Reached and Unreached

We've gone out and about into the far villages of the Tete province of Mozambique. Some of the villages in the hills that we've visited have no church near them, and in fact they've never heard of Jesus. Those are the unreached, who live in fear of witch doctors and evil spirits tormenting their lives. They wear amulets and charms to ward away the bad dreams and curses that haunt their lives.

When Wheresoever Ministries does an outreach, it is carefully planned so that the people don't just hear about Jesus, but so that there is a pastor ready to disciple them once they have found freedom in Jesus. We go into the village, setup music and lights - that draws the village as they have no light after dark except campfires. We play music and dance and have fun, then we share the Good News of the King of Kings, who drives out evil spirits and heals the sick. We often pray for people for healing - and have seen the deaf, blind, and lame healed and even some cured of AIDS, which strongly affects this nation. Thousands have heard the Gospel and received Jesus in this way.

Other villages have churches and pastors and are growing in their faith - these are the reached. They have found freedom from fear - even witch doctors are coming to Jesus and are burning all their amulets and charms. These villages are being encouraged by Wheresoever Ministries as they offer Bible teaching to the church pastors and leaders. Most of these pastors have no formal training at all, and may even have difficulty reading the Bible. The seminars that Wheresoever hosts are like fountains of knowledge and encouragement to these men and women who are serving God.

We are blessed to be a part of such a great ministry that is reaching the lost and making disciples of many nations, just as Jesus commanded. Please continue in prayer for us and Wheresoever Ministries so that the enemy won't be able to overcome the Christians here, but that a foundation of Jesus will be laid where there was no spiritual foundation before.

Mozambique Update #1

*Our internet connection here is very slow and spotty, but we are typing blogs and hoping to post as able.
The long story short, the past several days I have seen more examples of what the New Testament church could look like than I ever imagined. We are doing outreaches in places where people have never heard the gospel. The Holy Spirit verifies the truth of our message with signs & wonders (prophetic words, healings, demons cast out). This kind of environment is stripped away of all of the American Christian sub-cultural understandings, so it forces you to figure out what is the gospel core. And what is the purpose of the church.

Wheresover Ministries is the most unassuming powerfully apostolic ministry I have ever personally witnessed. They have teams to do the outreaches, then follow up, then identifying pastors, then developing a network to train and develop the pastors, then build churches, build wells and then do it all over again. Thirty-three churches have been planted in this area by Wheresoever, and God continues to do more than expected.

Unfortunately, we had to take off our Thread of Hope bracelets because people would see that and think we had been to the witchdoctor. The witchdoctor's house provides some real medicine, but also invites many "healing spirits" to do the work, which is none other than demonic powers. Often bracelets or beads are given to small children or adults to keep the evil spirits away which cause the sickness. Unfortunately, it is often those evil spirits causing the illness or making it worse.
But that is not the case in Apex, NC, right? So please keep wearing them. We need your prayers. They literally are a matter of life and death, so no pressure! This place is a mixture of the most terrible things I have seen and the most beautiful. I cannot wait to return and share many stories.

Pastor Bryan

Hope Chapel and Wheresoever Missions

Pastor Bryan Finley and Charles B are heading to Mozambique to work with Danny and Lindy Bravo of Wheresoever Ministries. In addition to our own $4500 mission costs, we’d like to help Wheresoever replace some supplies that were damaged or destroyed in a car accident a few months ago. If you’d like to sponsor one or more of these items, or give towards the mission costs, please donate at http://www.hopenc.org/onlinegiving.aspx – be sure to mark your donation Hope Chapel Missions:

Here are some of the items we need sponsors for.
• 1000 Communion Cups – plastic disposable - $50
• 3 Communion Cup Trays – $50 each
• Flash drives (5) - $35
• USB Mouse (2) - Infrared $20
• USB Keyboard - $25
• External USB CD/DVD Reader - $40
• Portable Keyboard - Yamaha YPT-330 - $150
• Small sound mixer (8 inputs, 240v) - $200
• Tarp 30' x 40' Heavy Duty - $99
• Cheap reading glasses, assorted strengths - $50
• Water Cistern replacement - $800

Wheresoever is also looking for the following donated used items – please email missions@hopenc.org if you’d like to donate these items:

• Donated Cellphones – GSM and Quad-Band only
• Donated laptop(s) – At least MS XP OS or Win7 if possible

Thanks for giving to the work of Whereseover and Hope Chapel Missions!

