The Meaning of Being a Servant

Written by Kristen Maxwell

I think we oftentimes forget how difficult the English language can be. So many words have different meanings, and sometimes those meanings are similar. Your cultural background can also shape the lens through which you view certain words. I recently had a conversation with one of the girls from Kids’ Club about what it means to be a servant. One of our Kids’ Club memory verses is Mark 9:35 “If anyone wants to be first he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” When we first introduced this verse, it took the community by storm; the idea of an upside down kingdom totally shook up their world. The kids had assumed, as many of us do, that the only way to be the greatest is to be the leader, ruler or king, not the lowly servant.

Over Spring Break, I had the chance to serve a family by washing their hair, and helping them remove head lice. While I was in their home, I noticed that this family that was new to the United States had only one comb, shared by all six family members. It took the sixth-grade daughter about 15 minutes to comb through her very long hair. In that time, I saw an need that we could easily fill. I went and picked up one of our other Kids’ Club girls whose family has been in the States longer, and we went to Family Dollar to pick up some hairbrushes and conditioner for the family. These are things that we don’t even think about someone needing; we just all have them.

When we returned to the newly arrived family's house, I got to watch the other young girl become a servant-leader to others in her community by showing them how to use a hair brush and telling them how to use conditioner.

When we got back in the car to head home, I thanked her for being a servant. She responded, “That wasn’t being a servant; a servant is someone who works in a house.” That began a beautiful conversation we got to have about how when we do things, even small things, for God, we are being servants. In that moment, I got to see her understanding of the kingdom grow. I pray for more small, simple moments where God can deepen the understanding of Him in the hearts of these kids.

In other news:

• Last week during our Spring Break many staff members had special opportunities to spend time with immigrant kids doing fun things and deepening their relationships with them. The activities included frying fish for supper, visiting a diary farm, and shopping. All the staff members found that getting the kids out of their normal environment makes a huge difference in their attitudes and the way they interact.
• Brooke Coon invited the two teen girls in her discipleship group on a family trip to Colorado over the weekend. The trip gave the two girls a much-needed break from the chaos of their home lives, as well as the first opportunity of their lives to see the majesty of the mountain landscape. Brooke spent individual time with both girls and helped direct their devotional times, and the girls grew closer in their friendship with each other. This is the stuff of real discipleship!
• A week ago Monday, about 60 kids and adult sponsors from Mill Creek Community Church chose to spend the first day of their spring break serving at Mission Adelante. In the morning they cleaned our facility, and they spent the afternoon playing games, singing, doing a craft, and teaching Bible stories to a gathering of about 20 neighborhood immigrant kids. The Bhutanese kids even taught the Mill Creek kids a few things about their culture and a few Nepali words! Thanks, Mill Creek Community Church, for for serving us and our community in these ways!

Prayer needs:

• We've been walking through a very challenging situation with a Teens Adelante teen girl and her family. Because we were able to show them compassion, the family was open to receiving prayer. Please pray that the family will remain open to the gospel after having experienced God's grace in a tangible way.
• Please pray for God to direct our planning for our summer internship and the final selection of interns. There's been more interest this year than in any previous year, and we take to heart the great opportunity that the summer internship gives us to cultivate leaders for God's kingdom.
• Please pray for continued momentum for the discipleship ministry in the Latino church, for newly-formed discipleship groups to bond well, and for disciple-makers to persevere in their personal devotions and in pursuing their disciples.

Current needs:

• A washing machine and a vacuum, both of which have been requested in our Resource Center. To donate one of these items, please contact Molly at 913-961-2984.
• An iPod for use with the Bhutanese Kids' Club.

Upcoming dates:

• Saturday, April 16: Latino Spring Party at Bethany Community Center
• Sunday, April 17: Bhutanese Spring Party at Bethany Community Center

Immigrant Kids Bearing Fruit!

Written by Jarrett Meek

Sometimes working with immigrant kids in an urban context seems like a losing battle. The challenges they often face are so daunting that many times our efforts seem too small and insignificant to make a difference. Yet these challenges are not too big for Jesus!! After nearly six years of ministry, we are seeing the kind of long-term spiritual fruit that only comes from the power of God through life-on-life relational discipleship, carried out over time. Yesterday at our staff meeting, as we sat around the table sharing highlights of God's work over the past week, I was struck by the number of teens who made the highlight list; kids who have grown up in Kids Adelante who are now beginning to really own their faith and catch a vision for serving others!

Iris and Helen are two of the names that were mentioned. I can still remember the immediate impact the two sisters made on Kids Adelante when they walked through the door of my home about 5 years ago. They were both clearly leaders from the beginning. Of course they were in the oldest age group at the time (I think they were 11 and 10). But besides their ages, it was clear that the other kids followed them. If Helen and Iris participated, the other kids participated. If Helen and Iris had bad attitudes, well... that had its impact too. Yet through all the tough outward appearances, it was clear that there was a soft spot inside their hearts that would one day be fertile ground for the seeds that we were sowing in their lives!

