Sarah Taylor is the Women's Ministry Coordinator for The Salt Company, a college ministry of Cornerstone Church in Ames."We had a leaders retreat on Sunday evening and Monday morning for the 120 student leaders in Salt Company. We have 12 new small group leaders this semester. One wrote after his first group meeting, 'God sure pulled it off for connection group number one. We had eight in attendance with great discussion. We had a long talk with the one non-Christian attendee who had a ton of questions about God, prayer, and what it means to be a Christian. Not only did he get a lot out of the group, but the group was blessed by his presence.As far as myself, I've never felt so inadequate and unprepared in my life - I imagine that'll get better with prayer, scripture, and experience.'If you could be praying for our student leaders and their small groups, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your prayers!"
Mark and Rachel Bemenderfer oversee TEL's work in Asia from Denton, Texas.Mark was away from our family a total of three months this year. But as our son Daniel put it, "I don't want him to go, but I do. If we're not here, he can't do what He does there!"This year Joshua (12) made great progress in piano, headed up a mowing business, babysat brothers, learned how to run the sound booth at church and sword fighting! Micah and Daniel (11) also play piano and enjoy a father/son program which teaches Christian disciplines. David (8), kept things joyful and Timmy (5) learned to read! George (2) eats a lot, says a lot, and brings a lot of smiles. We're elated that our older ones know Jesus and want to make Him known.Thank you for your partnership in spreading the news that Christ came for undeserving us! In Daniel's word, "If you weren't here, we couldn't be there!" You make all this possible.Learn more at their website.
These are the final two updates from the Uganda Team. They were lost in cyberspace so Ron resent them to us today.
The team awakened to a beautiful hazy sky over Jinja. The air was full of humidity and the promise of rain. We enjoyed a fine breakfast with theother American team visiting Hesed, and prayed with them as they departed this morning.
One of our morning sessions at the children’s ministry conference dealt with guidance on preparing for a children’s ministry as if you were starting from scratch and could build the ideal children’s ministry program. The attendees were asked to write a purpose statement for their
children’s ministry that aligned with the purpose of their whole church. This was part of a session designed to help them envision what their ideal children’s ministry might look like. With the target in mind, we walked through a series of items to keep in mind for building their ministry toward that future.
In the afternoon we shared many of the games used in Children’s Ministry at NCBC. They also shared some of their games with us.
God Bless and thanks all for the prayer support!
Ron Rohrssen
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Yesterday the Children’s Ministry conference came to an end.
We have made some new friends here in Uganda. We have been blessed all week by our Ugandan brothers and sisters in Christ. Their desire to reach children for Christ is obvious.
We have seen how God used the conference as a tool for sharing information on children’s ministry. But, it wasn’t sharing just from the Americans to the Ugandan’s. There were 10 churches represented at the conference; 12 if you include the American churches represented. Everyone gained new ideas and encouragement.
The Ugandan’s honored us with a closing ceremony that included a visit by the local vicar and the headmaster of the school and one of his top teachers. The attendees also performed a skit for us on children’s ministry.
They acted out an unruly Sunday school setting where the teacher had lost control and was not able to teach the children. In the skit the teacher learned of the main points taught at the conference and applied them immediately. In the following week the teacher treated the students with love and was able to begin building a relationship with them. In return the students respected the teacher and were willing to listen to her message.
The closing ceremony allowed the vicar, the headmaster, the head teacher, members of Hesed, and a spokesperson from the attendees to honor everyone’s efforts for the week and to give thanks to God and everyone who helped make the conference possible.
Hesed was honored by the attendees for the quality of the conference including the information gained, the food provided, and the materials they were given. One of the attendees gave thanks for the quality of the food provided. It helped them have a better diet that included meat! It was a sincere thankfulness all around.
We will have a brief meeting with Hesed before we leave. We will share with them what we have learned and observed during the week.
