Dear friends,
What a couple of months it has been! I feel like John where I could write continuous pages of what the Lord has done in the lives of people. And this in the space of just a couple of months! I will try and keep this as concise as possible and provide you with some of the highlights.
Thailand – Staff Conference
At the beginning of July I headed to the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand for our staff conference. It was a wonderful occasion to meet staff members from the around the world including Afghanistan, Indonesia, China amongst others. I was really encouraged to get a global vision of our work in these countries as well as to hear really exciting stories of people’s lives being transformed. We have several projects set up which are looking to provide people with long and sustainable development, providing them with real hope for the future. I was given the opportunity to present and give an update on European Mobilization to our staff which led to talks regarding the future possibility of taking short-term teams into new countries.
Middle East – Short term team Compassion trip
My next stop was a stable country in the Middle East where I helped to lead a team of 15 from Europe, the US and Hong Kong. Our main projects consisted of distributing shoes to kids whose families did not have the means to provide them as well as handing out food packs (each one providing a family of six with enough food for a week) to mainly Iraqi and other refugee families.
I would like to share three impact stories with you from this trip:
New Hope for an Iraqi refugee woman…
On our first day of work, we split up into five separate teams and headed out to different places around the capital. I went with a French volunteer Marc-Henri (an unbeliever), a national lady named Lydia as well as two Iraqi believers. One house we visited was inhabited by two Iraqi refugee women. One of the ladies was part of the Sabian cult (followers of John the Baptist). She had fled Iraq with her husband who had been shot as he fled. Once they arrived here, the husband died from his gunshot wound. As the woman explained her story the tears were evident. At the end of our visit, she allowed us to pray for her. As my Arabic is limited (to the point of being non-existent), I didn’t catch much of it but the prayer time was extremely powerful and again the Iraqi woman could not contain her tears. We were then told that the woman had accepted Jesus into her life!
Sudanese refugee man reunited with his family
One of our teams visited a Sudanese family. Once they distributed the food to them, they sat down and talked whilst listening to the family’s story. The mother, with three kids, explained that her husband was in jail as the family could no longer afford to pay rent. He had already served 3 months and was pending trial and if not released would spend another 3 years behind bars for the non-payment. Our team felt led to help and we managed to gather the $500 needed to get the father set free. Once we returned from our trip, we had word from our local director that the father is now back home, reunited with his family. There are many other cases like this, and yet although we can not help everyone we believe that the world can be changed one person at a time. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to help this family.
Mother’s prayer for help answered
The mother of another family that we visited woke up that very morning searching through her kitchen cupboards to find something to feed her kids for the day. They were empty. She could do nothing else put pray to God that He would provide for the needs of the family. She had not been able to give her family breakfast and cried out to God for what to give her kids for lunch. When our team arrived a few hours later, the look in the eyes of the mother spoke volumes. With tears in her eyes she gratefully accepted the food box (with enough food for a week) and explained to the team how their coming was an incredible answer to prayer!
During our time in the Middle East we were able to distribute hundreds of shoes, clothing and food packs that were a blessing to about 1,400 people. On top of this, we saw 9 people of those we helped commit their lives to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Amen!
Humanitarian Bus Tour – Spanish students bringing help and hope in France
From the time I landed in Geneva from the Middle East, I had an hour and a half to get to the train station as I joined a team in Marseille for a two-week adventure with 27 Spaniards. I thank God that there were no hiccups as that was the only train leaving that day.
In Marseille, we partnered with a local organisation called Communauté de la Reconciliation. During our time there we worked in a poor immigrant neighbourhood. We set up various workshops to bring both Hope and Help for the kids in this run-down area including sports, face-painting, board games etc… We were so excited by the hoards of children who turned up with their parents and to see so many smiles on their faces!
Another project in Marseille included the refurbishment of a house which is used to welcome poor and needy immigrants from North Africa.
We then left for a 900 km (600 miles) coach ride to Paris. Each morning we would get together and spend time preparing food packs as well as hygiene bags for the homeless. We then went to various areas in Paris and spent some special moments with the people we came across. Most are in such hopeless and desperate situations with alcohol being their only way of escape. Yet, we were able to spend time with them and to learn more about their hardships. Many were really appreciative that young people would give up their vacation in order to help them. We not only wanted to give them food but also to give them dignity and value as human beings loved by God.
The group also worked in rotations serving in turn with the Salvation Army to give food to the hungry.
Our final stop was Toulouse, another 800 km from Paris. Here we partnered with the Agape Campus team. We worked in some needy areas around the city, including a gypsy village where a lot of poor Romanian families lived. Again, we were able to reach out to them in love (despite the language barriers) by providing fun activities for the kids and food packs. Other teams worked in the city centre of Toulouse building relationships with the homeless. Our partner was extremely encouraged as this compassionate outreach provided them with excellent opportunity to expand their ministry and relationships with the local people.
After two weeks together, we ended the trip by washing each others feet. Even though half of the team were non-believers everyone participated as we wanted to use Christ’s example of humility, service and love. We wanted to encourage the students to live daily lives in serving others as they headed back home.
These past couple of months have been such a blessing. Many people’s lives have been impacted, not just in the lives of those being served but also those in those of who are serving. Personally, I have been so touched and am honoured to be able to serve the Lord in this way. Thank you all so much for being equally part of this through your prayers, encouragement and support.
Shortly, I am off to the States in order to raise needed support again to be able to continue this faith adventure. Thank you for your prayers in this and I will keep you updated. If you do feel led to support me, please respond to my email: rch197@hotmail.com
In Christ’s transforming love,
Richard
