The team returned from their week serving at the Esperanza Viva Orphanage in Puebla. The team came home very excited to have been part of the lives of the children at the orphanage as well as to have invested into the construction on the new campus. Check out this short video to share some of their experiences.
Catalyst Missions Continues Work
Catalyst Missions continues to have teams involved in the Copper Basin area of Appalachia in the months of June and July. In partnership with the Copper Basin Crisis Center and local churches we are reaching out to the needy to meet both physical and spiritual needs. Our goal is that this community would be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In addition to successful Catalyst construction teams from Central Baptist Church, Martin, TN Catalyst director Andrew Brown and his wife Amy have been doing community surveys and pastoral calls on many needy mountain families. The reports of the surveys are then used to multiply the Gospel witness through hands-on projects.
An example of multiplication is our friend Buddy who accepted Christ during a December 2009 Catalyst project. Buddy has now become quite a strong witness in this community....multiple people have encountered the grace of Christ through salvation through God's work.
April Nicaragua Mission Trip Update
Who: 29 participants from churches across the U.S. What: Mission Trip with Chosen Children Ministries When: April 18-24, 2010. Where: The country of Nicaragua Why: God had planned for us all to be in that country, that week, for His purpose
We Laughed:
The original purpose of this trip was to deliver food to a little-known area of Nicaragua nestled in the Matagalpa mountains. The drive was 4 hours from our mission house, 1 ½ hours of which were on a dirt road-in a school bus. So on our first full day we ventured to this area to deliver 25 pound food bags containing rice, corn, beans, sugar, and salt to families in this area. This was enough food for about a month, so as you can imagine the people were ecstatic to receive it. While we were fellowshipping with the locals, a group of kids formed that we were able to share the gospel with. Several of them raised their hands when asked if they wanted to receive Christ, so we gathered them together and Jana began to lead them in asking Jesus into their hearts. As she was finishing up, we all noticed a bit of a commotion coming from behind us. We didn’t think much of as the prayer came to an end, but the first thing these precious children looked up to see as new Christians was… a herd of cows, in which one male bull is attempting to reproduce with an evidently quite attractive heifer. Only in Nicaragua…
We Cried:
Most of the trips we take to Nicaragua we have spent at least some of our time in the barrios closest to the capital city of Managua called Emmanuel, Marvin, and Paradise (the name is not at all indicative of the situation there). We were not planning on spending much time there this trip, but God quickly showed us He had other plans. On the Monday night we were there, a horrible storm hit these 3 communities. The storm produced very strong winds, rain, and tornados. These factors are scary enough to us, but picture yourself facing them from inside a plastic house made from wood sticks and trash bags. As you can only imagine, the storm easily devastated much of these communities. Nearby, 3 people were killed and many were injured. Over 40 houses were completely destroyed and numerous others sustained damages to roofs, walls, etc. It broke our hearts to imagine the people we hold so dear to our hearts sitting in the dark, dripping wet and scared to tears. A group of people who had virtually nothing had every belonging swept away. They have no insurance. They have no money. They have no tools or supplies to rebuild. Yet God did not forget or forsake them. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” Matthew 6:34
We Saw Miracles:
God had us in Nicaragua that exact week because He knew what was going to happen, and He knew His people would need help. It was no coincidence this trip was organized last-minute, and it was no coincidence we were there to immediately help.
Ronnie, a 70-something year old man, was in Nicaragua on a construction mission trip the week before us. Ronnie has built over 300 homes and countless churches during his life in missions, and he is one of the hardest working and most efficient construction managers I have ever met. He went home the weekend we arrived to spend time with his wife for a reservation they had, but he told her he felt God telling him to go back for our trip. So he turned right around and headed back to Nicaragua. After the tornados hit, Ronnie wasted no time in beginning to organize the rebuilding of as many houses as possible, getting up with the sun at 5:00 a.m. to survey the damage. He organized a construction team from our group that, under his direction, was able to rebuild at least 6 complete homes and repair more than 12 in 4 days!
One of the women we rebuilt a house for had an 8-day old baby. The single mom had her house blown away while she was huddled inside, and that night she slept under the stars on her metal springs bed-frame-the only possession she had left. She had no clue where she and the baby would go, or what they would eat, or how they would survive. God did not forget her. Our group stumbled upon her and was able to not only build her entire house but purchase a mattress, baby supplies, cooking utensils, and food for her. In a matter of hours this woman went from absolutely nothing to being completely provided for.
We all worked pretty hard to raise money for all the food that was distributed. Had we come the week or even days before and passed out the food to these barrios, it would have been lost or ruined from the storm. But God’s timing is perfect, so instead we were able to pass out over 2500 pounds of food to victims of the intense storm.
Time is pretty flexible in Nicaragua. 9:00 might mean 9:15 or 9:30. But on the day of the storm Guillermo, Chosen Children’s field director, was not playing games about time. Since we were going far onto the mountain, he insisted we leave NO LATER than 3:30 to be sure we got off the mountain by nightfall. However, once we started feeding none of us had the heart to stop until the food ran out, as you can’t look into a hungry woman’s eyes and tell her no when you have food. So, we didn’t end up leaving til 5:00- an hour and a half later. We later found out the storm hit the highway we were traveling back on exactly an hour and a half before we passed it- which would have been right when we were traveling through it had we been on time. To make this even crazier: Jana, Kelsey, CB, and a few translators decided to ride back in the back of the food truck, which is completely surrounded by a metal cage that could have easily been conductor rods for the constant lightning.
Don’t bother making your own plans, because as this trip proved God’s are way better.
2010 Catalyst Mission Trip List
Click here to see an updated list of mission trip opportunites for 2010.
Report from the Catalyst Young Adult Nicaragua Team - January 2 - 9, 2010
The trip was truly amazing. Read about it here or check out some snapshots of their journey on the blog.
Report from the December 2009 Catalyst Appalachia Team
God did amazing things through around 100 volunteers during two weeks in December. Click here to read more.
The Adventure Serve team also participated in the Hope for Appalachia project. Read about their adventure here.
Nicaragua Agriculture Project Update
Catalyst teams and donors have invested in the agricultural development project in Northwest Nicaragua. Click here to see the results and read the exciting update.
The mission of CATALYST is to
encourage Christian mission education, discipleship,
and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through quality short-term
mission projects.
We desire to build global disciples for the Glory of God. When Jesus calls
new disciples or strengthens existing ones, we praise HIM. That Christ
would grow disciples in short-term mission contexts is our desire. We
will do everything we can with our God-given gifts to create the environment
for the disciple making…then we will pray to the Lord of the harvest
to change hearts for His glory.
CATALYST works with individuals, churches, institutions of higher education,
collegiate student groups, and like minded non-profit organizations in
partnership of fulfilling the command Jesus gave in Acts 1:8: Believers
should work together to spread the Gospel (good news of Jesus Christ)
to all nations.
We can be described as a “middleman” or “short-term
mission headhunter.” We will seek to match individuals and groups
desiring to do mission projects with available mission project needs through
our U.S. and international contacts. We will endeavor to assist groups
in planning and training for appropriate mission projects and will be
responsible for duties such as travel planning, training, logistics, and
fundraising.
Click here to find out about our projects and teams.
For a "Change" brochure summarizing who we are click here.
To learn more about our history and background click here.
Catalyst Promotional Video
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