Ron Rohrssen
Tuesday was the second day of the children’s conference here in Uganda.There are 10 churches represented at the conference. After having some experience with the conference attendees yesterday the team had a better understanding of the level of children’s ministry being done in their churches. We also had some insight into other children’s topics that would be helpful. So, we added a couple of topics to the morning agenda.We added a session on preparing volunteers and another session on classroom management. Today’s sessions were well received; in particular the session on “Classroom Management”. We found that the Ugandan’s are dealing with many of the same issues that arise in our classrooms. We shared good information and tips with the students. But, they also shared many tips amongst themselves.At the end of the day, Miriam stood and asked for a show of hands for those who had learned something new, and those that had received encouragement in their ministry. There was a strong show of hands for learning something new and a unanimous show of hands for those that had been encouraged.God Bless and thanks all for the prayer support!Ron Rohrssen
We had the pleasure of enjoying breakfast with Florence and Michael Kyomya. It was a brief breakfast because of other commitments for them in Kampala. During our brief breakfast Mick and Ron reconnected with the Kyomya’s and shared stories of our Sunday service in Bufulubi.
Today was the first day of the children’s conference. The facility for the conference was at a nearby boarding school called Mwiri. An overhead view of the facility is shown below. The flag is the building that we are using for the conference and the red dot is an improvised soccer field. We watched some kids playing soccer over lunch and interacted with several of them.
The first day of the children’s conference was very good. Hesed picked a very good group of Christians to attend this conference. We were impressed with the English language skills. We did not need to use an interpreter and this reduced the amount of time needed to convey the main points of each of our sessions.
One of the most beneficial and important parts of the conference will be the peer to peer sharing. There were already numerous examples of this in the classroom. These leaders are willing to share new songs and tips about what has worked for them.
The Mwiri Head Master (Alex) did an excellent job of introducing the conference and the American team. He spoke of the importance of leaders, the importance of children's ministry and being leaders of leaders. We couldn't have asked for a better introduction and heartfelt welcome. His opening comments really helped set the tone for the conference.
The afternoon sessions on early childhood ministry and elementary school ministry were especially engaging for the attendees. They had the opportunity to see Craig and Abby giving a demonstration of an elementary school session with the use of puppets and small group time.
We spent part of the evening in Fellowship with another church group that is sharing the Hesed Guest House with us. It’s time to prepare for tomorrow’s session. God Bless and thank you to everyone for your prayers.
Ron Rohrssen
Sunday – A day of service!
This morning the team participated in a church service in one of the local Anglican churches called, Bufulubi. The church is a short drive from Jinja. Here’s an overhead of the tin roof church (near the flag). The boarding school is just up the road, in the lower left corner of the photo.
During the service at this church they took the children to a separate children’s service in one of the buildings at the boarding school. Craig and Abby helped with Children’s service and did a little puppetry. It was a huge hit with the children. Some of them literally thought the [monkey] puppet was alive.
I [Ron] shared my testimony and Mick led a message on the importance of teaching children about Christ and the truths in the Bible.After Mick’s message a local politician was invited to speak from the pulpit on why he should receive the peoples vote.
After the politician was done speaking about his political race, he had the honor of auctioning the eggs from the offering basket in exchange for cash. The first 2 people didn’t have cash on hand to pay for the eggs. Finally a third woman won the bid and paid 300 shillings for the 6 eggs. (500 shillings is about a quarter) She offered the eggs to the politician to honor him. He accepted and gave her praise then later gave the eggs back to the village to eat.
There were maybe around 150 kids and 35 adults in all.
