Celebrating Diversity

Written by David Stetler, Bhutanese Outreach Director

Kansas City is a amazing place filled with wonderful sights to see, fun things to do and a rich history that make it what it is today.  We believe one of its most increasingly attractive characteristics is its people.  Our city has a growing population of immigrants who come with so much to offer and so many dreams.  Our friends from other places come here with a desire to start a new life.  Many have faced a struggle or hardship--sometimes even oppression--in their homeland and have come here to escape those challenges.  

You don't have to look very far to see the beautiful diversity in our city, whether in Mission Adelante's English classes, our after-school Leaders in Training programs for the kids, or our house churches that meet weekly.  The main road of our neighborhood is lined with numerous ethnic markets and restaurants owned by entrepreneurial-minded immigrants and refugees.  Right around the corner is the New Roots for Refugees garden where you might see farmers from several different countries growing and watering their crops.  Last week, five teams, each representing a different nation, competed in the Nations Cup KC soccer tournament.  At the end of each summer Mission Adelante hosts parties at Wyandotte County Lake Park where we get to experience a combination of Latino culture, American culture and Bhutanese-Nepali culture.

If you have ever watched the Olympics, I'm sure you remember the various nations that come together to compete in the games.  It's a huge celebration, not just of the games, but also of the beauty of cultures coming together.  We CELEBRATE that at Mission Adelante, as well.  We enjoy the foreshadowing of what it might be like some day when "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb."  What an amazing assembly that will be!

Prayer needs:

• Continue to pray for Representatives in Congress who are listening to evangelical interest in immigration reform.  Pray for them to pass legislation that will keep families together and provide ways to allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows.

Current needs:

• We're in the process of setting up a brand new library for the Leaders in Training (LIT) students, and hoping to have it finished by the first week of September. Do you know of someone that would be interested in helping to paint some bookshelves or maybe even buy some bean bags or decorations to make it cozy?  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Want to hang out with some fun kids and make a big impact? We are looking for volunteers for our Leadership development program and also for our Outreach Bible Study! Opportunities are available Monday-Thursday.  Please contact Megan if you are interested.  meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, September 21, 9:00-12:30 All volunteers should attend this training once at the beginning of serving with Mission Adelante. It's also a great way for someone to become familiar with Mission Adelante's ministry. If you or someone you know is interested in finding out more about what we do, and about our volunteer opportunities, please plan to attend/encourage him or her to attend this informative training. 
• All Volunteer Huddle & Dessert: Monday, September 23, 6:30 p.m. We encourage everyone that will be volunteering with us during our fall trimester to attend so we can prepare for a great launch. 
• Summer trimester programs launch: Week of September 23

"All Nations Soccer Tournament" Celebrates Diversity and Creates Unity

Written by Hannah Hume, Bhutanese Teens Club Coordinator

Here in Kansas City we love sports! Men and boys will sit in freezing cold weather or under blistering hot sunshine to watch a game with religious dedication. Women will slave over Rotel dip and chili to serve to the huddled masses of friends gathered together to scream at the television set in their living rooms. Sports create a sense of community, purpose, and good old fashioned fun for fans.

Last Saturday, long time Mission Adelante church partner Shoal Creek hosted the first annual “All Nations Soccer Tournament” for local teams in Kansas City, and the event was great! Five teams participated in the tournament, representing the countries of Peru, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, and Bhutan, and they hope to have even more teams participate next year!

Several of our staff members and volunteers went to the tournament to cheer for Bhutanese team, "KC Best", as many of the players are part of Mission Adelante's weekly Teens Club. It was fun to see the cultural diversity of our city represented by the various teams, and yet to also see the unity and community that can be formed in the midst of such diversity around a common passion like soccer.

In a city that is becoming increasingly diverse it could be easy to feel like we may not have anything in common with our neighbors. However, at Mission Adelante we love to embrace the differences that other cultures offer, believing they can broaden our own perspectives and enrich our city. It’s also good to be reminded that, at the end of the day, even those who may seem different than us are probably a lot more like us than we may initially think. The Asian man fixing your car is a father and worries about being a good dad too. The international student on your campus is just as excited as you are about the Black Friday sale on that computer. Across cultures, everyone loves to gather together, laugh, compete, and cheer for sports.

Praise God that He has made us all so wonderfully different and yet, in so many ways, to share the same needs, have similar likes, and most importantly, to be loved magnificently by our awesome God!  