Iris and Helen were in 7th and 6th grades respectively when they entered the pilot year of our "Leaders In Training" program. Three days each week they came to LIT where we emphasized Jesus, character development, and tutoring in core academic areas. LIT was, and is, a very satisfying program for kids. I stop short of using the word "fun" because it is very hard work, and some kids don't see it as fun! They are challenged in self-discipline, attitude, relational skills, and provides an amazing relational context to work on issues of character that inevitably arise throughout the year. Although we never had real significant challenges with Helen and Iris, it was not always easy for them or for those of us who led them. By the end of the year they were pretty tired of me (and I of them). But, God had begun to accomplish some exciting works in their lives, one of which was Iris' admission into Sumner Academy, a public school in our urban neighborhood that happens to be one of the best performing high schools in the entire metro area. The following year Helen was accepted too!

Three years later Helen and Iris are still involved with Mission Adelante and continue doing well at Sumner (Helen has a 4.0 grade point average). Volunteers and certain staff members have built deep and lasting discipling relationships with both of them. And they are involved in other ways too. A few weeks ago I popped my head into one of the LIT tutoring rooms (math) and found Helen and Iris there, now not as students, but as volunteer tutors! I was so proud of them! And a flood of memories came to me of times I had sat around the math table with both of them during LIT afternoons!

I am endlessly thankful for the volunteers and staff who invest in the lives of immigrant kids, both on the Bhutanese and Latino sides of our ministry. Keep going! (¡Adelante!) Your efforts are bearing fruit, and you are storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy!!!

In other news:

• Including Iris and Helen, nine teens are actively serving this trimester in Kids Adelante, Leaders In Training, and on the Worship Team. David Coon is giving music lessons to several budding musicians and incorporating them into the Worship Team. It's thrilling to see these young people not only pursue an interest in music, but to use it to worship the Lord!
• We're grateful for the help of a group of eight people from Heartland Community Church who spent Saturday morning here. They demonstrated great initiative sorting clothes, organizing our Resource Center, and preparing bags of staple food items. Molly Merrick is astonished by how orderly the Resource Center looks now!
• A group of about 35 Bhutanese refugees and American volunteers gathered at the Stetler's house on Saturday to share a meal and deepen friendships as they enjoyed of one anothers' company.
• The Raices ("Roots") ministry in Q-ba revolves around discipling believers. The Sonlife team, a discipleship ministry, from Costa Rica is in Q-ba this week giving the Raices team further training.

Prayer needs:

• Praise the Lord! Janoy, a passionate believer who's part of our Latino church, witnessed to two of his coworkers on Monday evening and one of them declared faith in Christ! Pray for that new seed to take root!
• The Lord's changing the heart of a teen boy that has been around our community for several years. He has declared his decision to walk away from a past of risky behavior and is beginning to stand out as a leader as he becomes more passionate about pursuing God. Please pray for the Lord to strengthen this young man so he can stand firm upon his conviction when temptations arise.
• Despite coming from such a different cultural background as Hinduism, various Bhutanese refugees are coming to the Lord! Mercy and grace are whole new concepts to them as far as the way a deity would relate to people. There's a wide curiosity about Christianity among the Bhutanese community here in Kansas City, and they are hungry to learn about Jesus. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to make the good news of Jesus perfectly clear to them.

Current needs:

• An I-pod for the Bhutanese Kids Club
• 55 gallon trash bags to accommodate our large trash cans
• Plastic-ware and paper plates

Upcoming dates:

• March 14-19: Break week. No L.I.T.; no Bhutanese outreach programs, no Latino outreach programs. The Mission Adelante office will be closed March 16-19.

Summer Internship in Cross-Cultural Ministry! Apply by March 20th

Get your feet wet in cross-cultural ministry. Our summer internship combines practical missions experience in an urban context with mentoring and seminars on key topics relevant to ministry. This opportunity is perfect for the college or post-college person who is exploring a potential call to missions or urban ministry. You will make a Kingdom impact and you will learn a lot! The internship lasts from May 28 until August 15. Applications must be received by March 20. To request an application packet including more detailed information, please contact Morgan Ham at morganh@missionadelante.org.

Programs Cancelled Thursday, February 24

Please be advised that today’s activities, including all Latino Outreach programs, have been cancelled due to the weather. It is our policy to follow the decisions of Kansas City Kansas Community College for weather-related closings.

Something in the Water

Written by Brooke Coon

Sunday evening I had the great joy of watching Salma, one of the Teens Adelante girls, get baptized. I will never forget sitting on her porch in the intense heat this summer, the only place where we could talk in private. She was asking questions about traditions and liturgy done in quinceaneras (the coming of age party for Hispanic girls) as well as the meaning of baptism. Salma is a fiery, passionate girl, and she doesn't want to do something that she doesn't believe in. But when she is in, she is 100% in. The blessing I've received through Salma has been watching what she decides to put her 100% in. The things that she commits to are becoming more and more righteous.

Sunday night after her baptism, I stopped by her house to drop something off, and she didn't want me to leave. So she corralled Jessica, another teen who lives next door, her little sister followed, and we sat on the floor in her bedroom. She was flipping through her newly gifted pink bible and firing off questions about how God changes us, how we still fall, and how we are a new creation. She talked about what it meant to die with Christ and be resurrected in Him. She talked about how she has started to control her cussing and asked me if there is anyone on earth that has never cussed. She asked if there was anyone who has ever read the entire Bible and I could see in the fire in her eyes that she just couldn't get enough. Suddenly, the Bible had become very real and interesting to her and she couldn't believe all the topics she was coming across.

