will go directly to Love INC!

The fun includes:
Straw Bale Maze
Mini Train for kids to ride
Pumpkins
Kids Maze
Straw Bale Tractor for Kids

Corn Box (like a sandbox)

Photo Opportunities

Refreshments

New!  Bungee Trampoline!

Maze admission: $6/person.  Children 4 and under are free with an adult.  Some activities and refreshments are sold separately.

Location:  At the end of Mandeville Lane behind Murdoch's off N. 7th Ave.

Idea!  Youth Leaders and Groups:  Let's get together!  Join with other youth groups from around the valley at the Love INC Benefit Night at the Maze on Wednesday night (Oct. 12)!  Win a special cake for the being the youth group with the most people who complete the maze!

For more info about the Bozeman Maze, visit http://www.bozemanmaze.com/ or call 388-7818.

Be a Friend and Change a Life!

Change Your Life, a self-help ministry program of skills training and one-on-one mentoring coupled with tangible rewards and incentives, is gearing up for the fall! Each participant needs a Christian friend - someone who will walk alongside them, support them with prayer and encouragement, hold them accountable, and help that person clarify their own goals. We call these Christian friends, "mentors."

Mentors are asked to serve for about 8-12 weeks, depending on the class that the participant/student is taking. The time commitment is about one hour, once a week. Change Your Life meets on Tuesday nights in Bozeman; mentors meet with their participants from 7:30-8:30 p.m., following the participants' attendance in their classroom instruction. Training is provided; all mentoring occurs in a structured environment under one roof.

Can you serve Christ, share your Christian worldview, encourage someone who is learning news ways of approaching life, and who is waiting for you to be their mentor? We have a waiting list of participants/students who need you!

Course offerings this fall: Finding Financial Freedom (money management), Becoming a More Powerful Person (character development), and Divorce Care for Kids (emotional recovery from parent loss through divorce or abandonment) with an accompanying course for the parent. Mentors are needed for the adult participants of these courses who are counting on Gallatin County Christians to be there for them.

Call Love INC (587-3008) or email rmloveinc @ yahoo.com (no spaces in the email address), put your faith in action and help change a life (it might even be your own!).

Note: All Love INC ministry workers, including mentors, are volunteers who must be members or regular attenders of a local Christian church and agree with the faith expressed by the Apostles' Creed (which includes faith in the Trinity, the two natures of Jesus Christ: fully God and fully man, and the bodily Resurrection of Christ). All Change Your Life mentors must pass a criminal background check.