Although our trip to the states wasn’t the type of trip we
would have liked to go home for, there were some great things that happened
while we were there. Dennis and I were
able to meet with some church staff in MS, as well as speak to several
groups. I’d like to share some of these
with you.
While at the hospital, waiting for Hunter to come out of
surgery, we met Jeff Holland. Jeff is
one of the pastors at Pinelake Baptist Church in Jackson. During our conversation with him, we asked if
the church was mission oriented – a definite YES!! We shared with him the work that is being
done in Romania and he put us in contact with their Mission Pastor. Although we didn’t get to visit with Dan on
our first trip, we did meet up with him when we returned. What a great time to pick the brain of a
mission minded church/staff member. He
shared some things with us that we hadn’t thought about. We also got the names of a couple who are in
the Czech Republic to work with the Roma people.
Dennis’ great niece, Taylor Lofton, is a part of the youth
praise team at Grace Fellowship UMC in Katy, TX. While we were in Houston, we had the
privilege of watching her lead worship for the youth group. We also had an opportunity to talk with the
youth for about 10 minutes. From this
brief talk, one youth stepped up to head a school supply drive for the children
here, and one of the adults spoke with me about teaching English as a Foreign
Language in the mission field. We have
an invitation to return this fall to speak more about the work here.
Our first time back at Packsaddle Fellowship, I was able to
speak with the children’s Bible class about the children that we work
with. I shared a video that Dennis
created, and a power point show of the children. They were full of questions about the
children and their lives, which led into ways in which they could help, and
even the possibility of them coming on a mission trip.
While I talked with the children, Dennis gave a brief
“mission moment” for the adults. He
shared with them the importance of the container, and gave a very detailed
visual of the circumstances for a little boy that we put shoes on. This little boy lives on the downhill side of
where the pigs are kept. The courtyard
that we walked through was flowing with fecal matter. The family continually walked in and through
this mess every day. No big deal you
say……..except that the youngest didn’t have shoes. And all that contaminated material came
directly into the “house” (basically one room where all the children and the
father stayed), as well as absorbing into the child’s system through his feet. We were able to give this little boy a pair
of shoes……his first ever! What a thrill
it was to watch this little one do “the happy shoe dance”. We were also able to give each of the
children an apple. The littlest one
played with his for a minute and then dropped it onto the floor. Before anyone could grab it and wipe it off,
he picked it up and began to eat it. Our
hope is that the family is able to relocate the pigs to an outside area and
away from the children, and that there are no long term ill-effects from the
fecal materials for any of the family.
One Saturday, Deb Guinn and I made a trip into Austin to
shop for shoes; while in Payless, the cashier asked about our purchases
(variety of styles and sizes). What a
great opportunity to share with her the reasons for our purchase. She asked if you had to be a part of our
church to participate, and we said “definitely not”. I gave her one of my cards and she said that
she was going to check out Another Child’s website as soon as she got off
work. She was very interested in what we
do, so I invited her to check out the mission trips.
For those of you who know Dennis, he can’t stay out of a
music store! One day while in Guitar
Center, he mentions that he is looking for a keyboard to take to Romania……another
door opens! The guy behind the counter
says: “zi bună. ai fost în România de foarte multe ori?” Basically: good
day. Have you been to Romania very often?
It turns out he has been on several mission trips there himself. He told me he hadn’t been in a while, so I
gave him our card with Another Child Foundation’s website and invited him to
come back. We talked Romania and
missions for a good half-hour in Guitar Center.
On our way back from the 2nd trip to Mississippi,
we stopped in Seguin to visit with my cousin, Michelle, and her 5
daughters. Michelle expressed an
interest in bringing a couple of the older girls on a mission trip next spring
break. We shared our video and pictures,
and visited a couple of hours. All the
girls were attentive and seemed excited about the possibility of doing a music
mission trip (they have their own singing group….the Knight Girls…..and perform
for area festivals). They will also
discuss the possibility of some of their classmates/parents coming too. Can’t wait to see you all next spring!!!
Our 2nd trip back to Kingsland allowed us to meet
with John Hallowell, an editor for a local paper. We met John at Dairy Queen and visited with
him for over 2 hours. He took a lot of
notes, and sent me a draft of his article the next day. On Thursday of that same week, the article
came out in the paper. Through this
article, Dennis received a call from a friend that we knew from a former
church. He asked if we were available to
speak with his church either on Wednesday night or Sunday morning. Since we were heading to Dallas that weekend,
we opted for the Wednesday night. We
were able to share with about 35 folks, many of them old friends, the work that
we are involved in. The folks at Chapel
of the Hills are very excited to become involved with Fundatia Buckner and the
work in Romania. That night, they became
involved financially through sponsorships, a love offering to purchase some
needed items for the center, one person signed up for the Birthday Club,
several expressed an interest in a mission trip, and many are now receiving the
newsletter. Thank you Chapel of the
Hills!!!
The week before we left, I was able to inventory and pack up
the items that Packsaddle Fellowship had been collecting. When everything was finally sorted, rubber
banded, folded and packed, there were 34 boxes of misc items. These items included socks, shoes, hats,
gloves, coats, clothing items, craft items, musical instruments, as well as
puzzles/games/toys, and 1 ladder. All
total, over 910 items were packed and ready to ship. Great job Packsaddle!!!
Since we were flying out of DFW, we made a final visit with
Richland Baptist Church in Richardson, TX.
There we spoke with an adult class about our mission. Several members picked up our cards, and 2
people signed up for our Birthday Club (if you want to know more about this,
shoot me a FB message or email). Thank
you Forrest and Katy Scarborough and Cassie Glover for setting this up!!
Many doors were opened while we were around, and we were
glad to share. We’re excited about
having friends and family express interest in the program, and hope that the
seeds were planted will bear fruit.
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