Cairo 2014

Cairo 2014

Friday, September 5, 2008

Summer 2008 ISMK Activities

MK Ministry Touches Africa
This July, MK Ministry Director Chad Phillips, who is passionate about helping MKs see the “other” side of missions, led a team of teenage MKs on a missions trip to Tanzania, Africa. The team camped ten days on the Indian Ocean without electricity or running water. They began the trip with a Tanzanian PK retreat for about 50 local pastors’ kids. The full-day retreat was unlike any these Tanzanian PKs had ever seen. Relationships, which are often not stressed in that culture, were the focus of the retreat. The team demonstrated to the PKs the value of authentic relationship with Christ through authentic relationships with each other.

For the remainder of the trip, the team spent each day painting at different village schools and government buildings. In the afternoons, they hosted a kids’ outreach with dramas and testimonies and followed up with a crusade each evening. At every service at least one person came to Christ. A man in full Muslim garb even came to one of the services. The team introduced him to the pastor of the local Assemblies of God church, and prayed with him as he gave his heart to the Lord. Does it get any better than that?

ISMK is currently planning next summer’s MK missions trip. We hope to work with the International Church in Podova, Italy and assist with a Vacation Bible School.


Boot Camp Prepares and Encourages MKs
Each summer the MK program hosts a summer camp to assist new MKs as they prepare for living on the field, and to encourage veteran MKs as they make the adjustment back to U.S. culture. During the first two weeks of the program, we have the opportunity to minister to missionary kids who are about to enter the field for the first time. One of the highlights for the older MKs (grades 4 through 12) is the MuKappa “Boot Camp” week. They spend five days camping (no tents or campsites) in the woods, and are not permitted to bring make-up, cell phones, iPods, or any other modern conveniences. The camping experience breaks down comfort zones and helps establish a fun, yet challenging environment for open communication. Many MKs come into the program unsure about their parents’ missionary calling and the thought of living in another culture. We at ISMK believe that God calls entire families into missions, not just parents. It’s always exciting to see how God uses their week of camping to open their hearts and give them a vision for personal ministry to the fields where they will live.

The final week of the program, our ministry focus changes as we help veteran MKs with reentry to the U.S. and provide an environment for emotional healing. The days are full of fun “American” activities like baseball games, bowling, and visiting theme parks. The evening services provide time for discipleship, prayer, and worship. One specific evening, our upper elementary (grades 4 and 5) MKs experienced a moving prayer time which led into a discussion of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. By the end of the evening many parents were waiting outside the room while the Spirit of God moved. Several MKs were filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit that night! MKs that go into full-time ministry often experience the call of God during our summer program. Perhaps some of these Upper Elementary kids will become the next generation of missionaries!

Giving back: Alumni-led Task Force
Your investment in MKs truly makes a difference! Many of them, after having graduated high school, are passionate about investing in and encouraging younger MKs. Our annual MK Task Force trips allow alumni to give back to ISMK by leading on-field MK retreats. In January 2008, six MK alumni traveled to Togo, West Africa where they ministered to about 30 younger missionary kids. Every age level of MKs was included in the activities. They played games, enjoyed snacks, made crafts, and spent the evenings in worship and discipleship. The team didn’t receive most of their luggage until the second-to-last day, but they remained flexible and had a wonderful attitude about ministering to the MKs.

We were also blessed this year to be able to take a trip to India, Turkey, and Tajikistan. Chad Phillips led the retreat in India and was able to invest in the lives of the MKs while speaking in the chapel service at the international school in Turkey. The opportunity to pour into the lives of the MKs through counsel and fellowship was well worth the discomforts they endured: no electricity or heat for three days!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Parental Update, May 12

Happy Spring, parents!

I have just written to the MKs on the ismk email system. I thought I would drop you a note as well. We are in the process of hiring the SOM staff, booking the places for the events, hiring the caterers, and setting the schedules. It is a fun time!

I have received questions from many missionaries and MKs about the changes to the MK program this summer. It will be challenging for us to be able to do everything that have done in the past, with less time. However, the MK program will continue to effective, and a great time for MKs. Over the course of the past four years, we have been fine tuning what we do, in order to make the MK program more effective. This is just another step in that process. The key is the presence of the Holy Spirit. I know that God is going to meet us, and move among us.

