2010 Honduras Mission Trip Information

Dates: Saturday June 26, 2010 – Saturday July 3, 2010

Informational Meeting Wednesday, Jan. 27 a t7:30 p.m.
We are still accepting building our team, so please join us. We will discuss finances, travel and living arrangement and the vision of helping the poor by providing
medical and evangelism outreaches.

Cost:
$1400 (this includes roundtrip flight from Des Moines, Meals and lodging in Honduras, Exit taxes, travel Ins)

            Payable in 3 installments
                      Now: $200 deposit ($100 of the deposit is non refundable)
                        May 1, 2010 - $500 2nd payment and final names due to WGO
                         June 18, 2010 - $700 Final payment due to WGO

Flight Information:

      Delta       5438       26JUN  DSM ATL          545A    900A 
      Delta       551         26JUN  ATL TGU          940A   1115A                
      Delta       552        03JUL  TGU ATL          1205P   540P                   
      Delta       5318        03JUL  ATL DSM          940P    1102P  

Each Team member will be allowed 1 checked bag, 1 carry on bag and 1 personal bag. The 2nd checked bag will be a trunk full of donations and medical supplies that we collect for the trip.

Fundraisers:
           
Our group plans fundraisers to offset the cost of the trip. The guidelines for the fundraisers is that those that participate will receive funds towards the trip. We have had 2 bake sales so far the trip. We ask that everyone participate in the fundraisers and if you chose not to use the funds that is up to you.
           
Future Fundraisers – Palm Sunday Breakfast (March 30, 2010), bake sales    (any suggestions?)

General Information:

• Medical/Evangelism trips include:  evangelism, children’s ministry, general medical, dentistry, and pharmacy.  They may also include optometry and chiropractic if you have optometrists, ophthalmologist, and/or chiropractors as members of your team.
• Teams reside at Casa de Esperanza (new mission house) in a very comfortable setting. Bedrooms have bunk beds, showers and modern restroom facilities.  Both American and Honduran meals are served throughout the week.
• Days usually begin at 6:15 A.M. with daily team devotions.
• Casa de Esperanza has 24 hour security.
• Typical clothing is Jeans, T-shirts, poncho, comfortable shoes and one casual outfit for Church.  Bedding and towels are furnished.
• Passport is required.  Since it takes time to obtain a passport, it is extremely important that you begin this       process immediately. It is important to know that passports must have 91 days of validity remaining upon your return to the United States

Uganda seminary student update

February 14, 2010
In 2006, Gloria Dei committed to support Yeko Waako, an Ugandan who desired to attend seminary. He was passionate about the opportunity to gain knowledge that would match his desire to share God’s love and grace. He has now completed three years of his seminary and will soon commence his fourth year as a vicar in Uganda.
In a recent correspondence to Pastor Burcham, Yeko writes, “I sincerely appreciate all you and the church have done for me. I pray that you pass my thanks to all the brothers and sister in Christ over there.”
Yeko continues, “Life in the seminary is a blessing since you have made my study of theology, which is the primary goal, a possibility but has also been a great challenge in terms of daily needs.” Due to his limited source of income, he faces financial hardship to meet basic daily needs. In addition, his visa recently expired and must be renewed.
To renew it, he must submit a medical certificate, police clearance, repatriation and the visa fee itself. His application is made to the South African embassy which is inundated with numerous requests because of the 2010 World Cup.
Yeko has requested additional funds to cover some of the necessary expenses for his last year of seminary. He also inquired about obtaining a used computer to assist him in his final year at seminary and in future ministry assignments.

Since Gloria Dei is committed to being courageous in outreach and we want to support Yeko in his godly pursuits, we have granted all his requests.
Please keep Yeko in your prayers. Life in Uganda is quite a bit different than in America where we have so many luxuries at our fingertips. God is faithful on both continents, so pray for Yeko’s family, his final year of seminary, his needs being met and that he continues to see God’s mighty hand upon his life and ministry.

