A Major Milestone for Mission Adelante!

Dear Friends,

Mission Adelante is on the cusp of a major milestone that represents nothing less than the accomplishment of our dream and vision!  In the next year we intend to hire our first staff members from within our own community!  Can you imagine the impact this important step will make on our effectiveness in reaching people from other places?  We would like to invite you to be a part of this turning point in our ministry’s development.  In fact, we need you to lock arms with us at this exciting moment to help make it happen!

When Jesus called his first disciples to follow Him, He promised that he would make them “fishers of men”.  The invitation to be with Jesus comes with a challenge to join Him in the work of making disciples.  From the time we started Mission Adelante we have been dreaming of the day when leaders from our own community would rise up to join us as workers in the Lord’s harvest field.  That dream is coming true!  As we look forward to 2014 we have as many as three leaders from our community who could be ready to join our staff in key ministry roles.  These “home-grown leaders” have been part of our ministry in various areas for several years, have been discipled intentionally, and are now leading with us.  They have become and are becoming “fishers of men.”

Amazing Matching Gift Opportunity for 50 Donors!   

In order to make this next step possible, we are launching a new giving fund to create an avenue for donors to help us hire staff members from our own community.  We are calling this new fund the “Community Leaders Fund”. To help get us started, a generous donor has offered to supplement EACH new recurring gift to the “Community Leaders Fund” (at least $25/month) with a $1000 one-time gift (up to a total of $50,000). In other words, your new recurring gift to the Community Leaders Fund gets a $1000 bonus added to it!  The heart of this “matching” opportunity is to encourage ongoing giving to the Community Leaders Fund to foster long-term sustainability.  We are praying that God would provide $2500/month in new recurring gifts and $30,000 in one-time contributions by year-end to help us launch our Community Leaders Fund.  

We would like to invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us this year-end by contributing to the Community Leaders Fund, either with recurring contributions, or with a one-time gift.  You may send contributions to Mission Adelante Inc.,  22 South 18th Street, Kansas City, KS  66102, or give online at www.missionadelante.org/give.  Be sure designate your contribution to “Community Leaders Fund”.  Thank you for your support and partnership all these years!

In His Grace,

Jarrett Meek

Pastor/Executive Director

Multicultural Leaders Emerging!

Eleven leaders from Mission Adelante attended the Christian Community Development.conference

by Jarrett Meek, Founder/Pastor/Executive Director

How do we know we if we are fulfilling our mission?  One of the most significant indicators is when we see our disciple-making efforts give rise to emerging leaders from within our community.  The development of immigrant leaders is not only a vital sign of missional life for our ministry, but is also critical to the ongoing health of our community.  We are seeing new fruit as multicultural leaders are rising up!  

In September eleven leaders from Mission Adelante, representing four different countries traveled together to New Orleans to join up with people from other urban ministries from across the U.S, at the Christian Community Development Association’s national conference.  A few Americans, a Cuban, two Nepalis, and two Mexicans were part of our multicultural group who grew together as friends and leaders during the trip.  These kinds of equipping events, where our leaders can go deeper with each other and with people from other places, provide a wider perspective on Christian ministry and disciple-making as it’s lived out in other contexts.  The CCDA conference was a huge encouragement for our team.

Our summer Internship experience took a new twist this year as well.  Instead of bringing in college students for an internship in cross-cultural ministry, we created a new internship experience for four Latino teens from our neighborhood.  For one of these young leaders, Edgar Soriano, the Summer Internship has turned into a one-year internship opportunity, as he pursues further training in ministry.  As our long-term investment in leaders from our neighborhood continues forward, we are praying that in 2014 we will be able to hire our first full-time immigrant staff members to serve with Mission Adelante.

A Unique Matching Gift Opportunity for 50 Donors!

We are launching a new giving fund to create an avenue for donors to help us hire new staff members from our community.  We are calling this new fund the “Community Leaders Fund”. To help get us started, a generous donor has offered to supplement EACH new monthly commitment to the “Community Leaders Fund” (at least $25/month) with a $1000 one-time gift (up to a total of $50,000). In other words, your new monthly commitment to the Community Leaders Fund gets a $1000 bonus added to it!  Now that’s high impact!  Hiring staff members from our own community will be a huge step forward for us in living out our mission!

