Blankets for Malawi

In 2006, Dave and Brenda Tady were on a Global Adventures Team in Malawi. Along with a local Christian leader they visited a Village Chief living on the outskirts of the capital city of Lilongwe. They asked the chief "If you could have anything, what would you wish for"? His response was simple "blankets for my people".

In his village, most of the homes have dirt floors and no beds. People sleep on the floor on a woven mat. In the dry season, the temperatures drop down into the 30's and the villagers have no blankets to stay warm. His simple wish was to provide blankets for the homes in his village. We want to make his dream come true!

Our goal is to provide 2,000 blanket/towel combinations at $10 per set, to be delivered to the village during the May Global Adventure to Malawi. The blankets will provide comfort and warmth for villagers during the cold, winter nights. The towels will be used by children to get a shower in the community center we are building.

How You Can Help

• You can write a check to Word of Grace and put Blankets for Malawi in the memo line.
• You can use your credit card to make a donation by clicking on the icon below.

• You can also help by passing this information on to your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers, and encouraging them to contribute as well.

By giving via check or credit card, you will receive a tax-deductible receipt from Word of Grace at the end of the year.

For more information, contact Raelyn and Brent Stockwell by email at : blankets4malawi@cox.net.

Hugo and Miriam Gomez in Guatemala

Dr. Hugo and Miriam Gomez are the Central American Regional Coordinators for Medical Ambassadors International (soon to become LifeWind International). Hugo and Miriam have been working in Community Health Evangelism ministries in western Guatemala for more than 25 years.

Word of Grace's relationship with Dr. Hugo began in 2000 when we sent a short-term team to Guatemala. Since then more than 100 people from Word of Grace have been to Guatemala working alongside Hugo and his team.

Hugo and Miriam are now supported by Word of Grace as missionaries. In addition we are working together to build a center which will train Latin Americans as Community Health Evangelism workers for ministry around the world.

Hugo and Miriam have been involved in a number of areas of ministry.

• Hosting short-term teams from across Canada and the United States.
• Training participants from Medical Mission Ministries, Food for the Hungry, and other organizations and governmental agencies in Community Health Evangelism practices in Guatemala City.
• Working with the Governor of the Quetzaltenango District in Guatemala in training their staff for disaster relief and building community councils.
• Starting the work of Community Health Evangelism in Panama and Belize.
• Traveling across Latin America conducting training for Community Health Evangelism workers.
  
• Exploring locations for the development of the CHE training center in Guatemala.
  

Hugo and Miriam will be at Word of Grace during our Heart for the World focus. There will be numerous opportunities for your to meet Hugo and Miriam and hear of what God is doing in and through them. Plan to be part of the events and be prepared to be challenged and blessed.

2007 Global Adventures

In 2007 Word of Grace Lightning Trips and Global Adventures will go to:

• Thailand
• Malawi
• Nicaragua
• Guatemala
• Indonesia
• Turkey
• Mexico
  

If you would like more information on any of the upcoming Global Adventures and Lightning Trips join us on Sunday, January 14 at one of our two information meetings.

January 14 Luncheon
1:00 – 2:15 pm
Room 401-403

January 14 Dessert
8:00 pm (after the Gathering)
Family Life Center (FLC)

Each of these meetings will give you the opportunity to meet team leaders, ask questions and help you discover ways in which you can make a difference in the world.

Global Adventure to Malawi and South Africa

On October 27 a team of six people from Word of Grace began a 16 day Global Adventure to Malawi and South Africa. Our team went with a sense that God had some very specific tasks for us to do and goals to accomplish.

After two days of living on airplanes and in airports we arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi and were greeted by Word of Grace supported missionaries Steve and Cathy Bowler of VisionLedd. Once we had settled into our accommodations, Theresa Malila (another Word of Grace missionary) and some of the leadership of Somebody Cares/Hands@Work joined us to plan out our ministry time.

As we look back on our week in Malawi we clearly sensed God at work in every aspect of ministry.

This was Jack Tesch's second time in Malawi training pastors and church leaders. This time he spent 3 full days with 85 pastors and their wives. Many of these pastors come from villages surrounding the city of Lilongwe. Village pastors are often so poor they do not own Bibles, and many of them are not able to read or write. But they have a heart for ministry and for seeing not only their church grow, but their communities transformed by the power of God. Jack Tesch spent 3 long days with these leaders sharing from God's Word about marriage, leadership, relationships and numerous other topics. Jack has much to share, not only from the Scriptures but also from his is heart, life and experience. It was a powerful and effective time of ministry.

