A Yeshu Concert Celebration

Written by David Stetler, Bhutanese Outreach Director

A week ago Saturday the cross-cultural, western-eastern fusion rock band Aradhna led by the sitar-playing Chris Hale came to visit Kansas City and played a special concert at our end-of-year party to help us finish the year with a huge celebration.  

 The songs that Chris and the band performed for us were all sung in Nepali or Hindi which are both languages that our Bhutanese friends understand very well.  Nepali is their first language and Hindi is usually their second.  Aradhna has a four man band playing the sitar, the bass, the guitar and a really cool hand drum called the tabla.  They sing songs called Yeshu Bhajans which are Jesus worship songs and are all about Jesus, who he is, and what he has done for us.

We gave out awards to our program participants and our faithful volunteers during dinner and celebrated the year together.  We also had a wonderful time singing and dancing to the Yeshu Bhajans celebrating Prameshwar Yeshu, Jesus as Lord, and all that he brings us.  It's amazing how much the joy of music brings when we can sing about Jesus and the peace and joy that he brings us.  

During the Aradhna concert intermission my good friend Janga played a few songs in Nepali about Yeshu (Jesus) that he has recently written.  The first song was about why Jesus came to the earth and the other was a beautiful song to the tune of The Benediction. Janga has been leading worship for our Teens Club, Leaders in Training and our house church for several months.  We love watching him grow as a leader and as a musician and it was great to be present while he shared some of his new songs with the broader Bhutanese community.  

All in all, it was a great night of incredible music, wonderful food and amazing friends as we reflected on a remarkable year.  And at the same time, just down the street, our Latino friends were having a huge party celebrating too.  We are looking forward to celebrating together the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve!

In other news:

• Jason Schoff taught an adult ESL class at a local public school this fall that included one Bhurmese student.  She was the only Bhurmese amidst Latinos.  We were excited to have this opportunity with a new immigrant group.

Prayer needs:

• Praise God with us! The first of the teens in our community brought to the States as a child that applied for the right to work through the federal Deferred Action program introduced last summer has received his documents, and the chance for a better future.
• Please pray for the continuing development of the leaders of our house churches--Bhutanese and Latino--as we continue to spend time intentionally discipling them.
• Please pray that the Mission Adelante staff would enjoy a restful break and return in January ready to jump back into ministry.
• Pray for our tri-cultural (Bhutanese, Latino, and North American) Christmas Eve service to minister to all present.

Current needs:

• Volunteers to join us in all our outreach programs for our next trimester, mid-January to mid-April.  Check out www.missionadelante.org/volunteer to see all our volunteer opportunities!

• GPS units for our Transportation Team. If you are able to provide one, please contact Drew Hammond at drewh@missionadelante.org
• Mattresses for newly arrived Bhutanese refugee families. If you are able to provide one please contact Drew Hammond at drewh@missionadelante.org.

• Volunteers to help sort clothes the resource center. If you are interested in helping, please contact Molly Merrick at mollym@missionadelante.org to arrange a time to come up.
• A Conference Table: 6’ long, dark brown, and in good condition. Please contact Morgan Ham at morganh@missionadelante.org if you can point us towards one.
• The Bhutanese and Latino LIT programs need a small group (or groups) to purchase pre-packaged, healthy, after-school snacks for the kids.  We would be blessed to receive a couple months worth of snacks.  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Fifteen to twenty 8 GB flash drives for the Latino LIT students to use, preferably with a ring or another way to attach them to lanyards. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Christmas Eve Service: Monday, December 24 @ 6:00 at Mission Adelante. This will be our first combined worship service with both our Latino and Bhutanese communities!  Multi-ethnic refreshments will follow.
• The Mission Adelante office will be closed for Christmas December 25-January 1.

Mission Adelante Year-End Giving Opportunities: A Record Year!

A Record Year and New Opportunities!

Three cultures, one community, a big celebration!

It's been a record year at Mission Adelante and the timing couldn't be any better!  As we bring 2012 to a close, we're both praising God for His beautiful work among us, as well as praying for the strongest year-end we've ever had financially.  Will you be a part of it with us?  The fruit of seven years of serving in our neighborhood has translated into some exciting opportunities for 2013 that we're praying will impact our community in new ways for years to come.  We invite every one of you to partner with us in whatever way you can as we press into these new challenges and opportunities!  Give online and then share our online giving page with your friends.  It's easy!

Coming soon in 2013...

• Adelante Thrift: A neighborhood-based Thrift store that will provide jobs and a produce sustainable income to help fund other Community Development initiatives.
• Summer Internship:  A ministry internship for emerging leaders among Latino Teens from our neighborhood.
• Foundations for a Medical Clinic: In 2013 we will be conducting focus groups in our community and forming a Board of Directors and a business plan for a Family Practice clinic in our neighborhood, which we hope to open in 2014.
• Multi-cultural Worship: On Christmas eve we will hold our first ever multi-cultural worship service in Spanish, English and Nepali.   In 2013 we plan to experiment with more ideas to foster multi-cultural interactions and worship.
• Disciple-Making: The core of our mission and purpose will always be reproducing disciples of Jesus who can also make disciples.

