GLOBAL MISSIONS

I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, that is to say we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith! 

Romans 1:11-12

Big news!

This news has been in development for quite some time now, but now that it is official, I’m excited to announce that I will be changing supporting organizations! Our previous organization was called Resource Exchange International, and this organization is called One Collective (Link to an awesome video!, Link to learn more about them). They are similar in that they focus on holistic community transformation, but One Collective is a bit bigger and able to provide a bit more support to our business, family, and kingdom-building ambitions.

For those support us financially, the link to update your giving is here: https://give.onecollective.org/30US3784

This transition and training will also be a great opportunity to refresh our funding. Life happens, circumstances change, and people can’t always continue financially supporting us, so ongoing fundraising is also part of our work here in Vietnam. We can’t live here long-term without such generous financial partners. If this is something that interests you, or you just want to learn more about our ministries here in Vietnam, I (Alyssa) would love to meet up with you this summer! Each of you will likely receive a personal e-mail from me in the coming weeks about dates I will be near to your city. I look forward to catching up face-to-face!

Thank you all! God bless.

Prayer Requests

-Peace for all the travel details to work out
-God would pave the way for our fundraising efforts
-Being separated for 7 weeks will be hard on our family.
-The details of transitioning organizations and training
-Planning for the church-wide retreat which will happen in July is underway! Pray that our members will be refreshed and matured through these efforts.

The Garuna Christian School is thriving, teaching over 300 students each day! In fact, it’s growing so quickly that we conducted a mini-campaign and are now adding an additional two-classroom building on the Prey Veng campus. The foundation has been completed and the walls are up. The expected completion date is in August.

• Generous Gift from Bright Funds: An anonymous supporter made a recommendation to support a cause in India during a corporate acquisition that raised $78,787 from 144 donors via Bright Funds. This gift was dedicated to supporting the Women’s ARISE! Empowerment Program. This support allows more women to undergo training and addresses pressing needs, like purchasing new equipment and enhancing our training. These mothers will now be able to support their families with a decent income. A heartfelt big thank you for this great introduction that resulted in such amazing generosity!
• Championing Donors: Two donors converged to cover all the items on our Special Needs List, significantly enhancing our Children’s Program with improved technology, educational games, nutritious meals, and transportation capabilities.
• Scholarship Endowment Fund: We received a bequest gift that will help build the nursing program at the college and will seed the College Scholarship Endowment Fund.  Contact us to learn more about setting up an Endowment Fund to honor a loved one.
• New Donor Sponsors 24 children: When asked why, we were told God decided the best investment he could make was to sponsor 24 children for $1,000 a month. Imagine the impact this gift will have on these children that will give them opportunities for a promising future!
• The Goat Hope Project: Initiated by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha as part of plan to create a sustainable future, this pilot program will lead the way to create sustainable income, feed families and provide nutritous milk for children. Be sure to read the touching stories below about the widows who have found hope and encouragement in their time of great sorrow.
• 70 New Child Sponsorships hail from India: A new campaign directed at local staff, teachers and friends of our partner has launched to create a plan for a sustainable future. Congratulations for a successful new venture!

Overall, the foundation work has been fully completed.

Local and Regional Updates: 

• We hosted a summer retreat in our home for New England senior pastors and their spouses. It was fantastic! We’re praising the Lord for how we saw joy and refreshment returning for so many as they encountered God’s presence and the goodness of being together.
• The teens we are discipling locally have been training in how to hear God’s voice for themselves, how to share God’s story, and how to talk about what God has done in their lives with someone who doesn’t know Jesus yet.
• We launched a 10-month gap-year program for young adults that is high levels of discipleship investment as well as missionary training. We are excited to be recruiting high-capacity young leaders for next year and praying for financial provision to continue this program!
• Our team has been coming alongside Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary to help them revamp their discipleship experience for seminary students. We’ll be helping them lead a training for students for the third year in a row.
• This fall we will be hosting a couple workshops for New England pastors and their teams. We are praying the Lord brings the right people in the room who are ready to make missionary disciples that will live like Jesus in their neighborhoods and workplaces and everyday spaces!

Prayer Requests: 

• We’re doing some rebuilding of our team out here in New England. Pray in the right leaders who have capacity to lead both locally and regionally.
• Our team and the pastors we are training have been experiencing quite a bit of spiritual warfare! It makes sense — New England has six of the top 10 most post-Christian cities in the United States, so the enemy is pushing back hard as we make disciples who are falling more in love with Jesus and bringing people to know him!
• In the coming year, we will be building new training for everyday people to learn effective ways to naturally live on-mission in their everyday lives and see their friends and neighbors follow Jesus and make new disciples. We are in great need of financial resources to get this training created — pray the Lord brings in every resource we need to train as many people as possible!
• We are prayer-walking our neighborhood regularly and asking God for favor with our neighbors — join us in that!
• Our kids are gearing up for a new school year. Addy is starting her senior year and will be applying to colleges this fall. Declan is starting his sophomore year in high school. Pray protection over our family, our home, our marriage, and our relationships as we continue to join God in what he’s doing here!

At 8:00PM on March 24, 2023, Rolling Fork, Miss., was mowed over by an EF4 Tornado. With little to no notice, it cut through the middle of town, destroying many structures and killing over a dozen people. Hand of Hope Omaha led three mission teams of nearly 90 volunteers from February 24 to March 16, focused on rebuilding the community.

Visit the site for pictures. https://www.handofhopeomaha.org/rolling-fork-mississippi.html