Thanksgiving Doesn't Get Any Better than that!

The history of Thanksgiving as celebrated in the United States has a unique and special connection for Mission Adelante's ministry. For those who may not remember what you learned in grade school, or may have never connected the dots, the first Thanksgiving was the story of immigrants' survival in a new and harsh land. Those immigrants, commonly called Pilgrims, are ancestors to many of us. The celebration, as the story goes, included those who were native to the country (the Wampanoag Native Americans) and the new immigrants who had arrived in a somewhat needy situation, seeking a better life. Having survived on help given to them by the Wampanoag, the pilgrims praised God and instituted the first Thanksgiving, modeled after other harvest festivals that were commonplace in Europe at the time.

This year we had the opportunity to experience Thanksgiving with immigrants, family, and other friends from our community in a way that hearkened back to the beginning of this great American tradition. Janoy and Ivan are brothers who have recently moved to the United States from Cuba and have become our close friends. In fact, Janoy lived with our family for his first month in Kansas City before his brother joined him here, and they found an apartment a couple of blocks away from our house. We laughed and watched with joy as the two Cuban brothers ate turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and everything else Thanksgiving for the first time. Afterward, we of course enjoyed the customary game of football in the backyard, which they also played for the first time.

Among all of our reasons for giving thanks this year, there was one reason that out-shined the rest; the night before, Ivan had received Christ as his Lord and Savior! Immigrants surviving, sharing life with "native Americans", celebrating the goodness of God and His amazing grace... Thanksgiving doesn't get any better than that!

Other news:

• The parties marking the end of our trimester are coming up this weekend and everyone's invited! The party for the Latino community is Saturday, December 11 at 5:30 p.m. and the party for the Bhutanese community is Sunday, December 12 at 4:00 p.m. Both parties will be at Bethany Community Center, located in Kansas City, Kansas on Central Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets. It sets back behind Bethany Park. Turn off of Central Avenue by the fire station.
• Five neighborhood immigrant families received complete Thanksgiving meals thanks to Emmanuel Baptist Church, Kansas City Christian School, and Reaching Out, Inc.
• The members of the disciple making team were sent out last week to visit other Mission Adelante participants and give spiritual encouragement. They were excited to tell about their experiences.
• Thanks to Christ Community Church for the donation of coats and winter wear to distribute to families in need.
• The Bhutanese knitting cooperative sold their handiwork at Rockhurst High School and earned over $250, which will help supplement their families' incomes.

Prayer needs:

• Praise God with us that Ivan has become a Believer! In the last couple of issues of the Adelante Express, we asked you to join us in praying for God to draw him near to Himself. Thank you for petitioning God on Ivan's behalf.
• Help us pray for God to supply for Mission Adelante through abundant end-of-year giving, at a time when the ministry is growing especially fast!
• Pray for Yanelis, the leader of the Raices ministry in Qba, to have wisdom and discernment. She's spending this month in Costa Rica making contacts and exploring new opportunities for the ministry.

Current needs:

• More winter wear like hats and gloves, outerwear, and shoes to stock our resource center with the arrival of cold weather.
• A high BTU propane space heater for the detached garage that houses our resource center. The volunteers that staff the resource center get pretty cold during the two hours that it's open every Saturday morning!
• Thin knitting needles (size 6 or smaller) and yarn are needed for the Bhutanese knitting cooperative. If you would like to donate supplies, please contact David Stetler at davids@missionadelante.org or 913-579-6115.

Upcoming dates:

• Latino Christmas Party: Saturday, December 11, 5:30 p.m. at Bethany Community Center.
• Bhutanese Christmas Party: Sunday, December 12, 4:00 p.m. at Bethany Community Center.

Bethany Community Center is located in Kansas City, Kansas on Central Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets. It sets back behind Bethany Park. Turn off of Central Avenue by the fire station.

• Mission Adelante will be closed Friday December 24 through Saturday, January 1.

A Passion to Serve

Written by Megan McDermott

The first time I met Brooke Coon, I was struck by her passion and desire to serve Hispanics. There was a hunger to serve that I have rarely seen and a commitment to the children and teens of Mission Adelante that is uncommon. Over the course of this last year, I have received the blessing of not only serving with Brooke but developing a deep, Christ-centered friendship with her. She was so eager to immediately jump in, but was faithful in waiting on God's timing for her to join the Mission Adelante staff.

