Hope UMC Nearing Completion

This Sunday, our friends at Hope UMC in Wachara, Kenya, will be holding worship in their new building for the first time. Joining them will be our team missionary Julie Campbell has affectionately nicknamed the “Hempfield Seven.”

Michael Agwanda, director of Life For Children Ministry, talked about the upcoming services in a recent newsletter:

This will be a wondrous, Blessed day. It will be extra special because a short-term mission team from Hempfield UMC, Lancaster, PA is in Kenya and will attend the service.  Rev John Longmire the senior pastor at Hempfield UMC will be conducting the service.  One reason this is special is that Hempfield UMC was one of three churches that stepped up and made major donations assuring the completion of this project.  The other churches making major donations were Evergreen UMC, Evergreen, AL and Covenant UMC, Fort Wayne Indiana.  Pastor Steve Conner, while he was Senior Pastor at Covenant UMC spearheaded the first donation to purchase the 8 acre building site.  This day would not be happening if these churches had not stepped forward. You have made a difference by assisting LCM with this worthy project. This church will be a multi-use building.

-A church on Sunday and Wednesday
-A training hall for agriculture education on Tuesday
-HIV/AIDS training will be held on Thursday
-Short-term mission participants will be able to stay in the building while they assist the community with Medical Mission Camps, Construction Mission Camps and Vacation Bible Schools.

This structure is vital in the improvement of this village, the lives of these wonderful people, their children and our orphans. The people of Wachara say Thank You!

Give Me Your Eyes

A dance team from Manor Church visited with us during our worship services yesterday and shared a rather moving number choreographed to the song “Give Me Your Eyes” by Brandon Heath. We don’t have video of their performance to show you, but above is the official music video for the song.

In the News: Building Hope

Our local paper highlighted our upcoming trip to Africa and the ongoing mission we have with missionary Julie Campbell and Hope UMC in Wachara, Kenya, in an article in the Faith & Values section on Saturday.

Correspondent Joan Kern did a wonderful job of capturing the heart of what this trip and this budding relationship is all about.

Click HERE to read the article.

Wachara Team Bios: Julie Welles

As the outreach director of Hempfield UMC, it is my joy to serve our magnificent Lord Jesus in fellowship with this wonderful staff and congregation. Each day, I praise God for the blessings that He has given me. I am so passionate about serving others, especially those who are on the fringes of society and our world. It also excites me when I can challenge others to step outside their own comfort levels and pursue serving those in our community and beyond, not just with their material gifts, but with their hearts, mind and body. Sometimes, God calls us to do things that are completely uncomfortable so that He can teach us, mold us and develop us into the people He calls us to be. If you had asked me five years ago if I would be helping to lead a mission trip to Africa right now, I would have said, “fat chance!”

When this trip to Wachara, Kenya, first started to be planned, I had a million reasons why I couldn’t, shouldn’t and wouldn’t go. My mind was made up. Little did I know God had other plans. You see, I am a little stubborn. Sometimes it takes me a little while to catch up with what God wants for me-I stick my feet in the mud, and kick and scream a bit. But, when God started to make a full court press in my prayer time and through other people’s discernment, I realized that I must be obedient to His call. As soon as I surrendered, I was at peace. I was going to Kenya for Jesus!

This is my second short-term mission trip. In 2006, I went to Picayune, Miss., to help clean up after hurricane Katrina. This is my first time going to Africa. In fact, this the first time I have ever traveled outside the country. Unless you count crossing the border at Niagara Falls to the Canadian side!

I am looking forward to learning more about the culture in Kenya, and meeting the people of Hope UMC. What an awe-inspiring opportunity we have to develop this new cross-cultural relationship. My hope and prayer is that I will continue to be open and surrendered to whatever God has in store for me, for our team, and for our church to learn. I know I, as well as everyone going on the trip, will be forever changed in powerful ways. It’s all for His Glory!

Julie will be joining six others from our church on a trip to visit our friends in Wachara, Kenya, from Aug. 29-Sept. 9. Please consider supporting this effort with your prayers and gifts. Click HERE for more info.

Wachara Team Bios: Deb Flores

Hi. My name is Deborah Flores and I’ve been attending Hempfield UMC for 15 years, with my husband Edward. We transferred membership from Ironville UMC. We have two daughters, Kimberley and Julie, and when they married, we embraced two sons. As a child, I had always thought that two girls and two boys would be the perfect family.

