Thursday, December 25, 2014

Team of the Week: Mercy Midwives

Mercy Midwives
Spend your summer serving mothers & babies! In partnership with a local charity birthing center, you will provide quality health care for expectant mothers. Show women God's mercy & kindness in a practical way this summer.

IMB Job #: 110607  More info!!
Location: Philippines
Team size: 1 team of 4 girls. Applicants should be upper level nursing students with some clinical experience.
Field expense:  $1230 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Team of the Week: SEA Adventure Trek

SEA Adventure Trek
Spend your summer locating persons of peace, staying in their homes, eating their food, & sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Boldness, wisdom, and sensitivity to the Spirit will be needed as your team shares their faith. Invest your time in an area that is truly unreached and needs your presence.

Location: Southeast Asia
Field expense:  $1641 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.
 
IMB Job #: 110544 More info!!
Team size: 1 team of 3 guys

IMB Job #: 110545  More info!!
Team size: 1 team of 3 girls
 
Dates for Summer 2015:  
April 1: Deadline for applications  
May 28: Member orientation begins  
June 2: Teams travel to the field  
July 28: Teams return for debrief  
July 31: Students return home

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

P52 Team of the Week: Music City UPG Outreach

Music City UPG Outreach
The team will live & serve in Nashville at a local apartment complex sharing life with the refugees, building relationships on a daily basis, and communicating the love of Jesus in word and deed. Additional responsibilities will include connecting FHBC members with the refugee population through assisting with and coordinating efforts of the Wings Team and their various ministry programs.

Location: Nashville, TN   More Info!! Team size:  Team of 4 (2 male, 2 female) Cost: $1750 plus round-trip travel from orientation site to Nashville

Dates for Summer 2015
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home 

Monday, December 15, 2014

Coming Soon.... Advance Operations Training!


Please pray for the NT staff & participants who will be involved in the upcoming AOT, a 2 month residental training program. Although this training is mainly for Filpinos, it looks like we may have 1 or 2 other Southeast Asian participants this time around.
  • Pray for the Lord to provide the finances needed for participants round-trip fare and registration fee
  • Pray for facilitators as they prepare

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Team of the Week: Korean Refugee

Korean Refugee

This summer you can help change the lives of refugees from an unreached people group. After escaping from their home country, these young people traveled & spent time in other Asian countries before they finally found a home in South Korea. In partnership with a GCC, your team will live with these students, teaching them English, life skills, and showing them that there really is a God who loves them. 

IMB Job #: 110487  More info!!
Location: Philippines
Team size: 1 team of 6
Field expense:  $695 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Am I Being Successful?


Am I being successful? This question has haunted me at different times in my life. It has kept me awake at night. It has caused me, at times, to fill my days with frenzied human activity; that is, when I have used the wrong measuring stick. 

Mother Teresa raised millions of dollars for the poor, mobilized thousands to follow her example, stood before Kings and Presidents, and was recognized world-wide by receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.  We look at these accomplishments and seek to find the secret or key to her success. 

A poem found written on a wall at the Missionaries of Charity years ago might just help us today:
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered... Forgive them anyway. 
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives... be kind anyway. 
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies... Succeed anyway. 
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you... Be honest and frank anyway.  
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight... Build anyway. 
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous... Be happy anyway. 
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow... Do good anyway. 
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough... Give the world the best you've got anyway. 
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God... It was never between you and them anyway.

Elisabeth Elliot was asked one time about being successful.  Without hesitation, she answered, "I never thought of measuring success.  Obedience is the only measuring stick."

Let us walk in obedience today for an audience of One.  

P52 Team of the Week: Motor City UPG Outreach

Motor City UPG Outreach

Teams will seek to bring the gospel to the Arabic population of Dearborn, Michigan through personal evangelism, seek out persons of peace who are receptive to the gospel and then disciple those who come to Christ through interpersonal one to one discipleship relationships.

Location: Dearborn, MI  More Info!!
Team size:  2 teams of 4
Cost: $1555 plus round-trip travel from orientation site to Detroit 


Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 8

Planting seeds for planting churches

Today, Lily Llambes helps others embrace the true God. But at 25, she grappled with where to place her faith when she was invited into Santeria, whose practices are similar to voodoo.

