Today and tomorrow, our team is flying to Santo Domingo, D.R., and
traveling up past our base in San Juan, close to the Haiti border. This
reconnaissance team will begin taking food, water, and medicine in to
the clinics and relief stations with whom we're partnering. Our overall
efforts will be directed by a group of Haitian pastors whom we trust
with our safety and spiritual covering.
We have been working around the clock to mobilize these teams. While on
the ground, they will also be preparing for a second wave of teams who
will travel to Haiti to interceed and distribute food and medicine. Our
third wave of help in Haiti will begin in June as we partner with
churches and send down bigger teams for relief work and begin in more
long term rebuilding efforts.
If God is calling you to go, please check back soon. In the mean time, if you would like to help, you can donate to the Haiti Relief fund. The situation in Haiti is dire. We covet your prayers.
I am currently in New Orleans where I am leading a team of 71 Christians from a school in California. This is a great bunch of believers with HUGE hearts for the Lord...
Check out what we are doing this week at:
http://neworleans.myadventures.org
I am also copying our latest video so you can see just what we are up to!
Spring is here and summer is fast approaching! With teams already in the field, we have seen God move in so many ways: from a crippled man receiving healing on the streets of Gainesville, Georgia to sharing the love of Jesus with the orphans in Mexico!
We can't wait for more this summer LORD! Praise Jesus!
Here are a couple stories:
From the Field:
In
a small village outside of El Estor, we ran into a 11 year old boy
named Benjamin while setting up the clinic in a local church. While
playing with the kids outside, he caught our eye. He was standing
behind the rest of the kids, sweat beads on his upper lip and breathing
heavy. I placed my hand on his back. It was wet; he felt feverish and
was coughing, struggling to breathe. I asked if he was having a hard
time breathing. He then told me at night he hardly sleeps; it keeps him
up. We walked him over to the nurse and translator. It ends up that he
has asthma. We taught him how to use an inhaler and prayed for healing.
The entire time he smiled. -Connie Rock, Guatemala, 2/11/09
God
has been working in ways that could never have been predicted this
summer at AIM's New Orleans mission. Judging by what I've seen in my
experiences at the VBS sites, I would venture to say that the Lord is
working his miracles and his great revival in the youth of New Orleans.
It is liberating, awesome, and a privilege to witness. -Jillian Andre, New Orleans, 8/8/08
For nearly 20 years, we at Adventures
in Missions (AIM) have considered it our calling to bring the mission field
to the church's doorstep.
During this time, we've
learned that when a group of young people step out of their comfort zones and
embrace what God is doing around the world, they do not return the same.
Often, they even bring a little bit of the mission field back with them.
While AIM has been doing short-term missions for many years now, we
believe that "The Edge" does a better job of communicating our purpose and
vision for why we do what we do.
The Edge is not a new
program, but rather a new direction and description of something we've been
doing for a long time.
The Edge means different things to different
people:
For some, it means going to the edge of yourself and
realizing that you have what it takes to be a person of godly character.
For others, it means leaving the comfort of your own
culture and coming to the edge of where two worlds meet.
For all, The Edge is a place of decision. Standing over
a huge cliff, you don't come back the same. You can either retreat or take the
plunge into the unknown.
As we introduce your group to situations that will give
them opportunities to allow God to work in and through them, our desire is that
an Edge trip will be a place for each person to experience dramatic life change.
Read
more about The Edge...
Hurricane
Ike Relief Teams - Get a group together to help clean up Galveston, TX and bring hope to those who have lost
everything to the recent hurricane.
College-Break
Trips - Take your college group to the inner city, across the border to
Mexico, or overseas to
Africa to discover Christ in unlikely places.
Featured Program: The
Journey - "Experience the Journey of Abiding in Christ"
The Journey is eight straight months of living as a
"family" in Matamoros,
Mexico, seeking
God in not only the simplest of ways but also in the "loudest" possible ways.
Read
more...
We just got this report from Athol Barnes, an AIM staff member who was investigating the damage caused by Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas:
The damage is very similar to Katrina and the New Orleans Gulf coast area. We went through houses and neighborhoods today that had 4 to 5 feet of water in them. There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of homes that need gutting, something our teams do really well.
The area of damage is very widespread; the storm was 600 miles across. Many of the areas between Houston and the Louisiana line are economically depressed and the people might have insurance, but the insurance covers only current cash value (this was the case with a family we visited today in Galveston).
The pictures could have been taken anywhere in the Holly grove area of New Orleans, but they were in Galveston. Bolivar, an area outside Houston was almost completely destroyed. And it was a very poor area.
The immediate need is for volunteers, yesterday. We are proposing to have volunteers come to Houston and stay with our partner church. We will have a volunteer coordinator in place to facilitate the work crews and make sure their food and lodging are taken care of. We will charge them $30 per day that will include, a place to sleep, three meals, a coordinator, nonspecialized tools (they might want to bring chain saws etc).
Lodging might be varied including trailers, dorm style in a hall, or large tents. However, cots will be provided.
The volunteers will do:
Gutting and demolition
Food distribution and ministering to those affected by the storm
General contractors
Yard clean up
Roofers
Prayer walking and evangelism
We who follow Jesus need to find more ways to give and bring hope. Here is an obvious way.
In
a small village outside of El Estor, we ran into a 11 year old boy
named Benjamin while setting up the clinic in a local church. While
playing with the kids outside, he caught our eye. He was standing
behind the rest of the kids, sweat beads on his upper lip and breathing
heavy. I placed my hand on his back. It was wet; he felt feverish and
was coughing, struggling to breathe. I asked if he was having a hard
time breathing. He then told me at night he hardly sleeps; it keeps him
up. We walked him over to the nurse and translator. It ends up that he
has asthma. We taught him how to use an inhaler and prayed for healing.
The entire time he smiled. -Connie Rock, Guatemala, 2/11/09
God
has been working in ways that could never have been predicted this
summer at AIM's New Orleans mission. Judging by what I've seen in my
experiences at the VBS sites, I would venture to say that the Lord is
working his miracles and his great revival in the youth of New Orleans.
It is liberating, awesome, and a privilege to witness. -Jillian Andre, New Orleans, 8/8/08
The Edge is not a new
program, but rather a new direction and description of something we've been
doing for a long time.
The damage is very similar to Katrina and the New Orleans Gulf coast area. We went through houses and neighborhoods today that had 4 to 5 feet of water in them. There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of homes that need gutting, something our teams do really well.