Kenya Book Drive

The children of Kijabe Kenya have no access to a public library.  Our mission partners there, Bryce and Mary Beth Noblitt, are working to bless their community with a children’s library. 

The Missions Committee would like to thank everyone for a successful book drive.  Southside members donated 1,700 books, plus a full box of crayons and colored pencils. 

In addition to being donated, all these books had to be unloaded, sorted, cataloged for customs, packed into boxes, and loaded again.  Many of you helped with this huge project. In combination with three other participating congregations, we now have over 6,000 books in 98 boxes ready to be delivered to Samaritans Purse on Tuesday for transportation to Kenya.

The Noblitts have reported the library space, which has been empty for decades, has been renovated with fresh paint and flooring.  Construction of bookshelves begins this week.  They look forward to blessing their community in a way they have not been blessed before.

You may keep up with the Noblitt’s at kenyahear.org

Kenya Hear

https://kenyahear.org/2023/02/21/february-update/

News from Dave & Julie Eberhard

Their April newsletter includes information about future travel plans:

“…in the fall, there is a big trip to Asia where Dave is involved in 4 different projects. This will cover about 4-6 weeks, so I [Julie] will go with him. He’ll start in Penang, Malaysia with a conference where he and his colleague will present a paper on the impact and use of Bible translation in Indonesia.

During the conference he will also be meeting with his “Journey” team. They will be doing a training session for missionaries who work with endangered languages at the end of the conference. Then we’ll fly to Ku-ching, Malaysia, to do an Ethnologue workshop to update our information on minority languages there.

After that we’ll have a few free days where we hope to be able to see our son Rutti in Japan, since it’s in the “neighborhood.” Then on to Mae Sot, Thailand, on the border of Myanmar, to lead another Journey workshop with minority communities from Myanmar.

For the full April report, open or download the following:

dave-and-julie-eberhard-apr-2024Download

Honduras Medical Brigade

Updates from the Southside team in Corquín, Honduras via correspondent Maggie Samples

Day 1 update, Sunday:
Today the team visited the congregations in Potrerillos and Corquín. We had a great time visiting with the members of the churches. The evening was spent waiting out a power outage at Mike and Kris’ house.

Day 2, Monday:

The team spent today prepping for the medical brigade. We met Donna Waldron, who explained the brigade and assigned jobs to those of us who aren’t medical personnel.

After that we went to the site and spent the next several hours setting up and portioning medicine. We’re turning early at a hotel with no power to get some rest for the first clinic day.

Day 3, Tuesday:

On our first medical brigade day (and Kay’s birthday!) we served over 300 people. Each person was weighed, had their blood pressure and temperature checked, and was given an anti-parasitic before being seen by a medical professional.

After their check up they had the option to have their eyes checked and get a pair of glasses, which was a big hit. Every person received medications to fit their needs and 30 days worth of vitamins.

After the brigade we cleaned up and celebrated Kay’s birthday!

Day 4, Wednesday:

We had day 2 of the brigade today and we served 374 people. Today was long, but rewarding as we saw people have their needs met.

Tomorrow is the final day of the brigade and we’re excited to get a good night of rest to prep for our work.

Day 5, Thursday:

The last day of brigade was successful with us serving over 300 people. In the evening, we went to church in Corquín and ate dinner prepared by the ladies of the congregation.

After dinner, we worshiped and had a devo at Mike and Kris’ house. Of course we were celebrating Gideon’s birthday all day long!

Day 6, Friday:

Today was a fun day, but still very busy. After breakfast we visited the public school to watch the R.A.D.I.C.A.L. team, who we worked with throughout the brigade, do a skit and songs to teach the children. They did a great job and the kids clearly had a great time learning.

From there we went to a coffee farm and learned about the coffee process. After lunch we went to a retreat center and hung out with the R.A.D.I.C.A.L. team for the afternoon. Tomorrow we leave Corquín.

VBS in West Virginia

This month Joy, Rena & Ally Cox; Rachel, Audrie and Tucker Franklin; and Matt & Erin Leonard will help the Church of Christ at North Beckley to hold a Vacation Bible School for their community.

The Southside team will be decorating and preparing crafts and skits to teach the kids about Joshua & Jonah as Bible heroes. On Friday, the plan is to do “Laundromat Outreach” at a laundromat directly across from the church building.

Pray that many children will come and that the small congregation will be encouraged. Also, please pray for safe travel for our team.

Report on use of funds for Ukrainian refugee relief

From Jeff Mitchell in Moldova:

Funds donated so far have been utilized in the following manner:

• a border church that is feeding and housing refugees (feeding 1000s housing 100s)
• a church in Chișinău who is feeding and housing refugees. (Feeding and housing 100s)
• Salvation Army (2 washing machines for refugee housing use) 
• transportation of refugees from border to Chișinău 
• government facility to buy food for refugees 
• relief tent in Ukraine at the busiest border point (this is where Jeff filmed some updates)

Next steps. 

