Teachers Helping Teachers-Shrot Term Mission Project

No one is more passiont for helping teachers than teachers! It shows every time we take a group to Montego Bay, Jamaica to work at our three ministry locations, all of which have active schools. Usually in a team of 50 adults there is a teacher or two from the U.S. or Canada. They love joining a class and helping a teacher teach, even though for many of these teachers this represents a week away from the regular work of teaching back home. They are passionate.

This year two of those teachers had an idea: Why don't we return next fall (2009) with a team of teachers who could be substitutes for classes while giving Jamaica teachers a chance to attend seminars. Those seminars would provide tools for teachers to use in the classroom, share common victories and hurdles and walk away refreshed. There would be times of prayer for teacher, and the beginnings of cross cultural partnership.

Well the date is set and we are hoping for 25 teachers to join us in Montego Bay, Jamaica October 11-17, 2009. If you are a teacher, you have a passion to help others in your field and would like to travel off the beaten path....this is for you! Contact Mission Discovery 800-767-8720 for more information or visit www.missiondiscovery.org.

Who Can Go On Short Term Missions

For years Mission Discovery has offered a Pre-Field Orientation to prepare group leaders for the best possible "team experience" on the mission field. The PFO breaks down to a model of 6 ideas. To have a team arrive on the field as learners, servants, and story tellers. Focus is given to considering three more areas of preparedness: before the project, during the project and after. Most of the deep thinkers would agree that the above mentioned six elements are the gist of preparing a team.

I am beginning to be bothered though by the tremendous weight placed on STMs to produce "long term missionaries," and students who return to serve their community back home. Another study laid monetary giving as a proper measure of the productive short term mission experience. Great goals, but a one or two week short term mission project is, after all, one component in the youth leader's discipleship of his students. I have long believed that the short term mission experience has no similarities to the long term work of a missionary on the field. Short term missions, more than likely produces...more short term missionaries. The work of a missionary is hard, methodical, sometimes filled with long gaps of apparent lack of progress, study, etc. I have always believed that the goal of a short term mission experience is to produce "World Christians", not vocational Christian workers.

34 years ago I was a youth pastor. One night after youth group a parent walked in my office just to chat. "You must have a long term view of these young people you work with?" he said. "You have to imagine them walking into your office at age 34 and saying 'thank you for where you led me.'

That was one of those moments that helped shape my view of what I was doing. I began to develop memories around teaching. I looked for anything I could do to break the routine of "youth group" on the youth floor.

I got really excited about our mission project preparation because the material we used prepared a student for life, not just "mission trip". These were life skills. Being able to tell the story of what God is doing and has done in you life or Story Telling is a daily part of my life, and can also be for the middle schooler who learned how to tell his story before his mission project to Mexico.

I thought differently about the results of our mission project experience. What if a short term mission project was the start of someone working in his local government to effect change for the Kingdom's sake there? What if a short term mission project led a student to break up with his girl friend? What if a short term mission project helped a student choose how he looked at future purchases? It seemed to me that these were actually the very things that "missionaries" where hoping for from those they worked with in foreign lands. At our churches mission conferences missionaries talked about their disciples becoming high ranking officials, or mail men who could spread the gospel delivering letters, or customs officials.

Acts 1:8 offers the reader the opportunity to be a "witness." A witness is someone who sees an event and reports it. The scripture indicates that the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. This is an open invitation to everyone. I can't believe I am saying this, but it is an open invitation to the prepared and the unprepared. Either who see Him will have accomplished Jesus simple call, "You WILL be my witnesses."

Remember it is not short term mission project that lead participants to radical change, it is an encounter with God that takes the willing heart to the next most difficult journey.

Mission Discovery Moves Projects From Reynosa to Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, Texas

In the last two months violence has escalated in the border cities of Reynosa, and Juarez. The U.S. State Department reports that, “some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.” While we have watched closely the media coverage of the last few days, we have also made contact with our sources on the ground in Reynosa, Juarez, Mexico and McAllen, Texas to measure current events in Mexico as they relate to the safety of our upcoming spring and summer short term mission projects.

After calls to contacts on Thursday and Friday in these regions a meeting was called on Saturday with the Executive Team of Mission Discovery to report the data from these contacts along with current warnings from the U.S. State Department. It was the unanimous decision of the Mission Discovery Executive Team to:
1) Move all of our teams scheduled to serve in Reynosa, Mexico to service projects that will now be relocated to the U.S. side of the border in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, Texas. Hidalgo County, only 15 minutes from our camp, is the 22nd poorest county in the U.S. Cameron County is number 60. Teams will lead Vacation Bible School, evening “Jesus Film” outreaches in partnership with local churches and serve in vital community service projects such as building play grounds, renovation of homes of the poor, installing ramps for the disabled in partnerships with the cities of LaFera, Weslaco, Pharr, and McAllen.
2) Continue our work in Reynosa from this side of the border by sharing in building a complete home per week to be loaded and shipped with hand written notes, and household supplies to communicate that we will continue to remember the poor of Reynosa.

