Thursday, August 18, 2016
Monday, August 15, 2016
Malawi 2016
Malawi: Day 1-3
Sundays are always special as many times we have the opportunity to worship with Bindula Baptist Church, a First Baptist Norfolk church plant. We had the largest attendance of any time we have been a part of their services, over 300 in attendance! It was an amazing time of corporate worship and hearts were mended and spirits lifted!
Monday, August 15th, was our first day of medical clinics as well as VBS. We had a medical person from a nearby hospital join our four medical personnel in attending to the health needs of the village of Komoyo as well as nearby villages. We ran out of medicine by early afternoon and asked many to return the next day to pick up medicine that would be purchased later that day. We had over 25 adults make decisions to follow Christ! Praise God for His favor and blessings.
In addition to the wonderful decisions at the health clinic, there were over 150 children for VBS! What a beautiful site to see so many children attentive to scriptures and reciting them back to our team. Fun was had by everyone, especially our team!
We arrived on Friday, August
12th, on time and with all our bags! It is always special when your supplies
arrive with you and you don't have to shop to do ministry!
Saturday,
August 13th, found our team doing oral story-telling with local pastors and
church leaders. This was both educational AND fun for the participants. Another
team went out to lead evangelism training for a local, urban church. Of course,
in Malawi, every gathering can result in a two hour worship time before going
out into the community!Sundays are always special as many times we have the opportunity to worship with Bindula Baptist Church, a First Baptist Norfolk church plant. We had the largest attendance of any time we have been a part of their services, over 300 in attendance! It was an amazing time of corporate worship and hearts were mended and spirits lifted!
Monday, August 15th, was our first day of medical clinics as well as VBS. We had a medical person from a nearby hospital join our four medical personnel in attending to the health needs of the village of Komoyo as well as nearby villages. We ran out of medicine by early afternoon and asked many to return the next day to pick up medicine that would be purchased later that day. We had over 25 adults make decisions to follow Christ! Praise God for His favor and blessings.
In addition to the wonderful decisions at the health clinic, there were over 150 children for VBS! What a beautiful site to see so many children attentive to scriptures and reciting them back to our team. Fun was had by everyone, especially our team!
South Dakota Trip Summary
South Dakota: July 23-July 29, 2016
Our mission trip to South Dakota was in support of
Connection Church in Sturgis. We supported in helping them setup for worship,
passing out flyers to different parts of the city informing them of the block
party that evening and helped set the block party each night and manning the
food tables and bounce houses, giving time for members of Connection Church Sturgis
to greet and meet neighbors, friends, families and others that came to the
block party and inviting them to Church.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Israel: Day 1-3
Jerusalem,
August 4, 2016
We arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday, August 2, after five days of travel without our luggage. We have learned to be flexible on mission trips so we have been washing our clothes in the sink at night and purchased a few items to hold us over while we waited for the airline to locate and deliver our lost luggage. We received on suitcase Tuesday evening and the other one last night.
Yesterday we were receiving training on how to run the Jerusalem Prayer Center (JPC) from our gracious hosts, Larry and Gail. We will fill in for them while they return to the states to visit family and report on their mission to their home church.
People of all faiths come from all over the world to this center to pray. It has an amazing prayer room where people can stand, sit, kneel, or lay prostrate on the ground in prayer. This building has an amazing tradition and history. If you want, you can check it out here: www.jerusalemprayercenter.com.
Yesterday morning eight young adults, four male, four female, between the ages of 23 and 28 joined us. They are part of a mission named "World Racers". They sign up to go on mission to eleven countries in eleven months. They raise their own support and live on a budget of $8.00 a day, divided as such, 4 for shelter, 3 for food, 1 for transportation. They live, eat, and travel just like the people they are serving. They had already been to Burma, India, Nepal, China, and several other countries. They were headed to Turkey which was their plan, when they were redirected by the Holy Spirit to Israel (if this sounds familiar read Acts 16:6-10). They will be helping clear a lot on the grounds so it can be converted into a family prayer garden. We got to pray with them, hear their stories, and do a Bible study with them yesterday. They told of visiting a park in Burma and sharing the gospel there through two interpreters. The response was so great that a church was started right then and right there. Other people are moving in to serve this new body of believers.
