As promised in our last update we did want to get out some news on our last summer of ministry with AIM. So, we have posted a summer ministry update on our blog for you to check out. Plenty has gone on in the last two weeks since we’ve been on staff with Helping Hands as well. So, we’ll start our update from there.
Despite the fact that Dr. K’s death was a tremendous shock and, needless to say, a very interesting time to start work at a new ministry, I can honestly say that God is Good! He has sustained us and allowed us to slide right in to serving here at full capacity! Our first task as we officially started in the office on Monday 8/16 was to jump in on the preparations for the upcoming Legacy Banquet slated for Saturday 8/21. Dr. K had always done a lot for this and not only was he not going to be there for the final week of preparation, he had not been able to do much work the entire week before due to his illness. We started the final week with just over 100 tickets outstanding, the finishing touches of the drama to complete, sets to build, a banquet hall to decorate, etc. By the end of the week, all the tickets were gone and we had seen our staff, our board, and countless volunteers show up at different points to complete everything and help the evening be a success. And what a success it was! God blessed our labor and allowed Helping Hands to raise approximately $100,000 for the Village of Eden project! If you are wondering, that more than doubled the old record. Praise the LORD!!
With the banquet behind us, last week began our official entry into our ministry jobs. We will still be doing the jobs planned for us, but we are picking them up more quickly and my role, especially, is already expanding. That said, let me start with Sarah. She is the Director of Children’s Ministry and has been given charge of the Uganda Orphan Sponsorship Program. She started at just the right time, with the summer orphan updates due to be sent. She has been working hard to learn the sponsors and their corresponding children in Uganda and she is looking forward to our upcoming trip in October, where she will be able to put some faces with names and help get information for more updates. Eventually Sarah will become more involved with other facets of the children’s ministry, developing evangelism and discipleship plans for the children’s ministry. Sarah’s position has been a huge need for the organization for some time and she came on board at just the right time. God always has perfect timing!
My position has always been a bit different. I was brought on officially to be the Director of Disaster Response and will continue in that role. It was always known that my position would end up encompassing much more than that, as I was to work directly with Dr. K, picking up other ministry tasks and pulling some things off his plate. The last thing he said to me was “I have a list for you next week.” I’m not sure what was on the list, and I may never know, but things are developing quickly regarding my position. Not only will I be developing the disaster program, but I have also been given two additional roles. One will be that of Mission Trip Coordinator. I will be helping teams prepare to go out on the field and helping them with much of their stateside logistics to include getting their flights to Uganda, Bolivia, etc. The other role I’ll be filling is Mission Trip Field Director. My experience from AIM has allowed me to hit the ground running with both of these positions, but I will be learning some of the “ins and outs” of Uganda and Bolivia before I take a team. It will be a quick learning curve as I’ll learn Uganda in October and, Lord willing, Bolivia in January. Assuming all goes to plan, Sarah will be traveling with me frequently.
We are very excited about what we’ll be doing at Helping Hands, about how God is working here, and about the team he has assembled. We have been blessed with incredible co-workers and definitely have the sense of God adding us to the team He has picked. We have also been blessed with a Board of Directors filled with Godly servants who are helping to guide and oversee this ministry. This is humbling and exciting at the same time!
The ministry of Helping Hands is a vital need and is all-encompassing, combining short term missions with ongoing ministry on the ground. We take teams to many places to assist other missionaries and ministries, but we focus the majority of our teams in places where we have full time staff - Uganda and Bolivia. Ministry is going on full-time in both locations and mission teams are able to actively further our efforts.
In Uganda we are working with over 1600 kids, providing food, education, medical care, and clothing. Right now our facility is only a school, a medical clinic, and a church. The majority of the children in the school have a place to stay once they start attending. Some have a family member or guardian, but some are staying with other families in the area. Eventually, once the Village of Eden is built, we’ll be able to house all the orphans, give them three meals a day, have more education opportunities, a better clinic, and a safe place to grow up. We’ll also be able to work with more children. This is a desperate need! There will continue to be many orphans as there is a 30% (or higher) AIDS rate in the population. Many of these children end up living on the street and hooked on drugs. They battle abuse, disease, and malnutrition. Another horrible occurrence is abductions. Even in 2010, children are abducted by witch doctors to be sacrificed to their gods. That blows my mind! The Gospel of Christ can change these lives! We have one full-time staff member living there full time and we bring teams in several times throughout the year. We are working tirelessly to bring help for today, hope for tomorrow, and heaven for eternity!
