Nearly a dozen students — all young adults–recently decided to do something with their lives that will impact eternity forever. Last September they packed up their stuff and moved into this house in Appleton. “The Mission House,” as we call it, is the place where they’ve been studying together and praying as one big family for their adventure ahead.
In a few months these students will be going in different directions all around the globe to spend several months serving and bringing hope to a lost and hurting world.
Pastors Don and Eileen Nickols are serving as house parents and the studies have been intense! And as these students prepare to head out, the Nickols are getting ready to invite a new team of students to experience a long-term mission trip.
Young Adult Director Ben Lenz encourages people to think about what their lives could look like and pray about how they might be called to the world:
“Students will have many teachers and mentors available to them throughout the program,” Lenz says. “The communal living is one of the great dynamics of this experience, where students get to live in a big house together. Men and women are separate of course! Most meals are shared, and the students get to help decide much of how the practical living responsibilities work out.”
Mission House Application 2010 forms are available to download for the next Mission House program, which will run from mid September 2010 through June 1, 2011. Students have six months of in-house training, three months away on a trip (with other students) to a country CTR is working with.
Curriculum includes training on mid-to long-term missions work, personal growth, relational and leadership development, fundamental theology, Bible knowledge and much more!
There is a small tuition fee for the program, but the bulk of the cost will be house rent, utilities, food and mission trip costs.
Dr. Joe Lamb on one of his many Haiti Medical Trips
On Friday, CTR’s Dr. Joe Lamb is leaving his New London home and practice for a trip long in the Making. Haiti has been on his travel calendar a couple of times a year, but this trip is more urgent than all of his past journeys there.
Dr. Joe was to have lead a team of doctors and nurses from across the Fox Valley area on a Haiti Medical Trip originally scheduled for February 11-19. But he is now preparing to leave a week early, along with two local R.N.s and a large supply of medical equipment and medicines. Those supplies include “rehydration kits” that were assembled last evening in New London by youth volunteers. The students put together 65 kids, each one making 5 gallons of fluid. Dr. Lamb says the supplies will help more than 1,200 Haitians who are severely dehydrated due to sickness or lack of water.
Indeed volunteers and donors have played a key role in providing supplies and packaged meals for the Haitian people as well as for the teams who are serving them.
As for the regularly-scheduled trip, a team of medical professionals is preparing to leave next week and will meet Dr. Joe and others to aid in the healing process at hospitals across the countryside. This won’t be an easy journey. Trips to Haiti seldom are. But we know that these doctors and nurses will experience first hand the searing pain of loss the people of Haiti are suffering. And they will enter in to those emotions,working to bring comfort, healing and ultimately His hope and light to a pace so desperately hurting. the Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Skype is an amazing tool. You see and talk to someone halfway around the world for no cost. That’s exactly what Christ The Rock has been doing with pastor Kris Schneider and his family this week. Kris spoke at length with a couple dozen CTR staff members during the church’s staff meeting on Tuesday, and it was great just to see his face and hear the words of his heart.
To be able to understand his thoughts on his sabbatical in Haiti and to be on the ground during one of Haiti’s worst disasters could not be a mere coincidence. Kris told us life in Hinche, nearly 100 miles north of the quake’s epicenter in Port au Prince, is almost back to “normal.” That is, if you consider normal to be grieving along with the many, many neighbors who have lost loved ones in the rubble.
Today Kris explains what he has learned about living in Haiti:
We have several more conversations to share in the days ahead. Kris has asked that we please pray for wise leadership for Haiti, and for the mission workers and pastors there to be comforted in the decisions they must make for themselves, their families and their work.
Today Lisa, Elizabeth, Kristen and I get to have a party with 35 orphans here in Kenya and spend some time teaching and encouraging all those who care for them and the sick in the slums of Mathare (the 3rd largest slum in the world),
We have a puppet show and bubbles and crafts to share with the children as well as provide pizza, pop, and chocolate chip cookies for lunch! They wanted an American meal. It’s a real treat for them and even more so for us!
Thanks to everyone who loves our Abba and has helped to make this possible! We’ll take lots of pictures and be sure to get them to you as soon as we get home. We leave tonight and travel through a wrinkle in time as we arrive home on Sunday.
Many more people are staying here in Hinche with us these days since the earthquake. As for our family, we are fine and keep busy playing with all the kids here. We also teach an English class twice a week. It started with about six students, but last week we had almost 60 and had to divide it into a beginner and advanced class. The students want so badly to learn the English language.
Once a week our family goes to a feeding hospital to help with feeding the babies at lunchtime. It’s probably a highlight of the week (even though we usually get peed on or spit up on at least once!). We are actually able to see the babies’ physical health improving since we started visiting. But we’ve also seen some empty cribs as babies that are just too sick don’t survive. A little guy I spent almost an hour trying to feed a few weeks ago went home to Jesus last week. That’s so hard.
We have had some trouble with internet again and it works kind of when it wants to. Kris left this afternoon to do to Port au Prince with Lavaud and his brother Raymond and then they are driving to the Dominican Republic in the morning to buy food, water and gas over there. Food has increased in price quite a bit here in Hinche as well as gas.
Pastor Lavaud spent the morning taking phone calls and visiting people who were desperate for help as they don’t have money for food. Hopefully, we can help when they get back with some supplies. Please pass on to CTR to pray for them. We heard that there is some trouble when coming back over the border with bandits trying to raid cars loaded with supplies. Pray for protection for them while they are gone.
Sometimes to break the stress we talk at dinner time about the little things we miss, like Dairy Queen (or tonight it was chocolate pudding). It’s silly but fun, too.
