Christ Fellowship Missions

An opportunity to reach the nations without ever leaving Miami!

    Campus Ministries at the University of Miami have joined together to start an organization called I@M (Internationals at Miami). This organization will reach out to the international students attending the University of Miami. I@M has given Christ Fellowship the opportunity to serve these students from all over the world by being host families for the students or by giving the students rides from the airport in the coming weeks. If you are interested in ministering to these students by giving them a ride from the airport or having them over your home for a meal, please contact Johnnie at jreaves@cfmiami.org or post a comment to this blog entry. This is an amazing opportunity to love on people from all over the world without even leaving the country!

Photo from Ukraine Group

Just got an email from the group in Ukraine. The camps so far have been very successful. There is still one week of camps left. Part of the CF Team is already back stateside, while the rest is staying over there for the last week of camps.

Last day in Mississippi

It's hard to believe we've been here a week already. so much has been done, but yet there's so much to do. Our work here is so valuable. The people we have met have been a blessing to us in many ways. Here's two short stories...

Floyd and Virginia Fricke were two people that we've come to know. Dave (our actual GC) and his crew framed out their house last April. This week our team worked on their plumbing and various other projects at the house. During this week, Floyd had two heart attacks. Last night in the hospital, Floyd accepted Christ into his life. We aren't sure Floyd will ever live to see this earthly house finished, but we know where he will spend eternity.

Three of our teams combined on a home for our last two days. It's a huge project. We've put the roof on, dry walled alot of the inside as well as many other jobs . We saw hope in the homeowners' eyes for the first time in a long time. (Billy and Dixie) They shared their stories about being at churches where they weren't accepted because of their past lifestyles. They now have a church they call home.

The stories go on and on...

We've learned much this week. If you get a chance to talk to one of the 91 people who went, take a few minutes to ask some questions. We are continually blown away how God chooses to use simple people to advance his Kingdom. We are humbled to be part of it.

Praise Report from Ukraine

   

Praise God everything is going wonderfully here! Today was the last day of our second week of camp. The camp at the church had 130 children, and the camp at the school had 72 children, even though only 25 had signed up by last Thursday.  Last Thursday evening we went out with balloon animals and invitations to the camp and we were excited to see 60 children on the first day. The camp just kept growing everyday.  Praise God everything went smoothly with the health department inspections.  Our team, consisting of both Ukrainian and American counselors was wonderful. At the school camp, Katya, who grew up as a child in the camp was director for the first time and it was a blessing to watch her leadership.  Tonight was the concert at both locations for the parents to hear the gospel. Afterward the children were crying and did not want leave!  Please continue to pray for these children, that the seeds that were sown would be nurtured and grow to produce fruit.  Please pray for the two Baptist churches in Nizhen who will be doing follow up with these kids. We are really excited that they have decided to start Sunday School this week instead of waiting until September like usual.

    On Monday, our team will separate into two villages for two separate camps.  Katya will be the director Mena and Roman who was also director for the first time this year will be director in Ichnya. Roman's wedding is tomorrow but he and his wife have decided to spend their first week of married life conducting the camps..they just couldn't stay away! Please pray for the all of the logistics and the permission from the city governments.  Also, please keep our leaders in prayer that God will give them wisdom and patience.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

-The Ukraine Team

Bolivia Update

    Hey everyone. Sorry it has taken us so long to write but we really haven’t had time. We hit the ground running when we got here Saturday night. Our plane was delayed 3 hours out of Miami.  We had to sit on the runway for that long, so needless to say we were a little late getting in.  The team has been awesome. We had to learn how to share the Four Spiritual Laws in Spanish and go door to door sharing the Gospel. Usually we go to the schools and do Taekwondo, drama, and testimonies, however; this time school is out so door to door it is. In a way it has been better for us because we have been able to reach more people than if we were just in the schools. I don’t have the numbers for tonight, but we have seen 5oo people come to know Christ! It is awesome to see how God works in and out of our lives. Tomorrow slows down a little bit for us; we are dedicating the Church we have been working with this week. I will try and send more later, but Praise God from whom all blessings flow.                   
-John Lee

Middle School Missionaries

 

During the week of July 9-13th the middle school ministries of Christ Fellowship and First Baptist Church of Oviedo joined together for a missions project.  Their mission was called Extreme Makeover.  They had the opportunity to fix up both the new home of Kingways Church and the home of Thomas, a hearing impaired man who works as a custodian at Christ Fellowship. The large group of middle schoolers were split up into two groups, one group worked on the church all week and the other group worked on Thomas' house.  There really was an extreme makeover done at both locations. Check out the Extreme Makeover Photo Album on the bottom right of this page to see all of the before and after pictures. Also, Thomas was entered into the "El Dorado 40 Years, 40 Families" contest and won a houseful of furniture!  CBS 4 news was there on Thursday for the revealing of the house. Check out the news clip!  Altogether, it was an amazing week with some amazing kids. The kids were really hard working and I never once heard a complaint from them even though we were working long hours in the summer heat!

-Jen Steward

Live from Mississippi

Bay St Louis, MS

It's been day three already in Mississippi. It's always so sketchy coming to a different place and then finding a viable internet source. We had finally got connected at 10:30 pm last night!

