Cycle CROSS America is coming to a close!

Our riders have done extremely well. The guys cycled all across America from Los Angeles to Jacksonville FL. On the way we have done “Cross Walks” in eight states that we traveled through.

What have we achieved spiritually? We exceeded our expectations! We blessed, challenged and encouraged many individual believers; we challenged churches to refocus on the cross; we lifted the cross above the many divisions, whether racial, religious, or political; we led several to personal faith in Jesus Christ and prayed for many others in churches and on the streets.

In New Orleans, for example, we did a Cross Walk through part of the French Quarter including Bourbon Street. We were well received as we handed out cards and got to chatting with several people along the way. After an amazing meal with some local believers, we went back into the French Quarter at night to share our faith with those who would listen. Once again we were well received. We spoke to lots of people and prayed with several, but praise God we also led two people to personal faith in Jesus Christ.

We talked with Palmists and Tarot card readers etc. I felt one young man was about to get off his chair and follow us. I KNOW we touched his life. Another young man approached me and tried the same scam that another had tried on me in San Francisco, but within 10 minutes I leading him in a prayer of surrender to Christ as we stood in the middle of Bourbon Street.

Financially we are happy to say that we have covered our expenses, but we would love to make sure that we contribute something to our ministry back in Belfast. You can help by making a donation on line right now by going to the Hope Builders International Contribute page.

Many thanks to those who have contributed as individuals or as churches. Thanks also to everyone who gave us water to drink and a place to stay. If you have done this to us, you have also done it unto Christ.

God bless,

Jack McKee

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Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants Cycle across America to show the love of Christ

Dear Friends,

Next Saturday our ministry partner Jack Mckee and his team from New Life City Church in Northern Ireland will launch out on a 6 week journey across the US called Cycle CROSS America. They start in Santa Monica, CA, on September 22 and end in Jacksonville, FL. on October 24. Dan Wooding, well known founder of Assist News Services, provided us with the following information.

New Life City Church is often referred to as “The Church on the Wall” as it is located on the main Dividing Wall in Belfast; it’s a church that not only reaches out to both sides of the wall, but to the entire City of Belfast and beyond. And now Jack McKee, the senior pastor of the church, is planning an extraordinary marathon cycling and cross-carrying peace trip across America, to show how Catholics and Protestants can work together under the shadow of the cross of Christ.
 

“New Life City Church is a large warehouse that literally straddles the 20 foot concrete dividing wall in Belfast, with half the building on one side and half on the other side,” McKee explained. “We have people coming to church from both sides.

“My life has been threatened several times and I’ve been shot at numerous times. I’ve even had my car bombed and destroyed. Our home has been attacked at 3.30 in the morning while my wife and I were in bed.”

Yet despite all of this, Pastor McKee, who has many times risked his life as a peacemaker during the “troubles” in Northern Ireland that claimed so many lives from both sides of the divide, is bringing four cyclists to the US; two from the Catholic side of the wall and two from the Protestant side. The event goes from Santa Monica, CA, to Jacksonville, FL, ending with an event called CU @ the CROSS in Washington DC on Thursday October 25, 2012. Jack will be bringing a 7 foot cross with him that he carried for 40 Days and at other times around the Dividing Wall in Belfast.

Jack went on to say, “Northern Ireland has experienced serious conflict since 1969 during which time over 3,700 people lost their lives, while tens of thousands were seriously injured and maimed. Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, has been a divided city with many concrete walls across the city keeping communities apart. There are genuine aspirations for these walls to come down, but much work still needs to be done.

“Cycle CROSS America will highlight the need for these walls to come down and will encourage Americans to support our efforts in building good neighbor relations that will lead to the pulling down of these walls.”

As part of Cycle CROSS America, and using the same cross he has carried before, Jack will do a “Cross Walk” in several cities across America. These will include Los Angeles, along the length of Sunset Blvd, and then possibly Phoenix, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; San Antonio, TX; Alto, TX; New Orleans, LA; Jacksonville, FL, and the Nation’s Capital, Washington, DC (other places will be added).

In Washington, DC, McKee and the entire Cycle Team will be escorted by “Rushing Wind Motorcycle Ministry” through Washington DC to an event called CU@ the CROSS (www.cuatthecross.com) when Jack McKee will do a final Cross Walk close to the White House (exact spot to be confirmed).

To contact Pastor McKee, you can e-mail him at: pastorjack@btinternet.com and more details about the trip can be found at:www.cyclecrossamerica.com. Hope Builders International is handling contributions for the trip and for Jack’s work in Northern Ireland. Gifts can be given on our website or by check to Hope Builders International, PO Box 5465, Charlottesville, VA 22905.

Who Will Help the Syrian People?

