The Anchor Annual Review

Looking back on 2019 has allowed me to look back with gratitude for the Lord’s provision. We saw tremendous growth in 2019, as we continued to live out our vision of embodying hope in Wilmington. We have been reading together the Gospel of Mark over the last several months. We felt like God was calling us to read the entirety of the gospel through the lens of Mark 5:24-34. In that passage, we are introduced to a woman who had endured much suffering because of a never ending hemorrhage of blood, but she decided that if she could touch Jesus then she would be healed. One Sunday Meg McBride preached and commented on this passage by saying: “Touch me and I will help you touch God.” This summarizes what our year has been as a church.
We have invited individuals, churches, non-profit agencies, and businesses to come and touch us—and we would help them to touch God. Sometimes that touch has come from the miracles that surround places of healing like Hope Recuperative Care and the affordable housing we offer through CARE; sometimes that touch has come through a bicycle at Switchin’ Gears, and now you can find enjoyment or a new job; sometimes that touch has come through the baptismal waters washing over you or partaking of the Lord’s Supper on a barge in downtown Wilmington; sometimes that touch has come through the paint brush on a canvas at Hope’s Lens; sometimes that touch has come through a hot cup of coffee and a cot at our Emergency Shelter; sometimes that touch has come through a sit down meal at Welcome Table—but whatever it has been—we at The Anchor have been the recipients of the touch of God—and all we want to do is invite others to touch God as well.
As you read through this annual review, I pray that you will feel a sense of touching God through the hope that is found in Jesus Christ—who is truly the anchor of our soul. Thank you for your diligence in giving financially toward the work of this missional church that lives out its mission with boots on the ground. Please know that we are grateful for your tithes and offerings—for we know that sacrifice means that you believe in the mission God has called us to and want to invest in that mission.