Hope all is well with everyone back home. Take care and blessings to you all.
Everything that happens in Haiti is related to before and after the earthquake. Before the earthquake, things in Haiti worked pretty well by Haitian standards. Here we were involved in the ministry activities of the church and local area. After the earthquake, everything has changed.
Three days ago, Pastor Lavaud’s daughters, sisters and other family arrived in Hinche to stay. Yesterday, Raymond (Lavaud’s brother) and his family as well as the kids and wife of another brother also came. So we have a full house and lots of activity! There is a new urgency from Pastor Lavaud that many more church families plant their own food. And there is a new urgency for him to preach the gospel to his people who are struggling with what to do next. We hope they are listening. There haven’t been any food shortages yet in Hinche but it can’t be far off. There are already gas availability issues all over. Gas and rice prices have doubled in price. Much of the food that Haitians eat, rice and beans, is imported through Port au Prince so this will surely slow down in the days and weeks to come. But for now, we are OK in Hinche.
Things are very different in Port au Prince. Much of what is Port au Prince, especially in the city center, looks like a war zone. Picture what you’ve seen in old WW II movie clips of German or English cities Keep reading →
Not only are Rachel Lamb and seven members of the Schneider family in Haiti, a ninth person from Christ The Rock is now on the scene.
Becky Duff, a 47-year-old nurse from Menasha, went to the earthquake-ravaged nation last week with the Doctors Without Borders organization.
She reports:
We have finished clinic for the day. Today I triaged in the ER. It is weird how you think you are almost done with the sickest, most injured people and then the Canadian Red Cross will stop and drop off 2-3 more patients. Keeps me on my toes.
Orthopedic surgeons are still the biggest needs so far. We are running out of sterile gowns. Somehow supplies seem to arrive just in the nick of time.
Some hospitals are bringing the patients here since the “American doctors” are here. They still don’t have any help, but more are arriving everyday. The United States definitely has a presence with the US army here. They are still finding people in the field. A lot of acute care is still needed.
It is tough dealing with the orphaned kids. A lot of them are injured and without family. I am exhausted but trying to stay positive. Pray for Haiti.
Earlier this month we as a church prayed over a team of four women from Christ The Rock as they headed to Kenya to serve those in need. On January 18, Elizabeth Van Sistine, Tiffany Thompson, Lisa Van Sistine and Kristin Vorel arrived in that nation and began ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of a people who live in poverty.
This is their story:
Thank you for your love and support as we work alongside H.E.A.R.T. (Health Education Africa Resource Team). We feel God’s protection over us and He is teaching us how beautiful these souls are that openly praise Him despite hardships. We witness God’s love in these people who wear their souls on the surface and who love to tell us their story and listen to ours.
We have spent the last two days visiting God’s precious children who are most vulnerable—widows and orphans. Yesterday, we traveled to the W.E.E.P. center (Women Equality Empowerment Project), located in the Mathare slum, the third largest slum in the world. In the midst of the incomprehensible living conditions, HEART has provided a safe haven for women who have been rejected by their families due to the stigma associated with being HIV positive. The women are rescued from their lives of rejection, seclusion, and sickness into a sisterhood of acceptance. They are nursed back to health in order to care for their beloved children and have a chance to praise the God who loves them enough to supply these provisions. These women’s hearts are healed by the message of Jesus Christ and his enduring promises.
The time spent with these ladies was truly precious. We began with prayer, dancing, and singing praises to God before sharing in our first traditional Kenyan meal of the trip. The WEEP women shared their stories with us. Elizabeth, a fragile woman shared her story in whispering tones. All of these women have been rejected by their families for their status. The hope is that by releasing these women from shame, they can then educate their neighbors and family. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s family remains blinded by ignorance and refuse to see her. Tiffany shared a message with the women about how precious they are to their Heavenly Father and gave each one a pink flower. We could feel Elizabeth’s spirit rising as she heard the words of hope.
In Kenyan culture, people are affectionate but refuse to touch AIDS victims. Addressing this issue, we treated the WEEP women to hand massages. Elizabeth was the first to receive a massage and she “melted” in Kristin’s hands. She breathed a sigh of relief and blessed us with her gorgeous smile. Our presence, words, and touch helped prove to Elizabeth how much God wants to lavishly love her and heal even her deepest pain.
We have an abundance of stories to share with all of you of the countless ways God has blessed us on this adventure and we have only just begun. We feel His presence and your love as we continue to serve him and learn from those who serve Him here every day. Please pray for us, especially since we will soon sponsor a vacation Bible school for 600 children despite the language barrier and that we will continue to grow in relationship with these beautiful people and Our Father in heaven.
We launched the Haiti Relief Fund in the Fox Valley this past weekend, and so far have received $21,782 to help the people of Haiti. These gifts will go directly to the people on the ground in Haiti who need it most, and will provide medicines, food and water.
This morning an earthquake aftershock measuring 6.1 rocked Port au Prince. According to Christ The Rock’s people on the ground, the impact was not felt in Hinche. Pastor Lavaud called the Schneiders and Rachel Lamb from Port au Prince to report what had happened, and that he was safe.
Nearly a dozen students — all young adults–recently decided to do something with their lives that will impact eternity forever. Last September they packed up their stuff and moved into this house in Appleton. “The Mission House,” as we call it, is the place where they’ve been studying together and praying as one big family for their adventure ahead.
Pastors Don and Eileen Nickols are serving as house parents and the studies have been intense! And as these students prepare to head out, the Nickols are getting ready to invite a new team of students to experience a long-term mission trip.
