2009 MISSION EXPERIENCES

February 11-25, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to Thailand
Hosting Missionaries: Chuck & Ruth Fox
Estimated cost per person: $2000
Limit of mission team participants: 8
Trip application deadline: November 21, 2008
Contact Mission Leader-Kerry Hassler (kerryhassler@comcast.net) for more information

Needs:

• The "Ban Huai Namkhum Phattana" Akha village near Chiang Rai, Thailand needs a clean water supply for the 99 men, women, and children who live in its 19 households.
• The Chiang Rai "Family Learning Center" (FLC) Christian international school for English-speaking K-12 students needs help with teaching and administrative staff assistance
• The Chiang Rai New Life Center (NLC) is in need of volunteers who can teach Akha women sheltered there various crafts skills, as well as possibly teaching them English.
  

The 2009 Thailand Mission Trip will give you the opportunity to:

• Work with Church Fox, Akha villagers, and in-country Thai volunteers to construct and Akha village clean water system.
• Work with Ruth Fox to provide assistance to Chiang Rai FLC teachers and staff.
• Work with Ruth Fox to teach crafts and/or English to Chiang Rai NLC Akha women.
• Stretch your life to use your talents and abilities by helping people in need.
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ through Bible study and prayer.
• Make new friends and build lasting relationships with ABCRM mission team members and in-country people you meet.

Trip Requirements

• Age 18 or over
• In good physical condition if helping to build the clean water system
• Have teaching, story-telling, and/or crafts skills if helping with FLC or NLC projects
• Flexible and willing to try new things

April 19-25, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to Murrrow Indian Children's Home
Hosting Missionary: Joan Brown
Estimated cost per person: $225 (plus meals and incidentals)
Limit of mission team participants: 8
Trip application deadline: February 16, 2009
Contact Mission Leader-Jenita Calton (mjmjpack@vcn.com) for more information

Participants will have the opportunity to assist the Murrow Staff in providing for the spiritual, physical, and emotional need of the children by:

• Work to maintain the 17 acres Murrow is situated on.
• Assist with general building maintenance such as painting.
• Perform repairs and maintenance on tractors.

Participants will also be able to:

• Investigate the cultural heritage of Native Americans by visiting the local museums.
• Enjoy the beautiful wildflowers of Oklahoma at their peak.
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ by fellowshipping with other team members and the children at Murrow.

Trip Details

• Leaver early afternoon on Sunday, April 19 from ABCRM office
• Return late evening on Saturday, April 25
• 4.5 days to work on site

May 9-16, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to the Bahamas
Hosting Missionaries: Daniel & Estela Schweissing
Estimated cost per person: $1600
Limit of mission team participants: 6
Trip application deadline: February 9, 2009
Contact Mission Leader-Richard Schweissing (rschweissing@msn.com) for more information

Purpose:

Emmaus Haitian Baptist Church has only a sanctuary with a small crowded lean-to in the back. Children come to the after school program because their parents do not speak English and cannot help them. They must use the seats of the pews as desktops for writing.
Haitian immigrant women with noskills come to a sewing class and set up sewing machines on tables no larger than TV trays in the aisles. Estela and Daniel carry the equipment and supplies for both programs back and forthe from their residence each day.

The 2009 Bahamas Mission Trip will give you the opportunity to:

• Work with others to contstruct multi-use pews that can be converted to tables during the week for both seing classes and after school programs. If time permits cabinets will be contsructed for storage.
• Stretch your life to use your talents and abilities by helping people in need
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ through Bible study and prayer
• Make new friends and build lasting relationships with ABCRM mission team members and Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas
  

Trip Requirements

• Age 18 or over
• Able to do carpentry (building multi-use pews), staining, and/or job clean up tasks
• Flexible and willing to try new things

Watch for more experiences to come. ABCRM is hoping to travel on 5-6 mission experiences in 2009.

2009 Mission Experiences to be Announced at 2008 ABCRM Gathering

The ABCRM Missions Team will be announcing the 2009 ABCRM Mission Experiences at the 20008 ABCRM Annual Gathering in Cheyenne, WY. There will be two workshops centered around the ABCRM Missions Team and the workshop on Saturday morning will be the workshop that the 2009 trips will be announced. Please come join us for this amazing weekend in wonderful Wyoming. You can find more information at http://abcrm.org/2008gathering.htm. Come, enjoy the fun!

