Teen Mission Notes (July, 2009)

Although the temperatures have been warming up, the summer is starting to wrap up. The kids went back to school today (8/12) here in Lexington. I also turned 38 years old today.
As we start to look to the fall, here is what’s happening with Teen Mission, USA:

2009 MISSION JOURNEYS
The 2009 summer mission trips are now over and it's a really good feeling to wrap up what has been a very successful year of mission trips.
It was not easy, but much was accomplished despite MANY obstacles (read the June TM Notes on my blog for more details).
We’ll end up having a very respectable number of participants (500) and trips (32).
The drop in income to TM from Mission Journeys due to having less international trips will not be as great as I had first thought.
Instead of the initial projections of $10,000-$15,000, it will be more like a $7,000-$8,000 shortfall.
However, that is still additional income we’ll need to have in order to make our budget this year.

A few more important trips are planned for later this year.
Ken has been invited to preach, teach and train hundreds of students, preachers and church leaders in North-Central INDIA and much of TANZANIA from Oct 08-Nov 17.
I'll be working with Dr Wesley Stepp (Oct 22-29) on doing a 2nd convention in FRENCH GUIANA (located on the north coast of South America). Topics to be covered will be: preaching, ministry, church leadership, worship and women's ministry.

TWICE ANNUAL
As you may know, we went ahead and raised the Twice Annual this year from $35 to $50. It was phrased, however, in a very low key way. In the spring, we had a nice response to our Twice Annual mailing with over $7,500 raised. Our 2nd call letter will go out in early August (this week). Historically, though, it has not been as well received as the spring one. Regardless, it should give some relief during the late summer as the mission trips wrap up and take a lot of funds out of the office.

FALL BANQUET (10.15.09)
We have things set for our annual fall banquet here in Lexington.
The date will be Thursday, October 15th at the Gardenside Christian Church Gym (940 Holly Springs Dr; Lexington, KY 40504).
The theme will be: “Honoring the Past…Looking to the Future.”
We’ll have a meal, mini-concert and brief program.
The music will be from the Messengers. They are a very popular Southern Gospel quartet, celebrating 50 years as a group this year.
As for honoring the past, we will continue to use the banquet time to honor faithful supporters/volunteers as we did with Chuck Perry (2006), Tommy Baker (2007) and the Bill Teegarden family (2008).
This year, we’ll honor Brother Wayne B. Smith, the longtime minister at Southland Christian Church/Lexington, KY, and arguably the most beloved preacher in our brotherhood.
Wayne has always been a great friend of Teen Mission and he was very helpful in getting Ken get TM “off the ground” in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
I must confess that following this year’s North American Christian Convention in Louisville, Teen Mission is the proud owner of 100 Wayne Smith bobble head dolls.
My friend Ben Prewitt had several made to honor Wayne at a NACC luncheon and had a few leftover following the event. I bought some of them with hopes of using them as some type of gift for this year’s banquet givers/attendees.
In closing the evening, I would also like to spend a few moments updating folks about where Teen Mission is heading. We’ll share with our supporters that Teen Mission has been seriously and prayerfully considering expanding the Mission Journeys outreach by starting one, eventually more, Teen Mission "mission locations."
We feel like God may be opening a door of opportunity in the Central America country of Belize as well as in Eastern KY.

THANKS again for your prayers, support and encouragement!

In Him,
Greg Herriford (Teen Mission, USA)