OUR THOUGHTS ON MISSIONS

Message Ministries & Missions is not a “short-term missions” organization; we believe the best mission work is done by the native peoples. We believe working with native pastors and leaders is the most effective and most financially responsible way to fulfill the Great Commission. Sending a series of mission teams from the US to the same countries, to do the same things, one after another, is not the way. We do, however, send out strategic short term mission teams each year. Message Ministries & Missions usually sends two teams each year to Peru. The rest of the work is done by the indigenous teams that we assist. Our missionary there, Marco Aroni, is Peruvian.

We also believe there is a need for American missionaries in some very specific parts of the world, places where they can strategically assist in taking the gospel where it’s never been. Even there, American missionaries should help train and equip the natives to reach their own peoples with the gospel, and to work alongside them, helping feed the poor and helping care for the needy.

We believe a primary goal of a short-term mission team is doing what the indigenous Christians may not have an open door to do. In Peru, for example, our Cross Street Youth Mission Team has an open door into the public school system that our Peruvian youths do not enjoy. While the Peruvian teens can do much the same work as American teens and more, this is just one example where American mission teams are needed. Please keep both our American and Peruvian young people in your prayers as well as Marco Aroni.

PERU YOUTH CAMP

Our 2013 youth camp will be conducted in the Chaclacayo district in Peru’s Lima province. Peru’s young people need to find Jesus. Many of them are suffering and bearing passing troubles and great pain. The camp always blesses them, and we hear many testimonies about how Jesus uses this camp to change lives.

I encourage you to please keep praying for the youth camp, and please keep supporting it.

God bless you all, Marco Aroni

Would you be a Peru Youth Camp Sponsor?
It costs $35 to sponsor one youth.
We still need sponsors for 75 youth.
The camp starts on June 27.

CROSS STREET MISSION TEAM

Our Cross Street mission team is leaving for Peru on June 21st to go into Peru’s public schools with music, drama, and the Word of God. We will offer the message of salvation to students in school assemblies where anywhere from 300 to 1,500 students can be present. We can freely invite them to come forward, give their hearts to Jesus, and meet the local pastors we work with in their communities. We can even hand out Bible tracts! This is an amazing opportunity! We have done this for many years now with the Lord’s blessing and with much success.

Please pray for us as we Go! This team has been meeting, praying, practicing, and training since February. The team is composed of youths and leaders from ten different churches. Alongside ministry in the public schools, we will conduct street outreaches, build prefabricated homes, and sponsor a Discipleship Youth Camp in Lima and a Youth Conference in Pisco. Half the team will be in Peru for ten days, the other half will stay for a full eighteen days. Please pray, then follow us on Facebook!

Cross Street Peru Mission Team Page

JIM RANDALL IN ASIA

Last year I worked as a consultant for the Strategic Resource Group,
a Christian organization that funds media evangelism and discipleship in the Middle East and North Africa. I did data analysis and wrote funding recommendations for projects to reach Arabic speakers. As you may know, the fuel for the “Arab Spring” was social media, especially the use of mobile and cell phone technology to spread information.

The Jesus Film Project followed this example and has made a way to share the Jesus Film through your cell phone in 1,150 languages. Download the app for free – http://app.jesusfilmmedia.org, and you can take the Jesus Film with you wherever you go. Also, please read the stories about Tom, the bus driver from Kenya, and Cheeia, the Hmong-American student, and the impact of seeing the Jesus Film in their native languages – http://www.jesusfilmmedia.org (lower right). We are looking for ways to screen the Jesus Film, in native languages, in villages and schools throughout the region.

The attached photo is from the school we work with in Burma. The fellow on the left is the Thai-Burmese businessman/missionary I work with in that region of Burma.

– Dr. Jim Randall