Emergency Hurricane Relief and Recovery – Walford Thompson

Urgent Need In Haiti

 

The recent hurricanes that have ravaged the Caribbean Islands and areas in North America have posed a great challenge for Ministries In Action as we seek to respond in the name of our Sovereign Good God to the needs of some of the poorest people on earth.

 

As you are aware, MIA has been working in Haiti (with more than 500 churches scattered across that impoverished country) for more than 38 years. We have been involved in the planting and growth of hundreds of churches, and with the cooperation and sacrifice of God’s people in the United States, Canada, and Caribbean countries, we have established the infrastructure (clinics, schools, retreat centers, etc.) to allow us to distribute emergency supplies in times of disaster. Even before the recent hurricanes, God enabled MIA to distribute food to the people of Haiti. The situation has greatly worsened, and at this time the need is urgent!

 

At last report, over 600 deaths were confirmed in Haiti as many villages were completely submerged and houses washed away in flood waters (see photos posted on our Prayer Blog). Roland Joynes and Pastor Eneck (MIA personnel) have used motorcycles to survey the country, and consulted with pastors in Haiti to determine the best way of getting supplies to the neediest. We have started a Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund. As we provide emergency supplies of food and necessities to these suffering people we authenticate the gospel that we share – the whole gospel for the whole man, for the glory of our great God.

 

If you wish to make a donation to the Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund, send a check payable to Ministries In Action to P.O. Box 571357, Miami, Florida, 33257, follow the links to donate online, or call the office at (305) 234-7855 for instructions.

God in the Details – Billy and Sherry McKillop

Billy and Sherry McKillop are relocating to Jamaica next month to work with pastors and leaders in the area of theological training.  Click here to read their latest newsletter.

Update from Gordon Woolard

Dear Fellow Transients,

My bags bulged with your prayers on my recent trip to West Africa. Thank you.

If I’d had more time in Ghana I could have eaten at the “God is Good Chop Bar”, the “God Bless Chop Bar”, or the “I Love You Chop Bar.” And for my thinning scalp I could have bought a  hairpiece at “Psalm 75 Wigs.” At least the sign made me look up that psalm but I just couldn’t find the connection. For sheer (and shear) creativity you can’t beat our African friends. I love teaching there. Thanks for making it possible by your support.

On the way over via England I took a former IFES team member from our Brussels’ days to visit the founder of Langham Preaching International. He lives in a lovely retirement community for clergy in rural Surrey. Uncle John is working on his final book called “Radical Discipleship.” When you consider that the author is 87 this is pretty cool. It reminds me of 85 year-old Caleb boldly possessing by faith the land God promised him in Canaan. Are you longing to be fruitful for the Kingdom right to the end.

The conference in Accra for 120 pastors and evangelists generated a lot of hope for a maturing church across West Africa, one of the poorest regions of the world. They prayed to become a missionary sending community rather than remain an aide-receiving region.

Haiti Relief Action

Ministries In Action will be working with churches in four villages next week to respond to the food crisis that has created great harship throughout that nation over the last several weeks. Roland Joynes, a faithful MIA volunteer who has led numerous short term mission trips to Haiti, will be flying to Haiti next week and meeting up with Jean Eneck Desir, an MIA missionary in Haiti. They will be acquiring and distributing basic food items (rice, beans, oil) to churches in the villages of Flamands, Guichard, Dariol and Cotin. Those churches will then distribute the food to families in their communities.

Ministries In Action has received numerous donations for Haiti relief over the last few weeks and months, including a very generous donation of $2,500 from the Anthony Abraham Foundation. A fifth grade class at Greynolds Park Elementary School in North Miami Beach held a food drive and collected over five hundred pounds of dry food for this effort. Those items left the Miami office for Haiti today. Everything MIA has currently received when added together can be stretched to feed approximately 25% of the people in the four villages for one week.

The food crisis in Haiti a very serious and large-scale problem. This small relief action would not seem to go far in addressing the entire need in Haiti, but we serve a God that mulitplies loaves and fishes. This relief action will meet a real physical need and will allow MIA to help churches minister to their communities by sharing the love of Jesus with them.

We would like to raise additional funds over the next few days to maximize this opportunity. Would you prayerfully consider contributing to this very worthwhile effort?

Click here to donate online.

