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
This spring the children at Mt. Bethel UMC have put their “compassion into action” during children’s Sunday School programs to support both local and global mission projects. Children are sharing an attitude of SPLATitude (serving, praying, loving and teaching the word of God) through age appropriate mission projects and sharing the love of Jesus with children all over the world. Look and see where we have been since January 2008…
- 1000+ fleece blankets delivered to the children in Atacucho, Ecuador
- 175 hygiene kits to Elvinco, Honduras
- 70 welcome baby kits for the Hope Center in Marietta GA
- 1080 salvation bracelets for the children in Kwambekenya, Africa
- 60 picture frames for the Adult Enrichment Ministry serving Cobb County
This month children will work on salvation bracelets for the children in Costa Rica and cards for our soldiers serving far from home. Give the children a mission and an opportunity and they are ready with an enthusiasm only children can bring to a project. Our children are touching lives and sharing the love of Jesus through their attitude of SPLATitude! Oh what a mighty God we serve!
Sherri
Hola!
Mt Bethel’s Student Ministries has had the fortunate opportunity and privilege to take 2 teams of students to Ecuador between March and April. Our mission was to share the love of Jesus Christ while helping to serve the people of Quito, Ecuador. Our service included a week of VBS classes for over 200 students and fulfilling some major construction needs of their Church they were in the midst’s of building.
It is with much joy that I have the privilege of trying to convey the experience that I was afforded to witness on my trip to Ecuador with 25 of our youth. As 34 of us stepped onto a plane on Saturday, April 5th, I do not think any of us had the expectations in mind quite the magnitude of what God had planned for us. What a beautiful gift, to be able to watch a group high school students fall down to their knees in the dirt, to scoop up a handful of children who have swarmed around them.
I have never witnessed such a pure joy and love, as what our students displayed, not only to the children of Ecuador, but also to each other. The unity of our team grew daily as each person allowed God to push them and use them as His servant.
Although we were the team that was Ecuador doing the actual “work”, we knew we had a whole team here in the U.S. praying for us as well. Thank you to everyone who listened and responded to God’s call for them to serve, in whatever capacity, for this trip! Through your faithfulness, God has forever changed many lives.
Your Student Ministries Team.
