Already more than 250 people have signed up to participate in one of the seven mission trips being held in conjunction with the Free Methodist Church’s General Conference 2015. These are expected to involve the largest number of people ever embarking on such a venture at one time in the 154-year history of the Free Methodist Church!
Trips are planned to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and three locations in Florida. All will spend six days meeting specific needs of people in each of these areas. All will involve a ministry component, such as a vacation Bible school, and most will also involve a physical component, such as construction.
In Haiti, for instance, team members will spend time leading vacation Bible school and sports camps for the children and youth of a village next to Haiti Providence University, where they’ll be staying. They’ll also be building benches, which will then be trucked to a number of the 120 FM churches in Haiti. A bench may seem like a small thing. But many of our churches have very few seats to accommodate the people who worship there. So, by creating an assembly line in a single location and then distributing the benches, we’ll be making long-lasting contributions to our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
So far, 35 different churches have signed up to send people on the GC15 mission trips. And there’s still time for you to answer God’s call and join us! It will mean traveling to Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, July 8, where everyone will gather at the Caribe Royale Hotel and Conference Center. The next day will be spent training with a number of our career missionaries from around the world. All will learn about the culture where they’ll be ministering, how to share God’s plan of salvation, leadership principles and more.
The next day, Friday, everyone will leave for one of the six destinations where they’ll spend six days ministering. And the following Wednesday afternoon they’ll return to Orlando where our General Conference will be in full swing with people from around the world. The final day, Thursday, Oct. 16, will be spent debriefing, celebrating what God did and brainstorming ideas about how to take home a heart for missions and sharing God’s love.
Larry Roberts is the chief operating officer of the Free Methodist Church – USA.
The trips cost as little as $899. That includes three meals a day for eight days, nine nights lodging and your transportation from Orlando to the mission field destination and back to Orlando. The only added cost is getting to Orlando; $100 of the cost goes directly to the mission area where you’ll be serving to help pay for the raw materials in those benches and other construction projects.
Trips to Costa Rica and Miami are sold out. But we still really need volunteers to serve in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and multicultural churches in smaller cities in Florida. We also have a need for about 14 people to stay in Orlando and serve as teachers for the special children’s ministry program for first- through sixth-graders being produced by International Child Care Ministries as a part of our general conference. Get more information and register at gc15.org.
This next summer can be like every other, or you can be a part of transforming lives — and creating once-in-a-lifetime memories. We’re praying that you’ll choose life transformation and join us for the GC15 mission trips, and make 2015 a summer to remember!