Year-End Giving

This is a very exciting time to invest in what God is doing through Mission Adelante.  As we prepare for these new opportunities and pray for our strongest financial year-end ever, we want to invite you to give, and give generously to be a part of changing individual lives and an entire community.  Our year-end giving goal is $65,000.  This goal includes $21,000 we need to raise to receive a "last in" grant to hire a Community Development Director!  Here are a two ideas to help us get there!

• Give online and pass it on (click here)!   We have a new online giving page that integrates our new video to share our story and makes online giving really easy.   Spread the word by sharing our giving page on facebook!

• Give Stock (click here to learn more):  When you give appreciated assets, your giving capacity goes further and your tax advantage could be greater.  Mission Adelante partners closely with the National Christian Foundation to help donors establish "donor advised funds", an effective and tax-efficient vehicle for giving.  With a donor advised fund you can give appreciated assets, such as stock, avoiding capital gains taxes.  While no one knows how congress will resolve the "fiscal cliff", there has been talk of placing new limits on itemized deductions, which would impact deductions for charitable giving in future years.  The president of the National Christian Foundation, Aimee Minnich, has given me permission to distribute her mobile phone number, (816) 853-4469, for anyone who would like to discuss giving stock or other assets through a donor advised fund.

An Insider's Perspective

Written by Sarah Winston, Operations Director

As I wandered through Mission Adelante’s neighborhood for the staff open houses a few weekends ago, I was struck by what a difference a year can make.  

I was a new addition to the staff at open house time last year, and it was the first event I attended in the neighborhood. Unlike most of the staff, who volunteered before coming on board, I came to Mission Adelante with very little cross-cultural experience and no friends within the community, save for the Meek family.  I was vaguely uneasy walking down unfamiliar streets, searching for the homes of people I saw at work but had no real relationships with and whose families I had not met.  As a lifelong suburbanite--who had always lived, worked and played with people very much like me--I didn’t know what to expect.  Is the neighborhood safe? (yes) What if I sit next to someone who doesn’t speak English?  I’m not skilled at small talk in my own language; What will someone from a different culture think of me for nodding and smiling awkwardly at them when I can’t understand them? The community is already so close-knit.  Do they even want me around? In short, last year I felt like an outsider.

While the event itself changed very little from last year to this, my place in the community had.  I confidently navigated the streets to the homes of friends.  I greeted their spouses and children by name, and nibbled on food that is becoming less foreign to my taste buds. Although I am still not good with small talk, the self consciousness of the previous year had been replaced with the ease of knowing that I belong.

If tiptoeing outside the comfort of my own context was enough to make me feel uncomfortable, how much more courage does it take for our immigrant friends and neighbors to take a giant leap out of their contexts to be here?  Have they found us welcoming? It is our prayer that God will use our community to make “outsiders” feel like “insiders”--not just cultural insiders, but Kingdom insiders that will  impact our neighborhood, our community, our world.

In other news:

• Drew Hammond, Bhutanese outreach intern, has recently moved in with a Bhutanese family in the neighborhood to live incarnationally among them.
• The overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge for the LIT kids last weekend was a success, and the kids had a blast enjoying the fruit that comes from working hard!
• The band Aradhna is coming to perform for the Bhutanese Outreach Party this Saturday. www.aradhnamusic.com. "Aradhna" is a spiritually charged Hindi term that means, "adoration." The band makes music that is centered around spiritual enlightenment and transformation while keeping ethnic integrity intact.
• Janoy from our Latino Church preached to our congregation on Sunday for the first time and did a really great job.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for growth and commitment in the leaders of the Bhutanese House Church as they continue to learn how to follow Jesus and lead others to do the same.
• Please pray for the Bhutanese as they hear Aradhna’s songs this weekend at our Outreach Party.
• Each Tuesday night at Bhutanese Teens Club we have been learning different Bible stories beginning with Adam and Eve and working our way towards Christ. Please pray that over Christmas break these stories would work their way deep into the hearts and minds of the teens.
• Pray for the Lord to provide opportunity for growth in the relationships between mentors and kids during the trimester break from programming in the form of relational time spent together.
• Pray for Latino parents who are struggling to find work and are worried about providing gifts for their kids this Christmas.

Other needs:

• A Conference Table: 6’ long, dark brown, and in good condition. Please contact Morgan Ham at morganh@missionadelante.org if you can point us towards one.
• The Bhutanese and Latino LIT programs need a small group (or groups) to purchase pre-packaged, healthy, after-school snacks for the kids.  We would be blessed to receive a couple months worth of snacks.  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Fifteen or twenty 8 GB flash drives for the Latino LIT students to use, preferably with a ring or another way to attach them to lanyards. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Upcoming dates:

• Latino Christmas Party: Saturday, December 8 @ 5:00  Bethany Community Center, 1120 Central Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66102
• Bhutanese Christmas Party: Saturday, December 8 @ 5:00  First Baptist Church of Kansas City, 2900 Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66102
• Christmas Eve Service: Monday, December 24 @ 6:00 at Mission Adelante. This will be our first combined worship service with both our Latino and Bhutanese communities!  Multi-ethnic refreshments will follow.
• The Mission Adelante office will be closed for Christmas December 25-January 1.