Mission Adventures NZ » Mission Adventures

A House for Ofa

wade — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:30:19 +0000

Ofa (which means ‘love’ in Tongan) is an older widow living by herself in Nuku’alofa. She lives in a small shack on land that belongs to her grandson – because, of course, only Tongan men can own land in Tonga. The shack’s roof and walls leak and you need to watch where you put your feet on her floor so you don’t fall through. She is also quite lonely and this is possibly affecting her mental health somewhat. Conveniently, at some stage in the past some benevolent soul laid a concrete pad right next to her shack, but they never returned to finish the job and build her a house. There is also space beside the pad for a small water tank, if the resources were available to provide that too. She currently gets water from a neighbour. We are privileged to be sending a team of 34 youth and adults from Hamilton Christian School this July to build Ofa a home. We are currently in the process of packing a container to the hilt, to be shipped to Tonga in the next two weeks… You might even say we are shipping the ‘ofa’.

Erica’s Top 10 Tips For Your Mission Trip

wade — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:32:57 +0000

1. Put God first
You know this one already, right!

2. Prioritise relationships
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people! That goes for your team mates, as well as the local people…

3. You have no rights
Most of us come from a privileged Western society, so we expect to be treated a certain way. Well, this almost definitely won’t happen when you travel to a developing country. Give up your “rights” before you get offended!

4. Local culture rules…
Forget about what you think you know, and start learning the local culture. The local people will be so blessed by even a small effort to understand their way of life. Say hello in their language… Ask them how to weave… Find out where they grew up…

5. Embrace food
This is the fun one! Food is a great way to learn more about a local culture. It’s also a great way to offend someone by not eating what you are offered. Keep an open mind and try the culinary delights that your mission trip destination has to offer.

6. Bring “you”
What has God given you that makes you awesome? Figure out what it is, and incorporate it into your mission trip. Use it to bless others, and enjoy doing what you are good at.

7. Serving others
Go with the mindset to serve. Wash the dishes, pick up after your room-mates, help out the slow-pokes. Trust me, you will be a lot less annoyed if you go with this attitude!

8. Water, water, water
Wanna know the best way to get sick while overseas? You got it… dodgy water. Check out where your drinking water is coming from. If in doubt, go bottled and forget about getting that mystery ice with your Coke!

9. Travel light
Passport. Favourite pillow (so you can sleep anywhere). Good book. Comfy shoes. Sarong (which doubles as a sheet, a towel, a tablecloth, a skirt…). What more do you really need?

10. Relax!
Have fun, don’t worry if the schedule changes, and expect things to be different from what you are used to.

Cambodia through the eyes of Danielle

wade — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:55:47 +0000

A blog from Steps Of Justice

My time in Cambodia last year was the best experience of my life. There are sooo many different stories I would love to write about that stole my heart, but out of all of the many wonderful experiences there, this one has to be one of the most memorable.

One day we went outside of town to a rock quarry. It was such a beautiful drive, so much green and beautiful scenery. It was sad to see the living conditions of so many families, and kids running around with no shoes and hardly any clothes. Getting closer to the rock quarry we passed a herd of cattle with a kid guiding them. We pulled off to the side and walked up the hill a little ways. Little kids were running around and parents were sitting by piles of rocks breaking them. The area was very beautiful and heartbreaking.

Rock crushing by hand: Vanessa Hadford 2011

The “homes” that these families had were just a roof with a little wooden platform to sleep on. Only a couple places had walls, the others were open to the surrounding environment. There were only a couple of houses, the village was very small. Some of our group started making balloon animals, while others were visiting with the village members and checking out the area. I walked around and visited with some kids and some parents. I tried breaking some rocks like the villagers do- it was hard work! Kids were running around with balloon animals, the boys were pretending the balloons were guns and made me think of how the boys back home would do that too. I started taking a couple pictures, but tried not to take too many just in case the villagers were sensitive to that from strangers. I showed the kids the pictures on my camera after taking them and the kids were so excited they wanted me to take a bunch of pictures! They asked me what my name was so I told them, “Danielle”, and they all started laughing and saying my name. I was confused but laughed too, (a few days later I found out that they were laughing because they thought I was saying, “Daniel” and thought I had a boy’s name, which explained a lot because I had quite a few people laugh about my name!).

