May 2007 - Posts

• Jim & Corrine Thorp

  Interest in Missions During our visit to Argentina, we spoke with the Northern Association of Baptist Churches about their desire to be involved with missions in Mozambique. We shared about Mozambique and challenged them to move forward in their plans. They already have one couple working in Bolivia however, their director visited us in Mozambique last year and the association feels God leading them to send missionaries to Mozambique. Besides speaking to the yearly meeting of the association we also spoke to a group of about 20 young people interested in missions, to a church, to the missions committee of the association and to two young women who are potential candidates. We challenged them to consider sending a short-term ministry team to spend a few weeks in Africa to experience missions and to prepare those who would then come back as full-time missionaries. God allowed us a great blessing in seeing what he is doing in other countries to raise up missionaries outside of the United States. Posted May 22 2007, 08:01 AM by WorldVenture Prayer Connection

• First Jesus-follower at The Grace Place

  Cheryl was one of the first people we met in this area through the English classes. A few weeks ago, in the midst of some significant difficulties in her life, Cheryl decided to take our encouragement to pray to Jesus. Since then she hasn’t been able to stop talking about the change Jesus has brought about in her life! She is really eager to follow him. Recently she brought her 1st grade son to the mom’s class. He has a well-deserved reputation in the neighborhood for being a terror. Before us sat a well-behaved, obedient little boy while his mom couldn’t keep quiet about the difference Jesus is making in their whole family. What an incredible testimony to the other unbelieving women! Her husband is not yet a Jesus-follower. Her enthusiasm for Jesus will also make an impact in her wide circle of friends. Posted May 17 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• Sharing Faith

  A couple of weeks ago I (Tim) shared my testimony with the basketball team I help coach. The Lord was really in the place; I felt his presence. Just before I spoke to the team, I was in the coach’s locker room talking with the head coach. He said, “Don’t expect too much when you speak to the team, they just might laugh in your face. That’s what they did to me while I spoke with them during the half time of our last game. We were down by a few points and I wanted to keep them motivated. They thought our situation was funny.” I gave my testimony which lasted about seven minutes and during the whole time one could have heard a pin drop. No one talked. Most of the players seemed interested in what I had to say and kept eye contact with me while I spoke. After I shared my testimony and my conviction that Jesus is the only way to God through faith, I left copies of the Gospel of John on the bench so they could pick them up after practice. I challenged them to read a chapter a day and after they finished each chapter to ask the question, “What does John say I must do to have eternal life?” In the first 12 chapters John gives the answer to the question in almost every chapter. Every player, to my knowledge, took a Gospel after practice. I was encouraged by their response. During the following practice one player wanted to talk further about what I had said during my testimony. During the next basketball season I look forward to having future opportunities to continue sharing my faith. I await with anticipation how God germinates the seeds planted through my testimony. Posted May 17 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• Short-term Mission Teams

  What do basketball, turkey, prayer and soccer have in common? Short-term missions! During the past four months, we’ve hosted several short-term teams that have come to Senegal to serve. In February, Grace Community Church from Auburn, Washington, returned to Senegal for their second trip, using basketball to reach kids with the gospel. In March, a diverse team of volunteers from David’s Church in Millersburg, Pennsylvania, brought calibrating tools and hundreds of pairs of glasses with them. They were able to provide glasses for dozens of needy Senegalese. One of the team members, a hair stylist, made several missionaries very happy by giving hair cuts. The pastor served as speaker at the Spiritual Retreat for WorldVenture missionaries in Senegal. While he was busy with the adults, several other team members provided a VBS-type program for the MKs, and still others manned the kitchen, providing wonderful meals with foods that we can’t normally find here. (Yup, that’s where the turkey comes in.) One of the most entertaining features of the retreat was when one of the team members, a professional auctioneer, auctioned off numerous items to help raise money for one of the ministries in Dakar. It was a great joy for us to host one of our own supporting churches for a 10-day Prayer Walk/Vision Trip. One of the goals of the trip was to try to discern whether or not Senegal will be at the heart of the church’s five-year global strategic focus. Fellowshipping with members from one of our own supporting churches and having them see firsthand what we do, see, hear and smell day in and day out was great. But the most exciting thing about having Millington Baptist Church of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, come to West Africa, was seeing the excitement mount as they began to catch a vision of how their church body could become more closely involved in a long-term ministry with the national church and the WorldVenture missionaries on the field. One of the hardest-working teams we’ve ever had (we hardly gave them any time to rest!) came to hold soccer clinics and tournaments as part of an effort to use sports to reach young people for Christ. This team of 10 people from Bethel College in Indiana touched hundreds of lives while they were here! More and more people are beginning to see the great value in reaching young people with the gospel through sports evangelism. Missions transforms people. Those who served here in Senegal returned home different people for having experienced missions firsthand. To learn more about how you can participate in missions check out WorldVenture's Opportunities. Posted May 17 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• The Privilege of Serving