The girl was on fire for God that night. She was the one asking all the questions and pondering God. I was overwhelmed by her passion (the 100% thing) and I could hardly answer one question before she posed more. I want to say there was something in the water, but I know the truth is that there was something in the blood of Jesus Christ. He has been pursuing Salma and her mom Mayra as well, in the midst of traumatic loss and pain in their family this year. The blood of Jesus has given them new life, and Mayra made that public declaration by being baptized that night, too. Something very special happened in their baptism, and Salma's heart was lighting up her bedroom that night in a way that marveled the other three of us girls.

In other news:

• Mission House, a partner ministry in our neighborhood, hosted a super bowl party that was attended and enjoyed by several Bhutanese people and Bhutanese Outreach staff and volunteers. This type of events is so helpful with establishing genuine friendships with those we seek to minister to.
• The Latino church had our second baptism service on Sunday evening, at which three people were baptized and two children were dedicated.
• The Latino church continues to emphasize discipleship by helping mature believers get paired with new believers in order to help them grow in their faith.
• This is the third week David Stetler will meet with five teenage Bhutanese boys. As they study the life of Jesus together, they've been challenged, and we're hopeful that their faith will grow to the point of trusting Jesus.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for the people on the Disciple Making Team to continue to pursue the individuals in whom they're trying to invest.
• Pray for hunger for growth in the Latino church.

Current needs:

• Some items that have recently been requested in our Resource Center are 3 twin beds, 2 dressers, blankets, a blender, and pots and pans. The Resource Center is also low on cereal and canned soup. To donate any of these items, please contact Molly Merrick at mollym@missionadelante.org or 913-961-2984.

A Beautiful Desire

Written by David Coon

A few months ago, we had a new addition to our worship team. Anthony's story is like many young boys these days. His father is gone, so just he and his mom make up his family. I constantly see how he seeks approval and love from the men at Mission Adelante. He has boundless energy and often does things to get attention. However, more than anything, he loves to drum!

Since Anthony has started playing with our team, he has brought so much enthusiasm and joy to the group. He has been playing the djimbe (hand drum) with us and is by far the most talented 8 year old drummer I’ve ever met. I brought up a drum set a couple of weeks ago to let Anthony try out during rehearsal. I was amazed yet again! He played with such enthusiasm and skill! He is an absolute natural on the drum set. Since that day, he hasn't stopped asking when he's going to play drums in the Sunday service because he loved playing them so much. I have to remind myself to be patient with him as he overflows with excitement.

His mom, who sings with our group, often tells him that God is going to do great things with him. If I imagine Anthony in 10 years, I see him in front of a large congregation surrounded by drums and cymbals, playing his heart out. I am blessed to see the beauty of a young boy deeply yearning to use his gifts.

It’s apparent to me now that what Anthony desires is to be needed by the body and to serve in the way he's been made to serve. He needs to know that he matters and that he is a beautifully made child of God, his true Father. He is, in the eyes of Jesus, a precious little one in his great flock.

Current needs:

• Curtains for our classroom windows. As the windows aren't standard sizes, these would best be custom made by someone. If you could purchase the fabric and/or sew the curtains, please contact Marla at marlah@missionadelante.org or 913-281-6274.

Blessings of Children's Ministry

Written by Brooke Coon

On Sunday December 19, a group of Bhutanese and Latino kids, plus a handful of leaders, boarded a big yellow bus bound for Westside Family Church. The Mission Adelante kids were invited to join the Westside kids to sing a couple Christmas songs and bring to life the coming sermon about the joy and wonder of Christmas. Like proud mamas, the leaders had tears in their eyes as the kids began to sing. However, what really moved me was what continued as we sat through the service.

Our kids sat down and another children's choir performed. They vibrantly sang "I'm trading my sorrow for the joy of the Lord." One of the Mission Adelante girls sitting next to me leaned over and asked, "What does trading my sorrows mean?" My heart just melted as I have never heard such an important question from this pre-teen. I whispered back to her, "It means we are giving our sorrow to Jesus, letting him take our sadness from us, and receiving joy from our hope in Him." There are times when you think kids aren't paying attention at all and then there are times when they desire to understand every lyric of a worship song.

As the sermon went on, the congregation passed around a bowl for offerings and commitments for children's programs that Westside has in other countries. The same girl asked me what the bowl was for. After I explained it to her, she told me she had five dollars in her stuff upstairs. The simplicity of her response was beautiful. She didn't need to think about it and she didn't need to ask any more questions. She just knew that there was a need and she wanted to help.

I praise God for these precious moments where we get to witness Mission Adelante’s youth seeking to know Him more. They are the treasures that I store in my heart to keep me going through the daily tasks of children's ministry. There was a beauty that Sunday that spoke to the wonder of God...that He is so complex yet so simple. He is so approachable that even children can grasp the gospel of salvation and peace. He works through every creature, young and old. And oftentimes, the greatest blessing can be when the children reach out and minister to us!

In other news:

• There was a great turnout to the Latino worship community's Christmas Eve service. A highlight of the evening was the open mic time, when about 7 people gave testimony of God's faithfulness to them.
• The Mission Adelante office was closed between Christmas and New Year's Day, which allowed staff members to spend extra time with immigrant friends including Brooke and David Coon, who invited several families to their home on Christmas Eve.
• Lauren Timberlake has begun fundraising to join our staff as the Bhutanese ESL Director. She's already made a great contribution as a volunteer, so we're really eager to have her in the office more!

