Why Missions is Important

In the few weeks they have been in the States, Pastors Williams and Peruth Beshiisha, who are visiting from Uganda, have been ministering in various churches, making contacts, and raising awareness about what is happening in their nation.  One of their speaking engagements was at North Central Indiana Bible College, a ministry of church of the Heartland (http://ncibc.wordpress.com).

To a class of more than twenty Bible college students, the Beshiishas spoke about the importance of missions.  As people who have hosted several groups of missionaries in their church and home, and as missionaries themselves, Williams and Peruth definitely have experience in this area!

Their message was encouraging.  In it, they stressed the importance and the benefits of missions.  It was so good that I want to share some of my notes with you!

• The Bible will take you places.  The message of the Bible is to GO!  The church has a voice in every corner of the world, and we CAN bring about change.
• We often complain about our circumstances because we don’t realize that God is using them to shape us into who he wants us to be.  It’s hard to say that God is with us when we are going through trouble, but He is always at work.
• LIFE is part of your training in who you are to become.  Don’t waste time complaining because everything is part of your training.
• Our past ushers us into our future.

On the importance of missionary work:

• Missionary work, to GO, is a command, not an option.
• To become a missionary, your selfishness needs to die.  You are being trained to make disciples and to be on the job at all times.
• Missionaries expose the errors and hidden things in other coutnries.
• They help persuade through loving and caring and penetrate the hearts of outsiders.
• Missionaries put things into action.
• They help change the minds of people.
• Uganda needs missionaries with transformed lives to declare repentance and tell the real truth.
• WE are the ones who are supposed to go and comfort people and love the unloveable.
• We  need to bring people hope and solutions.
• Missionaries convince people who reject God of the serious consequences of their choice by speaking the truth.
• Missionary work reveals God.
• Types of missionary work: praying, giving (clothes and money), encouraging missionaries, fasting and praying for missionaries, and going yourself.
• Allow the Holy Spirit to tell you where you are supposed to go and what you are supposed to do.

Final encouragements:

• Respond to the call of the Father to other nations
• When he was alive, Jesus couldn’t go to all the places where he was needed.
• Today, he can, because the Holy Spirit is in all of us.
• It really is better to live today because we can reach everyone.
• You can’t go and be a blessing if you’re not full and you’re not being instructed.  Take every opportunity to get what you need to build the kingdom
• When Jesus left, he was 100% sure that his disciples would go and do what he told them.  Are you sure YOU would go?
• We can’t give what we don’t have… but what DO you have?
• God will fulfill your heart’s desire, but your duty is to have a desire to do mission work.  God has the money; just have the desire.

Thank you, Williams and Peruth   Be encouraged by the truth they shared, and may their missionary work here in the States bear the fruit they spoke about!

More pictures……

Anybody want to see more pictures from the missions banquet???

I thought so.

It was an awesome night for kid and adults alike!

Fish Farm Location

At the Project A1:8 missions banquet, Pastor Heath cast the vision for a fish farm that would benefit the Beshiishas, Grace International Ministries Uganda, and the children at Grace Children’s Home.  This is an incredible business opportunity that would provde a consistent source of protein for our children, which is rare in Africa, and jobs for Ugandans who are in need of income.  As brothers and sisters who care about God’s people in Uganda, let’s support this vision both financially and in prayer.  This is one investment that will change lives in Uganda!

Project A1:8 Banquet

November 8th was a big night for missions at Church of the Heartland.  Not only was the KWAM banquet awesome, the adult Project A1:8 banqet ROCKED!  It was such a joy to take the time to celebrate what God  is doing in other nations.  We heard encouraging testimonies about some of the ministries that Project A1:8 supports, including pastor Radovan Bogdonavich in Serbia, missionary Linda Turner, a church building project in the Dominican Republic through pastor Randall Black, and specifically what God is doing in Uganda.  Grace International Ministries Uganda has a mobile Bible college that has trained 280 pastors who were leading congregations with no training at all.  We heard video testimonies from pastors who are deeply grateful for the training they received from the Bible college that Project A1:8 supports.

Besides the great food, the awesome praise and worship, and the encouraging conversation, a highlight of the night was hearing from Williams and Peruth Beshiisha – pastors of Word of Life Church in Uganda, friends of Church of the Heartland, and founders of Grace Children’s Home, which is home to thirteen precious African children who had nowhere else to go.  I’m continually amazed at the way God cares about people and does miracles in their lives!  We truly have a lot to celebrate.

