EIM News and Shepherd’s Bag Ministry: Looking Behind and Ahead to 2025

By Fonda Norris, EIM Shepherd’s Bag Ministry Coordinator & Program Director

Spring is coming, and we are gearing up for a wonderful year at EIM. Let me share with you what God has been doing at Evangelistic International Ministries (EIM) and our Shepherd’s Bag Ministry this past year and some plans and goals for 2025.

We shipped 16,000 Shepherd’s Bags to Honduras by God’s grace in October. Amen! When you have a yearlong project, sometimes it begins to feel like it won’t come together. However, God has always had the pieces in place to make it all work, such as finances, workers, coordinating supplies, shipping, and the list goes on. I praise Him for His goodness.

Our workgroups this past year consisted of Golden Agers, youth groups, VBS children, GMAs, WMAs, families, church groups, and friends representing at least four states. Even though it was people of all ages, they all had one thing in common — the desire to see children come to know Jesus as Savior all around the world! It was a lot of red tape to navigate the shipping requirements this year in Honduras. As sometimes the old saying goes, “The rules changed in the middle of the game.” But again, by God’s grace, the shipment made it through customs and has been safely put in storage in a shipping container that we were able to purchase this year.

Goals and Plans for 2025

Our plans are to assemble 16,000 Shepherd’s Bags for Ghana, West Africa. We have printed our EIM Frisbees with John 3:16 and our EIM Shepherd’s Bag Gospel Storybook so that the children of Ghana can understand the gospel. We buy all supplies in bulk, allowing EIM to be the best stewards we can be with God’s money. Inflation has hurt, but by God’s grace, the gospel is still being preached by using a one-gallon bag full of items to open the door to preach Jesus. We will start assembling Shepherd’s Bags this spring, continue working through the summer and, by God’s grace,ship to Ghana in the early fall.

If any group would like to come to our warehouse in Warren to assemble bags, contact me at (870) 226-3626 or fnorris@eimworldwide.org. Or, if you would like to help financially, all offerings donated to the Shepherd’s Bag Ministry go to purchase our supplies, overseas shipping and in-country transportation. Go to our website at eimworldwide.org/ourministries, scroll down and click “How You Can Get Involved” to get information about the assembly cost for Shepherd’s Bags, or contact me. I would be happy to share it with you.

And Wow! By God’s grace, EIM currently has three Shepherd’s Bags Mission Teams and two Overseas Bible School Teams set to travel to Honduras and Tanzania. Help us pray for many to hear the Message and come to know Jesus as Savior. We still have an open date for a Shepherd’s Bag Team for Oct. 6-10. If you’d be interested in going into the schools in Honduras to hand out Shepherd’s Bags, we’d love to hear from you and give you the mission trip details.

EIM will have a new VBS curriculum for 2025 soon to be available for download on our website (eimworldwide.org). If you have questions about EIM’s VBS curriculum, contact Mike Goodwin at mgoodwin@eimworldwide.org.

God has been so faithful to EIM, and we look forward to seeing what He will do in 2025 to bring glory to His Great Name!