  We have had the privilege over the past few years to host many people who desire to know what the mission field is like, or to see God use them in another country. Recently, Beth Reilly from Millington Baptist Church in New Jersey came to visit and use her nursing skills. Below is her impression of the time spent in South Africa and Mozambique. “It has been a blessing to see God working, but also sobering to see the devastation to health, finances and families that HIV/AIDS leaves in its wake. My first day was at Lawley. We met with caregivers, went to the clinic and then took several people to Nazareth House inside Johannesburg for treatments. One woman was newly diagnosed with AIDS. She was going in for her first visit to begin the process to get on antiretrovirals. I was amazed at the sheer number of people who were sick with AIDS! “The second day of my trip, we were off to a village even farther out than Lawley. Kathy taught under a tree for the community on HIV/AIDS and how they can help their friends and neighbors who are affected by the disease. The following day I was able to go back to Lawley to help with Bible Club. Children from grades one through three come to this “mini-VBS” once a week and learn a Bible lesson, have a snack, play a game and do a craft. About 75 children were there on that day. They learned about how King David was chosen by God. I taught them some new songs with motions that they really enjoyed learning. “At the beginning of my second week, Kathy and I traveled to Mozambique. We held two seminars on HIV/AIDS at two different churches. About 60 people attended and were taught the basics of HIV/AIDS and how to take care of those who are sick – both physically and spiritually. We were also able to make some home visits. One particular woman we visited was in her early 20s and was widowed in October 2006. She seemed to be suffering from severe depression and had convinced herself she had HIV, even though she had tested negative several times. This is why the education is so important! Even though AIDS is rampant in these two countries, the knowledge that people have regarding HIV and AIDS is somewhat faulty. You could see the light bulbs go off in their heads as they understood more of how they could care for their loved ones and neighbors. The Marracuene church even blessed each of us with a capulina (a skirt made out of a strip of cloth that most of the women wore) and danced and sung in our honor. “I saw firsthand the ministry going on in Southern Africa. Prayer is the most effective tool. I am praying that the Lord will spark a fire among the people who were at the seminars, that they will make an impact in their community and that many will come to know the Lord. The ill have many needs and obstacles to overcome, but God can change hearts. My prayer is that he will do just that in Southern Africa. Please pray that the churches in these communities will be able to model sacrificial giving to help those while they are sick and that they will become master gardeners, so that they can grow produce on their own. I believe that the seminars in South Africa and Mozambique are just the beginning.” As Beth experienced, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa is overwhelming. In some countries about 1/3 of the entire population is affected by the devastation of this disease. At first it seemed a daunting task to effect change in one community, but it also made me realize that God alone can really do the work of producing transformation within a community. I can only help one person at a time. God has been faithful in walking with me through this journey of ministry to those who are sick with AIDS, and their children and families who are left behind to deal with the grief and often poverty that comes when the parents are gone. We have seen many blessings and provisions over the last three years of working in the Lawley community that show God can change things. One is the expansion of the nursery school that we work with. About 130 kids in three different sites are being looked after, taught God’s Word and his world, and fed two wholesome meals a day. A small group of people in the community are willing to look after child-headed families or bring orphans into their homes to care for them. We have a Bible Club, where young children can hear of God’s unfailing love for them every week. Nearly 300 people have been touched by Christian love and outreach while they were dying, and more than 75 people walk and work in the community after getting on the antiretroviral medication. The partners who have made all this happen have been brought from many different walks of life and from many countries. Yes, God has been working in these last three years! Let us not forget to praise him for his listening and answering our prayers! Posted May 17 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed

• WorldVenture Day of Prayer

  DAY OF PRAYER — JUNE 1: Once again, the WorldVenture community will pause to focus on the work of prayer. As we consider the opportunities and challenges facing the church worldwide, we urge you to join us in lifting our voices to God.  Pray for redemptive relationships, that those who are hearing the gospel and seeing it demonstrated before them in acts of mercy will be sensitive to the Spirit's call. Pray that national leaders will be courageous, bold in the Spirit, and that they would grow in love and knowledge. Pray that many more Christians in the States and around the world will develop a deeper commitment to missions, sharing the passion of Christ himself "to seek and to save that which is lost." Pray that the work of God would not suffer for lack of generosity on the part of his people. Pray for powerful ministry partnerships and for the transformed lives that result, as God continues to lead us together. We invite all who share in the ministry to join us as we intercede together. Posted May 17 2007, 03:00 AM by Transformed