Missions

• Bethany Sends Short-Term Missionaries to South Africa
  
  By Dr. James W. Stewart
  
  

  I have long felt that the best way to excite young people about missions is to send them into the field, if only for a few brief moments. We did just that this May. A few days after the Spring semester, 13 students and 1 staff person left for a short ministry trip to South Africa. I was privileged to lead the group with the help of my son James H., also a faculty member at Bethany.

  We went to serve at Bethany Christian Centre in Rustenburg/Tlabane, and the Fountain of Hope Orphan ministry. The orphan ministry was birthed as part of a shared vision for several years of Pastor Amos Mokopi and myself through kaBantu/yaBatho, a ministry non-profit intended to minister to AIDS orphans.
  
  The ministry that took place was absolutely profound. There was not an occasion that did not emotionally and spiritually move the group. We were involved in ministry to public schools to all ages, new church plants and the AIDS orphans. As is often the case, the ministry was completely different than what had been anticipated:
  
  Boitekong is a small village on the outskirts of Rustenburg. Rustenburg is the fastest growing city in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world today as most of the world's platinum is mined in the area. The village of Boitekong (pronounced Booh-ee-tee-kung) is a modest village with mostly small concrete block houses that are no bigger than a few hundred square feet at most. Chickens and goats roam freely and the village is dotted with fires, refuse and small enterprise - taverns, fruit sellers sheltered from the sun by pieces of cardboard or tin, even a tiny shack plying Internet and phone access.
  
  We began the ministry in Boitekong by walking the dusty streets and footpaths praying for the people and the outreach that had begun there only weeks previous to our arrival. This was followed up the following afternoon with door-to-door canvassing and witnessing. The first night of our "crusade" was a great success. Almost 50 people responded for salvation, a mixed group of children, teenagers and adults. Each night there was a different speaker from the group and each night people came to Christ.
  
  Ministry there was not without some humor. A classic example of what Africa is today happened that first night: An extension cord had been run about 200 yards from one of the only houses in the neighborhood with power. A piece of plastic PVC pipe became the precarious lightpole, atop which a single light bulb was even more precariously perched. Sure enough, shortly after the service was underway, someone inadvertently knocked the "lamppost" over. The pitch dark lasted only a few moments, however. I look around and several people with flashlights began moving around to restore the power. It took me a minute to realize that the flashlights were really cell phones! Africa in all her glory: up-to-date technology in a village context.
  
  Most mornings were spent ministering in schools in the area. The students developed a program that used humor, drama, serious challenge and even break dancing and a little moonwalking. Every school, from elementary to high school, received the presentation enthusiastically. In most schools we were also given opportunity to speak to and pray with the teachers and administration, also received very eagerly.
  
  There was another sober highlight that reminded us we were in Africa, a continent still needing the Gospel. At one of the schools, the principal asked us to speak to and pray with a student, a boy aged about 14. Every day at about noon, he was being plagued by "badimo", evil spirits. He had been taken to the "sangoma", the local witchdoctor, which had made the whole situation worse (to the surprise of the family, though not ours). As we spoke with him, it was clear that he was not in control of his own faculties. His eyes evidenced something else lurking inside. We spoke with him for some time and prayed with him without anything conclusive. He needed more attention and time than we had to give and so we referred him to the local pastor with whom we were working.
  
  A great impact on the group was exposure to the deeply impoverished farm worker communities. Farm laborers are paid far below poverty wages and battle to exist, most never leaving the farm where they were born and work their entire lives. It is very difficult to present them with the Gospel and disciple them as they are spread out over many miles of farms. Thanks to Pastor David, a 76-year old African burdened for these folks, we visited several individuals as well as a small community in a farming town a short distance from Rustenburg. We saw firsthand how difficult life is in shanties with little but tin and cardboard for protection from the elements and a handout of grain to sustain you.
  
  Bethany Christian Centre has mothered at least 11 congregations over the past 15 years, so it was appropriate that our ministry there concluded with a Sunday service at the main church with people from outlying village churches attending. Many of the mother congregation had to stay home due to the limited space in the church facilities, but we enjoyed a wonderful time of worship, fellowship and challenge from the Word of God. It was a great pleasure to present the pastoral staff and pastors from the surrounding village churches with gifts on behalf of Dr. Rossi and Bethany University.
  
