Missions Blog for Churches

This is a great article in ByFaith about Plains PCA in Zachary, LA. Read the entire article here.

Robert J. Tamasy

“From little acorns big oak trees grow,” the saying goes. Over the past couple of decades, a small church near Baton Rouge, La., has been faithfully growing missional “oak trees” that have taken root and are ministering across the United States and around the world.

Nestled in a community of 13,000 people in Zachary, La., The Plains has just under 400 members, with about 260 people attending worship services on a typical Sunday. Founded in 1832, the congregation had seen only five of its members directly engaged in missions work over its first 140 years. Since the mid-1990s, however, it has sent more than a dozen men and women to seminary and on to vocational ministry roles across the United States and around the world.

Today, The Plains members are planting churches in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., and Eugene, Ore., and its international reach extends from Taiwan to Peru. In addition, since 1982 hundreds of its young people have participated in dozens of short-term mission trips to Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Haiti, Ukraine, Scotland, Portugal, and France. (Click here to continue reading this article)

Second medical team just after they landed in Haiti — having left Ft. Lauderdale at 4:30 a.m. There are two more members of this team who stayed over from team one and are not shown in this photo. The team will be working in Dikini camp. Please pray for them and for those whom they treat. How thankful we are for these willing servants whom God has called and equipped for this work!

I recently received a request from a missions chair for some movie recommendations to show at a missions conference. I realized in compiling what I had and finding a few more through reviews online that my list isn’t that extensive. I know there has to be some more good movies that have a missions message, so please suggest any that you know of and give me your take on it.

• Through the Gates of Splendor – this is the original black & white docu-movie, narrated by Elisabeth Elliott; 35 min long
• Beyond the Gates of Splendor – this is the 2002 documentary about the event in Ecuador; 96 min long
• End of the Spear – this is the 2006 movie (not a documentary) that recounts the story after the story; it is rated PG-13 and is 108 min long
• Hawaii – if you want to go “old school” this is a classic that shows all the mistakes not to make in missions; 161 minutes
• Behind the Sun – a movie about a Muslim young man who is converted; 56 min
• Beyond the Next Mountain – set in the early 1900s in northeast India, a single copy of the Gospel of John came into the village and many were saved (so not as much about a missionary as the power of God’s Word); 97 min
• God’s Outlaw – movie about William Tyndale; 93 min
• Amazing Grace – story William Wilberforce (not traditional missions story, but certainly cross-cultural and mercy/justice focus); 118 min
• Peace Child – story of Don Richardson’s work in Southwest Pacific; 30 min
• First Fruits – story of Moravians in Caribbean; 70 min
• Candle in the Dark – story of William Carey; 97 min
• There are more here.

Okay, disclaimer time: I haven’t watched all of these. In fact, the only one I’ve seen in the past year is Hawaii. It is slow at times and very “classic” so don’t expect teens or kids to hang in there. Plus it’s LONG. The End of the Spear is probably your best bet to hold the attention of teens and up.  All the links are to Amazon so you can read more descriptions there and find out how people reviewed it.

Here is an email from Chalmers Center about a helpful, FREE, web seminar that is coming up to equip people to help in Haiti without hurting:

As you know, a massive wave of aid has already been directed at survivors of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 10, 2010. But the aid given must be the right kind of aid to make a difference.

A Webinar Series to Help You Help Haiti
To help churches, relief agencies, and individuals respond appropriately to the crisis in Haiti—helping the Haitian people to take ownership of the rebuilding process—the Chalmers Center will host a three-part, webinar lecture series.

The webinars are scheduled for February 17th, February 24th, and March 3rd, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (US).  They will be presented by Steve Corbett and Dr. Brian Fikkert, authors of “When Helping Hurts:  How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself,” a paradigm-shifting book about the causes and solutions to the problem of poverty. The book is in its fifth printing since it was published in July 2009 (www.whenhelpinghurts.org).

Help Without Hurting
This webinar series is intended for all those responding to the needs of the Haitian people, including churches, missions boards, missionaries, ministries, Christian relief and development organizations, NGOs, individuals, volunteers, donors, and short-term missions teams. The webinars will help participants:

1. Gain an understanding of the harm that can come from an improper understanding of the nature of poverty and its alleviation.
2. Identify the basic principles and tools needed to develop relationships with low income individuals.
3. Be able to implement biblically-based economic development ministry programs.