Therefore, it is with great joy and thankfulness that I am pleased to announce that Brooke has officially joined our staff part-time as the Latino Kid's Ministry Coordinator! In a short time, I have seen Brooke's love for God impact the community, and specifically, the teens of our community. We recently launched a new discipleship model for our teen Bible study that breaks away from an event-oriented approach and instead, focuses on the relational aspect of a leader pouring deeply into a small group of believers. Brooke has helped to spearhead that new model and is an incredible example of how walking with those we disciple on a daily basis, in small ways, can make a deep impact.

Brooke has also served with our after school tutoring and character development program called Leaders in Training. Her leadership and love for the children has strengthened their commitment to LIT. More personally, her desire to serve the kids has given me the freedom and time to spend more relational time with the children individually.

Anyone that has worked with teens knows what a challenging group they can be. However, with Brooke's leadership, we are seeing the teens and children of Mission Adelante draw closer each day to the Lord. Please pray that God would continue to let us impact the lives of the teens and help them to become instruments of change and faith in our community!

In other news:

• Nine L.I.T. students and four adult leaders spent Saturday afternoon doing a service project at Sanctuary of Hope in Kansas City, Kansas. They had fun working together and giving back to their community by spreading fresh mulch on pathways.
• A knitting cooperative of 12 Bhutanese women and four American women has met both of the last two weeks. The cooperative is a social and possibly income-generating opportunity that makes use of the great knitting skill of many of the women. Thin knitting needles (size 6 or smaller) and yarn are needed. If you would like to donate supplies, please contact David Stetler at davids@missionadelante.org or 913-579-6115.
• The Latino disciple making team is emphasizing personal spiritual growth. Last week the 20-some team members memorized Psalm 119:103; "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"
• David Stetler has just begun leading a Bible study with two Bhutanese men whom he has befriended during the past year and who are enthusiastic about beginning to pursue Jesus.

Prayer needs:

• A woman who is part of our Latino church is remembering her son and grieving losing him when he was murdered a year ago this week at age 28. Please pray for this woman to be strengthened and comforted during this difficult time.
• Ivan is new to our community. He's only come to church a couple of times. Please continue pray that God would draw him toward Himself.
• Please pray for our volunteers, outreach participants, and staff to have the endurance to finish the last four weeks of our trimester strong.

Current needs:

• Twelve flash drives for L.I.T. students to use for working on their homework.
• More adult winter coats, outerwear, and shoes to stock our resource center with the arrival of cold weather.
• A high BTU propane space heater for the detached garage that houses our resource center. The volunteers that staff the resource center get pretty cold during the two hours that it's open every Saturday morning!

Upcoming dates:

• Thanksgiving break: No LIT the week of November 22. No Bhutanese outreach activities on Tuesday, November 23; no Latino outreach activities on Thursday, November 25. Mission Adelante office closed Wednesday, November 24-Saturday, November 27.
• Latino Christmas Party: Saturday, December 11, 5:30 p.m. at Bethany Community Center.
• Bhutanese Christmas Party: Sunday, December 12, 4:00 p.m. at Bethany Community Center.

Bethany Community Center is located in Kansas City, Kansas on Central Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets. It sets back behind Bethany Park. Turn off of Central Avenue by the fire station.

Following Jesus' example for Making Disciples

A life-on-life ministry of disciple-making is what Jesus modeled. Walking, talking, eating, ministering, sharing life; this was His method of transmitting a life of faithfulness and love for God. The word, "transmitting" captures what Jesus did maybe better than "teaching", because Jesus' method of making disciples included so much more than verbal instruction. The life of a disciple is often better "caught" than "taught". Jesus' life, His actions, His attitudes, His priorities were many times the content of His message. Jesus IS the gospel! When He commissioned His disciples and all who would eventually believe in Him through their message, to "Go and make disciples", He was not only commissioning them to preach and teach with words. He was calling them to do what He had demonstrated, to walk with and talk with, and transmit what He had implanted in them to others who would follow.