Also, pray with me that God will direct the right staff and the right leaders for each program. Staffing the program is always something we do with prayerful consideration. We believe that the people working with our kids are critical in the overall function of the program.

I recently returned from a trip to central Eurasia and India. It was a wonderful time seeing TCKs in the “natural habitat.” Let me say THANKS to all of you that made that trip such a great experience!

The MK MISSIONS trip still has openings for MKs. Is your MK interested? We would love for them to join us. There is the possibility of significant funds coming from your (00) ADP to help them with this trip. I would love to see 3 more MKs sign up to come with us to TANZANIA! It is a trip of a lifetime! Contact me if your MK is interested.

Cristi Alexander has been in the MK office for two years, overseeing our MK publications. Recently, Cristi went through Candidate Orientation, and is now itinerating to minister in Central Eurasia (pledges - 294597 J)! We will miss her, but we are excited for the opportunities that God has for her in missions. With Cristi moving into full time missions, we have hired a new person in the office – Amy Reasoner. Amy is a sharp young lady, with great skills that will bless your MKs. We would like to officially welcome her to the office!

Monday, March 31, 2008

Teachers Needed!

I have just returned from a trip where I was able to meet with many of our MKs in Central and Southern Eurasia. It renewed my passion for teachers in our MK schools. There is a great need for teachers at the schools our MKs attend. If you are a part of a school that needs teachers, would you contact me? I would like to put together a video of places that need teachers. Let me know if you are interested, or have a need for teachers! I believe that our MKs need to have qualified teachers, from year to year! They deserve the best we can give them, and we want to help make sure that happens.

If you have followed these newsletters, you know that we have an MK Missions Trip scheduled for July this summer. Area Director Greg Beggs is helping us put together this trip. I truly believe it will be powerful! We have some updates to that trip that you need to know about. Because of the unrest in Kenya, we have changed the country to Tanzania. We will be doing youth and children’s ministry for our entire time there. No experience is necessary!

Currently, we have 8 people registered for the trip (after a couple had to cancel). I have room for a total of 15. I believe that our MKs need to experience missions for themselves, and that this is an amazing way for them to do that. I believe that God will use these trips to direct our MKs back into missions. Often times MKs are in one region, one country, and they never actually experience what missions truly is. They have heard mom and dad, and they see it through the eyes of someone else’s call. I want to make missions personal!

Would you consider presenting this trip to your MK? I know that airfare and costs are difficult, but I also know that God provides (even for little missionaries). I have seen MKs raise the budget, and it is a huge faith builder! The cost of the trip is airfare plus $1,000. If you are in Europe, we can pick your MK up on our way there! Your MK can meet up with us. He/she doesn’t need to fly to the States to be a part of this trip.

Please contact my office if you are interested! We need to work on airplane tickets, but we still have enough time. Don’t hesitate! Let us know. I will be going on the trip, and will get to be a part of the ministry time with the MKs. Last years trip was powerful, and I know that this one will be amazing as well!

I know that you are all thinking about the changes to the summer programs. I want to let you know that even though the schedule has changed, we are committed as ever to provide the highest quality program possible. As I have been going over the schedule for the events, I am excited to see what God is going to do. Pray with us that God will touch the lives of our MKs. I always ask that you pray with me that the Holy Spirit will be poured out in a fresh way. I am passionate about our MKs being filled with the Holy Spirit – and I want you to pray with me that God will move among our kids again this summer!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Katherine is back home!

Katherine arrived back in our home on Tuesday. She is actually very sad to be leaving the hospital! She had everyone at her beckoning call, all the food she could eat, nurses taking care of her every need, and her parents sleeping in the recliner next to her bed... just in case she needed them! She had it all!

We just want to say thanks to all of you for praying for Katherine. She is doing a lot better. She is still on anitbiotics, and will stay home for a few days. We are hoping that she will be able to go back to school on Monday. Today Dargan went by her school and picked up all of her assignments she missed... she has lots of catch up work to do! We are all sleeping a little better, and we are happy to be home again as a family!