Instead, she became a Christian.  Read more...


http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 7

Scripture planting is key

When IMB missionaries Jon Gerwig* and Bradford Wotzke* moved to East Asia with their families in 2004 to share the Gospel with the Iron Peas,* the minority people group of more than 3 million had no known churches and only a handful of believers.

The Iron Pea people group speaks six dialects, and many Iron Peas — particularly women and children — do not speak even the country’s trade language.

“You’re just spinning your wheels if you’re not reaching the people in the language of their heart,” Jon says.  Read more...

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Friday, December 5, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 6

Music Makes Relationships

Good values weren’t enough for Linda Hamfors of Stockholm, Sweden. Linda, who grew up in an atheist family, believed Jesus was “a really amazing guy” and learned values from her parents like forgiveness, acceptance and love.

But good values couldn’t sustain the singer/songwriter through the tumultuous years when her parents began drinking more and pursuing materialistic gain.

“I was kind of a little bit left alone with my good values and I wasn’t feeling good,” Linda says.
Struggling with addiction herself, Linda searched for God. She found a church. She began singing in church, and the Gospel songs moved her to tears.  Read more...

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 5

A New Wave of Church Planters

For Mitch Englehart,* it’s a beautiful sight that’s taking place in some very dirty water. The South Carolina native watches from the bank of a stagnant canal as six new believers are baptized outside a village in South Asia. Dhanwan is one of them.

“I want to follow Jesus!” the young man says, explaining that he became a Christian after a miraculous healing through the prayers of a local Baptist pastor. That pastor, Lalbahadur, is a fifth-generation Christian whose faith can be traced back to Mitch’s church-planting network. It’s January, and Dhanwan shivers as he strips down to his underwear and steps into the canal. 

To start the baptism chain, Lalbahadur first immerses Dhanwan, then each newly baptized believer baptizes the next. This is discipleship in action, Mitch says, and it’s what has brought him to South Asia.  Read more...

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Team of the Week: Urban Rescuers

Urban Rescuers
Walk alongside transgenders (ladyboys) who have just left the sex industry. Be their friend. Through a local ministry, encourage them as they train in livelihood skills, continue their education, & reach out to their families & others in nearby slum areas. Join with other local ministries that reach out to refugees & children.

IMB Job #: 110390  More info!!
Location: Thailand
Team size: 1 team of 6 (3 male/3 female)
Field expense:  $1435 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 4

A Risk Worth Taking

Moving a family to South Sudan, a war ground made up of daily turmoil and strife, has been a major risk, even to the point that IMB missionary Robert Lane calls in several times a day to assure his supervisor his family is still alive.

Robert sees it as a risk worth taking as they follow God in obedience to reach out to the Dinka people group, numbering nearly 3 million.

“We need to be ready for those hardships, ready for those difficulties, ready to be used as a sacrifice for Christ as we try to make His name famous,” Robert explains.  Read more...


http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 3

Pregnant Women Become Catalysts

Women in various stages of pregnancy or post-pregnancy surround IMB missionary Nancy Potter* and some Southeast Asian health workers. They chat excitedly about the discipleship and training classes the day before, while waiting for their weekly health class.

When Nancy and her husband, William,* started these pregnancy health classes to combat the high maternal mortality rate in this rural area, they never imagined it would be the catalyst for starting house churches. Read more...

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

P52 Team of the Week: Derby City UPG Outreach

Derby City UPG Outreach
Serve among the nations in most ethnically diverse neighborhoods of Louisville, KY. There are 120+ nations, 100+ languages in the school system, and over 500 international restaurants and groceries. This individual will be in charge of communicating with churches and teams to assess international communities, help coordinate and conduct programs and events, and connect with community partners. We are looking for persons who are organized, able to communicate with a variety of people, enjoys trying new things, passion to proclaim the gospel, heart for the nations, and can help mobilize the Church to bring wholistic change to bless the nations. Watch a video of local ministry!

Location: Louisville, KY  More info!!
Team size:  Team of 5 

Cost: $1555 plus round-trip travel from Atlanta, GA

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 3: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Monday, December 1, 2014

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 2

Churches Share the Task

Mike and Heather McAfee have plans for putting wings on their vision to reach Abidjan with the Gospel.

