Three young women who have been an active part of our church are involved in mission work this year. When we started hearing their stories, it was too good to keep to ourselves.
~MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH YOUR LIFE~
Grace Guyton ~ Kenya
Grace Guyton, daughter of Charlie and Meg Guyton, is a junior at Birmingham Southern College. She will be traveling to Nairobi, Kenya for a self-directed January term. She will be living in Langata (a suburb of Nairobi) and working with St. Peter’s United Methodist Church. When she had the opportunity to design her own trip, Grace talked to our Senior Pastor, Clarke Campbell-Evans who put her in touch with a variety of United Methodist mission contacts. One of those was United Methodist missionary John Calhoun who brokered the mission trip for Grace.
She will be working at the church in a variety of ways: Working with the day care center, helping out with their contemporary worship service, making pastoral care visits with the pastor of the church, Rev. Richard Muguongo.
“I’ve missed going on mission trips for the last few years since I started working at our United Methodist Youth camp in Leesburg during the summers,” Grace mused on why she was anxious to have a particular mission experience for her January term. “I wanted to go somewhere that was completely different than the United States and I’ve always had this fascination with Africa.
“My school had designed an Africa trip, but I was intrigued with the idea of not just going to Africa, but having the opportunity to make a difference there, if even in a small way. I know this sounds cliché, but how can you go there with an AIDS epidemic and rampant poverty and not volunteer to do something that would make a difference,” Grace said.
“We live in such a materialistic world that I hope to come back humbled. I want to look at the world differently. I want to learn from them about how they see their faith in Christ, how they understand God.”
Grace can be reached through her Birmingham-Southern email address: mgguyton(at)bsc.edu.
~Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow~
Sarah Goodpasture ~ South Africa
Sarah Goodpasture, daughter of Jim and B. J. Goodpasture, went on a spiritual retreat where the retreat leader said, “You’re all Christians, but what are you going to do about it? What difference are you going to make in the world?” That question at that retreat led to a soul-searching exploration for where the Lord was calling her. The result was that Sarah is spending nine months with Adventures in Mission working in Jeffery’s Bay, South Africa, east of Capetown on the very southern tip of the continent. Anyone who has talked to Sarah knows how excited she is about this opportunity that God has given her. She is currently working in a children’s after school program and spending part of each day going out into the community to see what opportunities God places before her to serve.
Sarah has a blog of her experiences, which you can access by going to sarahgoodpasture.myadventures.org.
Here’s a sampling:
Hello Good Friends!
I have been in South Africa for a week now. It is so beautiful here. I am learning so much. My time is running out here at the Internet cafe so this will be short. I will update everything soon. We are going to Swaziland tomorrow for a week or more to work with the ministries there. This week my team worked at a community centre called Refilwe (refilwe.org). We did mostly manual labor which was surprisingly fun. They make their own bricks, which we helped with and built terraces to keep the topsoil from running into the buildings, which was good because it has poured rain for the last 2 days. Thank you so much for your prayers. I have seen so many prayers answered here that it is amazing. I wish I had time to explain everything. Feel free to forward all messages I send to whomever you want. I am praying for all of you too. Alabanza where I am living houses amazing ministers. In 2 weeks my team leaves here for Jeffreys Bay which we are super excited about. I love all of the messages from people and look forward to them when I do get internet time. Thank you for all all of you do. GB.
In HIM,
Sarah
Julia Gill ~ Philippines to Papua New Ginea
Julia Gill, granddaughter of John and Frances Stiles, is finishing up her senior year at Florida State University. She will be sailing from the Subic Bay, Philippines to Papua New Guinea for a month and a half at the beginning of the year through Operation Mobilization Ships International. The organization does global Christian training and outreach. The organization’s goal is to bring knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world. They do this by supplying vital literature resources, encouraging cross-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, providing needed relief, and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity.
The ships visit each port for several weeks each and open the gangways to hundreds and sometimes thousands of visitors each day. On average, over one million visitors have been welcomed onboard every year! The floating book fairs offer over 6,000 titles, providing many visitors their first-ever opportunity to purchase quality educational and Christian literature.
An international crew and staff of volunteers live and work on the ships. Teams from the ship go into surrounding areas to supply aid and community care. In each port, the ship's crew joins local churches to bring hope and show love to people whatever their circumstance, culture or background.
When asked why she was going on the mission trip, Julia responded, “The reason I am going on this trip is to show God's love in a practical way and to develop my own relationship with Him on a deeper level.” And what do you hope to learn? “One thing I hope to learn is a more complete understanding of different areas of the world as well as a discernment of what God wants me to do with my future.”
You may contact Julia at her email address redjewel3@aol.com.