Prayer needs:

• Praise God with us! The family that we've been praying for during the past few months was finally reunited on New Year's Eve!
• Please pray for the time Jarrett is spending in Qba this week and next, specifically that God will guide the development of the ministry team there during a leader's retreat the rest of this week.
• Join us in asking God for his guidance of our final planning for the upcoming trimester, and for the provision of more volunteers.
• Pray for God's provision of funding for David Coon, Kristen Maxwell, and Lauren Timberlake to join the Mission Adelante staff.

Current needs:

• A drum set, and bass amplifier for our worship team. Please contact David Coon at 913-424-0213 if you can donate any of these items.

Upcoming dates:

• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, January 15 @ 9:00 - Noon. All volunteers are encouraged to attend this Saturday orientation once. Please contact Morgan at morganh@missionadelante.org for more details.
• Volunteer Team Meeting: Monday, January 17 @ 6:30. All volunteers serving during the upcoming trimester are encouraged to attend this meeting in preparation of the launch.
• L.I.T. resumes: Monday, January 17.
• Bhutanese Outreach Trimester Launch: Tuesday, January 18 @ 6:30
• Latino Outreach Trimester Launch: Thursady, January 20 @ 6:30

Happy Birthday, Jesus

Written by Caroline Meek

On Sunday, December 12, the children’s church group at Mission Adelante had a birthday party celebrating Jesus’ birth. On that fun-filled night, the kids learned that reading the Bible and learning about Jesus can be fun and exciting. They discovered the importance of giving, and grasped the idea that Christmas is not all about presents, cookies, and snow. They played relay races and learned the real story of the Candy Cane and how it represents Jesus’ suffering and purity.

They played games such as the snowman relay race where they worked as teams to decorate a team member as a snowman before time ran out. This was challenging because they all had to cooperate and the toilet paper kept breaking! Another game required them to patiently balance 2-4 peppermints on a small plastic spoon while walking to the other side of the room and back.

When game time was over, the kids got to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and celebrate with a piece of birthday cake. The kids thought it was great and they had lots of fun honoring Jesus on his birthday and learning more about Him.

In other news:

• Thanks, Westside Family Church, for inviting our community kids to join your choir for the "Rock the World" services, and for the wonderful hospitality you showed to our group while there.

Prayer needs:

• Pray for immigrant families that are separated from one another, which is especially difficult during the holidays.
• Pray for God to provide abundant funding for Mission Adelante's ministry and for staff salaries through year-end gifts. About 25% of our annual budget is typically funded by year-end contributions.
• Pray for God to provide more volunteers for all of our outreach programs, but particularly for Latino and Bhutanese kids ministries.
• Pray for our Teens Adelante volunteers to continue to embrace a vision for investing their lives in individual Latino teens.
• Pray for security, productivity, and strengthening of relationships during Jarrett's trip to Qba during the first half of January.

Upcoming dates:

• Mission Adelante will be closed Friday December 24 through Saturday, January 1.
• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, January 15, 9:00-12:30 at Mission Adelante

Great Wolf Lodge: A Dream Come True!

Written by Megan McDermott

The children of Leaders in Training, our after-school tutoring and character development program, wait anxiously all year for one thing: Great Wolf Lodge! They know that after all of their faithful attendance, scripture memory, dedication to their studies, and hard work, they will earn a coveted trip to the incredible indoor water park. One of my favorite parts of the trip is the moment when the kids see the park for the first time. It's hard to imagine what they are expecting but it's incredible to see their little faces light up with the realization that their hard work paid off.

Oftentimes, their lives are wrought with broken promises and inconsistency. At a young age, they can lose hope that their dreams and efforts will be spent chasing impossible goals. Many children give up before they even start and as I have seen first hand within our community, witnessing the dreams of a child be extinguished is heart wrenching. LIT is a way for the kids to hold onto their dreams and to have the support they need as they work towards them. Great Wolf is a tangible, real goal that they can achieve and it gives them the confidence to keep fighting for their future.

The Great Wolf trip is also a chance for us to go deeper with the kids in their pursuit of the Lord. This year, we focused our teaching and fellowship time on the importance of a quiet time. Many of the kids had never been taught this before and we explored how reading the word, journaling, praying, worshiping, using art, and even just taking a walk are all intimate ways to form a real relationship with the Lord. It was truly a time led by the Holy Spirit as the kids realized how much the Lord desires to walk with them everyday!

The following day at church, one of the student's mom approached me and asked me what I had done to her son at Great Wolf. When I asked why, she told me he had awakened that morning and asked if their whole family could pray together around the kitchen table before they started their day. He desired to have a quiet time with his family! She was unbelievably proud of her son and grateful for the ways that God is pursuing his heart.

I thank all of you for your prayers that were answered in powerful ways as the LIT kids were able to escape into the arms of the Lord last weekend!