This sprawling West African city, getting on its feet again after a decade of war and turmoil, is not an easy fix. As the economic capital of Ivory Coast, more than 6 million people and 60 indigenous language groups live here.

“And that’s not counting the immigrants that come from other countries such as Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ghana or Mali,” Mike says. But help has come through U.S. churches committed to sharing this task. The McAfees envision partnering Southern Baptist congregations in the U.S. with local Abidjan churches.  Read more...

As a student you can partner with the McAfees.... click below to see summer opportunities to serve with them to reach the Abidjan.
110396 Abidjan Urban Kids
110397 Abidjan Urban Students

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

Lottie Moon Week of Prayer: Day 1

Missions Just Got Personal

Tony Mathews thought international missions wasn’t for everyone, that as a pastor his focus should be on the local church.

North Garland Baptist Fellowship, where he has served for 22 years, supported the Cooperative Program. Members of the Texas church had gone on international missions trips, which the pastor had supported — from a distance.

That changed in 2012 when he helped lead activities for children of Southern Baptist missionaries in Africa.  Read more...

http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109


Thursday, November 27, 2014

Team of the Week: SE Asia Seed Sowers

SE Asia Seed Sowers
Sharing the good news & sowing broad gospel seed are the main goals of this job. Loving God, loving people, and teaching others His Word through opportunities like home visits, street evangelism, cultural exchanges with other university students. Be a faithful seed sower this summer & pray for the Lord to bring the harvest. 

IMB Job #: 110391  More info!!
Location: Southeast Asia
Team size: 1 team of 2 females
Field expense:  $1170 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

P52 Team of the Week: Bay City UPG Outreach

Bay City UPG Outreach
Join us in the East Bay Area of the San Francisco Bay Area as we seek to facilitate church planting movements among Muslim and other unreached people groups!  Join a team that is working strategically to plant the gospel among unreached people groups. You will be mentored by an experienced missionary as part of your experience.  You must be a self-starter, self-motivated person!

Location: Fremont, CA  More info!! Team size:  
Team of 4 (2 male, 2 female)  
Cost: $1555 plus round-trip travel from Atlanta, GA

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home





Friday, November 21, 2014

An Invitation from David Platt



What would happen if thousands of churches came together on Dec. 7 for the sake of spreading the gospel to all nations? We've got a sermon from David you can download and use in your worship gathering, Sunday School or small groups to help rally the body of Christ for this cause. View and download here: http://bit.ly/11GSKhT

Team of the Week: Island Castaway

Island Castaway
Filipinos in the remote islands feel like castaways - isolated and disconnected. Visit these friendly people. Enjoy a relaxed summer, make friends and learn their culture. Share your Gospel with the unreached and encourage the few believers.

IMB Job #: 110285  More info!!
Location: Philippines
Team size: 1 team of 4 guys
Field expense:  $1553 + round-trip airfare, required travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Team of the Week: Abidjan Students

You're needed to influence singles & students among others. Invest in the lives of believers to help them learn to share their faith. Learn to lead Muslims & others to a saving faith. Learn language & culture firsthand. Be a part of this opportunity to eat, sleep & work among West Africans, being an incarnational witness. Multiply efforts of our team through ESL training and partnership with believers. Be a part of our urban team by helping us with new ideas to use technology to share Christ. 


IMB Job #: 110397  More info!!
Location: Cote d'Ivoire
Team size: 1 team of 4 (2 male/2 female)
Field expense:  $2431 + round-trip airfare, travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Team of the Week: Tropical Fisherman

 Do you have a passion for sharing Christ, and like to have fun? You will be sharing the gospel and making disciples on campus, meeting students, letting them practice & improve their English, playing sports with them, going with them hiking in the mountains or a volcano or swimming in the ocean, visiting their boarding houses, etc. As you build relationships, make them thirsty to know Christ and how they can know Him like you do. Influence them to become followers of Christ.

IMB Job #: 110159  More info!!
Location: Philippines
Team size: 10 students needed (male & female)
Field expense:  $1678 + round-trip airfare, travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Monday, November 3, 2014

I don't know if I'm "called" to missions... but I'm going

I have been chewing on these thoughts since mid-August, coming home from another country which claimed my heart, after experiencing the hardest most beautiful summer I have ever endured.  