Ron Rohrssen
We reconnected with Florence Kyomya in Entebbe as she blessed us with her presence to bring us back to Jinja. It was a wonderful day full of travel and fellowship with Florence, Dan (driver), and Sarah from Hesed. When we arrived later at the Hesed guest house in Jinja we reconnected with Timothy Kyomya and enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.Everyone is preparing for Sunday service at a nearby Anglican church. Mick will give the message, Ron will share his testimony, and Craig and Abby will lead a Children’s Service.Ron
Our team to Uganda safely arrived in Entebbe. Ron sent this message:Hello from Entebbe!It was a little over 24 hours of travel time, but the team has arrived safely, on time, and all luggage arrived successfully. Praise the Lord!Everyone is a bit tired from travel and jet lag, but nothing that a good night’s sleep won’t help tremendously. Thanks for the continued prayers and thoughts.Here is short explanation of what they will be doing:Traditionally children in Uganda have been entertained during church services while the adults attend the worship service. Our team will be helping the Busoga people establish and strengthen a children’s ministry program. This is a key step in growing mature Christians in the next generation. Led by Timothy Kyomya, son of Michael and Florence who founded Hesed International, they have identified a group of Christian leaders with a gifting for children’s ministry. This initial ministry trip will lay the groundwork for long-term children’s ministry. This initial group will become the trainers that in turn train others in their local area for children’s ministry. We will continue to support Hesed International in this effort and in other ministry areas in the future.Pastor Mick, Ron Rohrssen, and Craig and Abby Schultz will be training Ugandan church leaders over the next week.
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.
“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.
Tracy and Karna Steel serve in the Czech Republic with Youth for Christ:
We are so excited about our new ministry plan. We will focus primarily on developing relationships with teens from in and around our town and connecting them to our church. The connecting will be done through teaching in the English classes and helping in the physical education program at the local high school.
The weekly open gym nights, together with game-nights, movie-nights, and Club nights, are all places where we connect Czech kids with youth and youth leaders of our church. I say we because my own kids, as native speakers, are as valuable for improving English conversation skills as I am. They join me in many activities and are a key part of this ministry.
We're learning that the best ministry tool is building relationships with people and allowing the Lord to do His work as He sees fit.
Our Global Kingdom Partners, Martin and Judy Kolczyk, work as student mobilizers with SEND International and live in Marengo, IA. Here is part of an update this week from Martin:
Looking back on our visits to other countries and some of the difficulties we faced with language, transportation, customs, etc., we are well aware of how hard it is for international students to be here, in Iowa, without family. So we are starting up a ministry that we did in the past with Friends of Internationals. We want to provide a “family” for each international student while they are here. We want reach out to the over 600 international students from over 80 different countries on the Kirkwood campus.
We also are looking for people willing to adopt a student. Over 80% of foreign students are never invited into an American home or to visit a church. The mission field has come to our doorstep.These students are hungry, both spiritually and physically and are looking for people that care.
Please pray for us as we venture into this new ministry area.
Read more about Martin & Judy's ministry on their blog, On the Road Again.
Gary and Barb Bennett, serve with WorldVenture in Rwanda:We are already into the swing of things here in Rwanda. Gary finished planting the agricultural gardens and has started on a Tilapia fish pond project. Barb teaches music at the girls’ school. The girls are making all kinds of new friends at their school.Every day funny things happen to remind us we aren’t in the States anymore. You know you’re in Africa when you try to download something from the Internet and you read the message, “2,773 hours remaining!”We are currently working on precision agriculture, Africa-style. We try to maximize every seed’s potential to produce as much food as possible from a given area. The specifics of this method, Farming God’s Way, were developed in southern Africa. Significant increases in crop yields have been reported. We are hoping it will make a difference for food producers here in Rwanda.
I was relieved to hear that even though the Mackey's van was totaled in an accident, Laura (who was driving) escaped without injury. read more...
Bob and Laura Mackey family serve with World Team in PA:
Laura and I spent about 10 days in Ecuador at the end of August. I spoke at a field conference with SIM workers. The theme was Jonah: a messenger of grace who needed the message of grace. Jonah was a missionary failure who made his own agenda bigger than God’s. And yet God was very gracious with Jonah, just as He was gracious through Jonah to the Ninevites. It seems like any honest missionary can see some of Jonah in themselves. I emphasized Jesus as the true and better Jonah, our tendency toward idolatry, and our need to practice repentance.
It seemed like the talks went well. I know that people at least were thinking deeply about heart issues.
After the conference was over, Laura and I hung out in Quito celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. Highlights were bicycling around the “Carolina Park” and visiting the equator. We had a great time!
