UPDATE FROM ANDY & KAYE MARTIN ~ State Home Assignment Here They Come!

September 2011 – A Quick Note from Andy and Kaye Martin

Writing this newsletter is the last thing on my “To Do” list. Tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 16, we leave London for Eugene, OR. We will be in the U.S. until January 31, 2012 for a stateside assignment. Our time will include speaking in churches (see the schedule below), catching up with friends and family, some travel, training opportunities, personal development and hopefully some rest and personal renewal. We are very grateful to have this time.

We will truly miss Europe, our friends, church, city and neighbors. As I write, Andy is out playing his final golf tournament with his British golf society friends. I asked him to make sure and win this one since we planned our STAS date around this important calendar event! It is hard to believe that we have been in London for 3 ½ years. We have learned so much about Europe, how to pack for 10 days in a small carry on suitcase, how to get around on any mode of transportation, how to navigate the public transportation city in any language, how to communicate with a smile and sign language. We have learned so much about ourselves, how to work together 24-7, we love people, we love our job, but even these 2 extroverts need down, quiet time to recharge and refuel. We have learned so much about God. He is faithful. He provides. He desires to use us as we are available and humble before Him. We have learned so much about how to do our role as Member Care. When we arrived in April, 2008 we were full of enthusiasm and low on experience. We continue to be full of enthusiasm. Hopefully the past three years has provided the valuable experience we needed to not just desire to serve out teammates, but to serve them well, in the ways they need to be ministered to.

As we head back to America we want to thank you all for your support and encouragement. We hope to see many of you during our time in the States and have the opportunity to share stories and experiences. We will be staying with Beckie Hoglund in Eugene. You can contact us at her number: 541.344.9498

Here are a few dates that we have scheduled on our calendar. If you are in the area we would love to connect.

Capitol Baptist, Salem, OR Sunday, Sept. 25

Harvest Community Church, Eugene, OR Sunday, October 23

Meadowbrook Church, Redmond, WA Sunday, October 30

Northwest Baptist Convention, Eugene, OR November 14-16

Radiate, Richmond, VA December 11

Highland Baptist, Redmond, OR TBD

Famine in the Horn of Africa

Effects of famine stretch far further than hunger

September 9th, 2011

Associated Project: Horn of Africa Drought Crisis

Donate to: Horn of Africa Drought Crisis Fund

The Horn of Africa (MNN) ― The consequences of a wide-scale crisis like the Horn of Africa famine go much deeper than just starvation or even death. According to a Southern Baptist disaster response expert, the damage done by this catastrophe in people's lives will far outlast today's hunger.
Beyond the hundreds of thousands of people who have died and at least 12 million who are threatened by the disaster, the long-term side effects will affect families -- and even countries -- for at least 10 years, says Pat Melancon, Baptist Global Response managing director of disaster response and training.
"The side effects are just astronomical, and they don't go away once people have food in their stomachs," Melancon says. "Some of the long-term side effects can be devastating, I think, to a community for probably a decade or more."
Entire nations will be rearranged by the end of the crisis, Melancon says.
For one thing, notes Melancon, there has been a massive migration of people within the affected nations. People have left their homes to find food, but even those in "food secure" areas are moving to areas with no food security when they hear that organizations are handing out meals elsewhere.
When people choose to migrate, their land is often seized by others. This, says Melancon, results in a loss of livelihood. People who, up until the crisis, had been pastoral herders or agriculturists suddenly have no land with which to continue their work. On top of that, there has been a significant loss of livestock in drought-affected areas, robbing pastoralists, in particular, of their livelihood.
Those losses encompass entire families, who also will have to struggle with the loss of family members, and, indeed, entire generations.
"Even if you could go back to a perfect situation, where they're back in their home environment, they still have their land and still have their livelihood," notes Melancon. "In many cases, they've lost two generations of people: the older generation who were there to teach the younger generation how to live off the land; and the younger generation who should be coming up to learn from those in that middle age group, and who have actually lived through it."
Many children who have survived have lost their opportunity for education -- a way to a better life. Melancon reports as high as 80% drop out rates in available education venues since the famine struck.
Children, in particular, are at an even higher risk now of inhumane treatment. "People begin to resort to things that are going to enable them to survive," Melancon explains. "So you'll have an increase in the amount of prostitution. You'll have an increase in the amount of trafficking of children. You'll have an increase in the number of child soldiers. When you have children who are starving and you offer them food if they're willing to join your ranks, then it increases the number of children that are available."
Add to that the economic troubles that nations are sure to face as a result of migrations and a responsibility to aid relief. Without Christ, the situation is utterly hopeless, Melancon said.
Currently, BGR is focusing on addressing the immediate need of hunger, but the ministry has been developing self-sustaining programs in that part of the world for 40 years. In the days, months, and years to come, BGR will work to create more of these programs, while spreading the hope of Christ -- the only one who can truly redeem such a tragic situation.
Concerned people can make a difference, even in a massive crisis like the Horn of Africa famine, Melancon says.
"The way that Christians can get involved is, of course, to look at what the needs truly are, and then try either to contribute to or participate in projects that will address the needs that are there right now -- but in such a way that it will allow the people to be self-sustained."
Christians also can pray, Melancon says. Pray for access, which can be difficult in a complex crisis and in nations that have warring factions. Pray for safety for distribution workers, who face more danger from desperate people than even UN peacekeepers face. And most importantly, pray that Christian workers can effectively share Christ's love in word and deed with people who need that message of hope.
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Originally published by Mission Network News, on the Internet at http://www.mnonline.org/.