I feel hesitant to call this blog an explanation; but maybe it is. And I am okay with that. I desire to convey and condense my thousands of thoughts on this subject in one blog to answer the questions it seems I’ve been given (and even been asking myself) for months now. This is my confusion, my back and forth, my journal entries, my crying out to God for answers, and these are the answers it seems He has given me. 

First, let’s define a few things. 

Called

If I am being totally honest here, I have grown to really dislike this word, and maybe this is because of its usage and possibly misinterpretation in Christian circles.
 

The day I became a Christian is the day I became a disciple, a missionary, a teacher of the Word, a devout follower of Jesus to the ends of the earth. So imagine my confusion being a part of many different ministries and hearing that someone has recently been “called to the ministry”, “called to be a missionary”, etc. 

Wait.
That’s a separate calling from becoming a follower of Christ? 


We find in Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 5, and John 1 the calling of Jesus’s first disciples. He calls them and it says immediately…immediately they follow Him. It isn’t that somewhere along the way of following this Messiah they finally come to the realization that they were called to do what they were already doing. It started in the moment they got up and left what they were doing, their families and loved ones, their own hopes and dreams. Of course, they messed up. A lot. The disciples are known for getting a bad reputation in obeying and understanding Jesus while He was in their very presence, but they still followed. All bets off, all decisions made in simply standing up and following Him the first time He called. The ministry is not reserved for only special Christians. 

I was called to the ministry the day my eyes were opened and I realized my need for a Savior. I was called to share and live and die for this faith the moment I found the Truth worth sharing and living and dying for.
And so were you. 


In a flood of nostalgia, I am back in the place where God broke my heart for the voiceless, unclaimed, hopeless, destitute, orphans of the flesh and of the Spirit. I’m back on the dusty prayer room floor scribbling out a journal entry I am still going back to to this day. It’s where I wrote to my God that I would follow Him anywhere and everywhere, no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice. 

To get to this place, God didn’t have to come down riding on the clouds and in a thundering voice command me to be obedient. Three years ago, I realized the need to experience and share with another people, so I went. And when I saw it face-to-face, when I stood in a crowd of hundreds who had never heard, when I found friendship in the most unlikely of places and the hopeless became dear to me, I knew I could never be the same. My perception of a calling could never be the same. 
I could never just come back and live the American dream, hoping to finish college, get married, have kids, live comfortably and attend church two to three times a week, waiting to see if this God would awake me in a dead sleep and in a booming voice tell me that He wanted me to be a missionary in another country.
And I’m convinced this rarely, if ever, happens.

Going
Let’s just define this as “doing”—putting effort forth, trying, making plans and waiting for God to say no. 

Wait. What?

So many believers are so quick to say they are “willing” to go, but they are only making plans to stay. This doesn’t really add up. What if we were planning to go, but only willing to stay? Meaning we make every effort to go, to take this News to those who have never even had a chance to hear, knowing fully that God is sovereign, and that if He in fact wanted us to stay, He would stop us. 

Now we get to the sticky part. Does God need us? To which, I strongly say absolutely not. He’s God. He holds all the power. I have not a single doubt that Yahweh could take the Gospel to every nation without us and fulfill the beautiful picture of Revelation 7:9 where every tribe, nation, and tongue is before His throne. But that might be the utter beauty of this life and my purpose. 

I get to open up my mouth as He opens His lips to whisper His redemptive story over His beloved Child for the very. first. time. I’m not sure why anyone would want to miss out on that. 

It might mean not getting married, or not getting married to the person you always thought. Or not getting the job you have dreamed about since you were 6. Or seeming like the “rebel child” of the family. Or having to explain yourself over and over to your family and church, the people who should understand. But I know one thing for certain: It is worth it because He is worthy.

In Acts 1:8, He commanded all of His children to take the Gospel to every place. I see thousands upon thousands of Christians here and none in so many places. So I am going to try. I plan on being strategic and intentional with this life I have been undeservedly given. I am planning to get to a nation(s) that has never heard of the hope I possess. I am planning to apply to seminary, to get a masters degree, so that I can apply through the IMB, to do everything in my power to obey, knowing fully that if that is not His plan, He will surely disrupt my plans and stop me. And that’s where I’m only willing to stay.


