Upcoming Mission Trips:
We are currently praying about our next trip.
Past Mission Trips:
Nepal 2009
Haiti -2008
Haiti - 2007
Belize - 2006
Philippines - 2005
Philippines - 2004
Nepal - 2003
Zambia - 2002
China & Tibet - 2001
Tanzania - 1999
Albania - 1995
A Summary of Past Mission Trips:
In September of 2002, twenty one individuals, mostly members of Bangor Baptist Church embarked on the church's first large scale missions trip to a third world country. The members were divided into three teams, including medical, construction and Vacation Bible School. Each team woke early each morning and was bused to their designated work area for the day. The medical team set up camp in the African bush for the first week, and ministered to hundreds of families and children, distributing antibiotics, pain medicine, vitamins, worm pills, and formula. Many would wait for hours in the hot sun, and never complain, even when the medicines ran out. The second week the medical team continued their work at a clinic operated by a Catholic charity. The construction team set to work construction a church building to be pastored by our host, Gary Stewart. They began their day at five o clock in the morning, and did not quit until after the hot sun went down in the evening. At the end of the two weeks, the building had four high walls, with the hope that construction would continue after the team's departure. The children's team held their bible school at several locations, and were met each morning by dense crowds of excited children. They taught the children bible stories, songs, and shared a message of hope with these children who did not even have a word that meant "tomorrow." They lived each day only to survive, and to take care of each other. Many were AIDS orphans, and lived each day not knowing if it would be their last. The end of the tip allowed time for rest, relaxation, and debriefing of the experiences shared by each team.
In the fall of 2003, thirty-four individuals left for Nepal. This time everybody would work together to provide medical care for the people of Nepal. The group was led by Carl and Gina Bottorf of Bridging the World medical missions, and was joined by doctors from other areas of the country. During the first week, the team ministered to a town called Dumre, and the clinic was set up on top of a mountain which the team climbed each morning by foot. Thousands of people arrived for medical care, prayers, and spiritual awakening. God performed a miracle on a baby that died while in the clinic, and then came back to life as the grieving mother carried her child down the mountain. The teams stay in Dumre came to an abrupt end when they learned that they were in danger from the Maoist political party. They left the town quickly and arrived safely back in Katmandu. Thousands more Nepalis received care and were ministered to spiritually. Although several members of the team became very ill due to difficult conditions, God brought everyone home safely one more time.
During these two years, close to fifty individuals participated in each mission. Again, the members were divided into teams including medical, construction, VBS, and a crusade team of singers and musicians. The medical team performed similar tasks as during previous missions, but the numbers of people seeking care increased into the thousands. This time native pastors were available to share the gospel as people waited to be seen by the doctors and nurses. The construction team worked on building a kitchen and an ICU onto the hospital, and hundreds of children arrived to hear the gospel, sing and receive gifts. Each night, the crusade team would minister in song, and Pastor Mick would share the message of hope and salvation. Each night, hundreds would come forward to receive salvation, or ask for prayer for their loved ones.
This trip included close to forty members, who were divided into three teams including medical, construction and children's ministries. The construction team built a wooden house for a local pastor and his family, a cement block home for a mother and her six children, and also expanded the home of a quadriplegic man who was unable to leave his bed. How they accomplished so much in one week, only God can answer!! The medical team provided medicines to hundreds of people in need, with the assistance of a Belizian doctor who joined us each day, and saw each and every patient individually. The children's team provided vacation bible school to enthusiastic children who craved knowledge of the love of Jesus and the gospel. This year, the team was joined by a dentist who provided free dental care and fluoride treatments to hundreds of people in need. The team was able to enjoy a day of relaxation and visit the Mayan ruins, and experience the lush Belizian rainforest before returning from another successful missionary journey.
Haiti 2007
As the scripture in Isaiah teaches us to care for the poor and feed the hungry, our short-term mission team endeavored to do that for two weeks in February. We held three medical clinics where we witnessed heartbreaking scenes - a baby near death, a young girl with bacterial meningitis, a man who could not swallow, and a woman carrying a still-born baby in her eleventh month. We also worked on building a second story on a school and helping with a water system. Les Hutchinson took his own tools to work with on these projects and ended up leaving them for our brothers to use after we left. Two of our teens helped with taking blood pressure and translating the Haitian language, then at the end of the day, the Haitian children were waiting for them to play soccer. One lady even cut some of the missionaries' hair. Even that was such a blessing to them. Short term missions teaches us that it isn't how much we have but what we do with what we have that matters.