Donate to: Horn of Africa Drought Crisis Fund

HUMAN TRAFFICKING awareness forum

Two powerful speakers from Portland will join us this evening. Jessica Richardson was once a victim. Now she shares her story of victory as a survivor of intensive trauma and sex trafficking. Dr. Cindi Romine is recognized internationally as one of the leading authorities regarding child sex trafficking, victimization and also provides active solutions in rescuing victims of social justice.

 

Thursday, July 7 · 6:00pm - 7:30pm

 

Northwest Christian University Chapel

828 E 11th Ave

Eugene, OR

Update: Andy & Kaye Martin ~ Western Europe

Here we are, checking in after a long absence. Things remain fairly constant on a day to day basis of what fills our days. We get to encourage and listen and speak into the lives of those that have left America and chosen to live their lives overseas. We spend our time communicating in person – which involves travel; or over email or Skype – which takes place in our home. Our responsibility has grown because the number of those that we work with has grown. Our work reminds us daily that we are dependent on G*d’s wisdom, and that we must die to self and let Chr*st live through us.

We have had an influx of team mates moving to London. Any people group in the world can be found in our city. It is safer, easier and often more effective to find and spend time with those people here in London than in their countries of origin. There is refugee work and English as a second language being offered. There are many investigative discussion groups centered on the B*ble and the claims of Chr*st taking place. We have team mates living in London that are here to serve Latinos, Portuguese, Egyptians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Somalis, Chinese, Polish, young people, university students and even a few that focus on Brits. The ch*rch that we attend probably has 11 different nationalities represented on any given Sunday. When I get to play the piano I am surrounded by a South African, Puerto Rican, Ghanaian, and several Brits. It is truly is an international city.

News on a personal note includes celebrating our 33th wedding anniversary with a lovely hike down a portion of the 100 mile Cotswold’s Way, followed up by a birthday overnight get away to Cambridge that included punting down the River Cam. A true blessing has been our oldest daughter Angela and her family’s move to Alconbury, England, a mere 60 miles north of our front door. Her husband Ryan will be stationed as a JAG officer with the Air Force for the next 3 years. We have the amazing joy of getting to see and spend time with Rooke and Gretchen, 2 of our 3 grandchildren, on a regular basis. Aubyn and her husband Scott are expecting their second child at the end of October. They have moved into Vancouver to develop relationships in anticipation of starting a ch*rch in the city. Our son Konnor and his wife Tana have accepted a position as teachers at a university in Zhengzhou, China for a year. They will leave in early August. With their move that means that when we return for our stateside assignment in September, none of our children will be living in America! We see that as a positive, each of them following their dreams and the Lord’s direction in their lives.

Our future plans involve a 4 month stay in Eugene, OR that begins September 16. We will be up and down the I-5 corridor hoping to visit our partner ch*rches, friends and remaining family, including Kaye’s sister’s family and mother living in Redmond, OR. It will be good to reconnect. We look forward to sharing about our ministry and time in Europe. There is great need but great things are happening.

In His Strength,

Andy and Kaye

MISSIONS SPOTLIGHT: World Vision

Every once in a while we are going to shine a spotlight on an organziation that is working to make the world a better place.  This week we are going to highlight World Vision.  Check out who they are, and what they are doing to shine the light of Jesus into the world.

Who We Are - World Vision

Thank you for your interest in the charitable work of World Vision!
 