At work in the Dominican Republic

Serving in the Dominican Republic can be done in many ways....here's one way we served: DR Team 2 at work

GEN 1:9 - On the Way to the Mission Field

[Note - we have no wifi or internet access. Telephone calls are expensive. So communication is difficult and rare, but we'll try to post as often as we can! Thanks for understanding. ]

Excited, sleepy, apprehensive, curious, scared, shy, exuberant, relieved - all these emotions and more were being felt by the team as we boarded our flight at 7 am Friday morning.  There are 23 of us from Hope Chapel's Generation 1:9 Youth Group and we're finally on our way to the Dominican Republic. We were stunned that we ended up checking 17 bags of VBS supplies and baseball equipment! All of our personal gear was carry-on so we had the room. We made our connection in Miami with about 15 minutes to spare and arrived on time in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic (DR).

Resting after a long day.

HOT! Well, we could say it's hot and humid, but we've decided as a team not to complain. We are in this boat together and we're going to work to make this time in the DR a great success. So, as a team, we'll work to make the boat better every day - be friendly, help one another, be patient, be flexible - more than flexible, we'll be fluid, as changes will come every day. DR Rocks!

Our dormitory is the 3rd floor of a Methodist church. Lots of bunks, good bathrooms, and lots of windows. There is no air conditioning, but there' s a good breeze and lots of fans. We have a common room/dining room on the 2nd floor. Oh, speaking of dining - OMG! The food! It is amazing terrific! We've eaten beans and rice and a kind of spanish rice and a kind of BBQ chicken and some amazing beef-tips, salad and the fruit! Wow, the fruit is the sweetest and tastiest fruit! Utterly amazing, the food here.

Castle of Diego Colon

Our schedule is pretty full this week, but we'll have some play time too. Friday we spent the day unpacking, figuring out how the toilets and showers work (you have to be here) and then we were going to play baseball nearby, but it started pouring rain. That turned out to be a good thing, since it lowered the temperature and allowed us a good night's sleep.

Saturday, we prepared to work with the local Missionaries - Charlie & Darla Finocchiaro - and their youth group. We prepared some Spanish songs and reviewed our Spanish words and prayed a lot. Our task was to be friendly and learn about them and hopefully give them something that would move their spirits toward God. Well, Christiana and Candice both gave really good words of testimony and encouragement. Then Charles and Bill both gave a short message on how to live for God. We did our songs with Farrell and Collin and Whitney leading the music, and that was fun! Then, their youth band played and it rocked! Woot! So much fun and God was in the house!! We made lots of friends and we all seemed to just really click! Great things are happening.

We're ready to take the DR for Jesus!

Sunday we were able to go to a new church that the Finocchiaro's are planting in a poor community called El Cafe. They have rented a small house and are starting with reaching out to the children. We did a Sunday School and many neighborhood children came to meet the "gringos" and to play, sing and hear a story about Jesus. It was wonderful. We'll be working with some of these kids on Tuesday and Wednesday. We're praying that they will understand the good news.

After that we went to church with the Finocchiaro's and then went out to explore Santo Domingo. We went to see the Castle of Diego Colon, Christopher Columbus' son, who was governor of the DR in 1492. Lots of beautiful sights of the city and friendly people. It was a good day to relax and prepare for our service day on Monday - painting the park the El Cafe community. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus there.

Team 1 of Gen. 1:9 DR Mission

More to come! Thanks for praying for us. We're hoping to see lives changed and our own worlds rocked!

Thank You!

Thank You Hope Chapel, family, friends and all of our supporters! We have raised all the necessary funds and will be leaving for the Dominican Republic bright and early tomorrow morning!

This is the first time Generation 1:9 has ever been in the mission field. There are a number of students on this trip who have never been outside of the United States!  Please continue to support us in prayer as we travel and minister.

Here are 3 simple ways you can pray:

1. Safety - We have taken all the necessary precautions, but would love for you to pray for safety.

2. Spiritual Impact - Please pray that the work our team does has an eternal impact while in the D.R. Pray that people in the D.R experience life change through Christ. And pray that our students experience life change as well.

3. Blessing - Pray that we are able to be a blessing to the local missionaries who are hosting us. We do not want to be a stress factor to them. Pray that they feel like we are an addition to their ministry!

I am sure you can think of plenty of other ways to pray, so please remain faithful to praying for us while we are ministering!

Thanks!


Bill

 

The Gen 1:9 Youth are about to embark on a mission to the Dominican Republic. They are working hard to finish raising the money needed to complete the trip. Two Teams are going.
Team One will be on Mission from Friday, July 20th through Friday, July 27th.
Team Two will be on Mission Saturday, July 28th through Saturday, August 4th.

The Youth will be working with local kids, serving the local pastors and churches, and doing a market outreach and VBS. If you'd like to support the team, you can do so here: DR Youth Missions

The pastors in the Dominican Republic are looking forward to working with our youth. They knew we'd be coming - check out what they said last year!

 

Please be in prayer for Hope Chapel Gen 1:9 Youth Mission and check for updates regularly.

‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.'

Acts 2:17 NIV