Tea Party in Miami – Proceeds to Benefit MIA’s Jamaica Ministry

All Christian Magazine has chosen to bless Ministries In Action and the ministry of Billy and Sherry McKillop by naming them the beneficiaries of their first annual CHARITY TEA PARTY. Proceeds from the event will go to the McKillops ministry in Jamaica. The McKillops have been raising personal support and will be relocating to Jamaica during the summer.

The guest of honor and keynote speaker at the event will be Jamaica Ambassador to the United States of America – Anthony Johnson. Billy McKillop will be sharing about his call to Jamaica and Walford Thompson will bring greetings on behalf of Ministries In Action.

Please pray for this event. It is expected to draw many Jamaicans from the South Florida area and Ministries In Action has a real opportunity to share with them about the love of Jesus. If you are in the South Florida area you are ivited and encouraged to attend. Tickets are available for a contribution of $35 to All Christian Magazine.

Event Details

Sunday, June 29, 2008
3:00 – 6:00 PM
Old Cutler Presbyterian Church
14401 Old Cutler Road, Palmetto Bay, FL 33158

Tickets are available for a contribution of $35 and may be purchased by calling:

All Christian Magazine – (786) 217-5411

or

Pinelands Prebyterian Church – (305) 235-1142

Joyfully Serving – Roger and Dianne Smalling

Roger and Dianne Smalling serve the Spanish-speaking people of Latin America in the area of theological education.

Click here for the Smalling’s June Update.

Update from the Lewis’s – Serving in Grenada

June 2008,

Dear friend,

Greetings from Grenada. Thank you for you prayers and support over the years in ministry in St.Vincent and the Grenadines. Thank you for helping with our moving cost and resettling. We were able to clear our shipping from customs, mostly books. For the first month I have been meeting with several Pastors and leaders in seeking ways to build new relationships and to get an understanding of the needs of the church here.

The ministry of Dr. John Stott, the Langham Preaching Partnership was launched in Grenada that attracted 22 participants including Pastor Colin Smith from St.Vincent. This was indeed a refreshing time and a good introduction to several pastors and leaders.

Bringing Hope to Jamaica – Billy and Sherry McKillop

Billy and Sherry McKillop are headed to Jamaica next month to begin ministering in the Montego Bay area.  Please keep them in prayer as they seek a few more monthly support partners.

Click here to view the McKillop’s latest update.

Project Spotlight – Construction of School Building – Contrivance, Jamaica

Up in the hills of inland Jamaica, in the west central parish of Manchester is a small village named Walderston. On the outskirts of Walderston you will find a quiet, rural farming community of about 500 persons named Contrivance. Sharon Gospel Assembly is a small church of about 70 people located in Contrivance with a vision for meeting the needs of its community. They are a member of the Associated Gospel Assemblies, a small group of evangelical churches in Jamaica.

Sharon Gospel Assembly is led by its pastor Phillip Cardis. He and the members of the church recognize the needs in their community for education, both at a child’s level and an adult level. They have been led by the Lord to respond to that need by operating a basic school. The current facility they meet in is inadequate to truly meet the educational needs of the Contrivance community. In 2007 they decided to build an additional building to serve as the school house and began to reach out to God’s people for assistance.

Project Spotlight – Construction of Church Building – Mirabeau, Grenada

The Faith Pentecostal Tabernacle is located at almost the center of the Island of Grenada up in the mountains of Mirabeau. From the scenic spot where the sanctuary is located one has an awesome view of the nearby villages and farmlands. The combined population of Mirabeau and the surrounding villages is approximately 8,000. Typical of rural areas, families are large with an average of eight children, although several women in the area are known to have borne between 15 and 21 children for different fathers. Mothers are often the heads of their households. Where ever a father figure is present, he is often not married to the woman and only transient.

Teen age pregnancy in Mirabeau is rampant and so too is the use of drugs and alcohol. Sexual promiscuity abounds and children are becoming sexually active increasingly earlier in life. Many of the men are involved in gambling. A very high percentage of the population have no employable skills, apart from farming, but they often do not have access to sufficient land to make it profitable or to enable them to feed the entire household. The villagers seem destined to a continuing cycle of poverty interrupted only by the occasional barrel from relatives in the US or the opportunity to migrate.