Seeing God Touch Lives

The Mexico Orphanage team of 14 people flew today to Monterrey, Mexico to serve with Back2Back Ministries. A team member writes:

Back2Back Ministries serves abandoned and neglected children in 12 separate orphanages by connecting short term mission teams from the United States with children’s homes in the Monterrey area. We hope to meet some of the children’s physical and spiritual needs, as well as be available to work as needed on any building, painting or cementing projects.

Pray for safety, good health and that we would be available for every need presented. Pray also that we would be an encouragement to the children, as well as the Back2Back staff, in each orphanage we visit. The staff works tirelessly to provide a safe and loving environment for these children.

Pray that our team comes home with a deeper appreciation of God’s amazing love and His special care for all His children. Our hope is to see God’s hands touch lives as we are obedient to His direction.

Team Safely in Monterrey

Dave Kvindlog wrote: "The team arrived safely and on time in Monterrey. No luggage was lost either! No issues with customs. The Back2Back bus picked us up and we arrived at their facilities around 5pm. We're now oriented and ready to begin ministry tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers. Pics will be posted soon."

Join the NCBC Mexico Orphanage Missions Trip 2010 group on Facebook for pictures as well as updates.

Serving Up Love

Thanksgiving in Mexico! Instead of serving up a platter of turkey, our Mexico Orphanage team will be serving up love with Back2Back Mexico, a mission that serves ten orphanages in Monterrey. The team will depart this Saturday, November 20, from the Eastern Iowa Airport, and return the following Friday, November 26.

Theresa Appleby, and daughter Christine, first served with Back2Back last year. They returned with a desire to lead a team from New Covenant. This year's team members are: Theresa Appleby, Christine Appleby, Rachel Prochaska, Ashley Goos, Tim Holderman, Jim and Angie Nowak, Sam Nowak, Katie Nowak, Dave and Beth Kvindlog, Elise Kvindlog, and T.J. Kvindlog and Chris Loewen. The team will spend Thanksgiving week playing with children, rocking babies, painting, doing construction, and helping in various ways.

“It was wonderful to see how the children responded to our affection last year despite the language barrier,” said Theresa. "I loved sharing in the process of helping those who labor there.”

Pray for the team as they care in the name of Christ down in Mexico.

Church-to-Church Partnership

Earlier this year, New Covenant began a "church-to-church" (C2C) partnership through Compassion International with a church in India. One of the key reasons we enthusiastically jumped at the chance to enter into this partnership is because we are partnering with a local church to empower them to do prayer care, and share in their community.

Here is a great blog article that explains more of how this works: How Does Our Partnership With Local Churches Really Work?

U of I Internationals

Eric & Melissa McDonald serve with the Navigators. They work with international students, including many from China, at the University of Iowa.

Over the summer many of the international students took the break from classes as an opportunity to travel back to China. But for those who stayed around, fewer classes allowed for more in-depth discipleship. Eric had the opportunity to meet regularly with two men. Both are followers of Christ and were looking for ways to grow stronger in their faith.

Eric also began facilitating a group of men who met every two weeks to read and discuss more in-depth theological books.

This fall 350 new Chinese students arrived on campus. We are excited to meet them as we also welcome back students from last year! We're also co-leading a study for new believers going through the Alpha material. This meets on Sunday nights for 13 weeks. We're hoping to extend this study through the winter and are picking curriculum right now.

When I am Weak...

“Greatness is what you do with your weakness.” Do you admit weakness? Do you deal with your weakness? Do you ask for help? Ironically, it takes greatness to do those things.

Read an inspiring story that our Global Kingdom Partner, Bob Mackey, posted on his blog by going here.