Where Do I Belong?

Written by Megan McDermott, Latino Children's Ministry Director

When you travel the streets of Kansas City, KS, the diversity of cultures that you encounter is pretty remarkable.  Over the years, as we have grown stronger in our relationships with the families of our community, we have received the precious gift of being let into the struggles that our friends face. The children, in particular,  are often caught between the many cultures that surround them, always trying to fit in but never quite feeling like they belong anywhere.  As one teen expressed to me, "The only place I feel like I can really be myself is around other kids that understand the feeling of not fitting in anywhere."

                                                                        

Over the past two years, as the Latino and Bhutanese Leaders in Training  (LIT) programs have blossomed, we have placed a strong emphasis on encouraging the children from the two cultural backgrounds to become friends and to simply have fun together.  We feel so strongly about it because we recognize that all of our children are constantly struggling to find a place where they can fit in.  We desire to offer them not just a place, but a community where they can truly feel accepted and affirmed for who they are in Christ.  

Last Friday, we got to live this out in a very dynamic and fun way! We took all thirty of our LIT kids and fifteen volunteers on a field trip to Science City and Zonkers as a reward for all of their hard work.  It was encouraging to observe all of the children learning together, playing together, and laughing together. Discipling and loving the future leaders of our community takes time, diligence, and compassion. We believe that the Lord has specifically chosen each and every one of these unique children to effect change in their community. What a privilege it is to be part of God's amazing plan for this community through the children we pray will one day lead it!    

Prayer needs:

• Pray for the Bhutanese ESL volunteers and teachers as we meet next Tuesday and talk over literacy ideas in an attempt to bridge the literacy gap in the community.
• Please continue to pray for the Adelante Thrift site search process. We are interviewing two new realtors in the next week and pray that the right person partners with us to move forward with the search and selection.

Important dates:

• Observation Days: Tuesdays, November 5 & 12 (Bhutanese)/Thursdays, November 7 & 14 (Latino) 6:30-8:30  Have you wondered what all goes on around here on a typical evening of programming?  Here's your opportunity to come and see for yourself!
• Kansas Bhutanese Concert: Saturday, November 16th from 4pm-10pm at Wyandotte High School (2501 Minnesota Ave, Kansas City, KS 66102) Everyone is invited to come and celebrate Nepali Culture at this exciting event sponsored by Mission Adelante and coordinated by our dear friend Ram Rai. It will feature comedians, cultural dances, and ethnic food. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the RG Asian Store (101 S 18th St, Kansas City, KS 66102). Don’t miss this chance to learn about and celebrate the rich culture of the Bhutanese Refugee community!

Learning from Jesus in Cross-Cultural Ministry

Written by David Stetler, Bhutanese Outreach Director

Cultural and language barriers come together upon those engaged in cross-cultural ministry. Whether you have been in it for years or you are just a beginner, cross-cultural ministry can be challenging, overwhelming and sometimes even disorienting. With these challenges comes an opportunity to look to the One who provides us with all the things we need. The life and teachings of Jesus reveal to us a way to minister cross-culturally that are quite literally already transforming the world. 

First we see that Jesus came to serve. In Philippians 2 we see the humility of Christ "making himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant". As we engage in cross-cultural ministry our posture must mimic that of Christ, in taking on the very nature of a servant, to come as one who serves.

Second, Jesus teaches us through the life of Paul.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Paul expresses his desire for relationship with those to whom he is ministering. "We loved you so much that we shared not only the gospel, but our very lives as well." Paul shows us that relationship is vital in embodying the gospel as we share life with those to whom we seek to minister. 

Lastly, we see by Christ's example in John 1 that "...the Word became human and made his home among us." Jesus became a man and entered a new culture as a humble baby who grew up in the Jewish culture. He became one of us. And just as Christ came and lived among the people in his own time and culture, we to have an opportunity to go and live among people at this time and in their culture. Jesus was not just the message of good news, He embodied the message.  As He went into the Jewish culture of that time He embodied the good news and transmitted it through servanthood and loving relationships that would eventually transform the world.

