Praise the Lord! After a major detour to Chile, Carey Akin, Jon Ponders, and ten other MBUMC members are safely home from Quesimpuco, Bolivia. They said it was a truly amazing mission trip but the most physically exhausting thing they had ever done!
After landing in LaPaz at about 13,000 ft altitude and riding a bus for 12 hours, they had to pack down about 4,000 feet in altitude to the worksite and then pack back out again at the end. In between they moved 1500 lb. cables from one side of the river to the other. SIFAT will send future teams to finish the bridge.
SIFAT did a great job of getting them home when their flights were suddenly canceled and by the Grace of God, no problems but extreme fatigue! Their families are greatly relieved, since they were supposed to be back on Saturday!
The following e-mail was sent to us last night from Rev. Carey Akin, who is currently in Bolivia with our mission team:
Dear Family and Friends of the Bolivia Mission Team,
The mission trip has been a great success. We all can´t wait to get back and tell you all the wonderful things that have happened. Unfortunately due to very recent political issues the US Ambassador has been asked to leave the country. As a standard precaution, American Airlines has suspended all incoming and outgoing Bolivian flights. The unrest is currently isolated in a distant part of the country, and both the mission team and SIFAT feel that we are safe with no need for worry; however, this has caused us to make alternate arrangements to return home. Together with SIFAT, the following itinerary has been scheduled:
- Depart La Paz via Lan Chile Flight 965 to Santiago on 9/14/09
- Depart Santiago for Miami on American Airlines Flt 912 on 9/14/08
- Arrive Miami at 5:10am on 9/15/08
- Depart Miami Flight 1664 at 8:15am arrive Atlanta 10:20am on 9/15/08
We are all looking forward to coming home and seeing our loved ones. Right now we are headed out the door to go eat lama kabobs!
In Christ´s Love,
Carey Akin
Check out the latest addition to the “Mt. Bethel Monthly Podcast (MBP).” The purpose of the MBP is to provide information on the life and ministry of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church.
This month, Nic and I talked with Carey Akin, Mt. Bethel’s missions pastor, about our strategic partnership with the 410 Bridge and our work in Kwambekenya. We also had several special guests in the studio: Ashley Fryar, formerly Mt. Bethel’s Missions Director now with 410 Bridge, and fellow co-worker, Jack Odhiambo, formerly a resident of Kwambekenya. We also had Justin Brasuell in the studio, who is co-founder of BrightPoint for Children and a Mt. Bethel member. BrightPoint has an incredible mission to provide for the children of Kwambekenya. I hope you’ll tune in to here their exciting stories.
I promise you will be blessed to hear about what God is doing in the lives of the people of Kwambekenya and the people of the Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church!
You can download the Pocast here. Thanks for listening, and we’d love to hear your feedback.
Jody Ray
For more information about these awesome ministries, check out the following websites:
The 410 Bridge at www.410bridge.com
Jack Odhiambo at www.heyjackradio.com
BrightPoint for Children at www.brightpointforchildren.org
Thanks for your prayers while the Kenya Mission Team was away. The trip could not have gone any better and the people of Kwambekenya send their prayers to you. The building foundation of the medical center is well under way and we were able to also spend a good deal of time at the school with the children and in homes in the community. What a blessing! Thanks again so much for your prayers and support.
For His Glory,
Carey
I have one of the greatest jobs in the world! Every week I get to see God transforming lives and making a difference for His kingdom. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of challenges, and I mean lots, but the blessings and the stories of what God is doing through missions make all the challenges fade out of sight.
I started out my week with hearing good news about the wonderful work our mission team did in Pass Christian, Mississippi, as they continued the effort to rebuild homes on the Gulf Coast. Long after Katrina, many people have moved on to other concerns, but a number of our Mt. Bethel members are revitalizing the commitment to help those who are still in need.
Two Sundays ago, we commissioned a mission team to Costa Rica and Romania (Deborah House), which will be doing work projects to help these ministries as well as Vacation Bible School for the children. I will have the joy of sending off both teams with communion and prayer on Friday and Saturday.
A few nights ago, we had the mission committee meeting where we heard about the ongoing work of Breakthrough House, which we support with help from our members both physically and financial. Breakthrough House is helping women who have had a life of substance, physical, or emotional abuse put there lives back together and have a new life in Christ.
At Infusion (a summer youth retreat) that took place last week, our middle high school students did craft projects to give to children of the community we sponsor in Kenya. The crafts tell of how God loves them and protects them.
This past Sunday, we commissioned the Austria mission team, which will work at a Christian sports camp, and the Kenya Mission Team, which will work on the medical center in Kwambekenya.
And if all the praying over and sending out and sharing with others isn’t enough for the week, a group of our women made 1200 sandwiches to send to MUST ministries, a ministry that helps the needy and homeless. Wow!
That is just a taste of the missions ministries I saw going on this week at Mt. Bethel. In just this one week, I have been blessed to see so many mission ministries that are making a difference at Mt. Bethel, and the best part is yet to come - all those teams that are going out, will come back with testimonies of what God has done through them and in them!
Can you see why I say I have one of the greatest jobs world!
I can’t wait for next week!!!
In August I have an opportunity to spend the night at MUST ministries and feed the homeless and help out around the facility. We are in need of some other folks to come along side me and others and give a night to help the least of these.
If you are interested in helping with MUST or hearing of other mission opportunities, give me a call.
Be Blessed,
Carey Akin
We have a great group of Short Term Mission Trips going in 2008!
- The Romania/Deborah/House team is completed, ticketed and ready to roll. They leave June 21, the same day as our Costa Rica team who are also ticketed and heading for VBS and construction in the Barrio Mexico region of San Jose.
- Carey Akin is helping to lead another group to Kwambekenya, Kenya, our partner village where Randy worked in April. We hope they can be working on the Medical Center sponsored by MBUMC. He can add someone to the team if you are ready to go!
- You will have to wait until next year if you wanted to go to the camp in Austria; that team filled very quickly and they leave July 2.
- Contact Becca Hood if you would like to go to Ecuador on July 26 to Aug.3. There are some spots open for adults of all ages! Ask anyone who has been there with SIFAT-it is a wonderful trip-not too far away or too long away!
- Two trips coming up in September have a few spaces. Men only are invited to go on a rugged treck to the Bolivian Andes on September 4, also a SIFAT trip. The Boyces are leading a team to Macedonia September 19 to work with the Methodist Church there.
- One brand new trip is planned; Gaylyn Kelly is leading a trip to Kenya for college students only on December 26-January 4, 2009!
- In November, we are going to India for the first time to work with widows and children with the Hope For Today ministry, spawned by ILI.
- One of our most popular trips is to work with the Life Academy kids in Timisoara, Romania and we go again on July 12.
- Our Costa Rica Women’s trip is so popular that it is filled up and we are not going until September!
- We are sorry to say, we had to postpone our Estonia trip until next year as we did not have enough people going at this time.
- Looking ahead: the Honduras trip will be in July in 2009 instead of in the spring!
Sherry Reed
Praise the Lord! After a major detour to Chile, Carey Akin, Jon Ponders, and ten other MBUMC members are safely home from Quesimpuco, Bolivia. They said it was a truly amazing mission trip but the most physically exhausting thing they had ever done!