Our days here have been great. Here's a short synopsis:

1. Multiple homes have been repaired on a variety of levels.
2. Many of our students have learned new skills.
3. 3 people have choose to accept Christ at our first block party and we are about to head to our next one in about an hour.
4. Injuries has not been a problem, praise God!

One of the houses we are currently working on is having a roof shingled, insulation put in, drywall hung, and other clean up around the land. I was up with the roofing group at the house and after we finished one side of the roof we got down and Jeff was just encouraging us. One of the most encouraging things that he said was that our sweat is our offering to God. It is definitely evident that God is getting the glory even in our sweat. In James 2, it talks about good deeds without faith is nothing and faith without good deeds is nothing. This is not the case in Mississippi, about 93 students and adults from CF are stepping up to share their faith by the means of good deeds.

Please continue to pray for these things:

1. God will continue to move in the hearts of the people we meet and help out.
2. Our teams can continue to align themselves with the same purpose and spirit (Philippians 2:2)
3. That our last day can be triumphant.

Deanna

Update from Bolivia

This email is from Brom Rector member of our Bolivia Mission Team. The team has seen over 400 Bolivians accept Christ. Everyone is well and safe.

I have a few minutes so I thought I’d tell you about something cool that happened yesterday.

There was this guy about my age that was one of the Bolivian missionaries on our team at the Vacation Bible School yesterday. He was playing songs on my guitar for the little kids, and of course it was just like 3 chord songs. But afterwards I asked him to get out his guitar and show me some stuff. He went to get his guitar and man, it could barely be called a guitar. it was like a really, really cheap plywood acoustic, the surface of it was entirely scratched up. I found out later that he found this guitar in a trash can there in Bolivia. It was in very poor condition. The bottom three strings were totally covered in rust, and the top three had been strung up with different gauges of fishing line. So then I ask the guy to play me something and dude, he was better than me! He was doing all this awesome classical finger picked stuff that was just incredible. It was mostly flamenco type songs. He had amazing technique. When I offered him a pick he said he didn’t know how to use one because he never had any. So bottom line is, now I feel like really bad because this guy had makeshift guitar, is self-taught and is just amazing at his instrument. He has a total passion for what he is doing. If I had brought my own guitar down here I would give it to him in a heartbeat. I’m so fortunate enough to be able to buy a new guitar, but he cant even get new strings or a pick. He has never had a formal lesson, just picking up things from different players and when he gets a chance to get on the Internet he looks up guitar tabs and lessons. He wants to major in music at the university but he doesn’t have money to go. Wow! I wish I could help more!

Internet Shortage in Ukraine

I spoke with Amy in Ukraine. There's an Internet shortage in Ukraine right now. Niezhen had three Internet Cafes. The first two closed down since January. The third has no Internet (I guess that makes it more "cafe" than Internet Cafe). The team will try to update the blog where possible.

The first week of camps went great. They had lots of kids at the camp, and the next week at church many of the children (and their parents) came to the church for the first time. This week they are leading two separate camps in the city: the first at the church, the second in a public school in a different community. There has been some opposition to having a "Christian camp" in public schools, so pray for them as they deal with the adversity.

Everyone is healthy and happy. I've been told this is the smoothest trip they've had in a long time. Continue to pray for the group, and if I get any updates, I'll post them.

Jeff Reed

Franklin Graham Crusade

As mentioned by the earlier posts, The group in Ukraine got to help at the Franklin Graham Festival. Stateside, we're getting articles on the Festival from other organizations. I wanted to share them with you. Continue to pray for the group over there. They should have completed their first camp Saturday night, and will gear up for the second camp starting Monday AM. - Jeff Reed

Quoting The Church Report...

Over 120,000 Attend Franklin Graham's Ukraine Festival

The Franklin Graham Festival in Kiev, Ukraine, drew more than 120,000 to Olympic Stadium. This weekend event was a nationwide expression of religious freedom for those who were formerly subjugated to strict communist rule. This event would not have been possible 16 years ago.

The Festival on July 6-8 drew 124,586 people to Keiv with more that 107,000 participating in the event via live satellite broadcast in 104 additional venues across the country. Some attendees traveled 17 hours one way just to attend the event. The second night of the festival saw more that 40,000 people standing in the rain as thousands filled the field at the end of Graham’s message. By the end of the event, 6,694 people responded to the invitation to follow Christ.

“For years, Samaritan’s Purse has used the Ukrainian Antonov airplane to transport hundreds of thousands of our Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts,” said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. “Now I am here in your country, not because of the Antonov, but because of the Gospel, the good news that you can have spiritual freedom found in Jesus Christ.”

The president of Ukraine sent his Presidential Orchestra, and in an official written welcome to Franklin Graham and the Festival said: “This Festival is one of the greatest things that can bring us closer together. Thank you for all the work you are doing here. May God bless you.” This is a stark contrast to the region’s religious restrictions under communism.

In conjunction with the Festival, Graham’s Operation Christmas Child project handed out some of the more than 100,000 gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in Ukraine. Graham visited with poor children and orphans at a local charity hospital where he also hand-delivered the shoe box gifts.