Summer/Fall 2004
Facing Bench

Friends Reaching Out with Love of Jesus
Nineteen EFC-ER Churches sent volunteers on Short-Term Missions Trips this Summer. Here are just two of their stories.

North Olmsted Friends Trip to Mexico
Fourteen folks from North Olmsted Friends Church in North Olmsted, Ohio spent time in Mexico this summer, helping with our Friends Churches in Mexico City. “No matter how you looked at the team, we were a hodge-podge, a conglomeration of people no one would put together to complete a mission. We were 7 adults and 7 teens. We were 4 men and 10 women ranging in age from 14 to old enough to have grandchildren older than 14,”commented Sandy Hovatter. “But God worked.”

The team offered a teen conference on sexual purity where two Mexican teens came to Christ;helped with a Vacation Bible School where twelve children accepted Christ; and worked diligently to improve the Friends church — laying a concrete foundation for 2 classrooms, painting the sanctuary (including its high ceiling), cleaning the church, painting the kitchen of the mission home and sealing its roof!

“Through it all, God not only affected those we went to serve, but He worked on our hearts. We were confronted with our own sin, moved to compassion for the lost, and challenged to trust God in new ways. Out of our comfort zone, each of us learned a deeper dependency on God while He gave us new experiences of His grace in our lives. And coming home, we boast not in what we were privileged to be able to do, but in God's goodness and His mercy towards us and those around us. We were blessed to go to Mexico City, and we look forward to the next adventure He might have for us.”

Information provided by Sandy Hovatter
North Olmsted Friends Church

Hampton and Achilles Friends to Jamaica
June 28 through July 5, Hampton Friends Church in Hampton Virginia took over 25 volunteers to Jamaica to work with Pastor Frank Cater. They put a roof on Zion Evangelical Friends Church, worked at Westhaven and Robin's Nest orphanages, painted walls at Power of Faith Friends Church, gave sandwiches and drink to the children of Falmouth, a Jamaican village.

Pastor Denny Peters along with his wife, Pam, and son, Adam, coordinated the trip. In addition to the manual labor, Pastors Denny Peters and John Huber of Achilles Friends Church held training sessions for the Jamaican pastors and some Haitian refugee leaders.

Information provided by Pam Peters