This letter arrived in our office today from our ministry partners in Jordan. We hope it moves your heart to pray and help as it has moved ours.

Sincerely,

Lance Thollander

 

Who will help the Syrian people?

“I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both
 is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil
 that is done under the sun.”  –Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

My dear friends,

The horrors of the Syrian uprising were inconceivable a year ago.

Today, they are still inconceivable, not because we are shocked any longer at the inhumanity of man but because it is so hard for us to comprehend the magnitude and depth of the suffering.  Also because it can make us feel so helpless. No, we cannot stop the slaughter and destruction. But we can pray, and we can trust God. We cannot take hundreds of thousands of refugees into our homes. But we can share with them what God gives us. Our Father’s purpose for Jordan has always been to serve as a refuge. And he has placed Manara International on the front lines.

For decades, we have shared God’s peace and hope and comfort and helped meet the essential needs of refugees from Palestine. Then, eight years ago, when Iraqis fled the violence of the second Gulf and the terrorism and anarchy that followed, we welcomed them into Jordan as guests. And just as we were wondering how to keep our resources from being overwhelmed, civil war broke out in neighboring Syria. And again the floodgates burst open.

According to the UN, over 100,000 people fled Syria last month alone, more than doubling the total number of refugees to over 235,000 people. They left behind 5,000 new corpses, 1,600 in just the last week. Some flee to Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon. But most come here. About 1,000 everyday—a total of 183,000 people, by one count (keep in mind that Jordan is about the size of Indiana or Austria).

All the UN can do is set up overcrowded tent camps on dehydrated, barren stretches of desert, crawling with snakes and scorpions and blasted by sandstorms. There, Syrian families who escaped the violence of their country suffer what many refer to as a “slow death” in the camps, where their chief employment is survival and they can do nothing but swelter under the scorching desert sun.

Even the UN is overwhelmed by the needs and relies heavily on non government organizations and ministries like Manara International. For several weeks now, I have been meeting with ministry leaders who want to partner with us to help the refugees.

One ministry has offered to provide Manara with all the equipment and supplies needed to set up an entire medical clinic inside one of the desert refugee camps where 16,000 people live like livestock. All we need to do is to raise $7,000 to cover expenses.

This means that your gift today of $1 will buy $100 worth of medical equipment and supplies to treat Syrian refugees, suffering from knife and gunshot wounds received in the conflict, as well as deadly waterborne diseases that are endemic to tent camps. It will keep their children from dying from common preventable diseases and provide life-saving nutritional supplements to families who arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

I cannot think of any better way to leverage the Lord’s resources and help thousands more than we could by ourselves. And this is just one of the ministries that are eager to work with us on similar terms to provide food and medical and hygiene supplies to 120,000 more Syrian refugees trying to survive outside the camp.

At the beginning of this letter, I mentioned prayer. Please pray for these refugee families and for millions more who are unable to escape their war-torn country. But please also pray for my country, for Jordan.

Satan is determined to destroy this sanctuary.  For decades, Israel has tried to transfer two million Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan.  Al Qaeda is trying to use Jordan as a corridor of terrorist operations against Israel and Syria. The Muslim Brotherhood is working to take over Jordan—as it has Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya—and turn us into an Islamic Republic, subject to sharia law. If these forces succeed, Jordan would no longer be a safe haven in the Middle East, and one more Arab nation would become an enemy of Jesus Christ and his people.

I explain these realities so that you can pray more knowledgeably and effectively. And I am working to build alliances with other ministries so your power and influence will be increased exponentially for the glory of God. We need to raise $150,000—a very small amount, compared to an estimated $15 million worth of relief we can provide, if we all work together and do our part.

That means your gift of $25 turns into $2,500 worth of relief, $50 becomes $5,000, and a gift of $100 puts $100,000 worth of medical, nutritional, and hygiene supplies into the hands of doctors working inside the refugee camp.
Please consider what you can do to help today and send a gift as soon as you can.

If you are in the US, please send your tax-deductible gift to Hope Builders International, PO Box 5465, Charlottesville, VA 22905. Or go towww.hope-builders.com to give online or share by phone at 1.434.295.1124.

I thank God for the growing number of ministries that are willing to help us in the work he has given us to do in Jordan. And I thank God for you, my friend. May he bless you with every good thing, just as you are a blessing to our suffering brothers and sisters and to all those who are being saved through your generous expressions of God’s love.

In Him,

Your Ministry Partners in Jordan

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Let Them Come to Me

“Let the children come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven…”

So said the Lord Jesus when the disciples started to push away the young ones being brought to him for his blessing. He knew that their young, believing hearts were the best soil for the good news of his love. Statistics show that those between the ages of 4 and 14 provide the most fertile ground for the good news of hope in Christ. It should be no surprise then that the Lord stirs up the hearts of our overseas partners to reach out to the children around them. The ministries that we work with make it a priority to rescue and care for children, many of them abused, abandoned and marginalized by cultures that do not value them.