I then walked over to a woman that was trying to breastfeed her baby but couldn’t because she didn’t have the nutrients in her body to provide the milk. We were talking to her via translator and she was very nice. We also prayed over a man and told him about Christ, he had never heard about Jesus! So it was very exciting to witness him learning about Christ. That was an amazing experience, I could feel the presence of the Lord there, it was a very powerful moment that I will never forget. The Lord’s presence there was like nothing else I had ever felt.

The Lord is working in hearts of the Khmer people and it is an amazing privilege to witness it. Seeing the people in this small rock quarry that work so hard and have so little, really opens your eyes to what God sees and what is in His heart. These people are so happy and giving, even though they have so little. I am very thankful that God blessed me with the opportunity to have all the wonderful experiences that came from this trip.

Exhausted in doing good

wade — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:18:55 +0000

There has been a few people around lately talking about burn out and tiredness in ministry. On one hand, taking self care to the extreme is as bad as not having any care of ones self at all, but I do think there is a middle line. It’s always sad to see people in ministry burn out and leave disillusioned but it still happens. I wonder what God thinks when He tries so hard to actually help us into obedience and then we end up going ‘awol’ and falling off the other side, exhausted.

Ministry often encompasses so many facets, and a typical day in ministry can range from admin, to counselling, to practical assistance all in a couple of hours. So we need to make sure we are getting rest. Jesus often took time out to get away from the crowds (and disciples) to connect with God and he was more awesome than most of us…

Dan Sheed (a great guy from North Shore Vineyard) has also been thinking along the same lines, read here for a continuing theme and a video link of Rob Bell.

It is a tragic waste if all we get out of what life throws at us, is a bitter attitude

Has The Western Church Missed The Bus?

wade — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:06:51 +0000

A great article written by a missionary living in Turkey. Photo (Chris D.) There are more fully supported pastors in Christchurch, a city of 350,000, than there are pastors and foreign “workers” among Turkey’s 78 million.
Are Paul’s Methods Ours? Has The Western Church Has Missed The Bus??

Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”” 15:36 read more on Chris’s blog

An eight-year-old’s mission

wade — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:43:30 +0000

Ella caught the eye of hundreds earlier this year when she was featured in her local paper for her first mycharity: water campaign. Now, she’s doubling her goal and getting a hundred kids to fundraise alongside her.

‘Last fall I got a book called Kids Make It Better by Suzy Becker. It’s a journal that asks kids how they would solve world problems. When I got to the part that explained that not everyone in the world has clean water, I was confused and asked my mom about it. I thought everyone could turn on their faucet and get clean water. I was pretty shocked when I found out that people in other parts of the world are getting sick and dying because there’s no clean water to drink’.
Click here to read more.

Charity Water is a non profit organisation set up to bring clean fresh water to parts of the world where this is a need

A special thank you from Cambodia…

wade — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:26:24 +0000

We recently received the following update from the Joy of Cambodia ministry. A great team from Wanganui Central Baptist Church recently spent some time with the children from the school there, teaching English, playing games and washing their hair, as well as an unforgettable day at the local water park…

“On 26 July, we have a special support from the team at Wanganui in Cambodia who come from New Zealand, to bring our kids at the center to Phnom Penh Water Park. They send the bus to pick up the children and the staffs to the water park. This is a very first time in the children’s life to come to the water park and some of them even the first time to ride on the bus. They really enjoy and are exiting with this new experience at the park. Thank you so much to the team from Wanganui for making this fund and great time for the children.”