  The face of missions has without question changed dramatically. Missions from the USA is rarely about first-time evangelism in places where the Gospel has never been. It is more often about coming alongside the local expression of the Church to assist in what God is doing. It was wonderful to be able to expose our students to what God is busy with through Bethany Christian Centre and its ministries in Rustenburg; we trust that they too received benefit from our time there. I am also convinced and encouraged that the missions program at Bethany is receiving a much-needed facelift. I look forward to great things ahead for missions at Bethany University.

• Bethany University Sends Team to New Orleans
  
  Team of 58 traveled to New Orleans on December 11-16 for Katrina Relief.
  
  

  Scotts Valley, CA-A team of 58 students, faculty and staff from Bethany University recently returned from a week in New Orleans where they provided disaster relief and redevelopment services to families and businesses who experienced loss during Hurricane Katrina.
  
  At a time when most college students look forward to a long winter break, Bethany University students spent a week putting tarps on roofs, removing fallen trees and rubbish from neighborhoods, cleaning out mud and debris from flooded homes and businesses, distributing Christmas gifts to children, and providing grief counseling to hurricane victims.
  
  "The work was both physically and emotionally challenging, but our team was persistent and demonstrated a servant attitude as we helped over 35 families by cleaning out their previously flooded homes and businesses," said business professor Joe Childs, who co-lead the team.
  
  "The highlight of the trip for me was seeing our team work together and providing comfort to families as we removed all their damaged and destroyed contents from their homes." said Jesse Huro, a senior majoring in church leadership from Milpitas, CA.
  
  The idea to send a team to New Orleans started with the business department's Student's in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team looking for a way to assist in economic redevelopment in the Gulf Coast region affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The SIFE team collaborated with the Campus Ministries Department to develop a Winter break mission's trip.
  
  "When we announced the trip to the entire campus community we were overwhelmed by the response from students, faculty and staff who wanted to participate. Along with 50 students, we had two faculty and six staff people sign up for the trip," said Rusty St. Cyr, Director of Campus Ministry. St. Cyr is from Louisiana and many of his family members were affected with loss of property from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
  
  Dr. Sharon Anderson, Dean of Students at Bethany commented, "The effort demonstrated the best of our core values as a university, as it provided leadership and ministry experience in a cross-cultural context for our students. I'm glad to see so much initiative from our student leaders as they planned and raised their own financial support for this trip."
  
  "Flood waters remained in some people's homes for over four weeks, which virtually destroyed all their belongings. It was a real mess and moldy, but we were able to help owners salvage some of their mementos and valuables such as pictures and jewelry," said Stanzy Childs, a former Scotts Valley High Student and junior majoring in psychology who attended the trip.
  
  Students who attended the trip may earn one semester unit credit for Disaster Relief Field Experience. Bethany University is planning on sending another team to New Orleans during Spring break in early March 2006.

  BethanyKatrinaSlides.ppt
  
  

• "Bethany sends team of 25 on India missions outreach"

  This past May, Bethany University sent a team of twenty-five people, consisting of twenty-one students, two staff and two missionaries-in-residence to a two-week educational volunteering mission to Calcutta, India.
  
  From the moment students arrived in the country, they began volunteering for the local church's feeding program that serves 2,000 people per meal, 6 days a week!
  
  Throughout the weekdays the team spent a good 5 hours each day leading groups of children (of all ages up to about 13) through various children's summer camp activities. From large group entertainment, comedic dramas, singing and learning words in many languages, playing games, pupperteer-ing, theatrical story-telling, craft-making, and eating snacks, they packed in as much fun, singing, learning, and energy- sapping activity into every possible weekday morning.
  
  The core team began to make their way back to the States, one student, LaDawn Rance, stayed behind to fulfill an eight week teaching internship one of the educational programs in the area. For the past four years LaDawn has been studying in the in intercultural child Development Major at Bethany. During that time she completed extensive work in the field of early education as well as inter cultural relations
  
  Ladawn is one of many students from Bethany's Child Development Program who have interned in such locations as Romania, Hong Kong, Kenya, Uganda, Tonga, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Scotland, New Zealand and now India. Intercultural awareness, one of the five key outcomes that Bethany University seeks to develop in students, is exemplified each year as groups of student engage in various ministries around the world.

  Friday, July 16th, 2004
  Veteran missionary family on Bethany Campus for 2004-2005 school year

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