Uganda Fact Sheet:
Population: 29.9 million
Life expectancy: 50 years
Adult literacy rate: 67%
Official Language: English
Secondary Language: Luganda
Religions: Christian and Muslim
Government: Democratic Republic
Economy: Services sector; previously agriculture; also recent discovery of oil and natural gas
Source: Careinternational.org.uk

Joppa Outreach

"Share the Heat" Campaign

Donations provided heat for the homeless in the Des Moines vicinity. For example, a $20 donation will provide one week’s heat and a $80 donation will provide one month’s heat.
All donors will receive a tax deductible receipt for their donations from Joppa, a local non-profit organization created to foster a community of unconditional love, support and hope for the homeless.
Last winter, Joppa’s Founder and Executive Director, Joe Stevens, provided propane gas for 50 dwellings, but the cost became more than what he anticipated. This year’s
projection is $8,000 for the propane and heaters.

For additional information, you can contact Joe Stevens at joe@joppaoutreach.org

Web: www.joppaoutreach.org for information and to donate.

Honduras Mission Team 2009

God is in Control
The mission of the eleven members from Gloria Dei who traveled to Honduras was simple—to provide medical, dental and optometry services to the people of Honduras; their motive was genuine —to share God’s love with an impoverished nation. The first day was met by an unexpected announcement that country’s president was removed out of Honduras by gunpoint. Here is an excerpt from the team leader, Bill Clark about that moment and the week that followed:
The week did not go as planned! We were reminded that God is really in control and we are not. God surely blessed our week. Our travel was timed so that we could enter and leave the county with no issues.
The coup as it is called was more dramatic on the TV in the states than the actual activity in the county. We did see peaceful protest and military helicopters flying overhead, but other than that it was a normal week. However, to be cautious, our host changed our plans to avoid prolonged time in the city where the protests took place.
We specifically prayed as a group on Sunday after finding out about the coup that no one would get sick and we would have four days for medical brigades as normal. Both prayers were answered with amazing clarity. Aside from the schedule changes, our week was as normal as any other week we have spent in Honduras. The churches scheduled for the medical brigades were changed at the last minute, but each new church was eager to host our team. In fact, we touched the lives of almost 2,500 Hondurans for the week with either medical, dental, chiropractic or optical care.
None of this would have not been possible without God’s mighty hand and the generous support of your prayers, donations, the items for the bake sale and Bibles purchased. Thanks! Because of your support, we were able to serve and help people who have great need.

Check out the photos.

Gloria Dei Members:
Gary Wasko
Bill Clark
Cheryl Gilg
Katie Gilg
Mary Grimm
Ashley Bjurstrom
Derrick Wright
Stephen Webb
Gale Webb
Randy Dierenfield
Sally Dehnert

Lord of Life Church
(Sioux Falls) Members:
Sandy Sample
Samantha Sample

Harvest Evangelical Free (Story City) Members:
Christine Semler
Mari Janes
Braden Renaud
Amber Renaud

Report from China

by Brad Peyton, Shining City Foundation representative

Shining City Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity with which Gloria Dei has worked on several missions-related projects in China.

Shining City Foundation got its start in 1998 when two Gloria Dei members, Scott Raecker and Brad Peyton were introduced to a Christian couple who had been living in China and working with an orphanage in Yunnan Province. The couple had helped the orphanage take in abandoned children, in some cases literally rescuing newborns from dumpsters in back alleys. Through their efforts, care for the orphans, particularly infants, was also greatly improved and mortality was reduced dramatically.

Raecker and Peyton were so impressed with the couple's work, they decided to seek financial support for the many humanitarian projects the couple had been doing in China. Beginning with a series of smaller projects designed to improve living conditions at another orphanage in China, Shining City Foundation began to take shape.

Eventually, with the aid of grants and financial support from Grinnell College, Rotary International and members of Gloria Dei, Shining City Foundation has been able to provide housing for over 60 orphans, develop a farm that is capable of providing food for nearly 300 orphans, develop and equip a medical clinic that serves a rural village of about 5,000 people, provide solar-powered water heaters, medical supplies and bedding for a rural school for over 400 children, and provide ongoing educational scholarships that continue to support over 200 students.

In 2001, Raecker and Peyton traveled to China to see the work being done there firsthand. This initial trip inspired subsequent trips in 2002, 2005 and 2007 to review progress on existing projects and to plan new ones. Gloria Dei members who participated in one or more of those trips included: Scott and Martha Raecker, Deb and Dan Timmons, Andy and Marilyn Varley, Jared and Mary Walter and Brad Petyon.

