The 2007 Mission Journeys are underway with 6 trips involving over 175 participants having already taken place.
2007 has the makings to be the biggest year yet for the Mission Journeys. Overall, we’re anticipating 40-45 trips with somewhere around 800 participants. Both would be record numbers.
Here are some highlights from the “spring” Mission Journeys:
Aurangabad, INDIA (Jan 17-31) – Teen Mission’s 1st Mission Journey of the year took place in west central India in the city of Aurangabad, just east of Mumbai. Ken Henderson and three other ministers (Matt Davidson-Lexington, KY; Neil Larimore-Milford, IL; and Jim Small-Onarga, IL) traveled there to encourage the Christians and help further the work of Life Light Ministries.
Team member Jim Small writes, “The family mission is called Life Light Ministries. Perhaps their most ambitious work is to plant a Christian church in each of the counties in the state of Maharashtra. To date they have established 30 churches. Some of these meet in homes or small buildings; at least one meets in the shadow of a temple to one of the many idols worshiped in India.”
Teen Mission plans to return to help the mission efforts with a larger team in 2008.
Buras, LA (Mar 17-24) – In March, Leonard Stone led a group of 26 adults and youth from First Church of Christ (Bryan, OH) to help with the on-going disaster recovery in Plaquemines Parish, located just south of New Orleans.
The eye of hurricane Katrina passed directly over this area, leaving this small fishing community totally devastated. Our team helped residents repair and restore homes.
Garry Jones (director of Operation Feed My Sheep) reports that over 1,600 volunteers (as of April, 2007) have come to help the operations in lower Plaquemines Parish. About the volunteers, Jones writes, “We have had so many great teams and skilled workers serve. Many have made great contributions and sacrifices in numerous ways. It has been absolutely incredible! Thank you so much!”
Louisville, KY (Mar 25-31) – A group of 13 from Ashland (MO) Christian Church came to Louisville, KY, to spend their spring break working with several local missions.
While in Louisville, the team worked at the College of the Scriptures, a preacher-training school for African-Americans. Not only were there much work done on the grounds of the 7.5 acre campus, but inside on the computer, too, as students cataloged several library books.
Our team also partnered with a young Hispanic church that began a few years ago out of the South Louisville Christian Church called He Visto La Luz to do several ministry projects together.
Team member Taylor Burns commented, “When we first arrived at the church (He Visto La Luz) everyone opened their hearts to us without question. They treated us like family even though they barely knew us.”
Winslow, AZ (Mar 31-Apr 07) – Also during spring break, a group of 44 youth and adults from First Church of Christ (Burlington, KY) helped Navajo Trails Mission, located just outside of Winslow, AZ, on the corner of the Navajo Indian Reservation.
The work was primarily focused on the mission’s property in Dilkon (a little town on the reservation). The team tore off the old roof and completely re-roofed the church building in 3 days. They also painted the outside of the building, tore down two old structures on the property and held a teen night at the church to connect people from the community with the church.
New Orleans, LA (Mar 31-Apr 07) – The response of churches wanting to go and help people recover from hurricane Katrina in the Gulf South has been so great, we needed to add another community to partner with this year.
Indian Hills Christian Church (Danville, KY) took part in our first trip to New Orleans helping Operation Nehemiah and the Carrollton Avenue Church of Christ minister to thousands of people seeking restoration, not only for their homes, but for their lives as well.
The team helped make some much-needed repairs to both homes and churches. The city of New Orleans is still reeling from the effects of hurricane Katrina over a year and a half ago.
Pascagoula, MS (Mar 31-Apr 07) -- Youth minister David Kibler led a group of nearly 80 adults and youth from Southern Acres Christian Church (Lexington, KY) to this Mississippi town continue to recover from the surging flood waters from Katrina nearly a year and a half ago.
The group also took time to do some evangelistic outreach event for the people of the area. Several of the Southern Acres people have been to serve in Pascagoula three or four different times.
John Dobbs, minister of the Central Church of Christ in Pascagoula wrote, “This group from Southern Acres Christian Church in Lexington, KY, is something else. They are awesome kids.”
John goes on to tell this neat story:
"One of their groups worked at a man’s house that needed a lot of help. After getting his roof repaired, they went inside to begin helping him get some other things together. He came to services at the church one night with his granddaughter and great granddaughter. The man told me he was not a Christian and had no plans to be, but there was a young teenage girl (from the team) that started inviting him to services on Monday. Finally, on Wednesday, he decided to come to evening church services because they (the team) had touched his heart.”
It has been another banner year for the Mission Journeys, as the outreach ministry continued to experience remarkable growth and impact.
This year has seen record numbers with 29 trips and nearly 525 participants!
These work, teaching, and/or evangelistic trips, ministered in several different mission locations on 5 different continents. Our volunteers served in Brazil, Mexico, Romania, Taiwan, Tanzania, and in AZ, KY, LA, MS, SD, WA, right here in the United States.
While time and space won't allow for sharing all the stories, here are some of the many great things that have happened...
A precious Muslim family and a wonderful Christian Church in Tanzania hosted two Mission Journeys teams this past summer. Each team spent one week in with the Muslim family, and one week with the church. The whole experience was life-changing and miraculously so.
The Muslim family was so gracious and loving to everyone, it was wonderful in that way. But, not only were they great hosts, they also were interested enough to attend our morning devotions and evening worship. The wife even interpreted for one of the ministers, and was great at it. They helped transport the group to work projects and ministry locations. They pitched in to help with the physical work and benevolent work at the orphanages and schools. Also, they taught us about Islam and they were interested to learn about Christianity. We met and enjoyed visits with 15-20 of their Muslim family & friends. The whole situation was a neat kind of miraculous!