Welcome to Inside Reach
All four teams are in DTS in Columbus, Ohio.
What
REACHers Are Saying…
At the end
of the sixth week of REACH Discipleship Training School, participants
went as a team on practicum (a weeklong experience to help a ministry in
North America). Here is what they had to share about their
experiences:
Spain Team
Lydia, Jake, Larry, Andrea (TL), and Brian
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Lydia shares…
“The Spain team went to Toronto, Canada for practicum. We
were involved with an organization called Campus for Christ (C4C) during
the week. They are a Christian organization that aims to reach, in this
case, college students throughout Toronto. We worked specifically with the
organization on the University of Toronto’s campus. Throughout the week we
learned about the organization and some of the different outreaches they
do. The outreach that we were mainly involved with was evangelizing to the
college students. Each of us on the team paired up with a staff person from
C4C, and we went out for a few hours Wednesday and Thursday and basically
got to share Jesus with random college students. While some students had no
desire to talk to us, others were very open and challenged by the message
we shared with them. We talked to a guy who
claimed to be an atheist, but through further talking was really interested
in God and asked a lot of questions. It was really awesome to see how God
puts a desire in everyone to draw closer to him.
Also since it was Thanksgiving weekend up in Canada, we got
to take part in thanksgiving feasts. C4C put on a thanksgiving dinner for
international students while we were there, and so we were able to not only
help prepare for it but also interact with the students. That was a really
interesting night. There were people from all over the world, some of which
had never been to church before. So that was a really good way of showing
them God’s love and also making good friends in the process. Although it
was a very challenging and stretching week, we had a lot of good
experiences and met a lot of interesting people and friends. This trip has
really helped us with relating to people we don’t normally come into
contact with and also really has strengthened the relationships with people
on our team.”
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Middle East Team
Andy, Sara (TL), Micah, and Rachel
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Andy writes…
“On October the ninth, all four teams at the SEND house were
sent to different locations throughout North America to get a little taste
of what outreach will be like. Previous to our departure none of the team
members except for the team leaders knew where each team would be heading,
so there was great anticipation running through the participants of each
team.
My team, along with team Spain, left for Toronto, Ontario.
The Spain team worked for a different ministry somewhere else in the city.
We, however, went straight to downtown Toronto where prostitution, drugs,
and many homeless, both young and old, call their home.
We helped a church called Sanctuary Ministries with their
downtown street ministry. The work that we did included touching up the
chipped paint on the walls and various other work duties. We also spent time building relationships
with the locals who came to drop-ins to hang out and play cards. The locals included several homeless, the
unemployed, and those who had been rejected throughout the city for their
choice of lifestyle. Sanctuary’s main purpose is to extend love to the
community through building relationships and just caring for the people.
One of the biggest things that I will take with me is to
treat every person I see with the respect that they deserve just for being
a creation of God. So instead of trying to avert my eyes from making
contact with the guy panhandling on the street, I will always be challenged
to walk up to them and strike up a conversation; showing them that I care.
That Jesus cares for them.
I and another one of my teammates, Rachel, once stopped to
talk to a guy named Wayne. He was sitting at a corner with his blanket and
a sign asking for money or something to eat or anything really that he
could take to his wife. He immediately began telling us his testimony about
how Jesus has changed his life. He was once a drug addict but as time went
on he began to see what that was doing to his life. He lost his two boys to
Child Services, spent all of his money on drugs, and lost his house. And he
stayed homeless for a long time. One night, as he began to contemplate all
of this, he came before Jesus a broken man and offered his life to his now
Savior. Even now he is barely making
ends meet, but he is free of drugs and is putting his hope in Jesus through
the hard times, which in many cases, is more than I can say about myself. I
am challenged by this man’s faith.
Throughout the
rest of the week we did get a chance to experience some of Toronto’s more
touristy areas such as “China Town” and it’s many little shopping centers,
and really just walking around the city and soaking it all in. We went to
coffee shops on our nights off and would play a great game of Carcassonne. All in all, it was a great experience
getting to know more about my team and about how Jesus still touches our
lives.”
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Zambia Team
Andrew (TL), Toby, Jesse, and Jordan |
Andrew writes…
“We went to St. Louis for our practicum. We were working
with World Impact (church planting ministry around the states). They are in
an old YMCA building in a rough part of St Louis. We lived with a
missionary couple, who lives two blocks from World Impact. We served them
by doing work projects (destroying rotten floors, cutting trees,
dumping scrap, etc.) in the day time. Our evenings were full of World
Impacts relationship building programs (chess club Friday, Monday night
football, basketball Wednesday and Thursday).
The missionary couple we lived with has great hearts for the
urban poor; it was very challenging. Their commitment to living and serving
the community is a great example to me as something to work toward in the
future.
Our team bonded
very well during the week, we worked together constantly for the first
time. It was a small taste of outreach in Zambia. I’m excited.”
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Thailand Team
Nathanael, Jackie, Richard, Samantha, Danielle, and Elisha (TL) |
Richard shares…
“Team Thailand’s practicum outreach was located in New
Haven, Indiana. We volunteered at the Power House, an after-school youth
hang out, aimed at middle-school and high-school aged young adults. We had
various opportunities to just hang out with kids and get to know some of
them on personal levels. These opportunities involved PowerPlant,
which is the after-school program and Gap Ahead, which is a meal served
before Gap, the Friday night youth group. After the youth group on Friday,
kids started piling in to attend a Friday night dance party called Glo. This was a good opportunity to just hang out with
kids and talk about what is going on in their lives, because the majority
of the kids who attended Glo did not have
personal relationships with Jesus.
We also helped with some work duties while the kids weren’t
around. This involved cleaning, organizing, and small jobs that the staff
and other volunteers had trouble finding time for in their busy schedules.
For example, Jackie and Elisha organized the storage room. Danielle and
Nathanael spent some of their work time cleaning and organizing the kitchen
area. And last but most certainly not least, Samantha and I did some work
in what is now the study room, hanging ceiling tile and laying down carpet
and the like getting it prepared for the kids to be able to do some homework.
Samantha had the opportunity to talk with a girl about what
was going on in her life and family situation. This girl opened up to and
took a liking to Samantha as soon as we got there, allowing for this
conversation to occur later in the week. Samantha told us about it and what
it meant to her to have this conversation. Danielle had a similar
conversation with the girl, where she basically confessed everything she
has done, and Danielle expressed her disappointment to us about how she
never had the opportunity to follow up with her. We prayed for the girl who
is now trying to become a leader in the youth group, that she would keep
earnestly seeking the Lord’s face and following Him.
We learned a lot about each other during this time we spent
together. We also learned a little about how we function as a team, and how
we can improve in certain aspects of team life.
Our team had a
night out to just relax and take it easy. This involved going to Applebee’s
for some food and then renting a movie to watch together. We had a good
time together.”
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Prayer Requests:
Focus to get back into training since practicum
General health of the training
A heartfelt thank you to all family, friends and supporters
of our 2009 REACHers. Thank you for liberally
sowing good seed (time, energy, finances and prayers) into their lives.
May the harvest be plentiful!
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