In other news:

• A core group of our Teens will take a leadership development trip to Chicago during Labor Day weekend.  We are excited to see how the Lord unifies them and continues to equip these leaders from within our own community!
• Five immigrant leaders in the ministry of Mission Adelante have accepted an invitation to travel with four of our staff to the CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) National Conference in September. This will be a rich opportunity for their continued mobilization.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for vision and direction as we set out planning the Fall trimester programs, and LIT for the 2013-2014 school year.
• Pray for the Bhutanese ESL leadership team as we listen and plan what God has for the Fall trimester and following trimesters.  Pray for the conversations that we have with some of our students to bring direction and ownership of our classes among the Bhutanese community.
• The Adelante Thrift team has started working with a new agent to find a location for the store. Please pray that God would show us where He wants this effort in our community.
• Pray for members of our staff who will be meeting briefly with Congressman Yoder to share stories that illustrate why immigration reform is a necessary element for the transformation of our neighborhood.

Other needs:

• We're in the process of setting up a brand new library for the Leaders in Training (LIT) students, and hoping to have it finished by the first week of September. Do you know of someone that would be interested in helping to paint some bookshelves or maybe even buy some bean bags or decorations to make it cozy?  Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Volunteers are currently needed for both Bhutanese LIT which meets after-school, and Bhutanese Kids Club which meets on Tuesday nights.  If you are interested in learning more about partnering with us through volunteering contact Kristen Maxwell at Kristenm@missionadelante.org
• Want to hang out with some fun kids and make a big impact? We are looking for volunteers for our Leadership development program and also for our Outreach Bible Study! Opportunities are available Monday-Thursday.  Please contact Megan if you are interested.  meganm@missionadelante.org.

Generosity Rises to Meet our God-Sized Backpack Goal!

Written by Kristen Maxwell, Bhutanese Children's Ministry Director, and Megan McDermott, Latino Children's Ministry Director

One of the greatest blessings of doing what we do, is getting to watch the community of believers in Kansas City come together around a common cause.  This past week, we got to see that in a big way!  Around a month and a half ago, we set a God-sized goal of collecting 190 filled backpacks to outfit our kids and teens as they head back to school.  The Lord provided in a mighty way through twenty-five different individuals, families, and churches from all over the Kansas City area.  Thank you to those that contributed through prayers, giving, and spreading the word.  We hope you enjoy some pictures of the fun that we had last week.  

In other news:

• Last week we concluded our first summer internship for four emerging leaders from our own neighborhood!  It was a huge success as we saw them grow in exciting ways!
• Conversation partners from Bhutanese ESL class visited student homes during the last week of class. The students loved it, and volunteers got a better picture of what life is like for refugee families!
• Party, party, party!!  On Sunday afternoon we got a beautiful dose of sharing life at Wyandotte Lake as our Bhutanese and Latino ministries both held summer parties, complete with food, awards, songs and even some dancing!
• Frank and Yanelis, our partners from the RAICES ministry in Cuba, spent a good portion of the summer in Kansas City with Mission Adelante, learning and sharing from their experiences. They’re now back in Cuba ready to engage with their work there.  We’re missing them!
• Serving together!  The Lord is creating a new “we” in the neighborhood as new, community-driven leadership teams are forming for all of our Latino ministry programs.
• We are thankful for all of the community partners who are working with us to gather data for the medical clinic. This information is helping us form a clinic that remains true to the vision of a clinic that is culturally accessible and community owned.

Prayer needs:

• As we prepare for next trimester, please pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit as to what changes need to be made in our programs to better accommodate the needs of our community.
• Please pray for God to bring forth volunteers for our Leaders In Training ministry.
• Please pray for our Congressmen, on break from Washington, to hear our calls for compassionate immigration reform.
• Please pray for Adelante Thrift as we continue searching for the right location.

Current needs:

• We're in the process of setting up a brand new library for the Leaders in Training (LIT) students, and hoping to have it finished by the first week of September. Do you know of someone that would be interested in helping to paint some bookshelves or maybe even buy some bean bags or decorations to make it cozy? Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Volunteers for our Leaders In Training program, after school on Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays beginning on September 11th, and our Tuesday night Kids Club program beginning September 24th.  If you are interested in more information please email Kristen at kristenm@missionadelante.org.

by Drew Hammond, Bhutanese Logistics Coordinator

 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Children are one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. They bring us joy and hope for the future. It is our calling as followers of Christ, to raise them in the ways of the Lord in everything we do.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the Bhutanese house church community had the joy of answering this call together. We gathered in the home of a family who had asked us to come and help them dedicate their baby to the Lord. There were 25 people there, most of whom were directly related to the family. Our indigenous leaders led the community in cultural worship songs, and in prayer for the baby and family.