June 27-30 – ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Project in Pleven and Bulgaria Sight-Seeing

After spending the previous five days in Guliantsi, early Friday June 27 the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team left our temporary Guliantsi Baptist Church home for the nearby city of Pleven to complete our last in-country project at an orphanage there. The many sunflower fields we passed along the way reflected the bright morning sun. What a beautiful sight!

Our Bulgaria mission team soon arrived at the Pleven orphanage, met the orphanage’s acting director, and started assembling the new playground equipment (paid for by ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip funds) and painting the orphanage’s fence. Thankfully, temperatures at the orphanage were a lot cooler than in Gulliantsi and we complete fence-painting by later afternoon.




Also, some of our mission team members enjoyed spending time with some of the kids who live at the Pleven orphanage. Although most of the children were away at a summer camp being held on the eastern shore of Bulgaria, the special-needs kids who needed to stay behind greeted us with big smiles and hugs. Although we didn’t share the same language, our mission team communicated with these kids through a language of genuine care and love for them.


Later on Friday after finishing our projects at the Pleven orphanage, the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team started the Bulgaria sight-seeing part of our trip by going with the Myers family, Katya, and Pepi to the central Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo, a city that dates back to 300 BC and the medieval capital of Bulgaria. After staying overnight in 200-year-old house converted to an inn in the nearby village of Arbanassi, the mission team walked through the ruins of the Bulgaria fortress that was captured by Turkish Muslims on July 17, 1393, beginning the 500-year reign of Bulgaria by the Turkish Ottoman Empire until Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878. The view from the church built above the old fortress in the 1900’s gave the mission team a wonderful view of Veliko Tarnovo that may Bulgarians call the most beautiful city in Bulgaria.


On Saturday evening, we arrived back in Sofia from Veliko Tarnovo after making a visit to the small village of Etera with its many hand-made crafts shops, as well briefly stopping to see the beautiful “Shipka” Greek Orthodox cathedral at another place along the way. We now had only one full day left of our mission trip. It was amazing how quickly our time went by in Bulgaria!


Our last Sunday in Bulgaria was spent by first attending again the Sofia Baptist Church with the Myers family. Team leader Kerry Hassler briefly spoke to the congregation about our ABCRM mission trip, and extended greetings and prayers for the church’s well-being from fellow Christians in the Rocky Mountain Region. After the service, our mission team traveled with the Myers family to see one of the most popular sights in Bulgaria, the Rila Monastary, located in one of the highest mountainous areas of this country. First founded in the 10th Century, the monastery is a masterpiece of “Bulgarian national Revival architecture’, and still is an orthodox school of theology today. We ended the day with a a farewell party at the Myers home in Sofia, that also included Pastor Ivan and his family along with our dear friend, Katya. Our ABCRM mission team members will miss them all!


Early Monday, June 30, the Bulgaria mission team members flew from Sofia to return to the U.S. and (for some) other locations. Many thanks to the ABCRM mission team members who heard the message of “Been Called? GO!” and responded by participating in our region’s June 19-30 2008 Bulgaria Mission Experience. Thanks also to all those in the ABC Rocky Mountain Region who provided funding for the team’s Bulgaria in-country projects through “ABC Missions Basics” contributions from their respective churches Lastly, the mission team is indebted to ABCRM special-interest missionaries Tom and Terry Myers for coordinating and leading our June 19-30 ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip. It provided a wonderful mission experience for us all!

June 22-26 – ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Experiences and Projects in Guliantsi

After traveling in two vans from Sofia to Guliantsi with the Myers family and Sofia Baptist Church member Katya Raichinova during the afternoon of Sunday, June 21, the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team met Pastor Ivan Vassileff, wife Teddi, and their children at the Guliantsi Baptist Church for the first time later that afternoon. We moved into our guest sleeping quarters in the upper levels of the church, prepared for the first day of Vacation Bible School on Monday, and helped celebrate Teddi’s birthday with cake and ice cream later that evening in the church sanctuary. It was a wonderful way to start our 5-day mission team’s stay in Guliantsi to do our VBS and work projects!