• the purchase of a 9 passenger van to use for transporting refugees and supplies. Unfortunately, we might need it to transport Moldovans out of the country, if Russian succeeds in Ukraine and also invades here as well. 
• Future idea of a refugee center.
• continue to feed and house refugees.

From Perry Stepp at the Biblical Institute in Croatia, dated last Sunday

1. Steve has longstanding connections with a children’s home (Jeremiah’s Hope) in Ukraine.  The children and workers from that home are coming to Zagreb, along with several adults from their circle.  (Steve is working long days to help those he knows and loves and many he does not know.)

Only part of this group has safely escaped their village.  Russian soldiers have encircled them for over a week and are shooting at them whenever they leave their houses.  Their village is being shelled, and the children are spending 20 hours a day in the root cellar to avoid shrapnel and stray bullets. (Some arrived in Zagreb yesterday, March 18, and more are on the way.)

Your gift has rented and outfitted two houses for this group of refugees.  One of them is a 4 bedroom, dormitory-style house for the children from the children’s home. 

(go plstepp.com, to see Perry’s latest updates)

2. One of the churches in Zagreb, Malešnica Baptist Church, has bought and renovated an old city building and named it “House of Hope” (Kuća Nade). Kuća Nade is set up as a community center.  In addition to kitchen facilities and a large gathering room, it has 14 permanent beds for people who need housing and 6 more beds that can quickly be set up or torn down.

Kuća Nade is being used as a “transit center”.  Refugees come in and receive clothing etc., as needed, along with medical care, food, and rest.  After 4-7 days, they are moved on to more permanent housing.

Currently Kuća Nade holds three families, all women with children whose husbands have stayed in Ukraine.  Today they expect to receive two more mothers with children, all from Ukraine.

Kuća Nade needs commercial-grade appliances.  Financial gifts have purchased a commercial refrigerator and industrial washers and dryers for clothes.  These gifts are providing healthy food and dry, clean clothing for the hundreds of refugees that will flow through their facility in the next few weeks.

The Institute and Kosalanova Church of Christ are aiding in many different ways with a focus on being able to provide food and housing.

One week bucket challenge for Ukrainian refugees

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Time to empty those banks

Time to empty those Coins for Christ coin banks.  For the next four weeks, we will provide the normal coin depository in the Gathering Place for those who are meeting there. 

For those meeting in the auditorium, a temporary collection bin will be in the front foyer (it will be light green in color and have a sign on it). 

With our regular schedule being interrupted this year, the proceeds will be split between Nigeria and the Philippines.

If you are unfamiliar with the Coins For Christ program, please read this.

Calling mission prayer warriors

The need for prayer is always growing, and the needs of our missions partners are always changing.  In order to keep everything in front of the Lord, our attention to being prayerful in all things needs to become more deliberate. 

We are reforming a mission prayer team to focus on this extremely important need. 

We will periodically send out e-mails that highlight the needs of our missions partners. 

If you wish to be on this e-mail list and become a Missions Prayer Warrior, please let Alvin Cox know or simply opt-in by sending a quick e-mail to SouthsideWorldMissions@gmail.com.

2020 World Missions Report

Going into 2020, we had prayers and plans going on for mission trips to Nigeria, the Philippines and Croatia. We also were looking forward to having have Chi, Pedro Sanchez, and Steve Taliaferro visit Southside. While we were looking for God’s blessing for these trips and visits to take place, the Spirit had other plans.

Our missions partners have dealt with quite a few roadblocks this year. They have seen an earthquake, fundraisers canceled, mission trips put on hold, financial support lost due to job loss, quarantine and severe lockdowns around the world, travel restrictions (in country and internationally), internships canceled, church plants halted, rising food costs, new ministry development slowed down, loss of church members from the virus, and having their own health directly affected by the coronavirus.

Despite the perception that these are all negative things, God has used these as opportunity to show His faithfulness. He blessed our missions partners with badly needed funds, the creativity to take advantage of the internet to continue to spread the Gospel, with a growing faith made stronger by the trials they have faced, with prayers from around the world, with survival from this deadly virus, and with a growing desire to show that God is glorified through all this.

Southside has been blessed to be part of this. While the world has changed and stopped in many different ways, the number of prayers have grown, as have the number of answered prayers.

Families have been consoled during the loss of loved ones. Bible classes have been taught. Personal Bible study has continued. Preaching has touched more lives than every before. People have been baptized. Personal and spiritual relationships have grown. God’s faithfulness has been seen. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit have all been glorified.

We prayerfully look forward to the blessings that God will provide as a new year soon begins. We prayerfully look forward to visiting Nigeria, the Philippines, Croatia and Chile in 2021, and to having several of our mission’s partners visit Southside.

But more so, we prayerfully look forward to seeing where the Spirit is leading. – Alvin Cox, ministry leader