May we follow Jesus in embodying this life-transforming message and learn to serve, share life and share Jesus with people from all places through Christ-centered, loving relationships.

In other news:

• We are excited to reward our Bhutanese and Latino LIT (Leaders in Training) students with a group field trip to this Friday! We will spend the day at Science City and Zonkers!

Prayer needs:

• Last week we shared the important need for prayer as we move forward with Adelante Thrift. Please continue to include this community development initiative in your prayers.

Current needs:

• Our LIT students earn “Mission Adelante Money” for exemplary behaviour and doing extra academic work, which they can spend at a reward store once each trimester.  We are in need of items to stock that store!  Ideas include sports equipment, craft supplies, room decorations, or any small items that might appeal to 8-14 year old students.  If you would like to contribute please contact Megan McDermott at meganm@missionadelante.org or Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Observation Days: Tuesdays, November 5 & 12 (Bhutanese)/Thursdays, November 7 & 14 (Latino) 6:30-8:30  Have you wondered what all goes on around here on a typical evening of programming?  Here's your opportunity to come and see for yourself!
• Kansas Bhutanese Concert: Saturday, November 16th from 4pm-10pm at Wyandotte High School (2501 Minnesota Ave, Kansas City, KS 66102) Everyone is invited to come and celebrate Nepali Culture at this exciting event sponsored by Mission Adelante and coordinated by our dear friend Ram Rai. It will feature comedians, cultural dances, and ethnic food. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the RG Asian Store (101 S 18th St, Kansas City, KS 66102). Don’t miss this chance to learn about and celebrate the rich culture of the Bhutanese Refugee community!

Partner in Prayer for Adelante Thrift

Written by Kristen Allen, Director of Community Development

Mission Adelante’s Community Development Initiatives are about partnerships. We’ve shared little pieces of the big picture for community development over the past few months and now we invite you into a supporting role for Adelante Thrift and ask for you to partner with us and pray for this new ministry.

Prayer is a core value at Mission Adelante. We believe that prayer is the most important work in ministry and that our mission depends upon the power and work of the Holy Spirit in individual lives, in our community, and in all of our circumstances. For several months we have investigated multiple spaces in our target area as we search for the ideal location that meets the needs for Adelante Thrift. We seek a space large enough to contain retail, job training, and processing operations in a location convenient to our friends and neighbors that allows a shopping experience full of hospitality and exceptional service. As they saying goes, “location is everything”, but we have yet to find the ideal space. The right location for Adelante Thrift is the crucial first step for moving forward with the thrift store and all other community development initiatives.

We continue to go before God and ask for His guidance and ask you to join us in prayer. Please pray for the Adelante Thrift board and for God to open up the right opportunity before us. Partner with us in prayer as we look to build a strong starting point for Adelante Thrift in the location that God has ordained. We look forward to the day when He answers our prayers and we give thanks as He continues to transform our community.

In other news:

• This week, Mission Adelante Teens Club mentors will be visiting students in their homes to get to know them and their families in a more personal way. We are excited to watch the friendships between Bhutanese teens and adult mentors grow in the coming months!
• The community survey effort for the new medical clinic is winding down. We are thankful that many community partners opened up their churches and organizations in a spirit of collaboration and allowed us to ask their participants about their healthcare needs. This information will help us build a health center that is sensitive to the needs of our multicultural community.
• We will host a wedding at Mission Adelante this Saturday! We are excited to celebrate with our friends, Alejandro and Elena, as they take this exciting step!
• Blue Valley Baptist Church will host a critical issues forum on October 24th from 7-9pm.  The topic will be the Christians response to the Immigration problems in America and Jason Schoff will be one of the panelists.  Please consider attending this event. 8925 W. 151st St, Overland Park, KS. E-mail rshanahan02@everestkc.net with childcare needs no later than October 20.

