Request for Prayer
Ben - The following is a letter I sent out to some of my pastors, friends and family. I hope to send an actual support letter out when more of the plans are finalized.
Dear all,
Many of you may know that for the last year I have been volunteering with Friends of Internationals, an organization that seeks to help the thousand international students that attend University of South Alabama. I've been involved in the ministry since December, 2004, and in August, I cut my day job hours so I could spend more time volunteering in an internship-type arrangement.
FOI's primary goal is developing relationships and serving international students. Jim Mather, FOI's director, organizes a variety of events that encourage interaction and building friendships. Many of these events are at his own home, such as the huge FOI dinners on several Fridays a semester. These Friday nights rarely have less than a hundred students in attendance. They come, play ping-pong and card games, talk, eat, and listen to live music. Every Monday night at Jim's house is a time of worship and Bible study with twenty to eighty students each week. Throughout the week are various smaller Bible studies and ministry times. Jim also assists students find and move second-hand furniture. Many students sleep on the floor of bare apartments for months because they have no money for mattresses.
Birthed out of FOI is my desire to travel to India and Nepal in May 2006. These two countries represent a quarter of the international population at South Alabama. There are four volunteers that hope to take the trek--David, Anna, Amanda, and I. We go with the following goals:
1. Discover. To befriend and reach internationals, it is helpful to know the culture from which they come. Our team will spend time immersing ourselves in Indian and Nepali culture. By understanding where students come from we can better identify with them and help them while they are in the States.
2. Keep Relationships Alive. Because of the volume of students with which FOI works, it is easy to loose contact with alumni. As ambassadors of the ministry, we hope to visit and encourage some of the graduates with whom the organization has ties. Many of them live in places where the population is unfriendly to Christians. I see this thrust of our mission in a similar vain of Paul sending Timothy to visit the churches that he had started.
3. Build Networks. Many our friends have missionary friends in the region to which we are traveling. We hope to visit and encourage these missionaries by bringing personal greetings from those they know in the U.S.
4. Encourage Prospective Students. The Indian population on campus is largely suspicious of FOI. There are only a handful of them that are Christians. One way that this sub-community can be reached is through more Indian Christians to come and attend the university. While the population of Christians in India and Nepal is quite small, we hope to encourage perspective college students to come to Mobile. The students will benefit from having friends in a strange place. Their presence in Mobile will assist us in building relationships and helping their piers.
5. Meet families of Current Students. Our trip will hopefully include time to spend with the families of those who are already studying at South Alabama. We can be carriers of tidings from the students and give reports on their how they are to the families eager for news.
6. Worship Ministry in Churches. One of the team members, David Chavali, is from Hyderabaud, India, where his family still lives. His father often goes throughout the country-side of southern India encouraging churches. We are hoping to go to these church's as well, bringing teaching and worship.
One of the missionaries we will visit is Sudip. Three of us met him while he and his wife, Anna Lise were in the country raising money for an orphanage in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Sudip was ten when he was disowned by his Hindu family due to his Christian conversion. He was raised in an orphanage run by a missionary. Today, he provides leadership to over forty churches, a Bible school, and an orphanage. I asked Sudip how many children live in his orphanage. His answer was thirty-six. I asked him what the capacity of the building they have now. The answer shocked me--ten children. Not only is the orphanage filled to nearly four times capacity with three or four children to a bed, but Sudip has a waiting list of seventy children waiting and needing to get in. These kids often have no parents, or their parents are too poor to feed them.
Sudip and Anna Lisa are raising fifty thousand dollars for a new facility that will have the room they need for the children.
A liberal idea of our own expenses is $2000 a piece for travel expenses, and $35 a day for living expenses. We are hoping to stay in Kathmandu, Nepal, for three weeks, and three weeks in Hyderabad, India. That means we need to raise $3500 a piece for this trip. We do not plan to live extravagantly, eating and staying with the locals as much as possible. Our expenses will likely be much less, but we hope to use the money left after expenses helping the missionaries we visit.
I'm writing all this to you to ask for prayer in four important ways.
1. God's Direction - My greatest desire is to honor God in this endeavor. Apart from his heart, our trip will be in vain. We have no set schedule. We hope to leave in early May, 2006 and return six weeks later, but we need God's direction. Pray that we will hear from Him and that He will guide our steps.
2. Support -- None of us have $3500 in reserve for this trip. We make plans based on our trust that God will provide. If he wants us to go, he will prick the hearts of those that would donate. On the other hand we constantly eye plane ticket prices and recognize the best deals are gotten when ordering tickets a few months in advance. As of now we have no mission organization sponsoring us. We may go through our Churches or seek to funnel our money through Globe Missionary Evangelism, the organization of which Jim Mather, FOI, and Sudip Khadka are covered. Please pray that we would have wisdom concerning choosing an organization.
3. Kathmandu Orphanage. Please pray that Sudip and Anna Lisa raise the support needed for the new orphanage. My heart breaks to know that there are so many Nepali children who have lost their family and need help. What hurts more is knowing that there is such a tangible and relatively inexpensive way that Christians can make a difference, yet funding for the new orphanage is taking so long.
4. Friends of Internationals Ministry. Jim and Mary Mather and their family live sacrificially for the sake of students who are far from home and the familiar. Please pray that God will continue to bless their work--that the ministry would have increased opportunity to demonstrate God's love to students from nations all over the world.
Thank you for reading this note. Thank you for your prayers. Feel free to send suggestions, help support financially, or ask questions.
May God richly bless you, ever increasing your love for those around you.