With the earthquake in Sichuan Province earlier this year on May 12, many new challenges and opportunities to introduce Christ to the people of China are emerging. With the help of Gloria Dei and its members, Shining City Foundation is already responding to those needs. For more information on the work being done by Shining City Foundation and Gloria Dei in China, please contact Deb Timmons at 289-0360.

For more information about Shining City, please go to www.shiningcity.org

Following His Footsteps to Honduras

by Casey Gluegge, freelance writer

The CIA Web site is filled with numbers and statistics that paint Honduras with broad strokes of poverty, sickness, corruption and hopelessness. You can look them up: 50.7 percent beneath the poverty line, 27.8 percent unemployment, 63,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, the nation is rated as having a “high” risk of infectious disease. Jesus came and spent a considerable amount of time among people as “hopeless” as these, didn’t he? You can look that up, too.

Of course, that isn’t lost on the 22 members of Gloria Dei who traveled again to Honduras a couple weeks ago. You’ve heard, ‘What do you give the man with everything?’ Try figuring out what to give the people with practically nothing. Where do you start? “As Americans we want to fix things,” pointed out team member Bill Clark. “But all we can really do is one thing at a time.” Bill helped pour concrete over the dirt floors of one-room “houses.” The homeowners were thrilled by that “one thing.”

Hondurans are exactly like Iowans in their need for a relationship with their Lord and Savior. And how do you bring this to a land where a young man can’t go to church because he’s too busy working numerous jobs just to feed, clothe and shelter his family? As Cheryl Gilg observes, “First we provide for their physical care, this brings them to us. Then we get to witness to them and tell them about their Lord.” Just like Jesus did for the poor and sick, right? In a direct example of physical care supporting spiritual care, an elderly man received a pair of glasses that enabled him to read his Bible again and not rely on others to read it for him. He was overjoyed.

The mission team helped provide medical procedures, dental care, optometry and chiropractic treatment. But in the end, maybe the most surprising thing is that the workers in this mission field are getting as much back as they’re giving. “It’s a slow pace, a chance to get away to a quieter place and read the Bible with fewer distractions than back home,” relates Clark. “What you see here makes you realize how blessed we are in America. It makes you want to reach out in response to what God has done for you,” adds Gilg.

Sort of puts the “mission” in Great Commission, doesn’t it?

Work in Taiwan

April 6, 2008
Since part of our vision is to be courageous in outreach, we support many ministries throughout the world. During the month of April, we will highlight the work and the culture of Taiwan where Dr. Stephen and Maggie Oliver serve. Last year, Gloria Dei gave $7,000 from our mission envelope offerings to help their work in Taiwan.

The Olivers

Dr. Stephen and Maggie Oliver serve as career missionaries in Asia, where Stephen is the Asia theological education facilitator and New Testament professor at China Lutheran Seminary in Hsinchu, Taiwan. He teaches New Testament courses to Chinese students who are preparing to be pastors, counselors, missionaries, evangelists, teachers, directors of Christian education and pastor's wives to grow in their faith and service. In addition, as LCMS World Mission's Asia Theological Education Coordinator, Dr. Oliver facilitates mutual support, interaction, visits, and communication among the seminaries to build upon their efforts to train indigenous servants of the cross to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth and shepherd Jesus' flock.

Born in Memphis, Tenn., Stephen grew up in Japan and in the southern and western sections of the United States. He graduated from Concordia University, Portland, Oregon, and from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. Stephen then served as pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Carlisle, Iowa. He met his wife, Maggie, in Taiwan. In 2006, Maggie earned a Master of Arts in counseling from China Lutheran Seminary. Last year, Isaac joined the family on May 13, 2007.

"My main prayer request," Stephen said, "is that I would learn the Bible and Chinese well with a heart that is pleasing to the Lord (I Corinthians 13:1). I pray that God will give me his love for Chinese people so that through this ministry, the Spirit will work fruitfully in many peoples' lives."