I do not have some special call that God has given to His chosen few. There are already too few going as it is. 

Okay so I know that not every single believer is supposed to go and live in another country. But I do know more people should be going than who are, simply because of the statistics of thousands of people groups who are not only unreached, but unengaged.
 

Nobody is even trying to take the Gospel to them. 

So, to answer the questions of my family and friends and anyone who has been confused about my plans: I have no idea what I am doing or what my future holds.

I’m just going to follow Jesus with every day. That might mean spending my whole life in another country and dying there. It might mean never stepping foot on foreign soil again if that is His plan. Or it might mean years in the U.S., years in a dangerous country, back to the U.S. for months, following weeks with an unengaged people, to Mexico, to the Philippines, to Thailand, to China, to Iraq, to North Korea, to Antarctica, back to the U.S. 


I’m just going to try. 

Because just like you, I have been called.

-Ashley

Read more from Ashley's blog at  http://ashleynicoleyates.tumblr.com/post/101625595101/i-dont-know-if-im-called-to-missions-but-im-going

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Team of the Week: PacRim Ag

Run to the border this summer and help alleviate poverty in a practical way! A 4-Man team is needed to work for 8 weeks on a small farm in SE Asia that borders two closed countries. Tasks could include building a goat barn, cutting forage for animals, establishing gardens, planting pineapples & peanuts, building a chicken pen & more. You might even get to ride elephants and carry literature into one of the closed countries!

IMB Job #: 110155  More info!!
Location: Thailand
Team size: 1 team of 4(male)
Field expense:  $1045 + round-trip airfare, travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Team of the Week: Impact Cebu

Come, be a part of the next wave of Nehemiah Teams obeying the Great Commission by going to this island. Go from village to village, playing basketball, sharing Christ with hundreds, and discipling new believers. You will live out of a backpack, wash your clothes by hand, and sleep wherever a door is opened. Become a part of Filipino culture, make friends through sports, & make disciples in a very hard place.

IMB job #: 110152 & 110153  More info!!
Location: Cebu, Philippines
Team size: 2 teams of 4 males
Field expense:  $901 + round-trip airfare, travel insurance, passport costs, etc.

Dates for Summer 2015
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams arrive back for debrief
July 31:  Students return home

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Team of the Week: Hide & Seek #1

You will "hide" in this closed country as a tourist. Each day you will explore your target city, going to where people hang out, "seeking" those who are looking for God. Because of your English-speaking skills it will be easy to make friends and as you do, you will boldly but wisely share the gospel to see who is ready to follow. Making disciples and becoming a disciple in this place is not easy. Will you come anyway?

Job #: 110154   More info!!
Location: Southeast Asia
Field expense:  $1819 + round-trip airfare, travel insurance, passport costs, etc.
Team size: 1 team of 4 males



Dates for summer 2015:
April 1: Deadline for applications
May 28: Member orientation begins
June 2: Teams travel to the field
July 28: Teams return for debrief
July 31: Students return home


Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Saturday morning prayers



I went on Nehemiah Teams to the Philippines this past summer. I got the opportunity to share about my summer at my BSM (Baptist Student Ministry) a month ago and was able to start a World Christian Study. It was planned to be a 3 week study (looking at God's Word, World, and Work). There were about 4 or 5 committed people coming every week and really excited to learn about God's heart for the nations. I was so thankful for how The Lord was blessing our time together. 

This past week was supposed to be our last morning to meet together, but as we drew near the end of our time and I began to close out the study, they all just kind of looked at me and said "Well... we don't want to stop meeting... Could we like keep meeting every week and just pray for the unreached?" Umm.. YES. 

I was blown away by what God must be doing in their hearts to want to continue to get up early on Saturday mornings to pray for the unreached. The Lord is so faithful! I just wanted to share with you what The Lord is doing in the lives of a couple college students in Texas and thank you for equipping us to lead these studies and help people see God's global purpose. 

-Kaitlyn
Stephen F. Austin State University