Thanks, from the Heart
This week and next I’ll write my two last articles, thanking you for our 25 years as members at SHCC, ending this weekly installment of Cross Points. First, let me talk about the mission involvement we’ve had. Our first mission trip came in 2002 with Scott Springer ministries, heading south to Juarez, Mexico with 11 total from SHCC. The group consisted of: Bill & Frances Adams, Ken & Judy Vest, Ernie & Eva Campbell, Mary Fox, Evelyn Clark, Dorothy Winterowd, Rexanne and me. We helped conduct one day VBS at two churches, taught and preached at Sunday services at both churches, and spent a week doing construction work on a third church. Many memories, including the faces of the kids during VBS activities, the joy expressed by Christians living in terribly poor conditions, and the nightly climb up a ladder to the roof to watch the lights of the city come on across the Rio Grande toward El Paso.
Our next mission trip was in 2007 with Master Provisions to Ukraine and Kosovo. This time our SHCC group consisted of: Bill & Frances Adams, Ken & Judy Vest, Mary Fox, Rexanne and me. We taught and preached again on Sunday in Belogorsk of the Crimean Peninsula (now part of Russia). We sang Christian songs in English and Russian on the banks of the Black Sea one night, listened to by many sitting on the balconies of the small hotel where we stayed. Rexanne and I ended up supporting a young, adopted girl for 12 years who lived in Belogorsk. We experienced war-torn Kosovo and made new friends there. In both places we saw how clothing through Master Provisions was distributed and how orphan kids through Master Care were supported.
Our third mission trip was in 2014 to Honduras, again with Master Provisions. Our SHCC group consisted of: Daniel Peregoy, Nick Gaston, Danielle Shoemaker, Sam Dane, Tonya Soum, Terry Lutz, Michael Lutz, Dave and Dorothy Shoemaker, Rexanne and me. We helped with construction projects within the His Eyes complex where they provide medical, vision, and dental care. We took food to poor families nearby who sometimes lived in small concrete block houses with dirt floors on the hillside overlooking the city of Tegucigalpa. We took clothing (Master Provisions again) to a remote mountain village and found hundreds of people waiting in the street (there was only one dirt road through the small town) when we got to the church there. We took kids up a hill to conduct a short VBS type program with them while clothing was distributed. We also saw coffee being grown on the steep hillsides, used to provide extra support for the ministry of His Eyes.
Our fourth mission trip was in 2016 to the Crow Creek Lakota Reservation in South Dakota, to help with a week of camp for young girls in the Diamond Willow Ministry facilities overlooking the Missouri River. Our SHCC group consisted of: Terry & Deb Milton, Sam & Pat Dane, Tim & Donna McKeever, Rexanne and me. We experienced the poverty conditions of these Lakota (Sioux) people, who refuse to live the modern way, yet cannot live the old native way, struggling with alcoholism and abuse. The kids find a safe haven of learning and care at Diamond Willow, including church services each week. It was very sad to leave them at the end of the week.
Rexanne and I have since become involved with Open Door Libraries, a ministry originally intended to get Bibles and Christian materials behind the Iron Curtain. Once the curtain fell it became this library ministry, providing resources for missionaries, Bible’s and Christian materials for all, and a meeting place that becomes a hub for many missionaries and Christians in a generally non-Christian environment. We went on an exploratory trip to the library in Amman, Jordan in 2018, another to libraries in Berlin and Prague in 2019, then served for 6 weeks in Prague in 2021, 4 weeks in Berlin in 2023, running the libraries as the directors returned to the states to visit family, attend the International Conference on Missions, and raise support. SHCC’s elders provided oversight and encouragement as we involved ourselves part-time with this mission. We hope to continue this effort.
While Rexanne and I have been involved in a variety of ways at SHCC, missions have been a passion. Rexanne has served as the mission’s liaison for several years, writing articles to keep the work of these missions in front of us all. We only hope the above experiences have been beneficial to the ministries and to the SHCC people involved. We know they were beneficial for us, broadening our perspective on gospel work around the world.
Cross Point: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Rick’s blog: rickwilliswrites.wordpress.com. Also working on two projects: Waking Up Eutychus & The Vagabond Angel
Our next mission trip was in 2007 with Master Provisions to Ukraine and Kosovo. This time our SHCC group consisted of: Bill & Frances Adams, Ken & Judy Vest, Mary Fox, Rexanne and me. We taught and preached again on Sunday in Belogorsk of the Crimean Peninsula (now part of Russia). We sang Christian songs in English and Russian on the banks of the Black Sea one night, listened to by many sitting on the balconies of the small hotel where we stayed. Rexanne and I ended up supporting a young, adopted girl for 12 years who lived in Belogorsk. We experienced war-torn Kosovo and made new friends there. In both places we saw how clothing through Master Provisions was distributed and how orphan kids through Master Care were supported.
Our third mission trip was in 2014 to Honduras, again with Master Provisions. Our SHCC group consisted of: Daniel Peregoy, Nick Gaston, Danielle Shoemaker, Sam Dane, Tonya Soum, Terry Lutz, Michael Lutz, Dave and Dorothy Shoemaker, Rexanne and me. We helped with construction projects within the His Eyes complex where they provide medical, vision, and dental care. We took food to poor families nearby who sometimes lived in small concrete block houses with dirt floors on the hillside overlooking the city of Tegucigalpa. We took clothing (Master Provisions again) to a remote mountain village and found hundreds of people waiting in the street (there was only one dirt road through the small town) when we got to the church there. We took kids up a hill to conduct a short VBS type program with them while clothing was distributed. We also saw coffee being grown on the steep hillsides, used to provide extra support for the ministry of His Eyes.
Our fourth mission trip was in 2016 to the Crow Creek Lakota Reservation in South Dakota, to help with a week of camp for young girls in the Diamond Willow Ministry facilities overlooking the Missouri River. Our SHCC group consisted of: Terry & Deb Milton, Sam & Pat Dane, Tim & Donna McKeever, Rexanne and me. We experienced the poverty conditions of these Lakota (Sioux) people, who refuse to live the modern way, yet cannot live the old native way, struggling with alcoholism and abuse. The kids find a safe haven of learning and care at Diamond Willow, including church services each week. It was very sad to leave them at the end of the week.
Rexanne and I have since become involved with Open Door Libraries, a ministry originally intended to get Bibles and Christian materials behind the Iron Curtain. Once the curtain fell it became this library ministry, providing resources for missionaries, Bible’s and Christian materials for all, and a meeting place that becomes a hub for many missionaries and Christians in a generally non-Christian environment. We went on an exploratory trip to the library in Amman, Jordan in 2018, another to libraries in Berlin and Prague in 2019, then served for 6 weeks in Prague in 2021, 4 weeks in Berlin in 2023, running the libraries as the directors returned to the states to visit family, attend the International Conference on Missions, and raise support. SHCC’s elders provided oversight and encouragement as we involved ourselves part-time with this mission. We hope to continue this effort.
While Rexanne and I have been involved in a variety of ways at SHCC, missions have been a passion. Rexanne has served as the mission’s liaison for several years, writing articles to keep the work of these missions in front of us all. We only hope the above experiences have been beneficial to the ministries and to the SHCC people involved. We know they were beneficial for us, broadening our perspective on gospel work around the world.
Cross Point: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Rick’s blog: rickwilliswrites.wordpress.com. Also working on two projects: Waking Up Eutychus & The Vagabond Angel
Posted in Cross Points