Over the years it’s been our privilege to
train and disciple many wonderful and talented young people for
short-term missions. And it’s been more than worth all the
challenges of ministry to see many of them plan to serve in
career missions/ministry. In recent years, however, we have
observed a decline in workers for the harvest, in spite of the
fact that these young people have a deep commitment to the Lord
and feel called to serve. Our studies in the Missionary
Development Program include a book,
Scaling the Wall,
which takes a serious look at the obstacles young adults face as
they prayerfully consider stepping out in faith to serve the
Lord. The obstacle that, in our experience, has been most
evident is FEAR: fear of unsanitary conditions, AIDS, weird
food, strange places, missing the usual comforts, missing
relationships with family and friends, rejection, loneliness,
singleness, etc. Fear is a natural reaction, it helps keep us
safe, but fear can also keep us from doing things we should do,
what God has called us all to do…to reach this world with the
gospel. We need His wisdom and guidance to discern when He is
asking us to trust Him and act in spite of our fears. When we
obey Him, He promises, "For I am the Lord your God, Who upholds
your right hand, Who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help
you'" (Isaiah 41:13) And this is what a life of faith is all
about…trusting God to do His part (meeting our needs) as we do
our part (take Jesus to the world).
International
Outreach
The summer of 2007 saw a
small but eclectic group gather at Priority 1’s Training Camp to
prepare for their travel to and ministry in the nation of
Romania.
They came from as far away as Washington
State
and as near as Chambersburg and
Juniata
County,
some on airplanes, some driven by their parents.
We, Greg and Bethany, welcomed them
excitedly – though somewhat nervously, as this would be the
first Training Camp of which we were fully in charge.
Thank you all for your prayers!
Despite the small numbers and single
team, we ran Training as we would if we had had four full teams
of twelve: calisthenics at 6:00 a.m., all manner of sessions and
workshops during the days, a Bible Club practicum, and evening
worship rallies with four different main speakers.
Session topics included evangelism,
prayer, spiritual warfare, and intercultural communication, as
well as other subjects like leading Bible clubs, craft
instruction, and even a balloon animal lesson.
Training Camp is the foundation of
Priority 1’s international outreach; we believe in thorough
preparation for serving in the mission field, for too many
people – teens and adults alike – go on a short-term trip simply
because they want to and can.
Desire and opportunity aren’t
enough, we believe, and we make sure our teams are as equipped
as we can make them before they go.
Despite
some luggage troubles leaving Dulles, and Melissa, the team
leader spraining her ankle during Training Camp and having to
hobble about on crutches, the team traveled and arrived safely
in Suceava,
Romania.
The Bible clubs in Suceava during
the team’s first week were very well attended: around 75 kids
each of the first three days and 95 on the final day.
The missionary hosts, Gabi and
Mihaela Visan, proved invaluable guides, serving as translators,
cultural informants, and excellent leaders and examples.
The energetic kids responded so well
to the Clubs that, when an invitation to accept Jesus was given
on the final day of Clubs, not a single one left the area: they
all wanted to hear more.
Now, we are under no delusions that
every single child in attendance gave his or her life to Jesus
that day, but every one of them did hear a clear presentation of
the gospel, and the team could identify –despite barriers of
language and the large number of kids – that six to eight of
them had become aware of their sin and felt conviction for it.
That could only be the Holy Spirit.
During the
second week in Romania,
the team had the privilege of taking a smaller group of kids –
around 25, plus some young Romanian teens who helped translate –
to a campground in the mountains.
They spent literally 24 hours a day
with these kids, supervising them in their cabins (a particular
challenge for the two males on the team, given charge of 12
rambunctious boys), presenting Bible Clubs to them during the
morning, corralling them for meals, and playing all manner of
games with them for the rest of the day.
Each team member came back glowing
about the particular kids they had especially gotten to know –
they treasured the chance to spend significant time with the
kids, a chance they didn’t really have during their first week
in Suceava.
The entire team, though,
particularly savored the opportunity they had at the end of the
second week to accompany the kids to their homes, where they
could see their homes and meet their families.
The kids, the team reported, were
wonderfully happy to see their families and vice versa,
reassuring the team that the love they had developed for the
kids during the past week paled in comparison to that which they
experienced at home.
Best of all, about eight of the
kids, during their time at the campground with the Priority 1
team, decided to give their young lives to Jesus.
That’s roughly a third of the kids
in attendance, and a wonderful work of God.
Amen!
Below are some of
the responses the team had to their experience:
·
“God taught
me a lot about myself.
My eyes were really opened to a lot
of nicks and scratches that needed to be fixed up.
I learned that I have some
priorities that are out of line and that I need to give every
single situation over to God.”
·
“There are
only missionaries and people who need to hear.
If you know Jesus you need to tell
others about Him.”
·
“I
complained about no hot water [at the campground] because the
kids used it up – [I] realized that these kids didn’t even have
running water [and I] felt very selfish and ungrateful.”
·
[The most
significant lesson God taught me was] “just how to have faith,
and most importantly, the power of prayer; how much prayer
really does make a difference and how necessary it is.”
Preparations
are well underway for Summer 08 trips.
We begin speaking to youth groups
this month in hopes of finding those teens (and adults) who feel
God’s call to missions.