Who we are

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

Who we serve

We serve close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

Why we serve

Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people.

Reflecting Christ in each community

Wherever we work, our prayer is that our efforts will be used by God to heal and strengthen people’s relationships with Him and with one another. We do this by demonstrating God’s unconditional love for all people through our service to the poor — which includes providing for daily needs, working to build peace and promote justice, and partnering with churches and individuals to encourage spiritual transformation.

Reaching around the globe

World Vision is a global organization with offices in approximately 100 countries. These interdependent national offices are bound together by a Covenant of Partnership, a biblically based agreement that enables us to work together in a unified and complementary way as we walk alongside those we serve.

Employing the best in every region

We are blessed with staff who are experts in a broad range of technical specialties, ranging from hydrology to microenterprise development to public health. And we are inspired by the ways in which they use their God-given abilities in conjunction with existing community resources. Of the more than 40,000 staff employed by World Vision, 97 percent work in their home countries or regions. Familiar with the culture and language, they bring to World Vision a deeply personal understanding of how best to assist local children and families.

Meeting diverse needs

The millions of people we serve include earthquake and hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors of famine and civil war, refugees, and children and families in communities devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Our extensive global infrastructure enables us to respond where the need is greatest, anywhere in the world.

Trusted worldwide

The excellence of World Vision’s work has earned the trust of more than 3 million donors, supporters, and volunteers; more than half a million child sponsors; thousands of churches; hundreds of corporations; and government agencies in the United States and around the world. We are thankful to God that through these collaborative efforts, we are able to be a part of breaking the cycle of poverty for those in need in our world. WWW.WORLDVISION.ORG

 

The Storm You Never Want To See

Baptists responding to historic tornado outbreak

By Staff
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers in Alabama are assisting emergency response personnel in an effort to find survivors as the death toll from Wednesday’s devastating tornados continues to rise. By mid-Thursday those dead in Alabama had climbed to 162 and a total of 251 were counted dead across a six Southern states. Officials called it the deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in nearly 40 years.

“Right now, our volunteers have been asked to assist in search and rescue efforts,” said Mel Johnson, director of disaster relief for the Alabama Baptist Convention. “That’s a first for us.”

Johnson was one of about a dozen Baptist state convention disaster relief leaders who participated in a Thursday morning conference call coordinated by the North American Mission Board. State representatives shared about damage in their states while others offered resources and volunteers when needed.

“Entire communities disappeared,” Johnson said. “Many hospitals, police departments, local fire departments all sustained damage. At one campsite campers were picked up and swept into a lake.

“We have teams that started responding yesterday,” Johnson said. “They have had to cut their way into these areas.”

Johnson said after search and rescue, their top priority is establishing several feeding sites near large population centers so they can begin serving hot meals to victims.

SBDR leaders in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia also reported damage from Wednesday’s outbreak. As many as a million people are without power in Alabama alone, making meal distribution a high priority.

“This is the storm you never want to see,” said Mickey Caison, NAMB’s Disaster Relief coordinator. “Our top priority is to help people just get through the next few days and weeks. After that, Southern Baptists will be called upon to help with the longer-term effort to remove debris and help victims rebuild.”

The tornados came as Southern Baptists volunteers were also in the midst of responding to floods in Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas as well as earlier deadly tornadoes in North Carolina.

NAMB president Kevin Ezell called on Southern Baptists to pray “but I would also like to ask every Southern Baptist and every church to donate to our disaster relief efforts.” Ezell said people can give at www.namb.net to a specially designated fund for tornado and flood victims that will ensure that 100 percent of donations go directly to help disaster victims.

“God has blessed Southern Baptists with more trained disaster relief volunteers and more disaster relief units than any other ministry or organization,” Ezell said. “Now is a time to respond generously with our resources and our services to meet physical and spiritual needs.”

To donate to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts visit www.namb.net and click “donate now.” You can also view and download a video message from Kevin Ezell about how Southern Baptists are responding to tornado and flood victims.

'MacGyver guys' needed for 'extreme makeover'

May 03, 2011

 COLUMBIA, Tenn. --- Rick Sykes needs a few dozen “MacGyver guys" for a life-changing “extreme makeover” adventure that will make an eternal difference for hundreds of thousands of people.
Interested?

The project Sykes has in his sights is rehabbing Sanyati Baptist Hospital in Zimbabwe, a 60-year-old icon of Southern Baptist overseas work that has fallen into serious disrepair as that country’s economy has collapsed.