India is a prime example of such a place. As many as 10,000 Indian babies die every day due to preventable diseases. Over 500,000 Indian children are forced into the sex trade every year. One out of six female babies die due to gender discrimination and 50% of the girls are malnourished. Two thirds of them cannot read or write. Nearly 20 million children sleep on the street every night, hungry and unprotected. One third of the world’s malnourished children live in India. Statistics like this move the hearts of all our Indian partners. That’s why they start orphanages, build schools, organize feeding and literacy programs, set up medical camps and introduce the children in their care to a God who loves them and is their Savior.

There is hardly any more noticeable difference than between the children of India’s streets and those who have been saved from those streets by caring Christians. The faces of the orphaned boys above, whose picture we took at the children’s home where they live in one of India’s poorest districts, mirror the hope that is now theirs. We have seen the rescued children’s faces, watched them dance, heard their songs and listened to them pray. They are being taught that they are special in God’s eyes. They are learning that God has a plan and future for them. They are worth saving! Will you help us?

The situation in Haiti is equally bleak for children. Nearly half of Haiti’s 10 million people are under the age of 18. It is a dangerous place for many of them. Roughly 500,000 live in camps and slums lacking social and police services. They face the continued threat of exploitation and abuse. Nearly 10% of babies die at birth and up to 30% of children living in the provinces die due to lack of medicine and proper care. Only 20 out of one hundred attend primary school and only 2% finish
high school. With an unemployment rate of 65-70% there is little hope of finding a job even for those with education. Haiti has the highest percentage of orphans in the Western Hemisphere. Even before the 2010 earthquake which killed over 200,000 people, the U.N. estimated there were 430,000 orphans in Haiti. Given those numbers, is there hope for Haiti? The answer is Yes!

Cebien Alexis has been reaching out to children on that needy island for many years. Besides his ministry’s 175 churches, he and his team have established 89 schools, a medical clinic, an orphanage, Faith Christian University, and Love in Action Ministry, which is a foundation that supplies education for 8400 children. Under their care multiple thousands have been given a safe home, good medical care, an education which extends all the way through vocational training and the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Your support of Cebien’s work with children brings hope where it is desperately needed.

Perhaps the most urgent situation now being faced by children anywhere is that faced by the children of Syria. Fleeing daily bombings and brutality from both sides in the ongoing conflict there, children have not been spared from the violence. Men, women, and children have been systematically massacred in their own homes by rogue protestors and militia backing the government. Children have watched their mothers being raped and their fathers killed while trying to stop the attacks. The chaos has left half a million displaced Syrians who have nowhere to turn.

Thousands of refugees have fled to the border areas of Jordan. There are scant resources to care for them and they wait in hopelessness for help. The children, in particular, arrive disoriented and in shock. Our partners in Jordan are there, reaching out to as many as they can, offering them life saving food and medicines. Only $20 will provide for one refugee child for a month. $100 will provide for a whole family. Will you help us invest in the lives of Syrian refugees in a way that brings them hope in the midst of despair?

Together we can make a difference for children around the world. Our partners offer both immediate relief and long lasting support. Monthly sponsorships are needed as well as one time gifts. A picture and profile can be provided for sponsored Indian children. Please join us in this effort.

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A Harvest of Life in the Middle East

A Harvest of Life in the Middle East

It is harvest time in the Middle East. Whether it is a time of celebration or of mourning depends upon what has been sown. In Jordan wheat is a precious commodity. According to archeologists, cultivation of wheat began in northern Jordan around 9600 B.C. And in many areas, it is still harvested by hand, just as it has been for thousands of years.

Sadly, however, another kind of harvest is taking place in neighboring Syria. For decades, corruption, religious intolerance, and oppression have been sown, and now the harvest has come, yielding violence, destruction, and death. Two weeks ago, a massacre left 108 dead in Houla. A few days ago, another massacre took the lives of 78 people in the village of Qubair in the Hama district. It is reported that at least half were women and children. Many of the 9,000 reported dead are Christians, caught in the crossfire between Islamic factions.

But, thank God, another harvest, a harvest of young souls, is also taking place right now at Camp Gilead, the summer program run by our friends at Manara Ministries. And this harvest is bringing forth life, because the life of Jesus Christ is being sown.