Mission Discovery has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the kinds of projects we are offering in Hildalgo and Cameron Counties. We have been invited to serve in these counties for many years, and consider this God’s direction, confident that every student and adult volunteer will walk away at the end of their week having seen our Great God do His awesome work! In conversations with the Hidalgo County Commission, they indicate that no one has ever offered to help the poor in their county in a service project of this scope and volume. They are excited about your arrival!

In every project location there are unforeseen dangers that teams may encounter. That is true with any international travel. However, the dangers to teams in Reynosa and Juarez, Mexico are evident to our Executive Team and it was these dangers that lead to our decision.

We will hold two conference calls on Thursday to explain our decision, explain the project changes and answer questions. One is scheduled for 10:00 AM Central Time and for those not able to call at that time the call will be repeated at 2:00 PM Central time that same day.

I deeply respect the decision-making ability of the Executive Team. Their travels to investigate potential Mission Discovery project locations have taken them to some of the most dangerous locations on the earth, where Mission Discovery teams would never travel, and give them a wealth of knowledge in evaluating project locations that provide a vital, and safe environments for serving with middle school and high school students.

In 1991 Mission Discovery began a partnership with pastors, missionaries and the Mayors of the cities of Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Mexico. Over 1300 homes have been built in Reynosa and Rio Bravo alone and many have responded to the Good News of Jesus presented by Mission Discovery adult, and student teams.

Our prayers go out to our partners in Mexico, Myrna Gomez President of Mission Discovery Mexico, summer staff members Valente and Grace Sobrevila and Juarez ministry partner, Carlos Galaviz. We also lift those who were to be the beneficiaries of the work of Mission Discovery in Reynosa and Juarez and ask that God would meet their needs for shelter and a quick end to the violence that troubles not only the nation of Mexico but also the small neighborhoods that many of you have served over the years.

In addition to building a house per week in the U.S. to be shipped to Mexico, an idea has surfaced to collect money from team members to bless the 70 of those families in Mexico who would have received homes. Each family would be given 50 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of beans to say in a small way that, “we are here, and we have not forgotten.” We would deliver the rice and beans in July or when conditions were safe to do so.

One piece of good news is that there has been no rise in violence in Tecate, Mexico. Mission Discovery projects will continue in Tecate. The only safety related change decided by the Executive Team for Tecate was to keep Mission Discovery’s day off event in Tecate rather than traveling to Rosarito Beach.

May God bless you in the communication of this information to your leadership and teams willing to serve God in Mexico with Mission Discovery.

Slowing Down

Ashaye Williams is 10 years old and she stopped me in my tracks.

She is HOLD the Children un-sponsored child number 21. I took this picture of Ashaye the first week of January at Victory Christian Fellowship School, one of Mission Discovery’s HOLD the Children pre-schools. For those of you who may not know, Mission Discovery has a child sponsorship ministry in Jamaica and Haiti that allow over 350 children to receive a school uniform, a hot meal daily and of course an education.

When Ashaye’s teacher brought her in for her picture Mrs. Brown said, “She is 21.” To which I responded, “Ok.” To which Ashaye responded, “I’m not 21….I’m 10.”

I looked at Mrs. Brown, we smiled at each other, I put down the camera, sat in the floor and introduced myself to Ashaye. What followed was a conversation about how much she liked school, her favorite subjects, how pretty she looked today for her picture and how cool it was to be 10. I remember becoming 10. It was the first year in my life where there were two numbers to describe my age…a 1 and zero. It was somewhat of a big deal, and it sounded to me that Ashaye felt the same.

Rich Rohde, the Director of HOLD the Children, knows every child and his or her story. I was just to be a photographer that day, but was stopped by 10 year old and reminded that everyone has a story. It was a pleasure to get to know Ashaye. The encounter reminded me that over 350 children in our program have sponsors who know them deeply, how to pray for them and their families.

I’m now looking for the next long encounter….the next great story!

Jamaica Project Report

The verdict in in and it's "Guilty". 48 adults from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and even London, England just concluded a final day of work here with Mission Discovery in Montego Bay, Jamaica and they are "Guilty" of having done an incredible work in the name of Jesus!

Teams worked at Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf, Blossom Garden Children's Home and Victory Christian Fellowship School this week. They mixed concrete, held babies, gave out hundreds of shoes to children, installed windows and doors and left the project sites today saying what countless others have said, "We received so much more than we gave!"

This Saturday, November 1, marks Mission Discovery's 17th birthday and there couldn't have been a better party that seeing the scripture in action this week. Thanks to all of you who poured out your lives to the poor this week!

It all boils Down to This

So at the end of a week of a Mission Discovery project it is impossible to capture what really happened, but here is the house an family! Just one of 67 completed here in Reynosa, Mexico this summer with Mission Discovery!