While Jack spent time with the pastors and their wives Lisa, Rebecca, Ruth and Peggy focused on the 70+ Home-Based Care workers that work with Somebody Cares. Lisa and Rebecaa, both nurses, trained these volunteers about in basic patient care and HIV prevention. We were also able to purchase care kits for these workers and provide much needed medical supplies. Home-Based Care workers are volunteers who visit the elderly, sick, dying and child-led households in their communities. They are often the last person someone dying of AIDS has contact with, or the first person to see a child who has lost their parents, or who has been sexually assaulted. Home-Based Care workers are the backbone of HIV/AIDS ministry in the community, and the training that our two nurses were able to provide was invaluable.

Our Team with Some of the Home-Based Care Workers

As part of the time our team spent with the Home-Based Care workers, Ruth and Peggy led an effort to profile 77 of these workers for adoption by Life Groups, families or individuals who want to pray for and support the work these people do in Malawi. Hearing the stories of each worker, understanding their dreams and seeing their heart for the Lord was simply remarkable. Watch this blog, the Word of Grace bulletin and the website about ways you can be involved in this program in 2007.

Peggy Profiling One of the Home-Based Care Workers

While the rest of the team was working with pastors and Home-Based Care workers Karl was spending a significant amount of time with Steve Bowler of VisionLedd and Theresa Malila of Somebody Cares/Hands@Work. It was a fruitful time of strategic planning for the next 2 years of ministry together, meeting with local pastors and spending time with business men and women from Canada and South Africa. One of the meetings resulted in a Canadian businessman donating $180,000 towards the work of Somebody Cares! These much needed funds will enable the work to expand exponentially in the next 3 years.

One our last day of ministry in Malawi all of us visited Word of Grace's adopted community of Matanda. We are working here with the local church and with Somebody Cares/Hands@Work not only to provide fresh water (we drilled a well recently), but also to build a Community Child Care Center and School. This center will help care for the more than 300 orphans in the community as well as provide children with an education, grandmothers and mothers with job skills and a garden to help provide food. Matanda is a community with no electricity and no running water. Average income is less than $1 a day. The church in this community will be our partner in sharing God's love in word and deed.

Pastor Jonas and his wife lead the church in Matanda

As we left Malawi we had a real sense that God had been our guide, that we accomplished His purposes for this trip, and that the Holy Spirit is at work in Malawi. It is such a privilege for us as a church to be part of what God is doing in this nation.

We left Malawi in order to visit the international headquarters of Hands@Work and meet with their leadership. We also visited some of their projects that have been in operation for several years. Seeing what has happened through Community Centers and through the ministry of Hands@Work in HIV/AIDS affected communities was a tremendous encouragement. We are excited to be partnering with this South African organization in Malawi and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Hands@Work is currently taking care of 10,000 orphans and vulnerable children in 7 nations. By the year 2010, that number will have grown to 100,000! It is clear that God has led us to the right ministry partners in Africa.

Thank you so much for praying for us and supporting us.

Global Adventure to Guatemala

On August 16, eight people, including 7 senior citizens traveled to Guatemala for 10 days of vision and missions in this beautiful Central American nation. During their time in Guatemala the team had a wonderful opportunity to see and understand the challenges of cross-cultural ministry.

Each day the team heard from veteran missionaries and ministered in a variety of settings -- worshiping in Guatemalan churches, working with children, ministering in prisons, and experiencing first-hand some of what God is doing.

People looking for food and valuables on the dump in Guatemala City

The hosts for this adventure were longtime missionaries to Guatemala, Bob and Ann Henrique. Dave and Gene Zimmerman, who were the primary visionaries for this trip, and who themselves are longtime short-term missionaries to Guatemala (at least 8 trips in the last 10 years) summarized their experiences as follows:

We met Guatemalan Christians whose ministry is really blessed of the Lord. Their spirits are so sweet even though they have almost nothing materially. We also were able to see the evil effects of animism and of demon worship. Our eyes hardly ever saw a “picture” that wasn’t a mixture of poverty and hardship framed against a backdrop of God’s marvelous scenic beauty.

Some of the children from the dump who are being cared for by a Guatemalan ministry.

This trip had a tremendous effect on every team member. Seeing the needs and opportunities first-hand gave everyone a new understanding of how to pray for and support missionaries. it also gave team members a desire to get involved in ministry both locally and globally -- and share God's heart for the world with all they come into contact with.

