DESCRIPTION OF THEME
Welcome to Global Awareness. Our department serves as an interactive experience that aims to bring attention to various social issues across the globe and how these issues inform our missions work both locally and globally.
The Global Awareness theme this year, I AM & I WILL, came out of a posture of remembrance of the faithfulness of God throughout history. As a team, we were pulled to the countless times in the Old Testament where Yahweh proclaimed things like “I AM your provider...” or “I AM your peace...”-- these moments where God’s character was boldly declared. We were also drawn to the action statements of God as well. We noticed how the Lord would proclaim “I WILL bless you...” or “I WILL deliver you...” These statements marked the promises of God.
EZEKIEL 34:22–31
22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.
25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.[a] I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops;
the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”