Thanks again for all your prayers!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Katherine needs prayer

Hey friends,

Katherine is still in the hospital this evening. I am sitting here next to her bed wishing there was more I could do for her. She came through the emergency appendectomy on Monday, and has been doing okay in the hospital. Today our surgeon came in and told us some disheartening news. Her white cell blood count has gone up to 17,000. It should be below 10,000. From what I understand, that means she is fighting infection in her body. She is on a very strong antibiotic as well. If her count does not go down, it will probably mean another surgery for her. We know that God has a plan, and we believe Him for her healing! Please pray with us. Thanks for your prayers.

Chad

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Katherine's Appendectomy

Hello friends around the world!

I just wanted to give you all an update on Katherine. Friday night she came home from a friends house with a tummy ache and not feeling well. Throughout the night she was throwing up and running a fever. None of us slept too well! I called our family doctor on Saturday, but she seemed to be getting better - no more throwing up. He recommended that we go ahead and take her in to the urgent care anyway. Saturday afternoon we went to urgent care and saw a doctor. His diagnosis was a urinary tract infection. We took her home and started giving her the medication. On Sunday she was not throwing up, and her fever was being kept under control with tylenol/ibuprofin. We had a superbowl party at our house Sunday night... she stayed on the couch in our room, still not feeling up to par. Sunday night she just kept complaining of a stomach ache, and her fever still kept coming back.

On Monday morning we took her back to Urgent Care. After spending all day at urgent care they decided to do a CT scan on her. She had issues drinking the liquid, and opted for a tube to be placed in/through her nose - to put the liquid in her tummy through the tube! Immediately after the scan, she threw up everything! Thank God she was able to keep it in for the duration of the test!

They immediately sent her over to the ER for an appendectomy. When we arrived in the OR, the surgeon and operating staff were waiting for her. I was amazed at how quickly everything was proceeding. They were waiting, the OR was ready for her, and we didn't have to wait at all for her to go into surgery. I guess the hardest time for us was when she looked up and asked us if she was going to die. It was a difficult day all the way around, but sending her into surgery was tough!

About 2 hours after she went into surgery, the doctor came out and gave us the good news that everything went well. She definitely had a ruptured appendix, and had a really large absess growing in her abdomen. They cleaned her out, and sewed her back up! She is now recovering at the Cox South Hospital in SGF. The doc said she will be in the hospital "the better part of a week."

It has been neat to see how God has worked in all of this. We have had people offer to pray with us (that we have never met before); our doctor at the Urgent Care happened to be someone that Chad plays basketball with at James River AG. Didn't know he was a doctor! The hospital staff were very attentive to everything! It has just been obvious that God's hand is in all of this. Why do bad things happen? We don't know why (we could get in a long talk about that one) - but we do know positively that God is in the midst of it all! When we suffer, He is with us, and He is helping us. It is a growing experience to go through trials - and hopefully we all learn to lean more on Him through these challenging times!

I have often thought of a young MK out in the Pacific, on a small island, who had an emergency appendectomy just a couple of months ago - i think in December. He did not have access to a hospital, and had to fly to Australia (8 hours I think) to a medical facility, with a ruptured appendix. When we have difficult times, we can only look at all the circumstances and realize how blessed we truly are!

Thanks for continuing to pray for our little princess!

Chad

Friday, January 25, 2008

Parental Update, January 25, 2008

Greetings from the wonderful world of MKs!

The ISMK office is in the process of setting the schedules and hiring the staff for the summer programs of ’08! It is always a fun time. It is a challenge with all the time changes this summer. We want to keep the same quality, but with less time. We are challenged to have powerful services, meaningful small group times, and plenty of social interaction opportunities. I know it will be good, but challenging. We appreciate your prayers as we go through this process.

I would like to encourage you to register for Reentry! If you are returning this summer for SOM (Missionary Renewal) and you have children – I believe they will benefit greatly from the Reentry Program. We will have some quality time talking about the cultural changes. It will also provide your children with more time to develop their meaningful relationships with other MKs. I believe that is a critical element of the MK experience.