Haiti 2008
In June 2008, 15 members of Beyond the Norm Youth group, at Bangor Baptist Church ventured into the country of Haiti. All, except for one of the leaders, had never been to Haiti before. While in Haiti, this group of young people and two adults were able to help in the local communities mostly through daily vacation bible schools but also by ministering to a local youth group, loving on handicap children at a local orphanage and through providing encouragement through song and message to long term missionaries in the country.
A stand-out moment that the group experienced was the first day when we drove into a village that was about 40 minutes outside of the city. Once there, we were told that no American missionary team had ever visited this village before. Excitement was in the air as for many of these children these were the first white people they had ever seen. As the group leader was talking, his son began to translate so our team could understand what he was saying. The elderly man went on to say how for twenty years as he walked through and tended his mango gardens he would pray and ask the Lord for an American team to come and minister through a daily vacation bible school in his community. Day in and day out for twenty years this man faithfully prayed and petitioned God for this request. Years would come and go and many of those years this man would host his own backyard bible club in his mango garden. Still he would earnestly pray that these children would have the blessing of having an American team come and love on them and show them the love of Christ.
Tears were shed as we realized that before God breathed a breath of life into most of our team members He already knew they were the answer to this mans prayers. Not only did we share the love of Christ, we were able to share daily crafts with young people, worship songs, teaching and a meal each day for many children who typically were not fed a healthy meal each day. This became a highlight of our trip and honestly a genuine confirmation that we were exactly were God wanted us to be on those hot days in June. Away from our comforts, those we were closest to and the daily blessings we enjoy and take for granted each day in America; but in that moment in time right in the center of God’s will sharing His love and experiencing the blessing of a lifetime.
Nepal 2009
The trip to Nepal this spring was in partnership with Arise Medical Missions to set up medical camps in some of the most remote areas of Northwest Nepal. Our team consisted of Carl Bottorf and me as team leaders and Ngoc Du, D.O., Jessica Vancil, O.D., Rich Vancil, Optometrist Technician, Mary Phillips, EMT, Heidi Bach, R.N., Moriah Bach, Yam Pokerhel, Dentist, Hari Gurung, Sr. Pastor for OTAN, and two younger pastors that acted as translators.
Our mission for this trip was to set up at least 5 medical camps and see as many people as time allowed. Due to weather we were only able to set up 4 camps, however, God and His awesomeness opened up some incredible doors of opportunity for future missions.
We set up camps in the following areas:
Camp #1: Jomsom/Thiri – we saw a total of 59 people for a variety of reasons
Camp #2: Thang Village – we saw over 130 people. (This village was not on our schedule, but due to weather we were prevented from traveling)
Camp #3: Lubra – we saw over 60 people and had one major trauma case of an abscess near the temple of a small girl which could have led to death if it had not been removed.
Camp #4: Tiri Village – we saw over 55 people, but more importantly we were able to rescue 2 orphaned teenage girls who have had no formal education and no hope for a future.
The other component of the mission’s trip was to be able to rescue kids who have been orphaned. We found two sponsors that will cover the cost of their education, lodging, food, and clothing in Kathmandu. They will move to the city in July and start their education. The average cost of a rescue like this is approximately $60/month. The interesting dynamic to this is placement into a school setting. You can’t place teenage kids into classrooms with kindergarten age students. Arise Medical has arranged to have the school the girls will be attending to hire a teacher that can work with kids who are in their teens. These kids all know that we are Christians and that their education will be based on God’s teachings. They are, of course, agreeable because they realize they have no future where they are. I want to stress the importance of reaching the youth of Nepal and Asia for that matter. Communism is Christianity’s biggest threat and the Youth Communist League (YCL) is a very active vein that runs through Nepal. I continue to pray for direction. My feeling is that we hit back hard by increasing our impact on the youth in Nepal. Provide them education that is biblically based and with God on our side we can’t lose.
Praise God for all the wonderful people we met and were able to help. The last village we visited, Tiri, was very open to us returning and was not upset with us praying for them in public. This is highly unusual in a primarily Buddhist region.
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