Check out their blog at: mackeyministry.blogspot.com
An update from Amy Mich about a youth camp called Euroventure in Grindelwald, Switzerland. She serves with YoungLife in France.
Imagine being 60-70 feet in the air, crossing a series of rope obstacles. You are in a harness, but it’s up to you to move forward and make sure you are securely clipped onto the cable. Don’t look down! If you looked down, you would realize how vulnerable you are. At camp, the students had the opportunity to experience the adventure of a ropes course. Many were scared, but by the end of the course they were having fun and feeling quite proud of their accomplishment.
As a leader, nothing beats seeing kid’s smiling faces after overcoming such a big and challenging obstacle. Stepping out of their comfort zone in the form of a ropes course helped break down barriers and provided a platform for sharing and understanding the gospel. It was a risk the kids took, much like it’s a risk to trust in Christ and be a bold witness in His name.
Please pray for protection us and our Nicaragua Christian Academy family. Our new 5th grade teacher, Jed, reported a couple of weeks ago that his family's guard was in a shoot-out with some men who were trying to steal his motorcycle. This resulted in the guard chasing them away. Jed has noticed several men watching their home which has been very unsettling for him and his family. Two nights ago, Jed was driving at night and came upon a group of men who were burning tires and shaking cars. The men were armed with guns and machetes. They shook Jed's car but Jed pulled forward and kept looking forward and eventually the men went on to another car. People were throwing money out their windows in effort to placate the men. Dan and Rebekah ran into the traffic jam on their way home. However, Dan turned around and found a different way home - not realizing what was really going on. We praise God for Jed and Dan and Rebekah's safety.
Robin’s Song is a new Kingdom Partner of New Covenant. The purpose of this ministry is to equip and train local people to provide safe, clean drinking water for their communities in the name of Christ. Brian Perry wrote this in a recent update:
I am planning to depart August 11 for Africa. I will spend the first week in Blantyre, Malawi where we will make plans for building another group to drill more wells. Remember that every well we put in provides clean drinking water to a thousand people. We are dedicated to helping people support themselves with an income from drilling the deep wells. We want to show God’s love to the people we serve so that they may know Him as their Savior. I’m excited to have my youngest son, Blake, join me in Mozambique September 4-10.
In October, I will be traveling with my older son, Christopher. He belongs to the Christian Medical and Dental Association, who has been leading teams of doctors and surgery nurses into Mexico. Please pray for financial support for start up costs of working in new areas of Africa, as well as travel safety.
Go to www.robins-song.org to learn more.
Wondering what our Kingdom Partners, Martin & Judy Kolczyk, are up to? Check out their blog and find out!
Our Kingdom Partners, Gary & Barb Bennett, leave soon for Rwanda.
Dear Friends,
Thanks to God’s faithfulness we are all set to leave for Rwanda on Wednesday morning, August 4th. We still need a little more support, but through your generosity, God has provided what we need to be able to return to the field. We are so thankful for all your gifts and help. We leave from Minneapolis, stop in New York and then fly to Brussels Belgium. After a short layover in Brussels we fly directly to Kigali Rwanda where we arrive Thursday evening.
This morning we experienced a wonderful worship service at our home church, First Baptist, Windom. At the close of the service people gathered around and had a prayer time for us, which was very moving. Fortunately someone found us a box of Kleenex. We explained to the girls afterwards, if we didn’t love people so much and if they didn’t love us so much, saying good bye wouldn’t nearly as hard.
We would appreciate your prayers for us as we say more goodbyes, especially to family members. It is so hard to say good bye to those we love so much and have had so many wonderful times with during this year here. Pray also that all of our luggage will make it with us to Rwanda. The girls start their new school year on Aug 17th, so pray for a quick adjustment and a special time of reuniting with friends back on the field. Finally pray that God would show us where He would have us put our main focus as we get back into ministry in Rwanda. There are so many things we could be involved in, so pray we would put our efforts into what will be most helpful to the Rwandan church.
As always thanks so much for all your prayers, love and support,
Gary, Barb, Melissa and Megan Bennett