A great number of the children come to the mountain with sad and fearful eyes, eyes that have seen too much bloodshed and despair and hopelessness. In Gilead, their eyes are filled with the beauty and majesty of God’s creation. They crinkle with joy and laughter. And at some point, the eyes of nearly every child are opened to the love of God. They pray and invite the Lord Jesus into their hearts. And when they leave the mountain, they have their Father’s eyes.

The apostle Paul urges us “to not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” We will reap a great harvest if we take the opportunity now to sow the seeds of life into the children at Camp Gilead.

They are the future, not only of Jordan but also of the Middle East. As the Mediterranean breezes blow the grains of wheat where they will, the Holy Spirit is going to send these children throughout the region to carry the Gospel to those who are starving for truth and righteousness.

How do the local people respond to the camp offerings? Within the first 45 minutes of the three-day registration period, the entire camp was filled! Parents had signed up 900 children! That is how hungry they are for spiritual food!

Will you help us feed them?

Please share whatever you can today, wrapped in prayer and designated for Manara International.

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Bringing the Balm of Christ to Middle Eastern Youth

One incredibly effective way that the Lord changes hearts in the strife torn Middle East is through the ministry of Camp Gilead in Jordan. Every summer, hundreds of children from different backgrounds encounter God in Camp Gilead’s two-and-a-half acres, where they are healed from the deadly wounds of sin. They are refreshed and strengthened in a world of trees and open sky, away from TV and traffic, and the endless news of death and destruction. And every summer, many who arrive lost depart saved. This report from Isam and Nihad Ghattas of Manara Ministries invites us all to have a part in this great work.

Dear Believing Friends,

“Is there no balm in Gilead? 
Is there no physician there? 
Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” Jeremiah 8:22

If God asked me today the question he asked Jeremiah 2,600 years ago, I would answer, “Yes, Father, there is balm in Gilead. And it is healing the wounds of your people.”God’s children are suffering throughout the Middle East—persecuted, caught in the crossfire of civil wars, and targeted in sectarian violence.

Mt. Gilead lies next to the Jordan River and extends from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, sixty miles long and twenty wide. Though the myrrh trees that produced fragrant resin no longer grow here, the hills are green and fertile and crowned with forests. The region is so beautiful that Gad and Reuben and the eastern half of Manasseh asked Moses to let them make their home here, instead of crossing into the Promised Land.

Children in the Middle East are frustrated and confused, torn between the part of them that identifies with Western ideas, values, clothing, and entertainment and their Arab but when they come to Camp Gilead, they enter a new culture, the culture of the Kingdom of God, a culture of love. They hear new teachings from the Bible, truths that answer the questions their parents, teachers, and religious leaders cannot answer. They get direction for their lives.

Last summer, Adara* opened her heart to her camp counselor. The precious seventh grader talked about the verbal and sexual abuse she had suffered. Her parents are separated and having serious financial troubles.

But Adara said she is not blaming God. “This camp,” she said, “is like a refreshing from the garbage life I’m living. I can’t change that, but from now on I have the power to decide how I live because I know Jesus is beside me, and he will give me the strength. And every day I will look up and sing, ‘unfold my wings like an eagle in the sky.’”

On the last night of seventh and eighth graders camp last year, the personal ministry time after the message continued for three hours. The children would not stop singing and shouting that they love Jesus. After ninth grade camp, the mother of one of the children called to ask which church she should send her son to. The boy had been begging her to take him to church because something wonderful had happened in his heart and he didn’t want to lose it.

At Camp Gilead, children born and raised in cities and refugee camps experience the freedom and beauty of the mountains. A child who has always been taught that he has to earn God’s favor discovers that he has a heavenly Father who loves him unconditionally. Children flourish in the love and affection lavished on them by their counselors. They are helped to see God for the first time in his creation. And they are shown how to reach out to him and let him take them in his arms. Please help us give them these wonderful opportunities.

We are beginning earlier this year so the campers have more time to get involved with the Gilead team. Eighty counselors have already started training that is equipping them to teach everything from how to overcome bad habits and resolve conflicts to the Father heart of God, and developing intimacy with Him.

The total cost for the 2012 camps—including maintenance, equipment, utilities, leadership training, and operational costs—is $51,000. Praise God, we have already received $28,000. But we still need $23,000 before we can open the camp on June 20. We cannot do it alone, but if we all do what we can, the balm will flow once again at Camp Gilead. Gifts of any size are greatly appreciated.

Please pray that God will send us many children who do not know him, who have never even heard the gospel before. Pray for strength for our counselors, all of whom are volunteers and most of whom are serving two or more camps. Every year, as many of you remember, we face great challenges—from both physical and spiritual harm. We cannot overcome these unless you stand beside us in prayer and intercession. May our Lord Jesus Christ remain the center of everything we do.

Peace be with you,

Isam and Nihad

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