From the beginning, Mission Adelante has valued relational disciple-making as core to our mission. We attempt, in all we do, to share life with those we serve and transmit the life of Jesus through every aspect of who we are, what we say, and what we do. Though throughout our five-year history as a ministry we've been investing ourselves in reproducing disciples who can also invest in others, last week we came to a significant milestone in the development of our Latino ministry; the launch of our first disciple-making team. Twenty-two people, Americans and immigrants, gathered to begin a six-week training course to study Jesus' model of making disciples, a step that for many with whom we've been walking for some time, will give them the confidence to begin investing their lives in others for the first time.

The starting point for this new team is our own personal pursuit of Christ. In John 15:5 Jesus says, "I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in Him will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing." As believers we want to bear fruit, we want God to use our lives to impact others and to carry out His mission in this world. Can we do it if we're not connected to Him? If you are a person who prays and you are inclined to pray for Mission Adelante, please pray that our Disciple-making team would be intimately and passionately connected to Jesus! Without Him we can do nothing. And with Him we are convinced that we can bear much fruit!

In other news:

• Five Bhutanese refugee families received the furniture they needed. We'd especially like to thank members of Westside Family Church for their donations. Three or four dining tables with chairs are still needed. Please contact David Stetler at 913-579-6115 or davids@missionadelante.org. It would be preferable if you could drop them off, but pick-up may be possible.
• This year's Leaders In Training after school character development and tutoring program began in September with 12 kids, all of whom continue strong and are looking forward to an overnight reward trip to Great Wolf Lodge in December.
• A group of Latino and Bhutanese kids will join with a larger group of kids to sing at the 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. services at Westside Family Church on December 19.

Prayer needs:

• Ivan is new to our community. He's only come to church a couple of times. Please pray that God would draw him toward Himself.
• As we look ahead to 2011, pray for God's favor in providing funding for ministry staff and the overall ministry of Mission Adelante.
• Praise God for a minivan that was donated and will be given to a community family in need of transportation.
• Pray for the health of Bhutanese and Latino individuals that have been hospitalized recently.

Current needs:

• Kids' and adults' winter coats, outerwear, and shoes to stock our resource center. With winter just around the corner in Kansas City, many families in our neighborhood are still unprepared.
• Three or four dining tables with chairs for Bhutanese families. Please contact David Stetler at 913-579-6115 or davids@missionadelante.org. It would be preferable if you could drop them off, but pick-up may be possible.
• Future volunteers! If you've been considering volunteering with one of our outreach programs, the next few weeks are a great time for you to come observe the program of your choice: Bhutanese or Latino kids Bible study or adult ESL class. Our next trimester, and the time you could come on board, begins in January.

Upcoming dates:

• Thanksgiving break: No LIT the week of November 22. No Bhutanese outreach activities on Tuesday, November 23; no Latino outreach activities on Thursday, November 25. Mission Adelante office closed Wednesday, November 24-Saturday, November 27.

Mobilized to Serve

Written by Jason Schoff

"Serving immigrants to Christ and mobilizing them to serve" has been our mission statement since the beginning of Mission Adelante in 2005. Not only does this communicate our heart for people to come to know Christ, it also emphasizes the importance of them growing in service for the kingdom.

For the past two years, three of our Latino church families have stepped in to help Molly Merrick staff our resource center every Saturday morning. This translates into coming early on Saturdays, cleaning and straightening the shelves, and befriending those in need with prayer. These small costs end up paying huge dividends when most of the families in need come back multiple times, no doubt due to the kindness and affection they experience. We often see them return with items they would like to donate to other families in need. What a fun sight to see!

Our resource center can better serve the needs of our immigrant community because of these few Latino volunteers who take part in serving and suggesting ways to best meet the needs of our neighbors around Mission Adelante.

Would you or your church be willing to do a winter coat and clothing drive? We are quickly approaching a season of cold weather during which we will be addressing needs of the Latino and Bhutanese communities. Please contact Jason or Molly if you interested in helping meet this need at jasons@missionadelante or mollym@missionadelante.org .

In other news:

• David & Holly Stetler and big sister Anna welcomed baby Isaac Michael into their family on October 24. Everyone is doing well.
• The Leaders In Training pre-teen girls got together Saturday night for a fun time organized by our new Kids Adelante Intern, Courtney Colin. They played relay games, watched a movie, and studied the Bible.
• Brooke Coon, our new Latino Kids Ministry Coordinator and other volunteers took 11 Latino Teens to Shawnee Mission Park last Saturday for hiking, a cook-out, Bible study and a bonfire.