In other news:

• The Mission Adelante Christmas parties went great! About 300 people attended the Latino party on Saturday. It was a packed house and Jarrett Meek shared a message about God's interruption into people's daily routines and troubled lives with the birth of Jesus. About 130 people attended the Bhutanese party on Sunday, which created a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. David Stetler shared about God's interest in knowing people of all social classes equally, illustrated by the announcement of His Son's birth to both the lowly shepherds and the affluent wise men.
• We're grateful for the group from Shoal Creek Church that brought desserts to share and entertained the kids with planned activities during the Latino Christmas party on Saturday.
• Latino and Bhutanese kids from Mission Adelante have been practicing special songs and are eager to join a kids choir to sing for the 10:00 and 11:30 services at Westside Family Church this Sunday. If you don't have a place to worship this Sunday, they would love to have you in the audience!
• Thanks to Mill Creek Church and Heartland Community Church, we've received enough winter coats to meet the need of our community for this winter. Thanks to everyone who donated coats or rounded them up and delivered them!
• The twelve flash drives that we requested for our L.I.T. students have also been generously supplied by a donor. We're so thankful for donors through whom God provides for our needs!

Prayer needs:

• Please pray for God's provision of the necessary funding for David Coon to join the Mission Adelante staff as an apprentice.
• Pray for the members of the Latino disciple making team to be courageous and faithful as they put into practice the things they've been trained on during the past six weeks.

Current needs:

• More adults' and children's winter clothing, hats, gloves, and shoes to stock our resource center.
• Paper towels and rolls of 55 gallon trash bags for use in our facility.

Upcoming dates:

• Mission Adelante will be closed Friday December 24 through Saturday, January 1.
• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, January 15, 9:00-12:30 at Mission Adelante

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!

The Lord Restores Teens' Identities at a Recent Retreat

Written by Brooke Coon, Teens Adelante leader

There is something about being outside of my comfort zone that has always appealed to me. Over time I realized that it was because I draw nearer to Him out of my fear of the unknown territory. In the same way, eleven of our Teens Adelante members signed up for a weekend retreat two weekends ago into uncharted waters. They agreed to give up their weekend to stay at a church in Liberty, with another teen group they hadn't met before, to support a service project and spend time learning about their identity in Christ. I could sense their fears as they asked many questions about it. One of the girls was calling me in the final two days leading up to the retreat, backing out, then changing her mind, then finally admitting that there was something spiritual that she was afraid of. She ended up facing that fear.

The heart of the retreat was Saturday night. It is what we were all afraid of: the moments when Jesus punctures our hearts to let the brokenness out. We each traced our body on a big sheet of clean white paper, and filled it in with our responses to statements about ourselves. “I feel most free when... What I hear in my head when I am all alone is... I feel most like hiding when...” We split into our committed discipleship groups to discuss what we had drawn. The statements were shining a light into dark, crippled places. I was amazed at the honesty I saw in their responses. Some were joyous. Many were painful.

When we got into our groups we began to talk about which statements were the hardest to finish. The tears began to flow as the Lord was pulling things out of the girls, into the light...memories, along with the lies the enemy encrypted in them, and the fears that they formed. They were ugly and heart-wrenching to hear. But what I realized in that very next moment, was how blessed they were that the Lord wants to heal these scars and the behaviors and beliefs that they have adopted as a result. At their young age, he is cleansing them to keep them from claiming those memories as a part of their identity; to take away the crutches and let them walk healed.

Sometimes it takes years to let Jesus into certain areas of pain, but Saturday night felt like an aggressive outpouring of grace. He wasn't going to wait anymore. He dove straight into the hearts of those girls to retrieve what is His; their whole hearts, free of pain and fear. It is a gift to feel the compassion that He feels for them, and to realize that He feels that same way for me. It is like learning in reverse; to see the way the Lord loves them, to feel the way my heart aches for them, and know that it is from the Lord, the same ache he has for me, and for all of us.

The Lord blessed our retreat. He blessed my group for facing their fears and drawing near to Him. He blessed their desire to complete those piercing statements about themselves in truth. The Holy Spirit gave them courage and support around them to go to those places. It was their choice to go into the unknown, and it resulted in a big victory for His kingdom. He exposed darkness in their hearts, allowing space for the Lord's feelings about them. There is now an honesty I see among my group; open hearts. After that weekend together, I have seen their relationships deepen, and I sense the joy that comes from the hope we have in healing; the truth that will continue to transform these girls and the rest of Teens Adelante this trimester.

In other news:

• Our weekly Latino church service has an energetic atmosphere, with at least 40 adults consistently in attendance.
• Our ministry connection in Qba is four weeks into a training program to equip 20 enthusiastic new disciple-makers.
• We welcome Courtney Colin from Westside Family Church, our new intern in the Latino kids outreach.
• Seth Sears, former Mission Adelante apprentice and missionary to Costa Rica, has just arrived back in Kansas City for about a month to work on fundraising.
• Sargent Smith of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department will present a seminar on October 9 on gang awareness and prevention in our neighborhood to educate parents and volunteers.

Prayer needs:

• We're praising God for a wonderful Five-Year Anniversary Open House last Saturday. At least 180 people came in spite of the rain to help us celebrate all God accomplished in the first five years of Mission Adelante's ministry.
• Praise God for Musselman & Hall Contractors, who patched big crumbling areas in the pavement on our driveway.
• Please ask God to grant us wisdom in planning our goals and priorities for 2011.
• Help us pray for a strong financial finish to 2010 for the general fund and staff accounts.