Ben Brenner
P.S. If you want to give to the orphanage project, more information can be found online http://www.gmenews.org/missionaries/view_missionary.php?mid=103
Dear all,
Many of you may know that for the last year I have been volunteering with Friends of Internationals, an organization that seeks to help the thousand international students that attend University of South Alabama. I've been involved in the ministry since December, 2004, and in August, I cut my day job hours so I could spend more time volunteering in an internship-type arrangement.
FOI's primary goal is developing relationships and serving international students. Jim Mather, FOI's director, organizes a variety of events that encourage interaction and building friendships. Many of these events are at his own home, such as the huge FOI dinners on several Fridays a semester. These Friday nights rarely have less than a hundred students in attendance. They come, play ping-pong and card games, talk, eat, and listen to live music. Every Monday night at Jim's house is a time of worship and Bible study with twenty to eighty students each week. Throughout the week are various smaller Bible studies and ministry times. Jim also assists students find and move second-hand furniture. Many students sleep on the floor of bare apartments for months because they have no money for mattresses.
Birthed out of FOI is my desire to travel to India and Nepal in May 2006. These two countries represent a quarter of the international population at South Alabama. There are four volunteers that hope to take the trek--David, Anna, Amanda, and I. We go with the following goals:
1. Discover. To befriend and reach internationals, it is helpful to know the culture from which they come. Our team will spend time immersing ourselves in Indian and Nepali culture. By understanding where students come from we can better identify with them and help them while they are in the States.
2. Keep Relationships Alive. Because of the volume of students with which FOI works, it is easy to loose contact with alumni. As ambassadors of the ministry, we hope to visit and encourage some of the graduates with whom the organization has ties. Many of them live in places where the population is unfriendly to Christians. I see this thrust of our mission in a similar vain of Paul sending Timothy to visit the churches that he had started.
3. Build Networks. Many our friends have missionary friends in the region to which we are traveling. We hope to visit and encourage these missionaries by bringing personal greetings from those they know in the U.S.
4. Encourage Prospective Students. The Indian population on campus is largely suspicious of FOI. There are only a handful of them that are Christians. One way that this sub-community can be reached is through more Indian Christians to come and attend the university. While the population of Christians in India and Nepal is quite small, we hope to encourage perspective college students to come to Mobile. The students will benefit from having friends in a strange place. Their presence in Mobile will assist us in building relationships and helping their piers.
5. Meet families of Current Students. Our trip will hopefully include time to spend with the families of those who are already studying at South Alabama. We can be carriers of tidings from the students and give reports on their how they are to the families eager for news.
6. Worship Ministry in Churches. One of the team members, David Chavali, is from Hyderabaud, India, where his family still lives. His father often goes throughout the country-side of southern India encouraging churches. We are hoping to go to these church's as well, bringing teaching and worship.
One of the missionaries we will visit is Sudip. Three of us met him while he and his wife, Anna Lise were in the country raising money for an orphanage in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Sudip was ten when he was disowned by his Hindu family due to his Christian conversion. He was raised in an orphanage run by a missionary. Today, he provides leadership to over forty churches, a Bible school, and an orphanage. I asked Sudip how many children live in his orphanage. His answer was thirty-six. I asked him what the capacity of the building they have now. The answer shocked me--ten children. Not only is the orphanage filled to nearly four times capacity with three or four children to a bed, but Sudip has a waiting list of seventy children waiting and needing to get in. These kids often have no parents, or their parents are too poor to feed them.
Sudip and Anna Lisa are raising fifty thousand dollars for a new facility that will have the room they need for the children.
A liberal idea of our own expenses is $2000 a piece for travel expenses, and $35 a day for living expenses. We are hoping to stay in Kathmandu, Nepal, for three weeks, and three weeks in Hyderabad, India. That means we need to raise $3500 a piece for this trip. We do not plan to live extravagantly, eating and staying with the locals as much as possible. Our expenses will likely be much less, but we hope to use the money left after expenses helping the missionaries we visit.
I'm writing all this to you to ask for prayer in four important ways.
1. God's Direction - My greatest desire is to honor God in this endeavor. Apart from his heart, our trip will be in vain. We have no set schedule. We hope to leave in early May, 2006 and return six weeks later, but we need God's direction. Pray that we will hear from Him and that He will guide our steps.
2. Support -- None of us have $3500 in reserve for this trip. We make plans based on our trust that God will provide. If he wants us to go, he will prick the hearts of those that would donate. On the other hand we constantly eye plane ticket prices and recognize the best deals are gotten when ordering tickets a few months in advance. As of now we have no mission organization sponsoring us. We may go through our Churches or seek to funnel our money through Globe Missionary Evangelism, the organization of which Jim Mather, FOI, and Sudip Khadka are covered. Please pray that we would have wisdom concerning choosing an organization.
3. Kathmandu Orphanage. Please pray that Sudip and Anna Lisa raise the support needed for the new orphanage. My heart breaks to know that there are so many Nepali children who have lost their family and need help. What hurts more is knowing that there is such a tangible and relatively inexpensive way that Christians can make a difference, yet funding for the new orphanage is taking so long.
4. Friends of Internationals Ministry. Jim and Mary Mather and their family live sacrificially for the sake of students who are far from home and the familiar. Please pray that God will continue to bless their work--that the ministry would have increased opportunity to demonstrate God's love to students from nations all over the world.
Thank you for reading this note. Thank you for your prayers. Feel free to send suggestions, help support financially, or ask questions.
May God richly bless you, ever increasing your love for those around you.
Ben Brenner
P.S. If you want to give to the orphanage project, more information can be found online http://www.gmenews.org/missionaries/view_missionary.php?mid=103
posted by Ben Brenner at 8:18 PM
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