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.
With the Kenya mission team leaving today, we thought it would be a fun time to show you another way to see all of the places that Mt. Bethel is going this year.
This plugin allows you to view Google Earth content right in your browser, including 3D terrain, buildings, and fun stuff like that. We’ve added the rest of our 2008 mission trips into a collection, which you can browse below.
You’ll need to install the plugin before they will show up, and the plugin currently only runs in Windows (sorry about that — Mac/Linux support is due in August). Check it out!
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.
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.
About a year ago I took on the responsibility of missions at Mt. Bethel and what a year it has been. So many mission trips, so many missions ministries transforming lives and making a difference around the world. Many new mission opportunities have been added such as our missional outreach to St. Philip church and partnering with the community of Kwambekenya in Kenya. Even in the last two days I have met with a couple of missions ministries that we are looking at partnering with in the future. For me it has had its challenges, but mostly it has been a wonderful whirlwind!
As I reflect of the past year all the amazing things God has done and all the exciting things that lie ahead on the horizon it has caused me to take a moment to stop and ask one simple question.
What is the heart of missions? Is it mission trips, is it outreach to the community, what about evangelism or the life of service God calls every Christian to live?
Well, after any intelligent thought that I may have had ran out, which doesn’t take long, I went where we always find the real answers of life, God’s word.
In 2 Cor. 13:4 we are told: “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you.”
The heart of missions always goes back to the place of Jesus. It goes to the place of His greatest sacrifice and our only hope. The place of crucifixion.
It was at the very moment that Christ gave everything that we see a picture of the heart of missions. Jesus teaches us that real life comes when we sacrifice our life for another. When we die to us and live in Him. I doubt that you are shocked by these words. Most of you have probably heard them many times before.
The catch is to live it! For me to give away my life and for you to give away yours is at the heart of missions.
We can help other people. We can even do it at great personal sacrifice, but unless we give it away to Christ it won’t amount to much. When we give away our life to Christ, we discover that His Spirit begins to transforms us and make us into more than we could have ever imagined. …Christ in you the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27)
When we have the life of Christ in us, we do the same thing He did, we give it away.
The heart of missions isn’t going some where or doing something, it is giving your life away to someone, Christ himself.
And as you do that He will send you there and you will serve Him here in the power of His Spirit and it really will make an incredible difference in your life and the life of the one you serve.
We in the missions department are committed to providing you opportunities to give your life away.
Ask God if he might want to send you on a mission trip this summer or fall or serve in a missions ministry right here in our community or in the U.S.
If God is calling you I want to invite you to call me and see how God might like you to give your life away.
God promises that anyone who gives their life away will have real life. That’s what I long for, that is what I long to see in the life of this church. The heart of missions it the real life God has for everyone who gives their life away.
I went to Kenya with great trepidation. I thought that we would all be better served if we simply sent money to the people of Kwambekenya. No personal involvement for this boy. HOW WRONG I WAS!
It didn’t take me long to realize that what we are trying to do in Kwambykenya is for the long term - partnering with them to help them improve their lives with better education and medical care. The people there are wonderful. They have the Holy Sprit the likes of which I have never seen. They have very, very few material positions, and that is being generous. Life is a battle everyday and nothing is taken for granted. What they have, money can’t buy.
I saw sites in Nairobi and in the Kenyan countryside that one could only imagine: the slums, the trash, and the smell. All are seared in my memory. When I arrived, I kept asking myself, what in the world am I doing here? I am half way around the word and away from my family in a place that is totally unlike any I have ever been.
I met the people with the biggest smiles you could imagine. The children had runny noses, yellow eyes, and bare feet, but they had big, big smiles. Almost immediately, we formed a bond with these wonderful Christian people. We could not walk anywhere in the village without the children running up to us and grabbing both of our hands.
Steve Franks and I had the opportunity to worship at a very small church. Mary was our host. The service lasted for over two hours. The congregation sat on hard wooden benches; the floor was dirt. Steve and I sat in the chancel area with the minister. Needless to say the service was different than what Steve and I were accustomed to. During the service we were asked to speak. What an experience that was. Before I knew it, I was shouting Amen after every sentence! Their exuberance was catching.
We helped (and the optimum word here is help) lay a stone road to the site where the medical center will soon be built, thanks to the people here at Mt. Bethel. I have never had so much fun lifting heavy rocks! We worked side by side with the people from Kwambekenya. We formed what Randy called a watermelon line. We took our place in the long line and passed the rocks one to the other. The work went surprisingly fast. We laughed and groaned together. We all agreed that we would never move rocks like this at home, but we did it joyfully. By the time we left, the road work was complete and ready for the trucks that will come when construction starts on the one and only medical center for the village.
On Sunday after church, Mary, walked Steve and me back to the center of the village to hook up with rest of our group. When we got back on the main street, we stopped at a very small store. Mary insisted that she wanted to buy Steve and me a Coke. Knowing the circumstances of how very little they have, we told Mary that it was not necessary. She insisted. Mary told us that if she did not do this, she would have a hole in her heart for the rest of her life. We had the Coke and biscuits. Seems like a very small thing to us for her to do, but to Mary it was very necessary and also sacrificial. What a gift!
On our last day, we were again with my Mary. We went on a walking tour of the village. We visited a homeless shelter for the displaced persons that came to the village during the recent violence in Kenya. The villagers have very little, but they share out of Christian love with their neighbors.
We visited a home in which great grandparents were taking care of their great grandchildren. Seems the parents and the grandparents were dead. They were preparing a meal of maize and beans - the only one of the day! Their very small farms would only allow for one meal a day at this time of year. Out of love and gratitude, they shared that meal with Gaylyn Kelly, Annie Coppage and me. I Have Never Received SO MUCH FROM PEOPLE THAT HAD SO LITTLE. It left me wondering if I would do the same out of the plenty that I have.
One of our team members had a very costly pair of boots. We talked one day, and I asked him if he was taking them back home. His reply was,”Of course, they were very expensive.” We had met a man named Big John earlier in the week. As we prepared to leave Kwambekenya, my friend was standing outside the bus. In one hand, he was holding a bag full of clothes that he was leaving there and in the other hand he held his boots. He looked at the bag, and then he looked at the boots and said, “These are for Big John.” He placed the boots in the bag. Their sacrifice and loving nature was not lost on us. How could we do less?
I love the people of Kwambekenya. I was told before I left on the trip that I would receive far more than I gave. I thought that was a bunch of bunk. Wrong again! I received more than I could imagine. They shared with me, this boy of the south, this guy that has been very fortunate in life. This guy that that has been loved all his life. What did they give me? They gave everything. They showed me the face of Jesus!
I know mission trips are not for everyone. I know Kenya is not for everyone. But there are needs all over the planet. We send teams to Central and South America, to Eastern Europe, to the Gulf Coast and right here at home. There are needs right here within ear shot of Mt. Bethel. I have heard Randy say, “It is not either or;” we must do both. If you can’t go on a mission trip, send someone. The important thing is to get involved. GET IN THE BOAT! We can do no less!
I bet you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about “Where’s Randy?” Well, where is he? If you came to church on Sunday, you know where he is AND what he’s doing. Didn’t make it? That’s ok - we’ve got you covered.
During last Sunday’s service, the congregation was surprised with a phone call from Randy, who is currently in Kwambekenya, Africa. The 2-way conversation was possible via a satellite feed, and our own MB Media was able to feed the audio directly into the sanctuary and CAC! Here’s what he had to say…
The group returns this weekend and is so excited to share their experiences with us. Godspeed!
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.
