The Power of a Praying Wife

The Power of a Praying Wife

Elaine Flores, the co-owner of the famous Paletería Michoacana (the ice cream shop where we first began to build relationships in the neighborhood), received Christ about a year ago through her involvement in one of Mission Adelante’s Bible studies. We had known Elaine and befriended her from early on in our time in this neighborhood. In fact, at the close of 2005, I had the privilege of performing Elaine and Juan’s wedding…in their ice cream shop. It was a unique experience to say the least, but from that time I have seen how the Lord has been at work in their lives.

Initially, Juan and Elaine were both open to talking about spiritual things, but had reservations about following Jesus. Through family members who had begun seeking the Lord, God brought Elaine to the place where she was ready to receive the gift and begin living her life as a child a God. Kristen had the opportunity to disciple Elaine as she began to grow, but her husband Juan kept his distance. Kristen and Elaine met nearly weekly for several months and Elaine often prayed for Juan.

Last week, after over a year of being prayed for by his wife, Juan finally took the big step of coming to our Bible study because HE wanted to. Please pray with us for Juan as he begins investigating what it means to be a follower of Christ. And all of you wives out there whose husbands haven’t yet decided to follow the Lord, remember; your changed life and your prayers may be what God uses to draw your husband into a relationship with Jesus! We all celebrated inside with Elaine and sat in amazement as Juan shared that his wife’s faith and life-change had caused him to consider the claims of Christ.

In Other News:

• On April 25th Molly Merrick and Megan McDermott will be holding a silent auction to raise funds for their staff roles with Mission Adelante. Everyone is invited! Click here to download Megan's invitation. Or... Click here to download Molly's invitation.

• Buy Royal’s tickets to the May 16th game or the June 30th game and support Mission Adelante! When you purchase through the "buy tickets" link below, a portion of the proceeds will go to help us hire Megan McDermott as our Kids Adelante Director!
  

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for Mission Adelante’s first baptism service scheduled for April 5th. Pray for those who have decided to be baptized as well as for those who are still considering it. Pray that the Lord will give us a real sense of celebration as a community and will galvanize the heart commitments of those new believers taking this important step.

• Please pray for our Leaders in training program as we enter the final month of our pilot year. Pray that the kids and volunteers would finish strong. Pray that the Lord would solidify permanent life change in the kids.

Current Needs

• Diapers, wipes and baby items
• Staple Food items like rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil
  
• Praise God for a donation of 300 lbs. of rice, beans, sugar and flour

Go to the Royals Game and Support Mission Adelante!

When you buy tickets through the link below, for either the May 16th game or the June 30th game, a portion of the ticket price will go to help Mission Adelante hire a director (Megan McDermott) for our Kids Adelante and LIT programs!

May 16 vs. Baltimore Orioles @ 6:10 p.m.
June 30 vs. Minnesota Twins @ 7:10 p.m.

Field Plaza: $22 Hy-Vee Box: $11 .

For more information on this event contact Tyler Riordan at (816)504-4475 or tyler.riordan@royals.com

Surprised by Compassion

Surprised by Compassion

When people asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in scripture was he replied, “To love the Lord your God…and to love your neighbor as yourself”. Of course, one listener needed to know exactly who Jesus meant by “your neighbor”. Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. To the Jews, the Samaritans were despised and rejected for racial, cultural and religious reasons. By putting the Samaritan in the role “the neighbor”, Jesus demonstrated that our compassion should extend to those who are typically rejected and despised. For Mission Adelante, this puts a compassion bulls-eye on the backs of Latino immigrants. Leviticus 19:34 connects the dots even more clearly. “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

Just as Jesus’ hearers must have been perplexed by the idea of a Samaritan showing compassion to a Jew, we have found that immigrants are as surprised as they are grateful to be the recipients of compassion from native born Americans. One of our core values says, “We believe that God calls Christians to demonstrate special compassion to “strangers”, going out of their way to show them compassion.” This kind of compassion surprises and disarms a people who have learned to be guarded, making them open to considering the claims of Jesus.

If you are interested in helping Mission Adelante reach this mission field in our own city, we would love to get you connected. We are now recruiting for our summer trimester. Please go to our website www.missionadelante.org to see more volunteer opportunities.

In Other News

• Next week (March 15-21) Mission Adelante will be on Spring Break. ESL, Kids Adelante, LIT, and Spanish Classes will not meet.
• Summer Internship Applications Due Soon! If you know someone who is interested in a summer internship in cross-cultural ministry, please have them email jarrettm@missionadelante.org for more information.
• Pastors and community group leaders met at Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church to discuss a cooperative effort at gang prevention in KCK.
• Each week the number of families who are seeking help through our resource center increases. Last Saturday over 10 families came through and received basic food items, clothing, furniture and other essential items.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for the kids who participate in our LIT program to finish strong both in LIT and in school. The last few weeks have been challenging with attitudes, and problems for a few of the kids at school and at home.
• Please continue to pray for the families in our community who are unemployed. Pray that God would provide for their needs.

