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Missions

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In Missions

Missions Update

Update from our Missions Partner in Cambodia – Byron Davis

Dear Newlife,

It was nice to be able to see you and speak at church last December.

Since arriving back in Cambodia, life has been busy and full. Below is a short update about Blessed Hope Centre, which Newlife and many of you have been supporting.

Blessed Hope is in a small rural village, close to the border city of Poipet where we built a centre for the local children to come to study and learn English. A friend of mine and fellow missionary, Teacher Jen, runs the centre during the week and a church service on Sunday along with two other teachers.

I recently started construction on a two bedroom house on the property, where Jen and one of the teachers can soon live and help care for the property. I look forward to finishing this house and continuing to see this centre grow into a community education centre.

Please be praying for one of our students. In November last year, she contracted TB and Meningitis. After going from hospital to hospital, we finally brought her to the capital city Phnom Pehn for treatment and so far she’s spent more than four months on her road to recovery. We are trying to support this family as much as possible with medical treatment and making her life more comfortable. Every time she sees me she cries because after all these months in a concrete wall hospital room, she just wants to go back to school. I wish I could just make everything okay, but sometimes life is not that easy.

About once a week, I am bringing someone to the hospital to get some type of treatment. About once a month, the backseat of my car unfortunately becomes an ambulance.

One thing for sure is that helping provide these children with an education, will give them a chance to break the cycle of poverty and empower them to become the leaders of the next generation that God created them to be.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support. If you would like to know more about my ministry here in Cambodia or receive my newsletters, please direct message me over Facebook.

God Bless,

Byron Davis

 

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Child Sponsorship Opportunity: Extreme poverty is a reality for many children in Cambodia, however we believe hope in Jesus is more powerful than poverty. There are currently two children in our program who need immediate sponsorship so they can continue in their school studies and be provided with basic necessities. It is only $58 per month. If you would like to respond or find out more, please contact Lana Hartwig: [email protected]. Thank you!

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In Missions

Missions Update – January 2020

Dear Newlife,

Happy New Year! We hope you have had a blessed Christmas!

We hope to come and visit Newlife in 2020.

Below is a short update about our Ministry here in Bosnia:

The story of the month would be a worship weekend that happened in our church a few weekends ago. Youth came from a few different towns in Bosnia and learnt the importance of worship and playing instruments. We shared also about the heart of God and his desires for us.

Most of them I have known since they were little and were part of our children and teen camps. For some of them, their parents are pastors and leaders in Bosnia, however others do not come from a Christian background.

It has been a great encouragement for me to see them waking with the Lord, especially when you do not see people coming to Jesus that often and you wonder if all our work has any sense. Seeing young people standing firm in the Lord and doing worship gives us all hope that God will finish what He started here.

We are aware of our responsibility toward the future generations. May we be those that will give a good example and those that will encourage them to step out into God’s calling. We hope and pray that they will continue walking with God and His will and that some of them will be future leaders in God’s kingdom.

Please pray:

• Please pray for complete healing and chemotherapy for my mom.

• Continue praying for the opportunities to share the reason of our hope in all our activities, through sport, music, and humanitarian work. Pray that we will be intentional in sharing about God and praying for people.

• Pray for the church, so we can catch God’s vision for the next period and walk in His will.

• Pray for winter camp and snowboard activities.

God Bless,

Dina

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In Missions

Missions Movie – ‘Amazing Grace’

MOVIE FOR MISSIONS

The Missions Committee would like to invite you to join us to watch AMAZING GRACE, Wednesday 11th of September at HOTA Home of the Arts (135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise 4217), 6:30pm. Cinema 2. Please arrive by 615pm.

To purchase your tickets, please click on this link or purchase from the Information Desk at church on Sunday: https://secure.hota.com.au/WebPages/EntaWebGateway/gateway.aspx?E=N&QL=S1674|X163|RINT|G~/WEBPAGES/EntaWebShow/ShowCinemaDates.aspx

Thank you so much for supporting our Newlife Overseas Missions partners and projects! All profits from the movie night will go towards building new accomodation for our sponsor children in Northern Thailand.

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In Missions

Newlife Missions: Thailand

Here is the story of a 12-year-old girl named Lache, from the poorest family of a remote Karen-tribe village in mountainous northern Thailand.  Lache’s grandparents had fled across the border from Myanmar to escape persecution and the family was struggling to survive through rice and vegetable farming.  If the rice crop failed, they would have little to eat the following winter.