Pastor Heath and the Beshiishas also shared the vision for a tilapia farm that would provide protein for the children in the children’s home and would eventually be a source of income for GIM Uganda.  Let’s keep believing God that He would provide for this project!

This year, we have reason to rejoice.  God is faithful.  We’ve been blessed in America, and I love Project A1:8 because it’s a chance to share what God has given us.  Thanks for being generous givers and partners in prayer.  Take some time today to thank God for what He’s doing in lives all over the world!

Young Missionaries

Last night’s second annual Project A1:8 missions banquet was a huge success.  Not only was the adult banquet incredible (more details to come), God did some awesome things in the kids’ banquet.  As the kids registered, they received their passports, got their passport pictures taken, received a boarding pass with their seat number, and were escorted by flight attendants to the plane.  The experience was so authentic that I watched many eyes get big as they learned that they were going to India, Africa, South America, China, or the Philippines for a few hours.  While on board “flights” to several nations, these young missionaries learned what they could do to help people in other nations.  They emerged with a prayer box containing an airplane as a reminder to pray for safe travel for missionaries, a small bottle of water as a reminder to pray for clean water, a bag of rice to remind them to pray for food, and a globe with a nation that God had called them to pray specifically for.  The kids also adopted a child from Grace Children’s Home to pray for.

The goal of the kids’ banquet was to help kids develop God’s heart for teh nations.  It was a  HUGE success, and the people who invested their time in the children have already seen evidence of what God did in their hearts.  Check out a few of these testinonies:

- One child wasn’t able to attend the banquet but helped put together prayer boxes.  His sister said he had all of the stuff out and she asked him what he was doing (she didn’t know about boxes).  He said, “I’m praying for the kids to have food and water.”
- One mom said that her son is taking his prayer box to school today for show & tell and that whenever he gets money he wants to send half of it to the African child his family sponsors.
- Another mom said that something has been stirred in her son.  All he wants to talk about is where God wants to send him and ways that he can sponsor a child.
- Still another parent said that her son loved the banquet and wants to go to Uganda.
- A junior high student who has started to rebel said that after last night he knows God wants his life to make a difference
- We heard and saw many of the kids at the banquet comparing their pictures and talking about the kids they are sponsoring in prayer

Last night was a great reminder that kids are not too young to make a difference in other nations.  These kids are excited about what they can do NOW.  It’s so exciting to hear about how God is calling kids and giving them opportunities to connect with His heart for people all over the world!

Uganda 2010

It’s time to start praying about Uganda 2010!  Below is all the important information about next summer’s trip to Uganda.  Right now is the perfect time to start seeking God about whether He wants you in Uganda in 2010.

Trip dates for Uganda depending on the size of group

Group 1 leaves June 7th

Group 2 leaves mid-June (second trip depends on number of people interested in trip)

 

Uganda 2010

Suggested timeline

November – pray about participating in Uganda 2010

December – Passport ordered  (must have by February)

January – $1,000 payment due

Shot appointments made

(must have yellow fever shot by March meeting)

February –   Find prayer partner to pray for you and the mission trip

March -  Yellow shot record card & passport given to leader to

send for visas

$700.00 2^nd payment

April – $300.00 3^rd payment, Malaria pills ordered

May – Final payment due at last meeting

All required shots completed

Bus tickets ordered

June -  Packing, final details

Approximate cost of trip: $2800

Potential mandatory training dates:

January 16

February 20

March 13

April 17

May 15

Are YOU Ready?

Only six more days!

Project A1:8 Banquet NEXT WEEKEND!

I’m really excited about Church of the Heartland’s second annual Project A1:8 missions banquet – coming up November 8th at 6:00 pm at our Winamac campus.  The more details I hear, the more excited I get about next Sunday!  RSVP cards are available at your campus and must be turned in this Sunday if you want to attend the banquet.  This is an event that you definitely don’t want to miss!

For the first time, KWAM and nursery will be doing their own missions banquets!  I’ve heard details about the kids ministry, and it’s going to be AMAZING.  We’re believing that through this very special event God will call even these young ones to do ministry in other nations.  The goal of the KWAM and nursery banquets is to help kids develop a heart for what God is doing around the world.  It’s never too early to get connected to God’s heart for his people!