Prayer needs:

• "The Art of Growing in Christ" is a series of training workshops for our Latino church members about learning how to disciple others. Please pray for those that attended the initial workshop last night to respond to the challenges that were presented.
• Please continue to join us in praying for God's presence and guidance for a mom in our community that has been separated from her family for a number of months.
• Please pray for peace for Bhutanese immigrant families who are encountering difficulties related to adjusting to life in a new country, and for wisdom for those of us ministering to them.

Current needs:

• Kids' and adults' winter coats, outerwear, and shoes to stock our resource center. The arrival of cold weather in Kansas City has found many families in our neighborhood unprepared.
• Beds, couches, tables, and chairs for newly arrived Bhutanese refugee families. Please contact David Stetler at 913-579-6115 or davids@missionadelante.org. It would be preferable if you could drop items off, but pick-up of items may be possible.

Upcoming dates:

• Thanksgiving break: No LIT the week of November 22. No Bhutanese outreach activities on Tuesday, November 23; no Latino outreach activities on Thursday, November 25. Mission Adelante office closed Wednesday, November 24-Saturday, November 27.

Mission Adelante Celebrates Five Years!

Mission Adelante Celebrates Five Years!

The story of Mission Adelante is the story of God fulfilling dreams and creating something beautiful from humble beginnings. When we moved back from Bolivia we knew that God was calling us to engage in ministry to Hispanic immigrants in our own city. We identified with the feeling of being aliens in a foreign land, the language struggles, the cultural differences, the challenge to fit in, the feeling of vulnerability. When God applied the Greatest Commandment to immigrants and strangers by saying, “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself “ (Lev 19:34), He also appealed to Israel’s experience as foreigners in the land of Eqypt to urge them to compassion and understanding. “…for you were aliens in Egypt…” From the beginning, the heart of Mission Adelante has been to help outsiders in our city become insiders in the Kingdom of God.

From a dream born in prayer and written on one page of paper, to our first team meeting, finding the perfect house in our immigrant community, buying the first computer for the ministry, eating boiled goat in an ice cream shop on Independence Avenue, our first English class in our dining room, kids program in the basement, first Bible study in our home, teaching Spanish, Hugo and Leticia becoming Christians, renting office space, buying an old funeral home to house the ministry, lath and plaster, amazing volunteers, church partners, dedicated board members, monthly worship services, discipleship groups, crises in the community, apprentices graduating, our first interns, full-time staff for Kids Adelante, Leaders in Training, summer VBS camps, LIT canoe trip, Latino church plant, moving into our new offices, Latino Outreach, Bhutanese Outreach, Cuba Extension. What will God do in the next five years?

What will God do in the next five years? That indeed is the question I’m asking myself after having celebrated our Five-Year anniversary last month. I really couldn’t have imagined what God would do in this time. Sure, some of what has happened was planned and strategically pursued. Indeed the heart of the fruit from these five years sprang from the dream God put in our hearts before we began. But so much of the way it has come about is so surprising and unexpected that it leaves me in awe of God. And some of the bigger manifestations of this dream, like the miracle gift given by Heartland Community Church to buy and remodel our building, the amazing board of directors that so wisely governs with a clear love for me as well as for the ministry, and the arrival of certain staff like Jason Schoff and Megan McDermott to fill critical roles at critical moments were outside of our ability to plan or even strategically pursue. Simply put, God provided! And the things that are completely beyond the scope of our dream, like the Bhutanese Outreach and the Cuba Extension Project make me kneel and praise.

In the next five years the dreams we are strategically pursuing include continuing to mature our current ministries, a greater emphasis on developing emerging leaders for cross-cultural ministry, and more opportunities for reproducing our ministry model in other places. As we look ahead, we know we will need you in this journey and hope you will find as much satisfaction in your role as supporters, volunteers, donors, pray-ers and friends as we have found in the roles God has given us. We are deeply thankful for your partnership with us in reaching this mission field in our own backyard, and look forward to what the Lord will do through all of us together in the next five years! Praise Him!