On Monday morning, we were happy to see that over 20 Roma Bulgarian kids from ages 4 through 14 showed up for our first Vacation Bible School class. We made out name-tags for the kids (and our mission team), Sherry and Karla took photos of each kid for the “flat Charlie” paper-doll craft they would make later in the week, and Katya began the first session by leading singing VBS-type songs that included kids and adults. Katya was fantastic at getting everyone energized through our singing!

Next, some of the mission team members did a skit for the kids about Jesus making his first disciples “fishers of men” using costumes brought from the Laramie Baptist Church VBS sessions, followed by a time for crafts and games. The first day’s VBS session ended around noon with Katya leading more singing with the kids, talking about God and lessons taught by Jesus, and then the kids were given a snack and fruit drink. This first day’s schedule of VBS activities would generally be followed through the rest of the VBS sessions ending on Thursday.

After enjoying lunch at a nearby Guliantsi restaurant, the Bulgaria mission team walked several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to the preschool where our schoolyard renovation project for them was done in the afternoons. These included putting together new playground equipment purchased for/delivered to the preschool using budgeted 2008 ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip project, and painting of the preschool’s playground equipment and fence using paint also purchased from these same ABCRM funds. Despite daily afternoon temperatures in the high 90’s, the mission team completed these projects with help from the Myers and Vassileff family members, Katya, several Guliantsi Baptist Church volunteers, teenager Chrisie who lived in Pleven, and the director of the preschool, Matzidana Dasuvosa. One of the Guliantsi Church volunteers “Emo” (who had his own construction business in Guliantsi) helped improve the preschool by replacing wooden playground benches. The completed painting made the playground look alive with color again, and we could see the kids were happy with the results. A local Guliantsi TV station brought a reporter and video cameraman to the preschool on Monday to write a news story about our ABCRM mission trip preschool project shown later that same day. We were told that many people in this town of about 5000 inhabitants were in general amazement that a Baptist mission team from America had come so far to improve a preschool and the Baptist church in their city.



The other main Bulgaria mission team’s project in Guliantsi was to improve the grounds of Pastor Ivan’s church by spreading gravel over the area used for car-parking. This was another task made more difficult by the high daily temperatures. With shoveling and raking contributions by Dwight, Kerry, Tom, AJ, Nathan, Pastor Ivan, Emo, and particularly Kent on our last day of this project on Thursday, we were able to finish this task from Tuesday through Thursday. Church visitors were now had a designated place to park their cars at the church.

The Guliantsi Baptist Church VBS sessions led by Katya continued through Thursday with puppet shows and skits involving the ABCRM mission team along with the Myer’s kids AJ and Nathan, and Vassileff family teenagers Pepie and Monie. During the middle part of the VBS daily sessions, the kids did new crafts and games provided by the mission team every day. These kids worked hard to complete their crafts with materials brought from ABCRM churches in Colorado and Wyoming. The kids especially enjoyed doing water-related games in the churchyard to cool off from the daily high temperatures. On Thursday morning, we held out last VBS class, and said good-byes to the kids we had gotten to know during the week. It was a sad parting for all of us!



On Thursday afternoon, we returned for the last time to the Guliantsi preschool several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to complete the painting of playground equipment and the preschool’s fence. The preschool’s director and staff thanked us all for our hard work put in since Monday in very hot temperatures by providing the team members with special Bulgarian food snacks and small gifts, as well as certificates (written in Bulgaria) for each member of our painting team and their respective home church. The director said she wanted to use our mission team’s project to encourage people living in Guliantsi to also do volunteer projects to help improve Guliantsi schools. We all saw how the newly-painted playground and fence sparkled as we left the preschool to walk back to the Guliantsi Baptist Church to spend our last evening there.


After having an evening meal at the Guliantsi Baptist Church with Pastor Ivan, the Vassileff family, Katya, and Emo, we gathered for our last evening fellowship in the church’s main meeting room. After singing several hymns simultaneously together in English and, we finished sharing our testimonies about how we became Christians and are now serving the Lord in various ways. It was especially interesting to listen to Pastor Ivan’s testimony about how he endured persecution as a Christian during the Communist time in Bulgaria, during which he lost his job as a farm manager because of his faith. The ABCRM mission team received gifts of gratitude from Pastor Ivan, and we closed by singing “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”. Tomorrow we’ll go to Pleven to do our last mission team work-project to paint a fence and assemble new playground equipment at an orphanage there. Our Bulgaria mission trip is almost over already!

