January 17, 2013
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In Hopes of Recruiting and a Shameless Plug
Last week we went to Visalia, California to attend new staff training for the mission organization we will be working with: Students International. If you or your church are looking for a place to take a mission trip, you REALLY need to check out Students International. 3 Things I love about SI:
1. Its focus is occupational ministry. They don’t go into a country to start a church, or a Bible school, or a single ministry (not that this is wrong!). They go in to high poverty areas and begin meeting physical needs. They start medical clinics, work in schools, begin social work sites that work with young boys, teenage girls, and young moms. Most of the SI countries have micro finance sites that give small loans so that people can begin businesses that will help them out of the cycle of poverty. In Guatemala, they have a huge agriculture site that helps the local farmers learn how to better care for their animals resulting in a more profitable business and way of life. Each occupational ministry site has a full-time missionary that oversees it. They are a constant source of relationship and knowledge for which the people in the community can always depend. As these missionaries meet physical needs and build relationships, they also have the opportunity to minister to deeper needs on an emotional and spiritual level.
2. Short term mission teams work in these occupational ministry sites. When teams come, they won’t all build a house, or run a Bible school, or put on a crusade. Each team member, in accordance with what he/she feels passionate about, whether it be education, medicine, social work, special education, construction, ect…., has the opportunity to work hands-on alongside the full-time missionary in that field. Not only does this give you amazing occupational experience, but it also builds in you a burning desire to integrate ministry into the field in which you work or will be working in the states. Whether you are working with the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua or the wealthiest of the wealthy in The Hampton’s people are hungry for the hope and peace found in Jesus Christ.
3. Your trip is planned from landing to taking off. SI picks you up from the airport and has a specific and detailed schedule for every day of your trip. It is a schedule that we have set and posted on our website. As the leader of your team, you won’t have to worry about the logistics or planning. You will be free to invest into your team.
Students International has bases in five different countries: Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Fiji.
Check out stint.com to read more.
Blake and I will be the teams directors in the country of Guatemala. We will be in charge of the short term mission trip teams that come and go. Our hope is to be there the first week of March, but the next seven weeks are going to have to be the biggest miracle weeks of our lives to be ready to go by then. We have raised 80% of our start up costs and 32% of our monthly support. We are in real need for monthly supporters. We have learned through our training last week that you just have to bite the bullet and come right out and ask for financial support. So this is us asking: We need monthly financial support. Here is the link on the information you need to support us monthly if you so choose. If you have any questions please email us at: blakeandchristina@yahoo.com
Support info:
stint.com/about/donateNew SI missionaries headed to the field this coming year (minus me
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Blake and I in California during new staff training.
Comments (1)
Sounds like a very good ministry. How neat the they involve themselves in equipping people instead of just serving them. Not that serving is bad! but helping them help themselves seems to be the idea here.