• Praise God for the team of missionaries He put together. Having personally participated in as many as ten such celebration events, I have never before witnessed a finer group of "heroes of the faith." They were attractive, personable, aggressive and ready to be used by God to communicate to us what God was doing in their corner of the world. We could see the passion that each of them has for reaching their people group with the gospel. They are our ambassadors for Christ around this world – Southern Baptist missionaries. We should delight in being represented by such servants!

• Praise God for the team of volunteers that stepped forward to help. Events of this magnitude do not take place without the help of God’s people. Every person that was approached agreed to do what was asked of them, without hesitation, and no matter the size of the assigned task. Some of the jobs were as small as helping our maintenance crew set up for events over the weekend; others were as large as hosting major events over the five day celebration. The response was the same, "I will be glad to do that." You made this event happen! What about our church staff? Our kitchen crew, our maintenance crew, our ministry leaders – all of them were champions.

• Praise God for our church members who took this opportunity to bless our missionaries. On Sunday evening, you heard our missionaries as they spoke of the impact of this GIC on their lives. Before the Sunday evening service we scheduled a one hour debriefing session in which our missionaries spoke candidly and more specifically about what the week had meant to them. Some reported having made career decisions as a result of their attendance at our GIC, decisions that will impact eternity. Others reported being refreshed, renewed, and revitalized for the task. Still others expressed their sincere appreciation for the intentionality with which you blessed them during the five days.

• Praise God for what He did for us during this GIC. Seven career decisions were made at the conclusion of the week. 136 decisions were made to participate in short term missions either "across the street or around the world." And numerous other decisions were expressed concerning standing with children and grandchildren if God were to call them into full time service. In all, 186 members came forward in response to the Life Commitment invitation.

• Finally, praise God for our Celebration leaders. In our opening celebration, Dr. Merritt spoke of "beautiful feet." Did you see them? Dr. Fort, a member of the International Mission Board’s leadership team, was dynamic as he led us on Sunday, using examples from his life as a missionary. Did you see in him the charisma of the leadership of our IMB? May we continue to support our missionaries and the IMB – the very best "sending organization" in the world.