The principles taught in the webinars are not a magic formula for success. However, they are powerful, and they have been used by God in even extremely difficult settings (including in the tsunami of 2004 as described in the book).

Registration
There is no charge for the webinars. However, to join a live webinar session, you must register. Register Now »

If you cannot join a live webinar, a download link of the recorded webinar will be posted on the webinar registration page within two business days following the date of the live webinar session.

Share This Information With Others
Please share information about these webinars with your ministry team and with those in your larger ministry network who might benefit from this training.

In Christ,
Bernie Alimonti

---

About the Chalmers Center
The Chalmers Center has equipped agencies, churches and individuals across the U.S. and in more than 100 countries around the world to use economic development strategies to minister to poor people—including microfinance and microenterprise development, and programs centered around savings and asset accumulation, financial literacy and job training.

Following the tsunami of 2004, a Christian relief and development organization working in Indonesia asked the Chalmers Center for help in designing a small-business recovery program. Hundreds of businesses received assistance, local institutions were strengthened, and the midterm project evaluations indicated improvements in people’s relationships with God, self and others. A major international humanitarian organization even requested a grant proposal for funding to scale up the program. To learn more about the Chalmers Center, its training opportunities and resources, visit www.chalmers.org and SUBSCRIBE to our mailing list.

One of the pastors at Faith PCA in Birmingham, AL, Steve Hood, posted on Facebook today, “Steve Hood is excited that the kids of our church raised $749.01 for Mission to the World Disaster Response in Haiti. And they did so by selling goodies, homemade bookmarks, necklaces, and various other creative means. Way to go kids!!” He later told me that the number had surpassed $800. This is a great idea (and example) of how everyone can get involved to help Haiti, as medical teams continue to treat wounds.

1. More medical teams are arriving in Dikini, and our team has been asked to move inside the Adventist hospital, where the sickest patients are being referred, in order to help care for the growing patient population. This will enable the team to be more effective since they will be able both to work and to sleep inside the hospital compound, avoiding two hours of driving time each day.

2. Team member David Hilmers received a phone call today to say that his father passed away. David”s father had been ill and David had seen him before leaving for Haiti. David wants to remain in Haiti with the team and leave with them on Saturday. Please pray for him and his family.

3. The Haitian government is continuing to ship refugees out of Port-au-Prince, and areas in the north are receiving them without resources to care for them. It has been estimated that 55,000 people are being located to Goinaives to the north. This is the area in which Pastor Etienne pastors churches and works with a network of other churches. So the present team has recommended that the next team relocate to Goinaives. This would allow our teams to fall into line with how we normally work through the local church and targeting an under served population. Church members in the area would also be able to become more involved. Our method is always to work with and through the local church wherever possible so that the church gets the credit, God gets the glory, and the kingdom is expanded.

4. Please pray for a flight out of Haiti on Saturday for our team and a flight in for the next team. Ideally, this will be a turn around that will serve both teams. Hoping to hear by today or early tomorrow.

5. Continue to pray for Erin Pettengill’s long term health after accidental exposure to contaminated scalpel. Test results for hepatitis C are still pending.

The medical team in Haiti continues to make progress treating the wounded. Here are some updates from over the weekend that came via Twitter:

• 1/30/10 – MTW team doing well. Set up in camp. Have seen 50 patients already this morning with 70 more in line. Everyone healthy and doing well.
• 1/30/10 – MTW team has mostly done wound and trauma care. One patient transported to the nearby hospital, which has promised to give free care.
• 1/30/10 – The team treated over 300 patients today. Most cases are for pain (from impact or falling debris), dehydration, & urinary tract infections.
• 1/31/10 – Please pray for Erin Pettengill’s (RN on team) long term health after accidental exposure to a contaminated scalpel.
• 1/31/10 – Pray for stamina for the MTW team. The temperatures have been very warm and the medical tent runs about 95 degrees.
• 1/31/10 – The MTW team treated 150-200 people today, including a young girl whose hand they had to amputate. Please keep praying for this situation.
• 2/1/10 – MTW team has moved their camp & clinic location to a local hospital. Good, safe location. Communications are back up and functioning well.