The goal of Project A1:8 is to equip people to minister, as it says in the book of Acts, in Jerusalem (locally), Judea (regionally), Samaria (nationally), and the ends of the earth.  This banquet is one more way for you to get involved.  Next Sunday night, let’s get together to celebrate what God has done through Project A1:8 this year, team up to meet some needs in Uganda, and get motivated to walk out God’s love and compassion!

Grace Children’s Home Uganda, October Update

We just received the October newsletter from Pastors Williams and Peruth Beshiisha in Uganda.

According to the newsletter, “the vision of Grace Children’s Home was founded in 2008, when Peruth Beshiisha was stage three with cervical cancer and declared cancer free with the help of friends, who neglected her not of her colour and condition she was in.  That birthed a dream to help the children who had no hope and kept flocking in her trash cans to look for leftovers as food to feed on because they had no homes to stay in because their parents died as a result of AIDS and civil wars.  This was one of the ways she could give back to God and those who stood with her.”

How God has tranformed these children!  In the months since the creation of Grace Children’s Home, this is what your giving and the Beshiishas’ faith have helped accomplish:

• the name of the home changed from Grace Orphanage to Grace Children’s Home, as these children are no longer fatherless but part of a family
• a birthday celebration for all of the children, which gives them the feel of a real home full of love and care
• the orphanage as been built and finished – with plaster inside and out, paint, and fixed ceilings
• the children spent their break from school playing with the toys and balls that the missionaries brought
• all children are performing well in school and are now able to read and speak English
• the children are being fed every day, although the country has been experiencing a food shortage

The Beshiishas and their children are believing God for their needs:

• beds for the children’s home (since their mattresses are on the floor)
• furniture for the living room
• sponsors for children who still need support

Remember that you can make a difference in a child’s life by sponsoring him or her with $30 per month for school fees or $50 per month, which will proovide the feeling of home and three meals a day, as well as medication.  A contribution of $80 per month will take care of all the child’s needs.

A word from director Peruth Beshiisha:

“I greet you in the name of Jesus and I am very grateful of your love and releasing the power of God that’s in you to manifest down in Africa as to make a difference in our young generation.

Thank you so much for your financial support, love, and prayer.  The book of Nehemiah speaks of Nehemiah having a dream and it was through teamwork that the dream came true.  Nothing could have been accomplished without your help.

The work is not yet done.  We ought to encourage ourselves to stretch more and accomplish what the Lord wants us to do in these last days.  And we always pray for you that all you have rendered to extend God’s kingdom in the young generation, God will multiply.”

Bless you,

Peruth Beshiisha, Director

KWAM Missions Banquet November 8th

I am sooooo excited to share about the KWAM missions banquet! It is during our annual A1:8 Missions Banquet November 8. First, I want to admit that originally I wanted to attend the adult banquet. I didn’t want to “babysit” the kids. I’m going to give you the short version of what happened to change my heart. God told me if I really cared about missions and wanted to change the world, that I should help change the kids. Change a child change the world. As soon as my heart changed God gave me a lot of ideas for a kid’s mission banquet. I can now say that I am ridiculously excited about this opportunity to impact lives.

Here is what we are planning so far:
- kids will receive a passport & boarding pass when they arrive (we will have chairs arranged & labeled like an airplane)
- they will have their own taste of the nations table where they can sample foods from different countries
- we will have a booth with clothes from different countries that they can try on & have their picture taken
- we will watch a dvd of an 11 year old girl who went on a worldwide mission trip (she will share about missions from a child’s point of view)
- several mission games (ex: obstacle course representing different obstacles a missionary goes through to share the gospel)
- take home idea: inflatable globes (kids will use a sharpie & circle a country that they want to pray for or want to go to)
- take home idea: a lunch sack filled with a water bottle, play money, toy airplane, etc. to represent things they can be praying for, airplane=safe travel; water=clean water for other countries

Our goal is to help kids develop a heart for what God is doing around the world. I really believe that this is going to be a powerful night! I believe there will be kids who will be called to pray for/go to different countries. We want kids to realize what they can do NOW (they don’t have to wait until they’re teens or adults). Right now they can pray, give (donate their birthday or Christmas), care and educate others of what is going on in other countries. God can use them NOW!

If you want to be part of changing the world (I really believe that this night could impact thousands of people) please let me know. I am looking for a group of people who want to impact the world!

Chris Miller