by Drew Hammond, Bhutanese Logistics Coordinator

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Children are one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. They bring us joy and hope for the future. It is our calling as followers of Christ, to raise them in the ways of the Lord in everything we do.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the Bhutanese house church community had the joy of answering this call together. We gathered in the home of a family who had asked us to come and help them dedicate their baby to the Lord. There were 25 people there, most of whom were directly related to the family. Our indigenous leaders led the community in cultural worship songs, and in prayer for the baby and family.

The most powerful moment of the service was when the community and parents were asked if they were willing to accept the call to raise this baby girl in the ways of the Lord. Both the community and the family responded with great joy and accepted their challenge.

Pray with us that this baby would be blessed and kept in the care of the Lord to grow healthy and strong. 

Other News

• Several of the Mission Adelante staff and volunteers recently took a group of children and teens to swim at the Mission Municipal pool. It was lots of fun and a good chance to conquer fears and try new things together. Some of the teens swam for the first time ever, and a few kids even jumped off the high dive!

• LIT (Leaders In Training) was given tickets to see “Footloose” at the Starlight this Friday. We are excited to be taking the girls in both LIT outreaches to share a new experience together!

Prayer Needs

• As the end of a trimester nears and a program break approaches, pray that Mission Adelante Staff would rest well. Pray that we would be personally renewed. Pray also that the Lord would renew our vision and guide us as we dream and pray about the way He may desire to grow our ministries in coming trimesters!

• Please pray that we continue to develop a greater understanding of health needs and health care access in our community as our health needs survey progresses. Join us in praying for additional community leaders to work with us to help discern and represent the needs of their respective community.

Current Needs

• Leaders in Training (LIT) is trying to set up a brand new library for the kids. Do you know of someone that would be interested in helping to paint some bookshelves or maybe even buy some bean bags or other decorations to make it cozy? We are hoping to have it finished by the first week of September. Please contact Megan at meganm@missionadelante.org.

Important Dates

Summer Parties are

Sunday, August 11th at 4:00

at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109.  After entering the park, you'll come to a fork in the road;

go left.

• The Latino party will be in the "Beach Shelter." Turn right after passing shelter #6.

• The Bhutanese party will be at Shelter #6.

Raising up Leaders One Song at a Time

Written by Megan McDermott, Latino Children's Ministry Director

Have you ever met someone that after knowing them for only five minutes, reminded you of the absolute joy found in Christ?  When Janoy first came to Mission Adelante, he brought an infectious energy and a passion for Christ that has continued to inspire everyone around him.  He is a man that does everything with 100% of his heart and this became even more obvious as he began to emerge as a potential leader in our house church.

One of his greatest gifts is leading others in worshiping the Lord with his voice. When a church has a worship leader that loves to praise the Lord whole-heartedly, it allows the church body to pursue the Lord in a really intimate way. One of the greatest desires at the heart of Mission Adelante is that we are

dedicated to reproducing and equipping Indigenous leaders for ministry.

   Therefore, it seemed only natural to encourage and empower Janoy to step into leading the Latino worship team. 

The majority of the worship team is composed of teenagers that are hungry to learn and play music.  However, because they are still learning how to play the instruments and they struggle with self-confidence, they often experience a great deal of frustration when trying to learn a new song.  It has been so incredible to watch as Janoy,

one Indigenous leader, reaches out to help raise up other Indigenous leaders!

  Wouldn’t it be incredible if one day the teens themselves were mentoring the future worship leaders of our community, teaching what they learned from Janoy?

It is a blessing to walk alongside my brother, Janoy, as the Lord encourages and challenges him to lead others.  His passion for Christ is cultivating the melody of the song that the Lord desires to love His children with.

In other news:

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• We have been busy planning for our summer ESL classes. Bhutanese students will learn useful English words for gardening, food packaging, and road signs. We will even have a workshop for moms and their preschoolers. It’s going to be a great summer!
•  
• Cindy Green from Senator Jerry Moran’s office came to visit our ministry last week and learn about how we are serving and connecting with immigrants and refugees in our community.
•  
• Director of Community Development, Kristen Allen, attended the Christian Community Health Fellowship’s annual conference in Atlanta last weekend to continue networking and developing our vision for a community-based medical clinic for immigrants and refugees.

Prayer needs:

•  
• We are visiting 8 Latino teens this week with the hope they will move forward in applying for our summer internship.  Pray for these teens to catch a vision for how God wants’ to use them.
•  
• Please pray for emerging partnerships in our neighborhood with refugee groups from Burma.
•  
• Please pray for ongoing renewal and rest, deepening passion, and relational unity for our staff and missional community as we serve in a sometimes difficult urban context.

Current needs:

•  
• A set or two of 5-7 baby board books for our “mommy & me” Bhutanese ESL workshop. Please contact Lauren at laurent@missionadelante.org if you can help purchase one or more books.
• Volunteers to join the Transportation Team for the Bhutanese Outreach. There are positions available on Tuesday evenings for the summer, as well as Tuesday - Thursday evenings in the month of June. For more information, contact Drew Hammond at drewh@missionadelante.org.

Important dates:

• Volunteer Orientation & Training: Saturday, May 18, 9:00-12:30 All volunteers should attend this training once at the beginning of serving with Mission Adelante. It's also a great way for someone to become familiar with Mission Adelante's ministry. If you or someone you know is interested in finding out more about what we do, and about our volunteer opportunities, please plan to attend/encourage him or her to attend this informative training. 
• All Volunteer Huddle & Dessert: Monday, May 20, 6:30 p.m. We encourage everyone that will be volunteering with us during our summer trimester to attend so we can prepare for a great launch. 
• Summer trimester programs launch: Week of May 27