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…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun- scorched land Isaiah 58:10b-11a
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A warm greeting to all of you, our ministry friends! As I write this ministry update and prayer letter, I’m filled with gratitude for your prayers and support through the last season… it’s been busy one, and there is much to tell.
Lori and I marked our 15th year mission service anniversary this June. What started as a one-year term has certainly lengthened to a great deal more. We hope to continue pursuing ministry that cares for the poor and under-served around the world… here’s to the future
The Fuller Healthcare Ministry ’06 Conference in Pasadena was incredible! In it’s third year, we continue to be involved in a number of ways. As part of the ‘pre-conference’ team, we assisted in a number of details long before the 250+ conference-goers arrive. As staff, we were busy assisting speakers, faculty and participants during the meetings. As presentors, we spent long hours preparing national-level workshops, which for us always includes hands- on training. Then the presentations… sweaty palms! Finally, we helped close down the conference and are already working on 2007. Why? We share the vision of the conference chair, Dr Peter Yorgin to prep and equip workers for health-care ministry to the needy, both domestically and abroad. This conference is a unique place of meeting, networking, facilitating and encouraging that motivate many to go missionally. This year was a great success, with over 40 major health-care related ministries represented, bringing breadth and scope to ‘what’s going on’ world-wide and giving participants tangible ways to be a part.
Being in a conference with 250 ‘like-hearted people’ focusing on health care to the poor gives us great encouragement. We experienced many God-moments of sharing and facilitating folks mission-bound but in need of training. Lori’s great workshop on Health Fairs in outreach to children gave 22 people the ability to take what she has developed over the last decade and minister to kids around the world, including Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Bolivia and Eastern Europe. My workshop on saving 2 million children through Oral Rehydration education equipped folks bound for El Salvador, Malawi, Nicaragua and parts of Asia. We found that the ‘ORT’ visual aids developed by Lori and acquired at last year’s conference have since been used in China, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Honduras and North Korea. I am blessed to find that ‘Stay Healthy’ outreacher programs had been taken by a dozen nurses to their own churches and, through wise pre-outreach training and preparation resulted in their short-termers coming back with few ‘health issues’ from their travels. In this work that receives little ‘kudos’, it is very satisfying to hear about the ‘fruitfulness’ of what the Lord has us developing.
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Two big highlights of this year’s conference: First was the afternoon spent with a doc from Hawaii who will be doing village medicine for 2 months in El Salvador. He was definitely excited about doing more than treating the sick but leaving a lasting legacy through community health education. He can’t wait to use our practical tools and education materials to directly address the root issues of a high-infant-mortality region of that country. It’s great to see God take our ‘few loaves and fishes’ and touch thousands in Central America.
The second highlight was to spend time with one of my great ‘heroes in the faith’, Dr. Dan Fountain. A health-care mission legend with 35 years in Congo, Dr Dan has so touched my life and influenced our 15 years of health-care ministry that to converse and receive insight from him on our on-going work was invaluable. I appreciate his encouragement to us.
There have been so many things keeping us busy over the last season. We’re developing new health education tools for outreach. We’ve worked in the two large Tijuana Medical Brigadas, touching thousands. Lori’s HAT PROJECT is gearing up and acquiring other ‘keep warm’ items (particularly socks) and will be a large bit of the coming fall ministry. We spent time training and prepping a Tijuana church in using our ‘Carnival of Health’ to hold a “Day of the Child” outreach in their neighborhood with over 400 active kids attending. We continue to regularly help the on-going outreach of San Pablo church to the poor in NW TJ.
There are also the frustrating parts of our work. Due to on-site leadership changes, we are currently not involved with the elderly at the Refugio project. Plans for 2 months in Sierra Leon had to be cancelled, related to changes there. As we pursue ways of reaching out, we need your prayers!
In closing, we increasingly find that the Enemy wants to block all help to the poor and needy, but through perseverance and the prayers of the saints, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will put him to flight” (Isaiah 59:19).
Pray, pray... then PRAY some more!… your friend in Jesus, Chris Bajkiewicz
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MISSIONARY SUPPORT The majority of our financial support to work as missionaries comes from INDIVIDUALS and PEOPLE LIKE YOU, partnering with us in this mission work… of which we are GRATEFUL !! (Philippians 1: 3-6)
CONTRIBUTIONS towards our support can be sent to us at: POBox 120265 * Chula Vista, CA 91912 For tax-deductible receipt, make checks out to REDEEMER FELLOWSHIP OF MONROE, MI
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