Thursday, September 2, 2010

It's Official: Kenya here we come!

Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!!!

Remember that time I told you there was something big coming? Singing In The Rain big? Broadway and 42nd big? Yep. It's here.

Celebration Fellowship meets Kenya in 2011.

We have been chosen by Compassion International to pilot a new ministry program called Church To Church. You may be familiar with Compassion's 1:1 child sponsorship. This is like that. Only for churches.

Very soon we will be matched up with a Compassion church in Kenya (eharmony style) and be able to partner with them in their ministry. This can look like many different things including discipleship (on both sides), encouragement, or financial support.

We have agreed to sponsor a minimum of 50 kids in their church and/or area. And you know what that means....you might get to meet them....face to face.

What a joy it will be for me personally to meet dear Samson who we started sponsoring almost 4 years ago now. Many of you at Celebration sponsor children from Kenya, and Lord willing you join us next fall, you will get to meet your Compassion child face to face as well! (Yes, even if they are not in the church we are matched with...)

The generalized timeline is this:
November: training event in Chicago for key leader and leaders
First of the new year: exposure trip with key leaders of Celebration to Kenya
March/April: Compassion Sunday to sponsor children in Kenya
Fall 2011: mission trip to Kenya with MEMBERS of Celebration Fellowship!!

For all of you who have been looking for a way to expose yourself to missions and the rest of the world, God has answered our prayers. This is going to be huge!! We will have the ability to communicate with them over the internet and email throughout the year as well as be able to meet them in the flesh! There has already been a lot of excitement about this throughout the leadership at Celebration, and we're all very excited to see how God will use us and what He will teach us.

How can you prepare?

1. Begin praying with us now that this relationship will lead to lasting changes in the lives of our people and of our partnered church. That God will use us together in mighty ways to release the Kenya children from poverty in the name of Jesus Christ. That the enemy will be stunned by the work of this church in their community. That there will be fast and seamless communication between our two cultures. That we will be an encouragement and a mentor to the newly sponsored children from this area. That God will show you how to be involved in service as well as financially.

2. You can also prepare by talking to your lifegroup about this, bring it up in ABF, visit the Share Compassion Board in the Place To Say Hey (across from the coffee, closest to the entry) and post your own Compassion stories.

3. Follow the Compassion Bloggers in Guatemala September 7-11 to see how moving it really is to visit a Compassion site and how you might feel if you meet your child face to face.
Compassion Bloggers: Guatemala 2010

This fall we will be introducing a program new to our church, however not new to Compassion:

Leadership Development Program.

LDP is the sponsorship of college/university students, and we'll be sponsoring one or more in Kenya. More info on this to come.

Get ready Celebration....here we go!!!

Please post your comments.


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2 comments:

  1. So exciting! Light in the Dark Continent!

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  2. Oh wow! That is amazing news! Praise God that Celebration gets to be a part of such and awesome opportunity. Ben and I are praying that the chains of poverty be loosed and that those precious children can have an opportunity for a successful future and can know Jesus as Saviour! Yea!

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