Lache’s father heard of Siami, a young missionary woman from India, who was helping Karen children to receive education and Christian discipleship. Together Lache and her father walked the 40kms over 3 days through thick jungle to Musekee village to find Siami.  Lache started her education and proved to be a good student: she attended school, became proficient at sewing and developed her English skills.

In November 2004, two families from Newlife church travelled to northern Thailand, at the invitation of friends and missionaries Don and Kay Fox.  They met Lache, now a young woman, who was running a hostel for 50 children so that they could receive an education as she had.  Today, Lache is a skilled translator and joins Siami in leading the Hilltribes Resources and Development Centre (HRDC).  She is married with 2 young children.

Newlife partners with HRDC in supporting children through sponsorship.  AUD $30 per month covers food, accommodation, school uniforms, medical costs and pastoral care.  We now have over 80 children sponsored through Newlife Church and many like Lache, have graduated and gone on to serve their communities through accounting, teaching, nursing and agriculture.

If you would like to sponsor a child in northern Thailand please contact: Cathy Hartwig [email protected] / 0478 535 132

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In Missions

Sponsor a Child

Newlife’s Child Sponsorship Program exists because we believe no child should live in poverty. We partner with Missionaries in Northern Thailand and Poipet, Cambodia to provide sponsorship to over 150 children. This provides them with basics needs such as food and clean drinking water, education and something much more powerful that poverty – hope in Jesus, through the care of a local church.
In next months Newsletter we will be providing you with more information about how you can sponsor a child and change a life.
In the attached video, you will hear from Pastor Perlito, our Missions Partner in Cambodia who leads the sponsorship program there.
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In Missions

Reflections on Cambodia

Sue and I have just completed a fabulous time visiting with our Cambodian mission partners – Rose and Perlito, and Byron (Poipet), and Stu and Jo (Battambang). It has been an incredibly rich, inspiring and full week.  Over six days I spoke 12 times, which even for a loud mouth like me is a stretch. I preached at Poipet last Sunday, and then taught on the character and nature of God to 27 Discipleship Training Students (DTS) at YWAM Battambang.  Let me share with you a couple of reflections.

First, what our partners are doing here in Cambodia is nothing short of incredible.  We enjoyed a wonderful few days with Byron, who over the last year has become an invaluable member of the Poipet Christian community – particularly with his construction skills and servant heart. We love this guy.

The slum community near the church in Poipet can no longer be called a slum community. Praise God!  This is the community where, for the last eight years, we have been sponsoring kids into an excellent education they would otherwise not receive. Perlito and Rose, and their church, have invested their lives into this community. It has been transformed – one where abject, life-threatening poverty will soon be non-existent. In addition, many of the children sponsored are now young adults and are key leaders in the church.  Some of them had significant roles in leading worship last Sunday. A few are going on to university – unthinkable even a few years ago.

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What has happened in Battambang the last 12 years is truly amazing. 12 years ago, Stu Herchell-Adair was a part of a small team that travelled to Battambang (Cambodia’s second largest city) with the vision to establish a YWAM Training Base there.  Now that base has 120 staff, multiple training schools a year, more than a dozen community development initiatives and its own incredible, beautiful property (the second largest in Battambang) which itself is a miracle of God’s provision.  It’s not been easy. 12 years ago Cambodia was not an easy place to live. In many ways it still isn’t. In the midst of it all God has been doing some amazing things. One observation of the serious intent to see Cambodia transformed by the gospel is that 75% or so of the staff are Cambodian, and the base itself is now led by Cambodian leaders, sending missionaries not only all over Cambodia, but to the nations.

Stu met Jo in Battambang. They now have two beautiful boys – Aza and Malachi.  Their heart for Cambodia is infectious. Spending the week with them, we got to see a little of their ministry, especially amongst the desperately impoverished, and meet some of their friends. Our two visits to a village of thirty families who live on and in the city dump (playing with kids amongst the rotting, smoking mountains of trash) will be memories we will never forget.

What an honour it is to partner with, not just Stu and Jo, but Rose and Perlito, Byron, as well as Siami and Sawitree (Thailand), Dina (Bosnia) and Justice Water. This is all part of our Acts 1:8 mission – to see more people, more like Jesus – on the Gold Coast, across our nation and the nations of the world.

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In Missions

Missions update from our missions partner serving in Bosnia

Dear Stu, Leslie and Rob, dear church,

Hope you are well and full of Joy in this busy time. May the joy of our Savior be with you. Merry Christmas.

