2011 Short Term Mission Trip Opportunities

Come join us for the adventure of a life time. You may have an opportunity to :

1.     Teach, witness, and share house to house in the villages in groups.  Translators are with us and  the people are very welcoming. It is a safe environment.
2.       Visit the medical clinic, birthing center, and isolation hospital
3.       Teach and share in the villages
4.      Read and teach bible stories and songs to children
5.      Visit Schools
6.      Teach in Christian elementary or secondary school

Haiti

February 23-27                  Visit Schools in the Port a Prince area

March 5 – 12, Northern districts of Haiti    We plan to visit schools in Arcahaie, Gonaives and the Central Plateau.

March 19 – 26, Southern districts of Haiti    We will definitely be going to the Jacmel district and then to either Les Cayes or Jeremie 

March 5 – 12, Northern districts of Haiti, led by John Hall. We plan to visit schools in Arcahaie, Gonaives and the Central Plateau

Peru

May 7th to 15th 2011 - PERU - "English/Read" 7 missionaries from USA to Manchay, Peru to teach English and to set up a church library. 5 of the team are ready to go. Passion Peru

July 30th to August 7th - PERU - "Jungle Mission Peru" 5 youth from USA join 10 youth from Manchay, Peru and do a mission trip to the jungle of Peru. This will be exciting mission work for teenagers. Passion Peru

Fall 2011   (exact date to be determined)- PERU - "Come to the Corner" 7 missionaries from USA to work with 7 missionaries in Lima, Peru to go to Manchay, Peru and help them bring people into their new church. Passion Peru

Tanzania

May 21-June 3  (the exact dates to be determined)  group of 6-11 missionaries/teachers from the Mid-South District will visit  the Negezi district and the Mawudi school to outreach to the villages in the area.  We will work with pastors and evangelist from the East of Lake Victoria Diocese (ELVD)

Mid June   Group will be visiting the Mwanza are with an intitial focus of repairing the home of “Mama Bomini”  wife of deceased Bishop Bomani .  Group also plants to outreach into the villages with  Pastors from the ELVD.

Vietnam

A group from Northwest Arkansas will be leaving in Feb to tour the country and minister

If you are interested in any of these opportunities contact the following for more information.

Bob Allen                                             or                                                                            Peggy Krohn

Mission Coordinator

Mid-South District LCMS                                                                                               Mid-South District Office

615-672-0923                                                                                                                     901-373-1343

rjallen@prodigy.net                                                                                                       peggy@mid-southlcms.com

www.lcmsmidsouthdistrictmissions.blogspot.com

Sudan: Hands of Mercy...two cultures one God

 The hot equatorial sun was beating down on the both of us. It was nearly noon time, and I could hear the cook, 20 paces away, clinking cups and bowls and silverware together preparing for the midday meal. I was sitting in the dirt with Lazarus. The meal that day, as it was every day, was what the Zande people of South Sudan call, “bakinda.” Translated simply, it means food.   

Lazarus and I were working on a project for Hands of Mercy, the training center for people with disabilities with which I was working. Lazarus is blind and a paraplegic from youth due to a past polio outbreak.  I had brought over some vegetable seeds from America with the idea to introduce some variety into their food supply. Lazarus was helping me plant cantaloupe, egg plant and sunflowers into peat pots, which I also brought over from the states. Neither of us said much to each other. How could we? He could not speak English and I could not speak Zande. So, our time together was spent mostly in silence, quietly passing dirt and seeds and water when we gestured the need. 

I remember the look of his worn hands, delicately pressing the small seeds into the soil. I remember the contrast of my white, western skin to his black, African skin; two cultures vastly different and two lives so completely separate. But there we were. I think it was in this moment that I understood with greater clarity the Psalm verse, “Be still and know that I am God.”  

 The still quiet with Lazarus in Yambio, South Sudan was a far cry from my hectic life back at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. Not a single word was spoken between us, but I feel more was said than a thousand words could have told. In the Lutheran church we speak of a ministry of “presence.” The same way that Christ came to us with his presence hidden in human from, I believe He comes to us still, hidden in the brokenness of humanity. 

Sitting there with Lazarus, his clouded eyes and withered legs, I must have been sitting with Jesus. He is a poor man with hardly a place to lay his head at night, but still he smiles, still he serves, still He says to me, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Yes, it must have been the presence of Christ dwelling richly in Lazarus that showed me how to be still. Because in the stillness, God speaks.