Teen Mission Notes (February & March, 2009)

It’s been nearly two months since my last Teen Mission update. Therefore, this one will cover February and March, 2009. There’s a lot to cover so here goes:

Health
The day of our last Teen Mission board meeting (Monday, March 2nd), I felt pretty sick and left the meeting early to go see my doctor.
Over the past few months, I’ve been having some minor pains in my chest, but I was also extremely sick to my stomach on that day.
I was a little concerned that it could be something to do with my heart.
I’ve been watching my blood pressure over the past year and a half as it’s been getting a little too high.
The good news is that it is not heart related.
Just to be on the safe side, though, I had an upper GI and a Gall Bladder Ultrasound done at a hospital.
It confirmed what my doctor had thought. It revealed I had a Hiatal Hernia (in my upper stomach). It can be controlled with meds and not eating after 7-8 pm at night.
I am also now taking a blood pressure medicine (small dosage) and my blood is pressure is doing a lot better (averaging 120/80).
It’s no all fun getting older, gang.

Holy Land Trip (March 09-21)
I was away a good bit of the month of March with a group of 46 (mostly from Gardenside Christian Church) on a trip to the Holy Land.
It was a truly awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
God was gracious in allowing me to be healthy and focused. Because of that, I was blessed by the experience of having walked where our Lord walked.
During the trip, I posted a journal and uploaded photos on my blog. Many of you were able to follow along. Thanks for all the positive feedback!
While it was a great trip and we saw a bunch of incredible stuff, I’m glad to be home. It took me about a week to adjust to the time change and all the travel.
Once again, I greatly appreciate all your concerns, thought and prayers.

Mission Journeys
The 2009 Mission Journeys are moving into high gear. In fact, we’ve already sent two teams out this year.
Chuck Perry led a team to Haiti, February 05-15. The group helped build a church building while holding both a revival and Vacation Bible School.
Another team from Big Hill Avenue Christian Church (Richmond, KY) worked in St Albans, WV, March 06-08.
The team served with Gateway Church of Christ in their ongoing ministry to the community around them by working on several area homes and with a few different community centers.
Team member Regena Adams said this about the trip, “Thanks for an awesome weekend. I absolutely had the time of my life; the people…the church…everything was done with excellence, just the way God wants!”
The current economic climate has many people worried about their money. Many would-be Mission Journey volunteers have been hesitant in committing to going on a short-term mission trip this year.
As a result, applications and funds are coming in to our office much later than usual.
Despite that, it looks like we’ll have a good number of participants (500-550) and trips (30-35).
Many of this year’s projects will be taking place in the United States as our international trips will see slight a drop in number.
The projects going outside the USA (Brazil, French Guiana, Haiti, Honduras and possibly Tanzania) will be smaller teams than normal.

Other projects
Besides the Mission Journeys, we’ve been busy getting things ready for our 2009 VBS/Camp mission project and schedules made for our summer interns.
While Our VBS/Camp mission program is just getting underway, we already have several weeks of church camp lined up.
We have not done a new DVD for this project in over 5 years. Sam Bowles (Marengo, IN) is helping us put together a new one that will feature 5 (one each day) of the locations/countries TM, USA, ministers in.
Children will receive their own passport and receive a new stamp/sticker for a new country each day.
In early April, a promotional flier advertising the project was mailed out to 1,000 churches & individuals.
The 5th year of the Joshua Teegarden Internship program will take place this summer. Our interns will represent Teen Mission at many of these weeks of VBS & camp as well as help with the administration of the Mission Journeys.
We currently have two really fine young people lined up to serve with us this summer. They are: Andrew Eells (Rossville, IL) and Sarah Cross (Nicholasville, KY). Both have previously served with us on Mission Journeys (Andrew - Tanzania and Sarah - Mexico). There is a chance we might have a third intern join us for the summer.

Spring is a wonderful season with many things around us starting to bloom and come “back to life.” Creation is reminding us of our Savior’s resurrection years ago.
I pray we as Christians take joy in that fact as we enjoy the season.
May you have a wonderful Easter (April 12th)!
THANKS again for your prayers, support and encouragement.

In Him,
Greg Herriford (Teen Mission, USA)