Wow! After a fantastic warm winter (at least for those of you who don’t like the snow), we are marching through spring on into summer. We continue to pray for Joplin as we approach the one year anniversary of last May’s tragic tornado that hit our city. It is exciting, though, to see God working through His church (which is each one of us) and the many ways we have ministered to the people of Joplin and the surrounding area over the past year. God is using Forest Park in a mighty way. It was especially exciting to see over 2,800 people on all three campuses on Easter Sunday. That is an all-time record attendance!

It is also hard to…

As we approach the anniversary of the terrible tornado that tore through Joplin, I am thanking God for what HE is doing through Forest Park:

• All three campuses are growing in worship attendance.
• Mission Joplin is providing help, hope and healing to more than 110 families a week.
• Giving to missions last year reached an all-time high (more than $947,000).
• Our exciting One Church initiatives are moving forward.
• People are coming to know Christ and being baptized, including 14 who were baptized on Easter Sunday.
• Forest Park was recently recognized for ranking high in our state for missions giving, baptisms and attendance.

I am so thankful for your faithfulness and generosity. God is using Forest Park to touch…

Woo hoo!  We got a big load of food from the AMAZING people at Greentree Community Church in St. Louis!  We are so thankful for the way God is working through our sister churches as we continue our mission to provide help, healing, and hope at Mission Joplin. Greentree ROCKS!

An announcement: Due to the low number of people coming on Saturdays, tomorrow will be our last Saturday (9 a.m. to noon). We will continue to be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  On those days we’ve been seeing 50 to 60 families per day, whereas on Saturdays only about 10 families.

If you want to donate, we need towels, sheets and pots and…

The Missouri Baptist Convention has been following the ministry of Mission Joplin and just donated a very large amount of money for us to use to buy food.  Thank you Rick Hedger for leading the charge and showing compassion to the needy in Joplin!  We should be able to feed those who come for help for at least 2 months (possibly more) because of this amazing gift.  We have other families in need of the following items if you feel led to get involved.

2 Toddler Beds
1 Bunk Beds
3 Full Bed Frame
4 Full Box Springs
5 Queen Frames
6 Queen Box Springs
7 Queen Mattresses
18 Dressers
11…

My mom raised me to love trees. We climbed them, picnicked under them, and took drives just to admire them. One of the casualties of the big tornado last May was the loss of thousands of trees. Mission Joplin has partnered with a group that wants to bless tornado survivors with trees. We need 10 more families who would like to be considered for this gift. The team will plant the trees this Saturday. If you are interested getting free trees, let Lisa know by emailing her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)