Here is our newsletter. Thank you for supporting us and praying for us. We love you, Dina and Jajce church.

  • We will have the 20th anniversary of the Evangelical Church in Jajce on the 14th of December. Pray for the celebration that people whom we invited will come. Pray for the speaker Peter Kuzmič dean of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek for his health and that he will be able to come. Pray for Dina who leads the program, for the worship team Budo, Matt, Rowan, and Sanela. And above all for God to be SEEN and His faithfulness to be heard of. Theme of this event is: “I know that Sun is not afraid of the darkness!” It is song written by one famous 19h century poet Aleksa Šantić and talks about Jesus.
  • We are preparing for Christmas parcels in the church with kids that come to Lavovi hockey Club and Novi Most, and other kids we know in the town. We are planning to show Superbook to about 150 kids. Also, we plan to have a program for older kids too and high school kids. We will give parcels in two schools, in the sport school “Grow healthy” and in the one organization who works with disabled children. Please pray for that.
  • We plan winter camps that will take place in January. We are planning to take few hockey players and few other young people involved in the music. Pray that they will open their hearts to Jesus.
  • Continuing helping one boy Ermin with good healthy habits.
  • We plan to build storage room to keep all the sport equipment out of garage. We are still looking for the best company-people that would fix garage so it will become a nice room where we can have different activities such as movie nights, English classes, teachings, small conferences, and seminars.
  • Pray for Lamija and Mihaela who went to the youth conference that they will get to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Pray that MIhaela could come to church.
  • Pray for the opportunities to share the reason of our hope. That is focus of our prayer for this month, 1 Peter 3,15. That God will open doors for us to speak boldly for Him and about Him to other people.
  • Continue praying for Dina, Sanela, Budo, Matt, Rowan, and Senka as we talk about ways how to reach to people and wait on God to show us to whom to talk and what to say.

• Pray for at least one person to be saved SOON. We desperately need to see someone saved, getting baptized, to see breakthrough in the town. There are so many projects we are part of, so many parts of the town that we entered. We need God to move once again first in our hearts and then in people we work with. We need boldness to proclaim His name. Thank you for praying for us.

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In Missions

Missions Update – Byron Davis

Dear Newlife,

The last month we have seen some exciting developments here in Tomnupdyke village, about a 30 minute drive from the city centre of Poipet, Cambodia We have some local builders laying the foundations of the school building and putting on the roof! By the end of the year, with the help of Newlife teams and some local builders here, we plan to have the school building completed and be teaching English and Bible classes everyday!

Next year, I plan to stay on for several more months, with my main focus being to continue to develop the education program here in this village.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. I’ve attached a few photos from the past couple of weeks.

Byron Davis

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In Missions

Missions update from Dina

Thank you Newlife for being part of His Kingdom here in Bosnia,

We have had a busy summer as we continue to practice football twice a week. We did not take a break after the last presentation in June, as we had lots of new kids join us. One of the highlights was attending an International football tournament in Banja, about 70 km north of Jajce.

As part of the Summer program we took kids to play tennis, introduced street golf, played with water ballons, took them bowling and to the cinema. We also did a BBQ, where we were able to feed kids who have not had a decent meal in a while.

We have also been able to help families who are in bad financial situations with food, clothing, shoes and school supplies. One family, who’s son had to go to hospital in Sarajevo, we were able to find them a church to stay in. They could not believe what we did for them as Christians. Please pray for his recovery.

Lamija Story: Lamija is 13 years old and joined our hockey club after a presentation we made at her school. She is an only child and her dad recently lost his job. I asked her what does it mean for her to be part of the team and how did she enjoy her 1st summer camp. “When Lavovi came for the first time to the school to do a presentation and taught us different exercises, I started loving this sport (hockey). I started coming regularly to practise and since April 2018 I came not stop. I enjoy my time with my team, playing this sport, going to the tournaments and meeting new friends from other towns. I learned a lot from the best coach, not only about this sport but also about life in general. Camp was a really great experience. It was my first time and I met so many new friends. One of the things I loved about being there was working in the groups and discussing different themes and sharing our opinions, as well as hearing what others thought.

We ask you to continue to pray for opportunities for us to talk one on one with the young people we work with, including Lamija and the girls from the new school. Please pray for our team meetings, strength and renewed hope for the new generations. Pray that God shows us how to continue working with the youth after the summer break.

God Bless, Dina