Go to missionadelante.org/give and choose the "Community Leaders Fund"!

A New Ministry Beginning at Mission Adelante!

by Jarrett Meek, Founder, Executive Director

Marking Milestones
There are important milestones in the life of every person, organization, and ministry; moments that mark movement forward, new growth, or the beginning of a new season.  These moments do a lot to define our lives and our development.  For Mission Adelante I can look back over our eight years and see many of these moments, but three events rise to the top of our list of milestones.  The launch of the ministry, and specifically the beginning of our first "house church", the acquisition of our building, and the launch of our Bhutanese ministries.  The initial launch of our ministry qualifies as a major milestone for obvious reasons, but the beginning of our first "house church" in that same season specifically represented the spiritual first-fruits of our ministry and evidence that what we began could really work. What was a dream had become a reality as we saw the first immigrant family receive Christ and join our fellowship.  The acquisition of a building was another major milestone in that it was truly a game changer.  Heartland Community Church provided the funding for the purchase and remodel in a amazing show of support that vaulted us years forward in our development.  And the launch of our Bhutanese ministries represented the proving of our ministry vision/model with a cultural group other than Latinos, something that has caused us to grow dramatically and open our eyes even wider to what the Lord may want to do with us in the future.  And now, I'm excited to share with you that Mission Adelante is at the beginning of what I believe will be another major milestone in our ministry's development: the launch of a new ministry division called "Community Development Initiatives."

Community Development: Individual and Community Transformation
While much of what we've done up to this point could be considered community development, we are now poised to build on the relational network and the emphasis on individual transformation that we've worked so hard to establish and begin addressing some of the larger issues and needs we have seen in our community.  Being very passionate about our identity and vision as a disciple-making mission, we are intent on holding on to this core calling even as we begin engaging in broader community development initiatives.  We believe that community transformation can spring forth from individual transformation, and that those who at one time were recipients of care and service can become owners and stakeholders in initiatives that improve our entire neighborhood.  Our community development ministry will involve emerging leaders from our neighborhood in developing new initiatives that make a community-wide impact in areas such as entrepreneurialism, job-skills training, and health care that is accessible to people who come from other places.

The Impact of Business: Empowerment, Jobs, Economic Sustainability
At the nexus of business and ministry there is a powerful synergy that moves beyond charity and betterment to development.  Equipping people with marketplace skills and entrepreneurial tools, and helping them start small businesses is empowering, promotes community ownership, improves the financial outlook for their families, and contributes to the economy of our entire community.  In a conversation with Pastor Rick Behrens he shared his perspective on the impact of immigrant entrepreneurs on our neighborhood; "Twenty years ago an economic study was done on the Central Avenue area in KCK, and based on that study they predicted that by the year 2000 our area would be a ghost town.  But, they didn't know who was coming and what God had in mind."  Today immigrant-owned businesses are fueling an amazing comeback in our area.  A study done by the Hamilton Project states, "Today's immigrants possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit.  In fact, immigrants are 30% more likely to form new businesses than U.S.-born citizens."  Imagine the impact training, coaching, and start-up capital could have on immigrant entrepreneurs and on the economic development of our community!

The Need for Accessible Health Care
For those of us who were born in the U.S., navigating our health-care system can be an intimidating and confusing experience.  Now, imagine trying to make your way through this gauntlet of paperwork, long sterile halls, and sky-high bills as a new refugee coming directly from a camp in Nepal with very little English.  A 2013 study done by the Population Health Institute ranks Wyandotte County 99th out of 102 counties in Kansas for health outcomes (mortality and morbidity), while neighboring Johnson County is ranked #1.  In addition to other factors, our community is clearly under-served in terms of health-care.  Our immigrant friends often hesitate to visit the doctor because cultural and language barriers create a sense of fear and distrust that are very difficult to overcome.  High health-care costs and lack of insurance make preventative or primary care seem like an un-affordable luxury, and the emergency room often becomes the first stop for patients who could have prevented a crisis by seeing the doctor sooner.  As we explore ways to address some of the most glaring needs in our community, making health-care accessible both culturally and financially to immigrants has emerged as one of our highest priorities.