Thearith and Charia
Directors
Joy of Cambodia

He isn’t scary, he is just homeless

wade — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:50:23 +0000

A recent post by a good friend…
Last night we hosted a fundraiser/dessert for Steps of Justice. We had coffee, cake, snacks and spent some time sharing about what we have been doing with Steps of Justice and also where we are going on the Justice and Worship tour. After the night was over we had a couple of boxes of Starbucks coffee left over so Amy suggested we hand it out to people. So, at 9:30 at night the five of us hopped in the truck and headed downtown.

We pulled off the motorway and immediately saw the lines of shopping carts, sleeping bags and people settling down for the night. We pulled over on a side street and Emma, our 9 year old and me got out with coffee and cookies. I was amazed at my little girl. She wasn’t nervous, scared or even hesitant. She just grabbed the chocolate chip cookies and walked beside me as we headed over to hand out goodies. The first man that we saw gladly took some coffee and Emma gave him a cookie, it was rad.

We stopped by 15 or so more people, all of them were fully grateful to get a hot cup of coffee and a cookie, or 5 cookies in one girls case. Emma was right in there, saying your welcome when they said thanks and offering more cookies when they asked.

We passed by this one man who looked a bit like a rough Santa Clause. He was coughing and seemed like he was in bad shape, so we offered him some coffee. On our way back to the truck Emma was talking about him, and was concerned that he may be sick. We crossed back over to his side of the street and asked him if he was OK. He told us that he was, he just had a bit of a cough. We asked him if there was anything we could pray for him about, he said no and so we left him and headed for the truck.

Even on the way home Emma was talking about this man. She said “daddy, i am really glad that he is ok, I don’t want him to be sick.” Then we prayed for the Santa looking man and continued driving home. I am so thankful for the time we had last night. Thankful that as a family we had the time together and really proud of my Emma for being bold and for loving those that our society deems unlovable.

Re-entry from Cambodia

wade — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:57:13 +0000

We have been back for about a week and it has taken me this long to begin processing all that happened on my trip to Cambodia. I am sure it is cliché to say that this trip changed me but it surely did. I am a certainly a confirmed advocate for short-term mission trips after my experience, but honestly, me being changed is just the beginning. Just like the dust kicked up into the air from what seemed like hundreds of motos and Tuk-Tuks racing through the streets of Phnom Penh, I feel like the dust in me has been shaken and still has not settled. I carried several things home with me, including some faces, experiences, ideas, and lingering questions about God’s plan for my life.

click here to read the rest of Jenna Wilson’s blog

Cambodian youth by Gabrielle Crisafi

Saying Goodbye to E.P.S.

wade — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 08:48:54 +0000

Go E.P.S! E.P.S. is what the children from Eratap, Vanuatu, call their primary school for short. You can always tell the impact a team has on a community by the farewell they receive. Farewells in the Pacific Islands are often bid with tears, stories with laughter and a big feast at the end. One recent team were gifted a live pig that happened to get bludgeoned to death right before we took it home!

Although goodbyes are often sad, it seems to be a good way to judge the friendships made. The disciples seemed to be a bit despondent when Jesus left them. There is the obvious hole left in the group where their leader should have been, but there would have also been heavy hearts – Jesus after all was a friend they had journeyed with for a couple of years. Our friend (and design guru) Dave Laird likes to preach on how the disciples would have known what Jesus farts smelt like… I’m not so sure myself though. The sadness didn’t last too long for the disciples, read Acts 1, to see how Jesus came through for them.

After spending two weeks in a foreign culture saying good bye means different things to different people. For some it’s a bye to crazy people, for others it’s a goodbye to friends, yet to others it is good bye to something deeper – and that’s from the local’s perspective! We should always seek to leave something lasting behind on our outreaches, after all that’s why we go right?!

Check out this short video clip of the Eratap farewell that the Anchor youth received last year.