When I was seven, my best friend and I used to walk eight blocks to Sunday School every week, as our parents didn’t attend church. I loved singing the hymns and hearing about how much Jesus loves me. I don’t remember any specific moment when I asked Him into my life, but it seems as if He’s always been with me.

After a few years, my parents began to attend church. As a teenager, I recommitted my life to God, but consistently took wayward paths and experienced many heartaches until I finally capitulated and let him have all of my life. He finally wore right through my heart’s door with His knocking.

When I was 24, my dad got his pilot’s license and first airplane. We spent many happy hours fellowshipping together high above the Michigan landscape. One day we were discussing his desire to work for Wycliffe Bible Translators as a pilot and my love of words. We talked about what it would be like to answer God’s call to travel to far-away places, maybe even working together. I told him that I was afraid God would call me to some place far away, like Africa. He asked if I was willing, but I didn’t know the answer to that. He then asked me if I was willing to be willing, and I said I was. Dad said “That’s all God needs.”

One day we caught a cross-wind and severed the tail wheel while landing at a small airport near his home. After screeching to a halt, and hiking down the runway to retrieve the broken wheel, I told Dad that I was going to call Mom to pick me up, as there was no way I was getting back in that plane. Dad encouraged me to get back in. “Debbie, we’ll just land in the field next to the house.  I can land this plane on two wheels.” So I got back in and he did.

Through the years, I’ve been privileged to serve my Lord in various ways. I enjoy the hands-on work of the Altar Design team, and being on the Creative team satisfies my creative bent. I think that God, knowing our hearts, calls us to jobs that truly complete us.

I spent several years as an ER nurse aide, which gave me many opportunities to cultivate a servant’s heart, and reluctantly gave up that job to help Ed start his own delivery business. When that was up and running, I spent some time as a radio announcer at WDAC, pulling the graveyard shift by myself down there at the “Buck.” From midnight to 8 a.m., it was a one-person operation. On weekends, I spent many enjoyable hours fellowshipping with the Lord as my only companion, while broadcasting satellite-fed programs, the weather and station music. I even had to get up on the roof and sweep off the gigantic satellite dish if it snowed.

I think the overriding prayer of my life has been for God to make my heart more like His, as I know I’ll have to fight my selfish bent till the day He calls me home. The deepest desire of my heart is to be a blessing to others and especially to help those of us who are least able to help themselves. Luke 12:48 tells us that “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be required…” That’s a sobering thought, but the good news is that He not only calls us, but equips us. There is much joy in serving Jesus and I’m excited to go where He sends me. This time it is my heavenly Father who is calling me to climb in that plane and trust Him for the results. And I’m climbing onboard. It promises to be quite a ride!

Deb will be joining six others from our church on a trip to visit our friends in Wachara, Kenya, from Aug. 29-Sept. 9. Please consider supporting this effort with your prayers and gifts. Click HERE for more info.

Wachara Trip Bios: Tom and Barb Clingan

Barb grew up in Boiling Springs, Pa. and Tom is from York, Pa. They met their junior year in college and were married after graduation. They moved to Lancaster in 1987. They have two grown children.

Tom worked for 35 years at Armstrong World Industries, and during their first 14 years of marriage, they moved seven times. He retired in 2008 and is currently working for the United Way of Lancaster County as director of financial stability and homelessness. At Hempfield United Methodist, he sings in the choir and in one of the praise bands. He has served on the Church Council for the past three years and has been the Council chair for the past two years. He enjoys sailing, jogging and officiating high school football. Both Barb and Tom coordinate the volunteers from Hempfield UMC who serve meals at Water Street Mission.

Barb has been a speech therapist for 24 years and recently retired from IU 13, where she worked with preschool children. She also worked at Head Start and Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic. She sings in the choir at Hempfield UMC, serves on one of the Host Ministry teams and coordinates the Women’s Cancer Support Care Ministry. She enjoys hiking and biking. She is looking forward to using her years of experience in working with children to interact with the orphans in Wachara.

Over the past year, Barb and Tom have helped support Pastor Joseph Shilalo’s local Kenyan ministry by hosting children from the African’s Children Choir and several Kenyan ministers and guests who attended the two Streams of Life Conferences that were held here. Tom and Barb are looking forward to continuing this relationship building with the Kenyan community in Wachara.

Barb and Tom will be joining five others from our church on a trip to visit our friends in Wachara, Kenya, from Aug. 29-Sept. 9. Please consider supporting this effort with your prayers and gifts. Click HERE for more info.