Current needs:

• Kids and adults winter clothing and outerwear and kids winter shoes to make available in our resource center as the weather changes.

Leaders in Training: Changing Our Community From the Inside Out!

Written by Megan McDermottHow do you choose, from among 60 amazing kids, the ones that God has a heart to grow into leaders? This is the question I ask myself each year as our team prepares for Leaders in Training, our after school character development and tutoring program. The purpose of LIT is two-fold: to provide academic support and to teach the children how to be positive leaders in a challenging environment.

The reality that the children of Mission Adelante live in is foreign to most of us. On a daily basis, they are confronted with difficulties pertaining to abuse, drugs, purity, violence, gang involvement, and even separation from family members due to immigration issues. Because of this instability, the children often harden their hearts to God in order to survive the constant emotional turmoil they endure.

Leaders in Training was started to reach these children at a young age and equip them with the skills and faith necessary to change their community from the inside out. I have seen firsthand how one child with a soft heart toward the Lord can change the faith of her entire family. I have witnessed children that have never felt that they belonged, become part of a family of believers. I have had the privilege to walk with some of the most faithful, loving, selfless, and spiritual people I have ever known and most of them are under the age of 13!
Please pray and praise God with us for these awesome leaders of His kingdom. These children, His children, need a great deal of prayer to continue on the path He desires for them and to not be led astray.
He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. Isaiah 40:11

In other news:

• We became acquainted with over 30 new volunteers from 7 area churches at our Volunteer Orientation last Saturday morning. We're so thankful for each of these folks that is coming on board for this trimester! Praise God for providing each one of them right when we needed them!
• Janoy, a friend that Jarrett and Jason met during their trip to Qba in April, has moved to Kansas City and become part of Mission Adelante. This is another exciting tie between our ministry and the one in Qba.
• Bikash is a native Nepali involved in ministry in Kathmandu. He is presently in Kansas City for church planting training and is working with Mission Adelante's Bhutanese Outreach several hours a week, which is exciting for Outreach Director David Stetler.

Prayer needs:

• The new trimester of Bhutanese Outreach Programs launched Tuesday night, and Latino Outreach Programs will launch tonight. Please pray for a great start for the trimester, and for all the adults and kids to feel warmly welcomed right away.
• The Latino teens are going on their very first retreat this weekend together with the Shoal Creek Church youth group. Please pray for each of them to have openness of spirit as they study their identity in Christ.
• Continue to pray for the families in crisis situations from both the Bhutanese and the Latino communities. They're facing a variety of very great difficulties, and we believe that sustained prayer is one of the greatest ways we can support them.

Current needs:

• Vacuum cleaners are greatly needed by Bhutanese refugee families, who are living in carpeted homes for the first time, and attempt to sweep the carpet with brooms.
• The Resource Center is very low on food right now. The items that are most needed are non-perishable staples such as cereal, peanut butter, pasta, and canned foods.

Upcoming dates:

• Five-Year Anniversary Open House: Saturday, September 25, 2:00-5:30 at Mission Adelante. Everyone's invited!

Mission Adelante Anniversary Open House

Mission Adelante is celebrating five years of ministry in Kansas City, Kansas! You're invited to join us in celebrating God's work in our community over the last five years and honor the partners who have played a significant role in our ministry's growth.

We'll celebrate on September 25, 2010 with an open house at Mission Adelante, located at 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102, beginning at 2:00 and lasting until 5:30 with a special program at 3:30 including highlights and recognitions. Enjoy facility tours, refreshments, and carnival games for the kids! Please RSVP if you're able to come to morganh@missionadelante.org, indicating how many will attend.

In other news:

• Leaders In Training, our tutoring and character development program, began again this week with 12 kids who have demonstrated leadership qualities. This is the third school year we've had L.I.T. Five of the kids are returning from last year, and seven were invited for the first time.
• We're launching into the fall trimester of programs! Adult Bhutanese and Latino English students enrolled this week, we'll train our new volunteers this Saturday, and our programs launch next week!
• Teens Adelante is transitioning from a large-group format to smaller discipleship groups, and the teens are looking forward to a fall retreat in conjunction with the Shoal Creek youth group in a few weeks.

Prayer needs:

• Praise God for the first fruit in the Bhutanese ministry, with the first member of that community professing faith in Christ this week!
• Pray for God to bring additional volunteers with hearts to serve the immigrant population.
• Please continue to pray for several Bhutanese and Latino families that are facing a variety of crises.

Current needs:

• Vacuum cleaners for Bhutanese refugees, who are living in carpeted homes for the first time, and attempt to sweep the carpet with brooms.
• A washing machine, a couch, a refrigerator, and a blender have recently been requested by families visiting our Resource Center. Please contact Molly Merrick at 913-961-2984 to coordinate drop-off of any of these items.

Upcoming dates:

• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, September 11, 9:00-12:30 at Mission Adelante.
• Volunteer Team Meeting for all volunteers serving this fall: Monday, September 13, 6:30-8:00 at Mission Adelante.
• Bhutanese Fall Trimester Launch: Tuesday, September 14, 6:30 at Mission Adelante and other locations.
• Latino Fall Trimester Launch: Thursday, September 16, 6:30 at Mission Adelante and other locations.
• Five-Year Anniversary Open House: Saturday, September 25, 2:00-5:30 at Mission Adelante.