A pastor from Singapore joined up for Bible study. He volunteers two months a year as a guide at the Garden Tomb (a fifteen minute walk from the JPC). On his one hour lunch period he walks to the center for 30 minutes of prayer in the prayer room. He calls that his "power center" where he is reenergized and listens for God to speak to his heart. On Monday he gave a tour to 50 college students from Cambodia. None of them were Christian. While they waited for the tour to start he shared the gospel with this group and 30 of them came to faith in Jesus Christ. God is moving throughout the world and we hear stories and see evidence of it constantly.
Before coming to Jerusalem Cheryl and I were able to tour some of the holy sites in the northern part of the country. We met a young couple from New York who were on their honeymoon. He is originally from Bangladesh, was a Muslim, and had recently converted to Christianity after reading the Bible. They had visited his family in Bangladesh before coming to Israel but could not tell them of his conversion because of negative consequences for both him and his family, including death. He is so excited about his faith and was baptized in the Jordan River by a Korean pastor who just said, "if anyone wants to be baptized, I am a pastor". We had a great conversation with this young couple and they are going to try to come visit us when they are in Jerusalem.
Today we will continue our training and orientation. Then, I plan to help the young men from World Racers remove rocks and dirt from the lot with wheelbarrows. We will also meet with people as they come and, pray with them as directed by the Holy Spirit.
We arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday, August 2, after five days of travel without our luggage. We have learned to be flexible on mission trips so we have been washing our clothes in the sink at night and purchased a few items to hold us over while we waited for the airline to locate and deliver our lost luggage. We received on suitcase Tuesday evening and the other one last night.
Yesterday we were receiving training on how to run the Jerusalem Prayer Center (JPC) from our gracious hosts, Larry and Gail. We will fill in for them while they return to the states to visit family and report on their mission to their home church.
People of all faiths come from all over the world to this center to pray. It has an amazing prayer room where people can stand, sit, kneel, or lay prostrate on the ground in prayer. This building has an amazing tradition and history. If you want, you can check it out here: www.jerusalemprayercenter.com.
Yesterday morning eight young adults, four male, four female, between the ages of 23 and 28 joined us. They are part of a mission named "World Racers". They sign up to go on mission to eleven countries in eleven months. They raise their own support and live on a budget of $8.00 a day, divided as such, 4 for shelter, 3 for food, 1 for transportation. They live, eat, and travel just like the people they are serving. They had already been to Burma, India, Nepal, China, and several other countries. They were headed to Turkey which was their plan, when they were redirected by the Holy Spirit to Israel (if this sounds familiar read Acts 16:6-10). They will be helping clear a lot on the grounds so it can be converted into a family prayer garden. We got to pray with them, hear their stories, and do a Bible study with them yesterday. They told of visiting a park in Burma and sharing the gospel there through two interpreters. The response was so great that a church was started right then and right there. Other people are moving in to serve this new body of believers.
A pastor from Singapore joined up for Bible study. He volunteers two months a year as a guide at the Garden Tomb (a fifteen minute walk from the JPC). On his one hour lunch period he walks to the center for 30 minutes of prayer in the prayer room. He calls that his "power center" where he is reenergized and listens for God to speak to his heart. On Monday he gave a tour to 50 college students from Cambodia. None of them were Christian. While they waited for the tour to start he shared the gospel with this group and 30 of them came to faith in Jesus Christ. God is moving throughout the world and we hear stories and see evidence of it constantly.
Before coming to Jerusalem Cheryl and I were able to tour some of the holy sites in the northern part of the country. We met a young couple from New York who were on their honeymoon. He is originally from Bangladesh, was a Muslim, and had recently converted to Christianity after reading the Bible. They had visited his family in Bangladesh before coming to Israel but could not tell them of his conversion because of negative consequences for both him and his family, including death. He is so excited about his faith and was baptized in the Jordan River by a Korean pastor who just said, "if anyone wants to be baptized, I am a pastor". We had a great conversation with this young couple and they are going to try to come visit us when they are in Jerusalem.
Today we will continue our training and orientation. Then, I plan to help the young men from World Racers remove rocks and dirt from the lot with wheelbarrows. We will also meet with people as they come and, pray with them as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Slalom,
Kevin
and Cheryl
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