GLOBAL HAPPENINGS

We have missions teams going off all over the place right now. I just got back from JFK where we dropped off sixteen people whose flight to the Dominican Republic takes off any second. They'll be linking up with our missionaries down there and helping them for a week, with whatever they need doing.

I do know the guys will be finishing up the medical clinic our team started work on down there ten months ago. It stood there half done for a while as there was word of government help to complete the project, but that never materialised, so it's going to be a busy time for our team as I understand that an official opening has been planned for Thursday with the Mayor doing the honors and a TV crew all booked to be there.

We have some great people - I may have said that before, but it's all true. At this moment we have four folks down in South Africa scoping out a whole new project in a huge poverty-stricken township that has asked us for some help.

Then next month we have a team returning to Banda Aceh, Indonesia where there is still widespread devastation following the Tsunami on December 26th 2004.

I watched the DR team filing into the airport this morning and realized that virtually every one of them will leave a real gap tomorrow. They're folks who are totally involved on Sundays. These are not your stereotypical missions team members who do nothing at home all year and think they can get on a plane and save the world. These are people who are walking the walk. They're travelling however many thousand miles to continue doing what they do all the time, loving God, loving people and serving our world.