The most powerful moment of the service was when the community and parents were asked if they were willing to accept the call to raise this baby girl in the ways of the Lord. Both the community and the family responded with great joy and accepted their challenge.

Pray with us that this baby would be blessed and kept in the care of the Lord to grow healthy and strong. 

Other News

• Several of the Mission Adelante staff and volunteers recently took a group of children and teens to swim at the Mission Municipal pool. It was lots of fun and a good chance to conquer fears and try new things together. Some of the teens swam for the first time ever, and a few kids even jumped off the high dive!

• LIT (Leaders In Training) was given tickets to see “Footloose” at the Starlight this Friday. We are excited to be taking the girls in both LIT outreaches to share a new experience together!

Prayer Needs

• As the end of a trimester nears and a program break approaches, pray that Mission Adelante Staff would rest well. Pray that we would be personally renewed. Pray also that the Lord would renew our vision and guide us as we dream and pray about the way He may desire to grow our ministries in coming trimesters!

• Please pray that we continue to develop a greater understanding of health needs and health care access in our community as our health needs survey progresses. Join us in praying for additional community leaders to work with us to help discern and represent the needs of their respective community.

Current Needs

• Leaders in Training (LIT) is trying to set up a brand new library for the kids. Do you know of someone that would be interested in helping to paint some bookshelves or maybe even buy some bean bags or other decorations to make it cozy? We are hoping to have it finished by the first week of September. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important Dates

Summer Parties are Sunday, August 11th at 4:00 at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109.  After entering the park, you'll come to a fork in the road; go left. 

• The Latino party will be in the "Beach Shelter." Turn right after passing shelter #6.

• The Bhutanese party will be at Shelter #6.

Mommy & Me ESL classes teach pre-reading skills

by Lauren Timberlake, Bhutanese ESL Director

I get excited when kids read. Board books, picture books, chapter books, audio books-- they are doors to all kinds of possibilities in life. Refugee kids have some large obstacles to overcome when reading. English is not their first language, so learning to read is a challenge. Also, refugee parents have endured years of turmoil, had little access to education, and now work hard to provide for their families. This leaves little time or attention for recreational reading. Many times, there are very few books in a refugee home. Although they receive lots of love at home, refugee kids don’t spend a lot of time reading with their families. Often, these kids are behind when they start school and can feel frustrated.

This summer, we offered a Mommy & Me workshop to our Bhutanese ESL students. Several mothers and grandmothers of young children participated. Rachel Pierce, a preschool teacher and close friend to several refugee families, led the group in a typical preschool storytime. There was circle time, read alouds, finger-plays, and several stations with early literacy activities. Moms helped their children to sort by color, “fish” for picture cards, put together puzzles, and look at books together.

We rarely get to offer programming to  the smallest children in the Bhutanese community, and everyone really enjoyed it. A local organization donated board books to send home with each family, so they can begin reading or looking at books together at home.

Please pray for the educational needs of the Bhutanese community and other refugee groups in Kansas City. Pray that children have access to books, mentors who challenge them to read, and teachers who equip them with the skills they need to pursue further education or job training after high school.

In other news 

• Two members of the Raices team along with two other Cubans led a seminar on Christianity in Cuba last Saturday. It was the first time to share publicly in English for two of them, and they did great! Around 40 people attended the event.

• God used friends, volunteers and partner churches to provide backpacks for all of the children and teens of Mission Adelante.  They will go back to school with the supplies to start this year right!

Prayer Requests

• Pray for our four interns and two Cuban guests who finish their summer with us this week and transition back to Cuba or to school and family.  Pray for their confidence as they return to normal life.

• Pray we finish our trimesters strong and that the Lord would give us guidance as we seek Him for direction for our fall trimesters

Important Dates

Summer Parties at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109.  After entering the park, you'll come to a fork in the road; go left.

• The Latino party begins at 5:00 with a potluck meal, awards and a cultural program.  It will be in the "Beach Shelter." Turn right after passing shelter #6.

• The Bhutanese party begins around 4:00 and will have a potluck meal, awards and a cultural program in shelter #6.