Introducing Kristen Maxwell: Director of Bhutanese Kids Outreach!

Written by David Stetler

With the overwhelming growth of the Bhutanese Outreach, ending the experimental season for this ministry came much earlier than we had planned. With this new and exciting development I am thrilled to share with you the recent acceptance of a new appointee here at Mission Adelante, Kristen Maxwell.

Kristen started as a volunteer in our Bhutanese Kids Program at the launch of this ministry and since then has proven that her heart for kids and people of other cultures, as well as her love for the Lord, runs very deep. In the past, she has consistently pursued opportunities to demonstrate the compassion and hospitality of Christ to those who feel like outsiders in our city.

Kristen has a unique set of gifts, skills, and experiences that make her an exceptional candidate for this new role as the Director of the Bhutanese Kids Outreach. People who know Kristen well talk about her love for kids, her whole-hearted investment in what she’s called to, her creativity as a teacher, and her skill as an administrator. Kristen’s commitment to serving Christ, her passion for sharing her life with the “stranger in our midst”, and her strong competencies as a teacher will make, and have already made, a significant impact on the families we serve. We are very excited about what the Lord will do in Kristen as well as what He will do through her in the Mission Adelante community.

Kristen's involvement is already wide spread with continued administration and organization of Kids Club, as well as deepening friendships with the kids - sharing the love of Christ to these wonderful boys and girls through both word and deed. I am so excited about this growing ministry, this new role and the passionate, servant-minded, competent leader that the Lord has called to guide and expand the Bhutanese Kids Outreach.

In other news:

• Mission Adelante is celebrating five years of ministry in Kansas City, Kansas! You're invited to join us for an open house at 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS from 2:00 until 5:30 on Saturday, September 25, with a special program beginning at 3:30.
• Daylin Rodriguez and some folks from Emmanuel Baptist Church presented a bilingual parenting workshop last weekend. Two Mission Adelante participants who were in attendance received Christ during the seminar!
• Enjoy the Kansas City Wizards soccer game on September 11th and support Mission Adelante! Purchase your tickets online using the following link, type in the special offer code, "mission," and a portion of the proceeds from every ticket will go to Mission Adelante. Buy tickets!
• Our Resource Center has been teeming with people coming to receive food, clothing, and other necessities on Saturday mornings.

Prayer needs:

• God has answered our prayers for two families that have spent more than the past month dealing with crises. We're so thankful that God has delivered them from a major problem, and they've been reunited with one another.
• Please continue to pray with us for two families in our church community that are still facing separation and crisis situations.
• Praise God! Alberto, a member of our church community for whom we had asked for prayer, passed his United States Citizenship interview and is awaiting his swearing-in ceremony!

Current needs:

• Paper grocery sacks for resource distribution in our Resource Center.
• Cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, and dry pasta for distribution through our Resource Center.

Upcoming dates:

• Volunteer Orientation- Saturday, September 11, 9:00-12:30 at Mission Adelante
• Volunteer Team Meeting- Monday, September 13, 6:30-8:30 at Mission Adelante
• Bhutanese Fall Trimester Launch- Tuesday, September 14, 6:30
• Latino Fall Trimester Launch- Thursday, September 16, 6:30
• Mission Adelante Five-Year Anniversary Open House- Saturday, September 25, 2:00-5:30 at Mission Adelante

Beyond an Experience

Written by Jill Berghaus

In January, when I was struck with the desire to serve the Lord and speak Spanish this summer, I had no idea that the Lord was planning on changing my entire life for His sake. My name is Jill Berghaus and I am one of the three interns working at Mission Adelante this summer.

I started off this internship without any knowledge of or experience with Mission Adelante. I have lived in Lenexa, Kansas my entire life and the thought of heading north to the urban core of Kansas City was practically a joke (but not a funny one) to me. To be completely honest, I was terrified of the unknown and the thought of “change” did not seem appealing to me. I couldn’t imagine a place outside beautiful, sheltered “Suburbia”. But, as I have experienced, the Lord does not call me to be comfortable but to be confident in Him. So packed up my bags and headed north.

My heart fell in love with this community within hours of my arrival. From the moment I interacted with the members of the community, I felt loved and welcomed with open, multi-cultural arms. I have always been a people person and loved social interaction but I had no idea that slowly but surely this community would become my family, mi familia. I was able to visit many people at home this summer and every single time the families would drop everything to talk with me. They wanted so badly to help me with my Spanish and would put off their evening plans to make sure I got enough practice. These visits became essential to my ability to get through this internship spiritually and emotionally. The Lord provided me support from people that wanted a friend just as much as I needed one.

I have been able to celebrate, grieve, struggle, and pray with mi familia here. The biggest lesson that I have learned this summer is that in missions, you cannot leave your job. Mission is a lifestyle that can dig into your soul so deeply that the only way to handle it is by crying out to our Lord for His strength and comfort. My relationship with our Creator has deepened more than I could have ever asked for; he captured my heart this summer and opened up my eyes to a world that is so real that it hurts…in a powerful and strengthening way. I have seen first hand the lives of immigrants here and how difficult life can be. Their situation has changed from something that I had only heard about to something that affects me personally, and they've become people that I have grown to love deeply. I have learned that life is all about perseverance; that I need to continue to fight the world for my time with the Lord and I need to fight for mi familia and their well being here. Life is never going to be easy and there will always be struggle, but the amazing promise of the Lord is that He will fight along side us and take weight off of our load.

