Burundi Team 2011 - Get ready!

A major part of any Mission International team's experience is the preparation stage for the trip.  Team members do go through a period of training, however often one of the most testing times is deciding what to take with us.   The team will gather a consignment of items together in the months prior to departure, each of which is destined to support the poor or to further the work of the team during deployment.   The pictures below show items being gathered and packed for transport.   Each team member is allocated 2 X 23kg suitcases which after their limited clothes allowance is packed will be filled with the items gathered.

Poor and needy families will benefit from the gifts and items carried and those who are treated by the dental/medical team will also greatly benefit.   Dental and medical facilities are scarce in Burundi due to severe national poverty and so the queues of people waiting for help and treatment will again be long.  

It is sure to be a challenging trip for each member of the team, please pray with us that God uses us to achieve great things during our time in Burundi.

Please pray!

Please pray for the teams as they head out to their respective destinations; Haiti and Burundi.  One item which requires some prayer is a ticket issue.   One of our young Burundi team members withdrew from the team late on and as such we will lose his ticket/seat (no refund available).   The new team member who has agreed to take his place has to start from scratch at this late stage to find £1250 for the replacement ticket and so the team and their families have set about doing the extra fundraising to get the money together.

Please pray for the Burundi team as they get involved via Mission International's partners Rema Ministries in evangelism, children's ministry, dental/medical care and practical projects in support of the poor.

The Haiti team also will work with MI partners Trinity Church of Jerusalem in Ouanaminthe (next to Dajabon in the Dominican Republic).   They will serve amongst the urban poor and share the good news about Jesus Christ with the people there.   The Haiti team have already started blogging here. You can find this button which will take you directly to the Haiti team blog on the right sidebar for easy access.

Teams Training event a great success!

Training event successful!

Mission International's teams training event took place on Saturday 4th June. Team members were given training on a wide range of subjects ranging from how to deal with a different culture and what they need to carry with them as well as how to share the Gospel with those they will serve during their deployment.   All team members, for both the Burundi and the Haiti teams, were present and began to make team relationships with those they had met for the first time.  

The training was delivered by Rev. David Robertson from St Peter's Free Church in Dundee (who also kindly provided the venue for the event), Richard Woods the Haiti team leader (see pic), Gervais Nyandwi a Burundian and member of the the Rema Team (MI Partners in Burundi and hosts for this year's team), and also Hugh Henderson the Director of Mission International.

Team members expressed how much they had enjoyed and benefited from the event that they now feel more prepared for their trip and feel inspired to serve God and reach out to those their team will serve during deployment.