Lord willing, we will have enough
people to fill all four of the trips we are offering.
So if you know of anyone who is
interested in serving in
Romania,
Honduras,
Dominican Republic,
or the Bahamas,
tell them to look us up on the web:
www.priority1ministries.org
Thanks again for your prayers and
support.
Blessings
Greg, Bethany and Ginny Glidden
Urban Outreach
The Priority 1 Urban
Outreach teams had an excellent summer!
We had nine churches come up to the
Urban
Discipleship
Center
in the Bronx,
NYC for five days of outreach.
Participating churches were:
Community of Faith BIC (Roanoke,
VA),
Pequea BIC, Cross Roads BIC (Mt.
Joy), Carlisle BIC, Air Hill BIC (Chambersburg), Grantham BIC,
Silverdale BIC, 1st
United Methodist Church (Greencastle), and Community Church
(Orange, TX).
Our three summer interns were Liz
Daugherty, Sabrina Harbaugh, and Karen Wilson.
During the morning and early
afternoon the teams worked at soup kitchens, helped out at the
World Vision Storehouse, and participated in a prayer walk.
Some of the leaders and older team
members had the opportunity to serve breakfast at Fellowship
Chapel (our BIC church in the
Bronx).
They serve breakfast to
disadvantaged people in the neighborhood, most of whom are HIV
positive.
In the afternoon the teams helped
the interns at Bible club.
We did four clubs at parks in the
Bronx, one at a park in Brooklyn, and one at a playground in
Queens.
The Urban Outreach teams ministered
to 400 kids this summer with 43 who accepted Jesus as their
savior!
God is at work in New York City!
It was very encouraging to watch
young people using their unique gifts to bring children into
God’s kingdom.
Blessings,
Erin Wolf
Urban
Discipleship Center (UDC)
The Lord has brought 3 exceptional interns to serve and be
mentored this fall (Sept. through Dec.) at UDC!! The intern team
includes Jessica Mayo (Yakima,
WA), Ben Sholly (Lititz,
PA), and Andrew Bresch (Elizabethtown BIC), and they
are having a tremendous impact at three different inner-city
ministries, here in the Bronx.
They serve with Fellowship Chapel (our Bronx BIC Church) assisting with the Breakfast
Ministry; at Love Gospel Assembly in the “love kitchen” which
serves between 200-300 people every day, and in continuing the
after-school program for neighborhood children; and, once a
week, they volunteer at the World Vision “Storehouse.” These
enthusiastic young adults are building positive relationships
everywhere they go, especially with the leadership, and the
lives of many inner-city people (both adults and children) have
been blessed by their service. The folks at Love Gospel are
threatening to kidnap them so
they
won’t return home at the conclusion of their internship. In
addition, we are working through several ‘home group’ studies –
“Ministering Cross-Culturally,” “Celebration of Discipline,”
“Victory Over the Darkness,” “Search for Significance,” and
“Experiencing God.” One evening a week we are being tutored in
conversational Spanish by a good friend from Fellowship Chapel,
Dorine Hyman-Clark. It’s been a real blessing to work with these
young adults (and a lot of fun, too) as we study, pray, grow,
and learn together about the Lord and inner-city ministry. There
have been plenty of challenges but in all things we’ve found the
Lord faithful to be our Teacher and Guide and we’re looking for
Him to do even greater things as we continue the internship.
In December, the intern team (along with Steve) will be a
part of the BICWM Lights of London Outreach team. Also, five
groups are scheduled for Urban Encounters, coming from Messiah College
and four BIC Churches. We’re excited about all that’s
happening this fall at UDC.
We praise the Lord that although we are still
unable to use the fourth floor bathroom, we are able to use the
facilities on the other three floors. We’ve decided to go ahead
and completely remodel the fourth floor bathroom instead of
trying to make do without it, as it is much-needed for groups
(especially for the summer weeks of Urban Outreach teams). Pray
with us for the Lord to bring several work teams willing to give
to enable UDC to continue growing and developing greater
opportunities for youth and adults to be involved with urban
ministry. If you sense the Lord leading you to give or put a
team together to help with this project please contact us at:
udc@qis.net.
Blessings,
Steve & Bonnie Westberry
Prayer Team praise and prayer requests are on the
Prayer Request Page. Check
it out and join the Prayer Team.
Support and personal
update:
We know how important it is for us to keep in communication with all of you and apologize that this newsletter is so overdue. And often when communication falls behind, response to support can, too, and has. We are so thankful for each of you who have given so sacrificially and are praying the Lord will raise up additional supporters to help cover the deficit of the past couple months (giving has fallen behind by about $800 per month). But, as always, your prayers continue to be the most important thing you can do for us and it is deeply appreciated. We thank the Lord for bringing faithful friends, like you, alongside us and the ministries we serve. As the Lord leads you to give, donations can be sent payable to:
Priority One Ministries. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt. We pray for each of you friends in ministry that the Lord will pour out to you such blessings that you are unable to contain them all!! (Malachi 3:10)
Find out more
about supporting this ministry on the
Priority 1 Partners
Page.
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Priority 1 sending Team to Abaco International Gospel Mission(Bahamas)
