Going to Zambia: How

This is grace.  God's word brought to life.

Our team will be utilizing a Christian travel agency and will get good rates for all our travel needs.  We have several people on a “sending” team that support the mission teams and interact with missionaries that the church supports.  But I need YOU to be part of MY sender team.

Prayers

My friend, Cindy McMahan, immediately volunteered to the leader of my intercessory prayer team.  Cindy is also the logistics person for team going on the mission trip to Zambia this year.  Will you commit to pray for me?

Encouragement

I look forward to hearing from you!  In a way, you will be coming with me on this trip.  It is a long way to get there.  Please help me stay the course.

Fundraisers

Stay tuned for upcoming fundraisers for the team, for the Breath of Heaven Children’s Village, and for me.

Giving

For tax purposes you can submit funds to Grace Chapel of the Coast, 102 N. Freeman Street, Oceanside, CA 92054.  You can also donate through the church website at www.gracechapelofthecoast.com by clicking the "donate" button at the bottom, left-hand corner.  Please send me a message if you donate either way so I can ensure your donation is allocated properly.    See the Going to Zambia: Funding blog for more details.

You can contact me through this blog, my email: cmulligan914@yahoo.com, or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/christine.v.mulligan

Going to Zambia: When and Where

Grace Chapel of the Coast is sending a ministry team to Zambia August 6 – 22, 2013 to work with the children of the Breath of Heaven Children’s Village.  I hope to be part of that ministry team!

The following is from Grace Chapel’s Missions page of their website:

 

Zambia AIDS Orphans

Breath of Heaven Children’s Village is a ministry dedicated to help meeting the needs of a growing orphan population in Lusaka, Zambia. Serving orphans is part of our Biblical commission, as stated in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans…in their distress.”

Their desire is to provide a stable, secure, family like environment that will allow the children to interact with the neighboring community. Breath of Heaven Children’s Village has an immediate mission to develop a children’s village consisting of a community school, clinic, and twelve homes individually set up as family units of a housemother and twelve children.  The first children’s homes opened in 2010.

 

Going to Zambia: Why

Several years ago my husband, Mike, went on a mission trip to Uganda, located on the northern shore of Lake Victoria in Africa.  It was funny that he went to Africa because it was never really Mike’s desire to do that before.  Many, many years before his mission trip to Africa, Mike fully surrendered to God and said, ‘okay, even Africa.’  Because of him allowing God to rule his life, Mike actually got to do something as a ministry that he really enjoyed.  That was playing bass in a Christian rock band.

Fast forward many years, a ministry team was being raised at Grace Chapel of the Coast (my home church) to go to Uganda to build brick buildings in what would be a village for Jajas (elderly people).  Mike went on that trip and wanted to go back ever since.  The stories he told and the pictures I saw brought me close to people I never met.  (A desire started to kindle slowly.) 

I worked a lot of hours as a mid-level manager at a large company.  At the same time I was finishing my college degree.  Still, there was something else that I wanted to do.  I wanted to get involved in different ministries; go on a mission trip to Africa; commit more time to the church… once I was done with school and things settled down at work, of course. 

July 2009, I was let go from my job.  I was determined to find a new job right away and help others do the same in the process.  At church we created a networking group where we could discuss what type of work we do, encourage each other in the job hunting process, and share resources.  During the second meeting we met with a counselor who reminded us that this is a big change in our lives and we will be likely to experience depression and other emotions.  (I had my fair share of it all!)

During that meeting with the counselor he noticed that there were several people from the “recovery community” (Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous) who specialized in working with people who were going through recovery.  What a ministry opportunity!  The Restoration Ministry started at Grace Chapel.  Although it has never been launched as a large outreach of its own, many of the people who were at that meeting with the counselor are called upon for outreach events of all kinds.

The desire to go to Africa continued to grow.  Along with the different types of ministries in which I get involved with from time to time, I realize more and more that God does not always send the equipped, but he does equip the sent.  Every opportunity has helped me to grow spiritually and emotionally.

Grace Chapel has sent a few ministry teams to Zambia over a number of years.  Why Zambia?  We support an orphanage ministry in Zambia through the organization Breath of Heaven.  A pastor from Temecula, CA (less than an hour away from my home church) made Breath of Heaven his full time ministry.  The orphanage continues to grow in buildings, number of children, schooling facilities, sustenance and sustainability projects, and most importantly, believers. 

The children at the village need constant encouragement in order to grow in all aspects of their lives and to break the cycle that keeps them from realizing their potential.  Not only do they need to daily interaction with the village “mothers,” but from the outside as well. 

Matt 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It All Begins with Grace...

“If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?” --G.K. Chesterton