In just a few weeks I will be travelling to Eurasia. I am looking forward to connecting with some of you and your kids! It is my first trip into this region, and I believe it will be meaningful. For those of you that will be at the Graduation in Bangalore – make sure you bring your kids with you! Register your kids for that TCK weekend.

I am currently doing a course online about education consulting for MKs/TCKs. The course is the first one of the kind, and is fun to see what other organizations do for their MKs. Bethanie and I are both going through it to see how we can better our help for the missionary families. I would love to include you in some of the questions we are being asked.

The first thing I am looking at is a specific role for an education consultant. We have an education consultant in the ISMK office - Brenda Dickey. She is certainly qualified, and ready to assist at any moment. However, what I would like to know is the missionaries’ perspective. How do you see an education consultant functioning within our system? Would they be involved in the interview process? Do you see us doing more, educationally, than we are right now? I would love to know your thoughts. How can we be better at what we provide? By the way, if you are interested in learning more about being an education consultant for your region/area, let me know!

We are praying for you and your families. Please let us know of any concerns or areas that we need to address. Our goal is to serve you and your families!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Email sent to MKs on January 5th RE: SOM

Happy New Year MKs!

I remember growing up in the Netherlands, where New Years’ Eve was the big celebration of the year – filled with lots of fireworks! It was the only night of the year that you could legally do fireworks. It always seems kind of quiet to me celebrating the New Year in the United States. I don’t hear the far off fireworks (or the ones that I am setting off). I miss that about Holland! You will find that when you move back to the States, there will be certain things about where you are that you will miss.

I wanted to write all of you about the upcoming changes to School of Missions. At the bottom, I ask for feedback, so READ ALL THE WAY! As you know, there are some drastic changes to SOM. The main change is the amount of days. SOM has been from a Tuesday night the first week, ending on a Thursday night the next. We had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of full MK activities. The actual program was only in session for seven days. This has been the schedule for quite a few years. The Executive Committee (EC) has changed the length of SOM to be from Sunday night to Thursday night – that gives us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of full time MK activities – four days.

Obviously, with the change in schedule, the MK program will have to change to reflect those dates. You need to know that the MK program is going to be awesome once again next summer. I do not believe that these changes will be too drastic on the program. We will still have a day at Silver Dollar City, and we will still have at least three evening services together (even though the parents don’t have evening services). We will still have our daily fun activities as well. The biggest challenge will be that we simply have less time together as friends, bonding. While we used to have the weekend to “hang out” with each other, we don’t have that anymore. What that means is that we will have to maximize our time together that we do have.

One other area that is changing is the Reentry program. Reentry is a VOLUNTARY program. Your family can choose to attend or not. Reentry will run from Friday evening through Monday evening. That gives us another three full days of MK activities with you! I believe that the days we are losing for SOM, we are regaining during Reentry. Some of the things that we typically did during SOM, we will now be doing during Reentry. We would LOVE for all of our MKs that come for SOM to stay for Reentry. That is something you will need to talk to your parents about. If you believe that you need more time with MKs, and the MK program – have you parents register for Reentry. Believe me that it will be well worth your time! I am already excited about it!

While change is never easy or fun, sometimes it is necessary. The EC has made these changes to help your families with itineration and the whole financial aspect of it. They are also changing the focus (which is why they are changing the name from SOM to Missionary Renewal). Instead of looking at this as a negative thing, I am challenged to see how we can be more effective in what we do! If you look at a youth camp in the States, they also run four days and five nights. In that amount of time, they are very effective in building relationships and powerful altar services. Those of you that were in Costa Rica at the youth retreat this year will remember how awesome one week together can be!

What will make ours unique will be that everything is focused on MKs and MK isssues. Can we be effective in that amount of time? I believe we can! Can we build meaningful relationships in that amount of time? I believe we can! Are we going to take out critical parts of the ISMK program? NO WAY! We believe in you, and we want what is best for you! We will work with the time that we have to make it an awesome time.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I believe that discussion is great! We all have ideas, and this would be a great time to throw them out there. What would you like to see happen with SOM (Missionary Renewal)? How would you like to see the MK program change within this time frame? What events would you change? I will see if I can set up some kind of a discussion room on the website. If you want to write on my wall on Facebook – that would work as well!

We love you all and we are praying for you!