Dave and Gene Zimmerman
Global Adventure Team Leaders

Global Adventure to Nicaragua

On June 14, 2006, a Global Adventure team of 9 people left for the Nicaraguan community of Puerto Cabezas. Located on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, this town of 30,000 people has a tropical climate and culture. God provided numerous opportunities for our team to share His love with the people of Nicaragua, and lives were eternally touched through this outreach.

The trip to Puerta Cabezas took two days. Arriving in the capital city of Managua we were greeted by Patrick Tinkam, our host from Partners in Christ International. The next morning we boarded a small, twin-engine plane for the 90 minute flight to the east coast of the country. If you have never traveled on a small 30-seater commuter prop plane, let me be the first to tell you that it is a unique experience all its own! Praise the Lord, we all made the trip unscathed, but I think every member of our team was some varied shade of green by the time we landed in Puerto Cabezas. This town of around 30,000 has a very tropical feel to it. It is very green, warm, and extremely humid. It has a very Caribbean feel to it, and the culture, called Mizkito, has a Creole flavor. Immediately after arriving and meeting our local host, Pastor Earl, we took a tour of the town and began to lay plans for our ministry time there.

The town of Puerta Cabezas from the Air.

The Lord provided so many open doors to share, even beyond what we had expected prior to the trip. Our construction team labored long and hard, installing walls, windows, and doing various other repair projects in the orphanage that is run by our host church in Puerto Cabezas. This hard working group of men were the first ones out every morning, and the last ones in every night. The added rooms and ventilation windows that they installed were a huge blessing to the children at the orphanage.

The Finished Work of our Construction Team

While the construction team hammered away relentlessly, our evangelism team had plenty to keep them busy. We were able to openly minister the Gospel on several occasions in two public schools. We shared a Gospel message, had prayer for salvation and other needs, and had fun doing craft work with a total of around 600 children. In addition, we had the opportunity to minister in the local jail, which was not only a life-changing experience for the prisoners, but for our team as well. We shared messages and testimonies, and had many opportunities to pray for salvation, rededication, healing, and encouragement with the prisoners. In addition, we had plenty of opportunity to minister to the children in the orphanage. We built relationships, shared testimonies, did crafts, went to the beach, and conducted evangelistic park ministry with the kids there.

Boys listening to our team share the Gospel.

God blessed this outreach. Dozens of people made commitments to Christ and we were able to greatly encourage many of the believers in the town of Puerto Cabezas. But as much as God transformed the lives of the people we ministered to during our time there, each of our team members had life-changing experiences as well. Several plan to be part of future teams, and I know all of us left a piece for our heart with our brothers and sisters in Nicaragua.

John Rohde
Nicaragua Team Leader

Global Outreach Events in September 2006

September 5 - Leadership Trends in the Developing World
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Word of Grace -- Room 621

Join us as we have the opportunity to interact with Jane Overstreet, the CEO of Development Associates International (DAI). Jane is an attorney who, along with her family, ministered in Europe and the Middle East for many years. For the past 10 years she has worked with DAI as they train leaders in Asia, Africa and the Indian sub-continent. DAI is one of Word of Grace's key ministry partners. This will be a tremendous opportunity to hear what God is doing, ask questions, and interact with someone who has an understanding of what God is doing around the world.

September 6 -- East Valley Missions Consortium
7:00 - 8:30 am
Word of Grace -- Room 401

This month will feature Jane Overstreet of Development Associates International. Discover what God is doing in developing leaders throughout Africa, Asia and the Indian sub-continent.

September 13 -- Global Outreach Prayer Meeting
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Cry Room in the Word of Grace Worship Center

Join us as we pray for Word of Grace missionaries and projects around the world.

September 13-24 -- Global Adventure to Turkey
Pray for Andy Jackson, Anita Hensley and the Word of Grace team traveling to central and western Turkey for almost two weeks of ministry.

September 24 -- Global Adventure Luncheon
Sunday, September 24 -- 1:00 - 2:15 pm
Word of Grace -- Room 401

Join us for a great lunch and see and hear how God used Word of Grace Global Adventure teams in Thailand, Malawi, Romania, Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala this year. Learn about upcoming Lightning Trips and Global Adventure opportunites in the fall of 2006 and in 2007. For more information contact karlm@wordofgrace.org.

September 26 -- Indonesia Prayer Meeting
7:30pm

Join us as we pray for the nation of Indonesia and the church planting teams sponsored by Bethany Community Church and Word of Grace. For more information and location, contact kpribadi@cox.net.