Team TCI To Pack Their Bags

Team TCI will host its packing party in one week of all the donated dental supplies, shoes and reading glasses to bring to distribute in the DR. Cut off to donate items is June 15th
Please pray for the team and the mission that God would watch over them and grant success to reach many families for Christ

TCI MISSION TEAM 2012 The TCI Mission Team is preparing for the annual TCI Mission Trip for June 23rd-30th. The focus of this years trip is a Dental Clinic which will be led by Dr Jane Russo and an ESL Training which will be led by Sue Wineland. Team leader is Senior Pastor Miles Ahrens. A documentary film will be produced by Chris and Kathy Kiley on the TCI partnership between Mount Zion Church, Pastor Julio and Trinity Cares International. The team is still seeking Dental supplies such as Toothpaste and toothbrushes to give to the community of Consuelo. This blog will continue each day leading up to the trip and during the trip. So log on each day to See the way God is blessing and working in Consuelo through our partnership.

DRMISSIONTEAM.ORG

Check out this web site. This is the work of John Powers and his team at First Baptist in Wallingford CT Cool Stuff!!

Next Meeting December 3rd 6PM

Project Launch

Exciting news that our Project launch will be Sunday November 22nd!! Child sponsorship packets are in and work has begun to plan our first visit to the Dominican Republic. Stay tuned for further info....

Next Meeting November 12th at 6PM

BYOF-Bring your own food, subway, pizza, your choice.....
Contact committee members and bring reports of your ideas
and update status.

Compassion Int'l Update

I followed up with Compassion International today informing them of our decision to work in the Dominican Republic.
They are contacting the local churches and CDC's to find a match for the criteria we set of being rural or a small city.
We should have some response by next Wednesday for matches for us. Not sure about the Nov 15th launch date that will depend if the matched area has the children's profile packets in house in Colorado. Will send info as I get it....Chris

Agents of Change(Watch this video!)

This is on Compassion International's blog site. This is the difference child sponsorship is making!!

http://vimeo.com/7188199

Listen to Jimmy Wambua's testimony on how he was rescued by child sponsorship and is now at Moody
Bible College on Scholarship looking to change the world for CHrist in his Native Country!!

God is at work and I am excited to see what he will do through us in the Dominican Republic!!

News Sites

Here are some information sites that may be useful:

www.guatemala-times.com

www.hondurasnews.com

www.dominicantoday.com




www.onlinenewspapers.com

Flight & Travel Research

I did a travel search as well and the search for December Travel 12/4-12/18 (2 wks) was:
Honduras $485 DR:$356 Guatemala $344

The interesting thing was when you changed travel times away from the holiday season to next spring (2010) travel for April 16th to April 30th was as follows: Honduras $ 282 DR:$401 Guatemala $274

Honduras and Guatemala are quite less to travel to in off-season. These rates were all Roundtrip.

Rates acquired by www.Expedia.com

Flight Costs

I looked up round-trip flight costs for a hypothetical 2 week visit to the three nations' capitals in March, and the prices were approximately as follows: Honduras $500, Dominican Republic $400, Guatemala $300. This was a surprise to me...I thought for sure that flying to the D. R. would be the least expensive. This is something to take into serious consideration knowing that there will be groups and individuals traveling to our sponsored community.

Mission Work in Honduras Continues

I just had a phone conversation with Harold Lefever who is a friend of mine who coordinates mission trips 2x annually to Honduras. His daughter Janice is a missionary there as well. Harold has said he and his daughter has never felt unsafe in Honduras for as long as they have been there. Also, in spite of the political atmosphere Janice has said it is a political situation and not something where violence has ever been a problem before. Honduras is also one of the few central american countries that has never had a bloody coup d'état in its countries history. Harold has run mission trips with World Gospel Mission and has also assisted "Border Buddies".

Janice's work is in the Tegucigalpa city area. Harold is planning a March 2010 return trip to Honduras as a construction project. He is going to send me some information and internet links for Honduran newspapers (English & Spanish) that we can keep up with the countries ongoing issues. He also stated he would have no problem bringing youth to Honduras. This is coming from someone who has a good feel for a country he has ministered in for many years and whose daughter is there as a full time missionary. I went to Zimbabwe during political turmoil and it was much more volatile than Honduras at this point and the groups ministering there know where it is not a good idea to go. However, that situation was a racial in nature as well, which is not the case in Honduras.

Based on what I heard this evening I can whole heartedly endorse Honduras as our choice. Also, Harold said the Spanish language is dominate in Honduras where Guatemala has many more Indian dialects. A positive for us since we do have Spanish speaking team-mates.

Guatemala would be my second choice.

Operation B3

Just a thought about the program name. I am not that enthused about "Operation Alphabet" as a project name but really LOVE the term "Blessed to be a Blessing" I don't know what everyone else feels about the program name but coming out of our fall focus B3 has been the motivating factor in our small groups locally and abroad. This project is in the fullest sense is using the blessings God has given to pay it forward to others as a blessing. Thus "Operation B3" may be a name to consider. Just a thought.

Guatemala Food Crisis

Hey Everyone here is a link for a video from CNN on the Guatemala Food Crisis. It has been said that 50% of Guatemalan Children suffer from Chronic Malnutrition. I found this link off the Compassion Web Site under Country News....Chris



http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2009/09/16/iyw.guatemala.food.crisis.cnn.html

Next Meeting October 29th @ 6PM

Just a reminder that our next meeting will be Thursday Oct 29th @ 6PM Pizza will be served.

URBAN VS RURAL LOCATION

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Pros and Cons

GUATEMALA: Pros and Cons

HONDURAS: Pros and Cons