June 20 and 21 -- First Two Days’ Experiences in Bulgaria with ABC-IM Missionaries Tom and Terry Myers

Greetings everyone from Bulgaria! The 6-person Bulgaria ABCRM mission team (Sherry Wilson and Karla Davis from FBC of Laramie, Kent Oakes from Calvary Baptist Denver, and Dwight and Aladine Neuenschwander and trip leader Kerry Hassler from FBC Boulder) arrived in Sofia midday on Friday, June 20 after flying from Denver the previous day. We were greeted at the Sofia airport by our hosts ABC-IM missionaries Tom and Terry Myers (ABCRM special-interest missionaries), who promptly took us to our Sofia hotel to get a few hours of immediate rest after our long 14-hour trip.

Later that evening, our mission team gathered at Tom and Terry’s home to sort out materials and puppets we brought along for the following week’s Vacation Bible School our team is helping to conduct at the Baptist Church in Guliantsi. The church is about 2 hours north of Sofia. The VBS will be taught along with Tom, Terry, AJ, and Nathan, and interpreter Katya Raichinova from the Sofia Baptist Church. We then enjoyed a delicious evening meal prepared by Tom and Terry before retiring early back at the hotel for a much-needed full night’s sleep.


On Saturday morning, June 21, the Bulgaria mission team was transported by Tom and Terry to the Sofia Baptist Church (the Myers’ family church) to meet Pastor Teddy Oprenov. Pastor Teddy showed the group the new 5-story Sofia Baptist Church building (still under construction) that will be used as a multi-functional facility for future church services as well as for community outreach purposes. It will house a medical/dental staff to provide free exams to the homeless, a high-tech Internet café, shops for in-need women who sell craft items for income, rentable business meeting rooms, and a computer training center to teach young unemployed Bulgarians the skills necessary to get jobs involving office computer applications.

After the mission team’s tour of the new facility, we talked with Pastor Teddy about details of this visionary $2 million project he has led for the past four years, along with his summary of Bulgarian Baptist Union’s history. It was truly amazing to learn how Pastor Teddy has combined his skills as a church-building planner and innovative pastor to create a new way to spread the Gospel of Christ that have never been seen before in Bulgaria.









On Saturday afternoon, Tom and Terry gave the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team a tour of downtown Sofia, including stops at the statue of Saint Sofia, the former Soviet headquarters during Communist rule, the current building housing offices of the President of Bulgaria, the National Arts Center, and the 1600-year-old St. George’s Orthodox Christian church. With Bulgaria being a member of the European Union (EU) since early 2007, the mission team saw examples of the many new buildings and municipal construction projects that have been stimulated by foreign investments now coming into Bulgaria. Although there are still many smaller cities in Bulgaria who are suffering from high unemployment in post-Soviet times, Sofia is rapidly evolving into a modern city comparable to other major cities in Europe.

On Saturday evening, our mission team again enjoyed sharing an evening meal in Tom and Terry’s home that was joined by Bulgaria ABC-IM missionary Susan Linderman. After eating, Tom shared with us how he and Terry had been called to their Bulgaria ministry in the mid-90’s after spending 18 years doing farming in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Susan (commissioned as an ABC-IM missionary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in early 2006) also told us about her call to first be an English teach at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) in the early 2000’s, and now her new ministry to help in-need women in Bulgaria. What wonderful servants of the Lord are Tom, Terry, and Susan!

On Sunday, June 22, our mission team will attend the Sofia Baptist morning worship service, and then travel by van to Gulliantsi to conduct June 23-26 morning Vacation Bible School sessions in support of Guliantsi Baptist Church under Pastor Ivan Vassileff and wife Tedi. During these afternoons, we’ll be putting together new playground equipment and painting existing equipment and a fence at an elementary school in Guliantsi. On Friday, the mission team will travel by van to the nearby city of Pleven to put together more new playground equipment for an orphanage there. A busy week lies ahead for our Bulgaria team!

Stay tuned for more ABCRM Missions Experiences Blog updates about our mission trip that will be sent from Bulgaria on June 29. Please keep the ABCRM June 19-30 Bulgaria mission team in your thoughts and prayers as we complete our upcoming projects on behalf of ABC-Rocky Mountain region churches and members.

Kerry Hassler
ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Leader