Resource Center Needs

• Food staples for what we call "Canasta Basica" or basic basket also go fast. One "Canasta Basica" contains: 2 bags of rice, 3 bags of beans, 1 box of Maizena, one bag of sugar, one bottle of cooking oil, 2 bags of pasta, 1 bag of flour. We love it when friends can bring a complete "Canasta Basica" already assembled!

The Lost Art of Disciple-Making

The Lost Art of Disciple-Making

I still have the first book I ever read on the topic of making disciples. At the end of my sophomore year at KU Doug Nuenke, a Navigators staff member, presented me with The Lost Art of Disciple-Making, by Leroy Eims. To me, this book still defines the disciple-making process as well as any, with principles taken from a thorough observation of how Jesus himself trained his disciples. Eims’ emphasis on an individualized approach that invests in a few and equips them in turn to disciple others has stuck with me through the years. It’s 2 Timothy 2:2 in action; “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Mission Adelante is employing this same disciple-making strategy; investing in immigrants who receive Christ and teaching them in turn to make disciples of others. In this season we have begun a renewed emphasis on this process. Four immigrants who have been through our process are now discipling others and a total of 19 people are receiving one-to-one or one-to-two instruction in the basics of the Christian faith. I wish disciple-making were always a clean and clear process. However, with broken humans involved, it is always a messy process that requires God’s grace in abundance. So, as we press into this season please pray with us for those new believers who are being discipled to grow in their hunger for Christ, and for those of us who are investing our lives to have patience and perseverance to give ourselves away for those we’re helping.

In Other News

• Spring Break: All ministry programs of Mission Adelante will be taking a break the week of March 16-20. This includes Spanish classes, LIT, Kids Adelante, and ESL.

• Mark your calendars for Mission Adelante’s Spring Party: April 18^th.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for a strong finish for our Leaders In Training Pilot. Pray especially for the kids to remain engaged and be diligent even as we move into the Spring.

• Please pray for our discipling groups. Pray that each person involved would gain a greater passion and hunger for Christ. Pray for consistency. Pray for a sense of community.

• Please pray for Megan McDermott as she continues to raise funds to join our staff as the Kids Adelante director.

Current Needs:

• Food staples for what we call "Canasta Basica" or basic basket also go fast. One "Canasta Basica" contains: 2 bags of rice, 3 bags of beans, 1 box of Maizena, one bag of sugar, one bottle of cooking oil, 2 bags of pasta, 1 bag of flour. We love it when friends can bring a complete "Canasta Basica" already assembled!
  

Missional Community

Mission + Community = "Missional Community"

"Mission" and "Community" go together like peanut butter and chocolate. From my years leading small groups I know that building "community" can all to often stagnate into an inwardly focused endeavor. However, when the combination of growing deeper in relationship and pursuing God together in worship and study meet up with pouring ourselves out for the lost and brokenhearted we stumble onto something that is as satisfying as it can be messy.

At the center of Mission Adelante's various teams and programs is a "missional community", a group of people who are united both by a love for one another and God, and a common mission to "Serve Hispanic Immigrants to Christ and Mobilize them to Serve". Many of us have re-located to the Mission Adelante neighborhood. Others have been part of our core team since the beginning. And all are committed both to serving and growing together. Last Sunday morning as we ate breakfast together in our home, read scripture, prayed and played together, I felt a great sense of joy in what God had created; not a large group (13 adults to be exact), but a unified and highly potent group. Acts 2:42-47 came to mind and I had to praise God for part of the Mission Adelante experience that makes the burdens of urban, cross-cultural ministry feel a lot lighter.


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In Other News

• Summer Internship: We are now accepting applications for our summer internship. For more information visit our website at www.missionadelante.org/recruiting.
  
• Nineteen participants continue in our discipling series. Please pray that God will solidify their commitment to pursuing Him over the next several weeks.
• Ten families received a "Canasta Basica" last week through our Resource Center. The canasta basica contains basic food staples such as rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil.
• Our Level 1 English classes are experiencing the highest consistency in attendance that we've seen yet with about 90% of students present each week through week 5 of the trimester.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for participants in our discipling program to gain a greater passion and commitment to Christ.
• Please pray for our siervos ministry team to regain momentum.
• Please pray for Jarrett's trip to Utah this weekend to investigate a partnership opportunity with Alpine church in Ogden.
• Please pray for the LIT kids who received Christ last week to continue their growth in Him.

Current Needs

• Food staples for what we call "Canasta Basica" or basic basket also go fast. One "Canasta Basica" contains: 2 bags of rice, 3 bags of beans, 1 box of Maizena, one bag of sugar, one bottle of cooking oil, 2 bags of pasta, 1 bag of flour. We love it when friends can bring a complete "Canasta Basica" already assembled!