In other news:

• The Mission Adelante summer internship is winding down this week and next. We've been very blessed by Andrew, Jill, and Rachel, the three young adults that have spent the past couple of months with us.
• Congratulations Holly Stetler on graduating and passing medical boards! Holly is now a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Prayer needs:

• Praise God! A Latino married couple that hadn't come to church in months appear to have been won back by our faithfulness to their kids, and have been back in church the past couple of Sundays. Pray that God would fuel a hunger in them to know Him.
• The Latino teen girls and teen guys have their final summer Bible studies this week. Please pray that the lessons they've learned will remain with them and guide their choices.
• Please continue to pray for God's mercy upon 4 families dear to our community. Each of these families is presently separated from one another due to a variety of situations. Please pray for them to be reunited.

Current needs:

• Weekly meals for Leaders In Training students and tutors (22 people) on Mondays and Tuesdays beginning September 7. In past years, groups of friends have made a joint effort to provide the meal on a particular weekday. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org if you can fill this need.
• Leaders In Training volunteers also beginning September 7 for Mondays and Tuesdays from 4:00 - 6:30, and Wednesdays from 3:00 - 6:30. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.
• Volunteers to work with Bhutanese kids on Tuesday evenings beginning September 14. Please e-mail David at davids@missionadelante.org for more information.

Important upcoming dates:

• Saturday, August 14, 5:00: Bhutanese End of Trimester Party @ Bethany Community Center
• Sunday, August 15, 5:00: Latino End of Trimester Party @ Wyandotte County Lake Park
• Saturday, September 25: Mission Adelante Five Year Anniversary Celebration @ Mission Adelante Headquarters

Stop! What does the Bible say?

Written by Jason Schoff

Stop! Too many times we fail to study the Bible before we consider how to address the issues of our day. One issue very dear to our heart here at Mission Adelante is the question of immigrants and how the church should respond to them. What does the bible say about immigration? This must be the starting point. How many sermons have you heard preached on immigrants? I can honestly say I had never considered the issue prior to joining with Jarrett Meek in 2005, much less listened to a sermon on the topic. Did you know the answers to our questions about the immigrant are spread throughout the Old Testament as well as the New Testament?

We invited Dr. Daniel (Danny) Carroll, distinguished professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary, to address our volunteers and friends this past weekend. He wrote the book, "Christians at the Border" and his 2.5 hour morning session led us to look at the lives of Abraham, Joseph, Ruth, Daniel, Nehemiah, and others who were all immigrants on the move. We also examined the OT law and its provisions for the foreigner as well as the teachings from the New Testament. Compassion, provision and justice all address the ways God provides for the immigrant, and he chooses to use us in the process. Danny emphasized reading the complete canon of the bible in context to answer the question of the immigrant and immigration and letting this change the way we shape the laws and our views of immigrants.

"It's okay to try and change the law because we do it all the time." This is the reality of the democracy we live in. Why wouldn't we change the laws to reflect God's values? Our laws have been discriminatory toward the Chinese in the late 1800's, the Irish and Italians in the early 1900's, and the Mexican migrants during the Depression. Perhaps we should consider our current laws and see if they are prejudiced in any way. The last major comprehensive legislation passed in 1965 and was signed into law by President Johnson. There are many pieces of legislation being considered today. One is the Dream Act, which provides a path to legal status for kids who complete high school, have lived in the US five years, and enter the military or complete two years of college. Otherwise these kids would be left with no option but to flip burgers all their lives or return to a country that they hardly know. What would God say about this? I would encourage all of us to read Danny's book and also to look even deeper into scripture and pray for God to guide us. Stop! Consider this for more than just a day because an immigrant considers it daily. Putting real life stories to this debate changes the lenses through which we see immigrants amongst us.

Investigating alongside you,
Jason Schoff

In other news:

• A group of more than 20 volunteers visiting our area from Colorado was loaned to us by Marcia Merrick, whom they were serving alongside, to join many from our community and help a Latino family move last week. We were so grateful for the unexpected help, which made fast work of the move.
• Friday evening, about 75 people belonging to our Latino church community gathered for pot-luck dinner and fellowship at the Meeks' home and to get acquainted with Danny Carroll. This type of social gathering does so much to energize our body of faith.

Prayer needs:

• Please pray for God's mercy upon 4 families dear to our community. Each of these families is presently separated from one another due to a variety of situations. Please pray for them to be reunited.
• We're approaching the busy end of another trimester here at Mission Adelante. Please pray for God's hand to be over us, the staff, as we complete the tasks He's set before us.

Current needs:

• A twin bed.

Upcoming dates:

• Saturday, August 14, 5:00: Bhutanese End of Trimester Party @ Bethany Community Center
  
• Sunday, August 15, 5:00: Latino End of Trimester Party @ Wyandotte County Lake Park
• Saturday, September 25: Mission Adelante Five Year Anniversary Celebration @ Mission Adelante Headquarters