When Sykes first visited Sanyati in 2009, he was distressed at what he saw: a completely broken water system, leaking roofs, rotting fascia, termite damage, electrical malfunctions -- and a set of auto headlights hanging from the ceiling of an operating room.

The hospital’s electrical supply was so unreliable that staff had installed auto headlights and a battery in an operating room to be sure doctors weren’t plunged into the dark in the middle of surgery.

The situation was intolerable for Sykes, a retired maintenance project leader for General Motors and member of Pleasant Heights Baptist Church in Columbia, Tenn.

Sykes was at Sanyati to help with the hospital's water problem -- the compounds wells and pumps weren't working, but he quickly saw a host of other maintenance issues.

"In the two weeks I spent there, the electricity was on maybe 30 percent of the time," Sykes said. "When you go in the operating room and they have two car headlights mounted in the ceiling and battery over in the corner, you know there's a problem."

A couple of days into Sykes' two-week stay at Sanyati, a lightning storm knocked out power in half the compound.

My son is an electrician and we are fixers, so we started digging around and found the problem. Since you couldn't cut the power off, he rewired it hot and got the lights on for the whole rest of the compound," Sykes said. "After that, we had people from all over coming and saying to us, "This is broken. Can you look at this?

"When Dr. Byler showed us through the hospital, it just started breaking our hearts -- all these people there and the dilapidated condition of the hospital," Sykes said. "The hospital is so remote, and it's the only real medical care these people can get in a very large radius.

"That was when the wheels started turning. We did some brainstorming and talked with Mark Hatfield and Dr. Byler," Sykes said. "Somewhere in the midst of all that, this concept was birthed of an extreme makeover for Sanyati Baptist Hospital."

Sanyati Baptist Hospital, under the leadership of Dr. Mark Byler, treats an average of 35,000 outpatients and 1,800 inpatients a year, said Mark Hatfield, who with his wife, Susan, directs work in Sub-Sahara Africa for Baptist Global Response. The staff performs about 1,000 surgeries and delivers more than 2,000 babies each year.

"The five-year plan for the 'extreme makeover' project intends to restore the hospital facilities to a state where they can be locally maintained," Hatfield said. "God has used Sanyati Baptist Hospital to meet both physical and spiritual needs for 60 years. Its ministry extends far beyond the 100,000 or so residents who look to the hospital for medical care. Sanyati is a symbol for the whole country of Christ's loving compassion for the sick and hurting and I don't think God is finished with Sanyati Baptist Hospital yet.

In 1981, the government assumed control of the facility, but economic issues have prevented it being properly maintained.

“Even if the hospital is owned by the government now, the sign out front says ‘Baptist,’” Sykes said. “What kind of impression is that creating?”

A dozen teams a year will be needed over the course of the project, Sykes said.

"There's something here for everybody to do. It's way bigger than one church," Sykes said. "The biggest challenge and prayer concern is that we really need a project coordinator on site. I'm heartbroken we don't have someone there.

The Sanyati extreme makeover would be an ideal place for a wide range of individuals and organizations to plug in and do something great that none could alone, Hatfield added.

"I believe this project is a perfect place for Sunday school classes, churches, associations or state convention groups like Baptist Builders and the disaster relief network to become involved in something much bigger than they could take on alone,” Hatfield said. “But together with other churches and groups, they can be part of something very significant in Kingdom ministry.

“It will take a united effort by groups who don't even know each other -- and may never see each other face to face -- in order to complete the five-year project,” Hatfield said. “We are trusting God to provide the volunteer teams and the financial resources needed to complete this project. We have stepped out in faith that God will call out those who he desires to work on this project, both those who will come and those who will give.”

The Sanyati project offers men like the MacGyver TV character -- who could rig up practically anything with whatever he found at hand -- a great opportunity to get involved in a major overseas project, Sykes said.

“All over the world, we’ve got ‘MacGyver’ guys sitting in pews, who want to make a difference but don’t know what they can do,” Sykes said. “They’re saying, ‘Some day, somewhere, I want get involved,’ but red lights down the road keep them from volunteering.

“Guys, we need your skill and want you to charge up this mountain with us,” Sykes said. “This is your ‘somewhere,’ right now. You can’t wait until all the traffic lights are green before you leave the house.”

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For more information about the Sanyati Extreme Makeover project, please visit www.sanyatimakeover.com. Individuals or groups interested in participating may e-mail Peter Sierson at psierson@pleasantheights.com.

The Sanyati Baptist Hospital extreme makeover is on Facebook.