Prayer needs:

• The Hindu holiday season is upon us. Please pray for our Hindu friends in Kansas City to experience Jesus’ love and grace in special ways during this season.
• Pray4Reform--join us in praying for immigration reform. There are two corporate gatherings this week hosted by our partners.   Click on the tab to learn where we will be praying tonight and tomorrow morning.

Current needs:

• If you're out and about and notice swimsuits on clearance, would you think about picking some up for kids at Mission Adelante?  We go swimming many times a year, even in the winter, and sometimes we find out on the way to the pool that some of our friends don’t have swimsuits that fit.  We specifically need suits that fit Elementary and Middle School boys, and one-piece suits that fit later Elementary and Middle School girls.  If you have questions, or would like to help, contact Kristen Maxwell at Kristenm@missionadelante.org.
• Our Leaders in Training after-school tutoring program is looking for a small group or a few individuals to purchase healthy, pre-packaged snacks for the kids.  If you are interested, please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Observation Days: Tuesdays, November 5 & 12 (Bhutanese)/Thursdays, November 7 & 14 (Latino) 6:30-8:30  Have you wondered what all goes on around here on a typical evening of programming?  Here's your opportunity to come and see for yourself!

Imago Dei--"Image Bearer of God"

Written by Jason Schoff, Latino Outreach Director

"Imago Dei"; "Image bearer of God".  This past year I have heard these phrases over and over in our churches, at conferences, and in books.  We use these terms to assert that human beings have inherent value, given to them by the Almighty Creator, despite what they do.  I wholeheartedly agree with this truth!  However, I am still learning, and sometimes fail to treat others in ways that recognize this dignity.

Duane Elmer shares an anecdote in his book, Cross-Cultural Servanthood, that left a lasting impression on me.  Elmer shared about a walk he took with a ministry partner in the city: "Walking with Mark one night, I noticed a lady at the corner ahead.  She was scantily clad.  I turned to him and asked in a voice the lady would not hear, 'Is she a prostitute?'  He paused; I remember thinking, Why the pause?  It's obvious.  Then he said firmly, 'No!  That's not a prostitute.  That's a person...in prostitution.' ...When I saw this woman, I saw a prostitute.  When Mark saw her, he saw a human being."

Mark saw the woman for who she is, not what she does with her life.  Who did Jesus visit and speak to as he walked through the villages, towns, and cities of his time?  He visited both those who were accepted and those who were rejected by society.  Sometimes it was scandalous.  Jesus modeled how to see the image of God in people and he treated them as valued individuals just as he treats each of us.  As Christians, God entrusts us with the opportunity to see people the way he sees them, too.

At the heart of all of this is God's message that a right perspective will allow us to lead with love instead of judgement.  When I encounter another person, do I first notice an image bearer of God, or a thief, an alcoholic, a jerk who cut me off, an illegal immigrant, a liar?

The Mission Adelante staff is constantly plumbing the depth of messages like this one and we find ourselves challenged for the better.  Will you join us in asking God how to live as citizens of His Kingdom here in our world?

In other news:

• The Bhutanese LIT students have been studying physics, and will conclude our study with an egg drop on October 17th!  The kids are excited about applying all they have learned.
• We are excited to see the teens participating in and leading Teens Club in new ways this trimester. Each week, we have had tons of Nepali cultural dances and songs performed and led by students for their peers and mentors to watch. It has been lots of fun celebrating Nepali teen culture together!
• Christ Community Church (Downtown) will be hosting a Pray4Reform gathering on October 17th from 7-8am.  Please join our staff there to pray.  1708 Baltimore Ave, KCMO.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for students in our upper level Latino ESL classes that have not come to class yet this trimester.  We hope to see them return soon!
• Pray for Congressional Leaders who will likely take up immigration reform at the end of this month.  Ask God to lead them toward what is noble, pure, right, and excellent.