Taiwan Fact Sheet

Population: 23 million
Size: 13, 99 square miles
Average Income: $14,000 per year
Economy: Industry and Commerce
Religion: Chinese folk religion 93%; Christians 4.5%
Language" Mandarin (official) Taiwanese
Government: Multi-party Democracy
Literacy: 96%
Climate: Tropical
Life Expectancy: 77 years

More Facts about Taiwan

Located 100 miles from the Chinese mainland, the mountainous island of Taiwan is home for 23 million people. Ancestors of the modern-day Taiwanese are Han Chinese, who migrated from the mainland two to three centuries ago and today make up 97 percent of the population. After the fall of the Chinese mainland to the Communist Party in 1949, Taiwan became the refuge of the Nationalist Chinese government.
On September 30, 2007, Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country." It also called for general use of Taiwan as the island's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.
Taiwan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world: 1,500 persons per square mile. Three of four Taiwanese are city-dwellers. Whereas 40 years ago, agriculture contributed about half the nation's wealth; today industry and commerce account for 75 percent. Taiwan's dynamic capitalist economy makes it the 13th largest trading power in the world.
More than 68 percent of Taiwan's people practice Chinese folk religions, a blending of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, with traditional religion. A strong emphasis is on the veneration of ancestors and the worship of many gods. Most people follow traditional religious practices out of respect for their culture and family. However, the youth are secularists and have abandoned family religions.
LCMS Work
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod began work in Taiwan in 1951. The China Evangelical Lutheran Church Taiwan (CELC) became an LCMS partner church in 1966. In 1967, Concordia Middle School opened and continues to educate middle school and high school youth. Each year, 200 graduating seniors enter the highly competitive university system of Taiwan.

Information supplied by the Web sites of LCMS, Wikipedia and Taiwan.

China: Yunnan Province and Tibet

For the last several years, members of Gloria Dei have been called to bring Jesus Christ to the remote parts of China, specifically to the Yunnan Province and Tibet, a region known for its isolation due to the vast Himalayan mountains. Its freezing winters and dry summers, make the inhabitants fight for daily survival. Its main religion is Tibetan Buddhism, which believes in reincarnation and the steps to enlightenment. A common practice of their religion is to offer gifts to statues as a payment for eternal life.

Shining City Foundation, a private organization formed in 2001 by a few members from Gloria Dei, has been committed to enhancing the lives of those in the impoverished region by providing:

• Improved medical and dental accessibility
• Enhancements at an ethnic orphanage for over 300 children
• Portable solar electric generators (120 units)
• Improvements at primary school
• Ongoing monthly scholarship support to students
• Initial support of second orphanage in Tibet

In recent years, Gloria Dei has partnered with the Shining City Foundation in several ways by providing financial support to help build a church that replaced a wooden barn; providing quilts made by the Stitchin' Mission; hand delivering hundreds of knitted hats made by Cheryl Gilg, Girl Scout Troops and friends; and other items such as toothbrushes, etc.

Tibet Fact Sheet
Population: 85% rural
Average Income: $40 per year
Economy: Agriculture
Religion: Tibetan Buddhism
Literacy: 21.7%
Government: Chinese Communist
Staple Food: Barley
Life Expectancy: 40 years

Shining City Report

by Scott Raecker, Shining City Foundation Representative

Over the last several years, we have provided humanitarian aid to those less fortunate than ourselves through collaborations with the Shining City Foundation. Through this humanitarian outreach we have impacted thousands of people in the remote parts of China.

Support has included the establishment of medical/dental clinics where orphans now receive regular care; scholarships for children to attend school for the first time; solar generators that have brought electricity into villages for the first time; building of dorms and kitchens to enhance living conditions at orphanage schools; and creating sustainable agriculture through a farm and greenhouses to enhance diets of orphan children. In addition, Gloria Dei was invited to help fund a Christian church in a remote mountain region of China.

Gloria Dei’s outreach into China and Tibet continues to open doors of new opportunity to live out the Gospel. James 1:27 tells us: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

The recent earthquakes in China have been centered in the regions where we have established relationships. We are aware of one particular orphanage that was destroyed and through God’s blessing all of the children survived. This particular facility is run by a Christian doctor, who has also been asked to take care of as many as 200 children who were orphaned by the disaster.

Through Shining City Foundation, we have already responded with financial support to provide basic care of these children through the next few months. In the near future, we anticipate opportunities to help rebuild their orphanage. We will keep you posted on the updates as we live out our vision of being courageous in outreach.

If you are interested in helping with our outreach in China, contact Deb Timmons at 289-0360 or at ameskids@mchsi.com.