Round Trip

Home again.  We have officially graduated our CPX (Church Planting Experience).  Successfully completed our 2 month trip to the middle east.  We are home, and it is cold.

Sitting here, looking back it was a very special time, a bit of a whirlwind, but as a family it was really good for us.  We are now connected with a healthy church family.  We have some great lifelong friendships. Our kids have made some amazing friends.  We are connected to a mission training/sending organization. This year we will watch 20+ people get launched into the nations.  At age 2 Finley has more stamps in her passport than I did at 30.  We made some incredible lifelong memories.  We were even able to check off some big bucket list items while we were there.  

Its difficult to try and recap a 2 month mission trip.  There were so many highs and a handful of lows that it is difficult to summarize them all.  The middle east is a hard place and if you know missionaries there, they deserve some extra prayer and support.  The stories of the Syrian families are heartbreaking.  This is war that has no end insight and has already displaced millions of people.  Here is a great article explaining Syrian refugee crisis.  What can we do to help?  We are so far away.  First and foremost pray for peace in Syria. Second, go on a mission trip, see for yourself.  We have a project here called Serve Syria where we can host teams in the middle east.  We will send someone to meet you on arrival, spend time training you in regards to culture, etc, and then begin helping Syrian families.  Small groups of 5-7 are best, but we can accommodate larger teams if necessary.  Thirdly, raise awareness and raise funds.  There are lots of groups working on the ground that need support. Share and update your friends via social media as to what is happening.  

During one part of our stay, we went to a border town called Mafraq.  Originally 60,000, Jordanian people, it is now close to 150,000 due to the influx of Syrian refugee.  Close by, is one of the larger refugee camps with another 100,000+ refugees.  There is a church there that had a heart to help the Syrians.  Their plan was they would meet the families and give them a welcome pack.  It was all the basics needed; mattress, blanket, pillows, stove, gas bottle, rugs, fan.  A few creature comforts, but they thought if we can just help them sleep and eat.  3 years later they are still doing welcome packs.  They estimate they have given out over 75,000 mattress. We got to ride along and help distribute these packs.  Some families had only been in the country for 5 days and had nothing.  This church is most Syrian Families first point of contact outside of the refugee camp.  They are doing so much, but they are only one church among so many.  

Here is a quick video that recaps some parts of our trip. Again it is difficult to summarize 2 months, but here is a glimpse of some of the faces and places.  If you would like more info on serve Syria or some of the projects that we worked with, just email me.  We will be posting some of the stories in the next weeks and also sending out a newsletter update.  If you dont get those, please be sure and send me you email.  

Thanks