Current needs:

• If you are out and about and notice swimsuits on clearance, would you think about picking some up for kids at Mission Adelante?  We go swimming many times a year, even in the winter, and sometimes we find out on the way to the pool that some of our friends don’t have swimsuits that fit.  We specifically need suits that fit Elementary and Middle School boys, and one-piece suits that fit later Elementary and Middle School girls.  If you have questions, or would like to help, contact Kristen Maxwell at Kristenm@missionadelante.org.
• Our Leaders in Training after-school tutoring program is looking for a small group or a few individuals to purchase healthy, pre-packaged snacks for the kids.  If you are interested, please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Observation Days: Tuesdays, November 5 & 12 (Bhutanese)/Thursdays, November 7 & 14 (Latino) 6:30-8:30  Have you wondered what all goes on around here on a typical evening of programming?  Here's your opportunity to come and see for yourself!

Building Interdependent Relationships

by Jarrett Meek

"What would make cross-cultural missionaries more effective at ministering the gospel of Christ?"  That's the question author and long-time missionary Duane Elmer asked believers from many different countries before writing his book, Cross-Cultural Servanthood.  The answer, which was repeated over and over again in different forms and sometimes in these exact words, might surprise you:

"Missionaries could more effectively minister the gospel of Christ if they did not think they were so superior to us."  

As I have processed through this book with the staff of Mission Adelante, obvious questions have arisen.
 "What is it that causes people from other cultures to perceive our efforts at serving in this way?"  "Do we indeed have an underlying or unconscious attitude of superiority that comes across when we relate with others?"  "How can we reflect the humility of Christ when we serve and share life?"  Elmer's book is one of the best I've read at addressing these questions.

At Mission Adelante we are becoming a new community, a multicultural community, a community where immigrants and others thrive and use our gifts together to transform our neighborhood.  In the process we are all learning a lot and God is causing us all to grow!

"Relationships" have always been a core value of our ministry.  We believe that ministry is a relational endeavor... not programs, not services, but relationships!  They are the context for making disciples, for loving our neighbor, for equipping leaders, for serving, for sharing Jesus.  Relationships rule!  But, it's not just any kind of relationship we're talking about.  When ministry is done in a relational way, many wrongs are made right, and we see much greater effectiveness.  But, it's also possible to form relationships in a way that's not helpful.  So the kind of relationships we're especially talking about are "interdependent relationships."  That's how it's written in our values document.

"We believe that ministry is relational at its core.  And when relationships are interdependent, learning is mutual, serving is reciprocal, and friendships are life-giving." 

Interdependence means both parties give and receive.  Interdependence means that I learn as much from the other person as he learns from me.  Interdependence means that we need each other.  The times when I've experienced relationships like this, God has moved powerfully in my life, in my friends' lives, and through our ministry together.

As the Mission Adelante community presses into what it looks like to build interdependent relationships and minister the gospel of Christ effectively in a multicultural context, we are aware that if the things that seem like strengths in our own respective cultures make it difficult to relate to others humbly, those very strengths can become our biggest weaknesses in ministry.  The Lord said to the apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness". 2 Corinthians 12:9a

Prayer needs

• Praise God for a recent opportunity Jason Schoff had to engage pastors and church leaders as part of a four person immigration panel at the Sentralized conference.  Pray for all our pastors who are stepping out to call for new immigration policy.

Current needs

• We need books!!! Do you have some at home that you might be willing to part with, or do you frequent yard sales or thrift stores? We are in need of easy to read, high interest books to add to our LIT library! Contact Kristen or Megan for more information: Kristenm@missionadelante.org or Meganm@missionadelante.org.
• We are in need of volunteers to join the Bhutanese Transportation Team! No CDL drivers license required! The greatest need is for drivers on Tuesday evenings. if you or someone you know is interested, please contact Drew Hammond at drew@missionadelante.org.