In Bolivia we have forged a partnership with Word of Life ministry. Helping Hands built their compound a few years ago and we work out of that base when teams come. We have one staff member living there full time. We work with orphanages and out of the way mountain villages providing medical care, evangelism, VBS, etc. We also work in remote jungle villages providing medical care and what evangelism we can. Trips into the jungle start with a bush plane ride to the nearest village with an airstrip. It then continues with an 8 hour canoe ride up a tributary of the Amazon to a very remote village. Though Spanish is spreading, communicating with these people can be difficult as there are not many English speakers who also speak their Indian dialect. Sometimes all we are able to do is spread the love of Christ with our actions. When I hear about this ministry, especially in the jungle villages, I can only think about Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and the other missionaries who lost their lives in Ecuador 56 years ago. While I do not relish going through the same thing those men did, I still see them on the cutting edge of missions. That we are preparing to do some very similar things is humbling and exciting.
While all of this is very exciting, we cannot do it without you! Your prayers and financial support keep God’s work happening. It keeps our bills paid in the states and keeps us traveling and ministering in all these different places. Currently we are at about 40% of our monthly support for living expenses ($4000/month need). We are still in need of travel money for our upcoming trips. One of these is Uganda this October where we need about ($4000). We are supposed to leave on September 27th but will not buy tickets until we have funds committed.
Time is growing short for getting us to Uganda. We know God has called us to Helping Hands. Uganda is so much of what HHFM do, we need to go! Sarah needs to meet the orphans and work with the local staff so updates can go out to the orphan sponsors upon our return. I need to see the trip operation so I can lead teams there effectively. I am also hoping to get a crash course in tropical medicine from Dr. Brenda (co-founder and Executive Director of HHFM). My skills as an EMT will be maxed out in the places we go, but this is the reason I received the medical training I have.
We know God will take care of all our needs! Just the other day, Sarah and I decided to fast as we prayed for God’s provision. When we got to work, we were offered fresh sweet rolls. I declined. While we were at an appointment later in the morning, our fabulous office administrator, Lori, texted and said that she had lunch for us when we got back. We didn’t want to let her hard work go to waste, so Sarah and I agreed we would eat. When we finished our appointment, Sarah called to say we were coming back. At that point Lori revealed she had purchased us everything we needed to make a spaghetti dinner! Sarah told me a minute later that she had been asking God why were getting all this today when had been trying to fast. God seemed to be saying “Why are you fasting? I’m providing! I brought you breakfast, lunch and dinner today!” What an encouragement to us! God will provide all we need!
Thank you in advance for all of your faithful prayers and support. Please join us in lifting up our praises and prayer requests:
- Pray for wisdom for Dr. Brenda and the Board of Directors as organizational decisions continue to be made and direction is set.
- Praise for God’s continued provision. He has provided new coworkers and friends to teach us many “tricks to living cheaply”! Sarah learned how to make her own laundry detergent last week!
- Pray for the financial means to do what we need to do on the field and keep things running at home.
- Praise for all God is doing as HHFM moves forward, preparing to build the Village of Eden.
- Pray for wisdom as we learn our new positions.
- Please pray for discipline in our spiritual walks, that we would make sure we are walking closely with God and not just working on His ministry.
If you would like to donate to our ministry at Helping Hands Foreign Missions, please send your tax deductible donation to:
Helping Hands Foreign Missions
1715 Cleveland Highway
Gainesville, GA 30501
You can also donate online at: http://www.helpinghandsmissions.org.
Please make a note designating your gift for Mike and Sarah McCord
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