What's Happening Now?
Over the past several months Mission Adelante has begun preparations to launch three new initiatives:

• Adelante Thrift: We have formed a board of directors and are working on a launch plan for a neighborhood thrift store that will provide jobs and job-skills training, and will serve as an incubator for small immigrant-owned businesses.  Income generated by Adelante Thrift will provide another source of sustainable funding for other Mission Adelante ministries.
• Micro-lending/Small business start-up ministry: Last fall we piloted our first business as ministry project as we helped the RG Asian store (ethnic groceries) start-up in our neighborhood.  This summer, as we form our team for this new ministry program, we will be hosting Rudy Carrasco from Partners Worldwide for a training seminar on business as ministry.  Stay tuned for more details!
• Medical Clinic: A team of people from our neighborhood has been hard at work doing surveys and focus groups within the Mission Adelante community to assess the real health-care needs of the people we serve.  We are hoping to finish these surveys in the next couple of months.

Funding Needs

One of the biggest challenges and most important aspects of our plan to launch these new initiatives will be to raise the funds necessary to move forward.  During the second half of 2013 we will praying earnestly and  making a significant effort to both increase funding for our General Ministry Fund, as well as secure funding for our new Community Development Initiatives.  We will be approaching current donors to suggest an increase in giving for those who are able, and inviting new people to partner with us financially as well.  Though our "campaign" has not yet begun, if you would like to begin contributing or increase your giving you may do so online by visiting www.missionadelante.org/give.

Come Serve in a Mission Field in Your Own Backyard!

Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God's heart for the lost and broken is evident. His love for all people is beyond imagination, but His heart of mercy for "the least of these" is displayed time and time again in unique and special ways.

In Matthew 25 Jesus says these words;

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

At Mission Adelante, we have found ourselves in the middle of a mission field right here in our own backyard. And in this mission field we are surrounded by the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and families of people in prison. Who would have thought that the cross-cultural mission field would come to us, and that we would have the opportunity to demonstrate the kind of compassion that Jesus exhorted us toward right here in our own city!?

We invite you to join us in this mission by serving in practical ways and connecting relationally with people from another culture. Instead of viewing missions as something only a few "super-Christians" can do, why not make it a normal part of your life?

Whether your heart is for adult immigrants or kids, Latinos or refugees from Bhutan, there is a place for you to make an impact with Mission Adelante.

• English Classes for adults (Latino or Bhutanese)
• Kids Outreach Bible Study (Latino or Bhutanese)
• Teen Bible Study (Latino)

Come to our Volunteer Training Seminar on Saturday, May 22 from 9:00 a.m to 12:15 p.m. to get started! For more information email Morgan Ham at morganh@missionadelante.org. And now, if you have a few minutes, watch a quick video to get a better feel for what it looks like to be involved in our ministries!

Mission Adelante's Volunteer Opportunities from Mission Adelante on Vimeo.

In other news:

• We at Mission Adelante are extremely grateful for the 50 or so volunteers from three local churches that spent last Saturday here as part of the "What If the Church Served Together?" event. They assembled cubicles and moved staff offices to the second floor, built a stage in our chapel, insulated our attic, tuck-pointed our chimney, started building a storage room, repaired gutters, put up trim, cut our grass, and landscaped a nearby park! Whew! Thanks to each and every one that labored for our benefit!

Prayer needs:

• Please pray for the 12-member short-term missions team that will fly to Costa Rica this Friday and return Saturday, May 15. Pray for logistical ease, for the team to learn a lot about the culture and improve their Spanish skills, to have a sense of team unity, and to make a lasting impression on those they meet.
• Help us pray for separate teen girls and teen guys Bible Studies this summer that will focus on the topic of purity as Megan M. works on choosing curriculum.
• We're looking forward to having five interns spend the summer here at Mission Adelante! Please help us ask God to provide the necessary funds that they're in the process of raising.

Current needs:

• A blender, a crock-pot, and cooking pans have been requested by families that have visited our resource center recently. If you have extras of these items, or would consider purchasing one, it will be given to a family that needs it.

Important dates:

• Monday, May 24 @ 6:30 p.m.: Volunteer Team Meeting Summer Volunteers in all outreach programs should plan to attend.