These days, the options in Mission Trips are plentiful. You can travel overseas or domestically and usually have opportunity for travel year round. But are all Missions organizations created equally? Well it's not a surprise to find out that there are vast differences among Missions organizations in America and Internationally. To get started in your quest to uncover the expertise and professionalism of each organization, you need to ask some basic questions of the organization when you call to inquire on Mission Trip. The following are eight basic questions you should ask and get acceptable answers from:
1) What is the physical location (address) of the Missions Organization?
It may surprise you to find out that about 50% of all Missions advertisements show a PO Box as mailing address. Although this may indeed be a separate address from the physical location of the Mission organization, often it is a cover for an organization that has no physical missions base or property. Why is this important?
Well for starters, if the organization has no missions base other than their house which they live in, it may be an indication that they will be sending you to a "borrowed" location where they act as a broker to sleep your team at someone else's church - often without beds or on site showers or a functioning kitchen. In this situation, the organization has no long term investment in providing a full missions experience where they own the facility and have a level of control over the accommodations to ensure a safe and comfortable week. Do you want to pay money to a middle man that nothing invested in your week - but rather plays the role as a booking agent to sleep you in some other town in the USA or internationally, in a facility that they do not own.
2) What are the actual ministries that the organization has an ongoing relationship with?
If a Missions organization works year round in their community, they will have built working relationships with all of the legitimate ministries within the area you will be travelling to. This is important because schedules often change due to weather and sickness and other unforeseen issues and that requires your Missions organization to be nimble in moving schedules to keep you busy. If the Missions organization is not running a local Mission in the city or locale you are serving in, the potential for ineffective serving opportunities and scheduling "holes" can occur.
3) What meals are served - are they frozen or made from scratch in the Mission Organizations kitchen? Will they be serving you 3 meals per day?
You will work long hours in Mission service. Imagine working all day with your team and then having to navigate your way to a restaurant with your entire team at 7:00 p.m. This does not even take into account the extra costs you will incur for eating out.
These are just three of the basic questions you should ask when deciding upon an appropriate qualified Missions organization for your team Mission Trips. Stay tuned and we will cover a few more questions you might want to ask in our next blog.
https://www.epicmissions.org
THE MISSION - Thoughts and Discussions on what it means to be used by God to spread the good news. We are a short-term missions organization that facilitates missions work in Florida. We custom design a week of missions service for college, high school and adult individuals. We also serve public high school teams on weeks of community service where they serve as part of their community service requirements.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Friday, May 24, 2013
My Chuck
My childhood dream was to have a pet duck! So finally I was able to achieve that dream and ended up with four Pekin Ducks. A very long and sad story later, three of them died and I was left with one last sad and lonely girl. I decided to name her Reba, after Reba Macintires song, “Im a Survivor.” I did the only logical thing I could do for this lonely little bird, I made her move into the chicken coop! Some people may not know this but a duck and chicken are VERY different birds. Let me explain…
A duck has webbed feet, a chicken does not.
My duck is large and white, my chickens are not.
A duck loves being sprayed with a hose, a chicken runs away.
Chickens can fly a little, my duck can’t.
My duck loves to swim, eats more than my dog, quacks, and cant drink enough water.
Chickens can fly a little bit, take dirt baths, cluck, chase you, and tear up the ground looking for insects to eat.
As you can see chickens and ducks are very different animals! Just about the only thing they have in common is they both have feathers. Not even the beaks on these birds are the same. The first week the birds lived together was rough, Reba didn’t really fit in. On cold nights all the chickens would huddle together in the nesting box and Reba would lay on the floor of the coop all by herself. After about two weeks since the integration, I walked outside and was shocked when I saw Reba snuggling up with three other chickens! My family and I were excited when we saw the chickens accepting her, and when we actually saw them all getting along. Everything was great!
But I now am noticing little differences in Reba the duck. She wont swim in the pond anymore, and all the sudden she hates the hose. Now, Reba actually runs away when the hose turns on just like the other chickens. Before the integration, Reba would run up to the hose and flap her wings, now she cant run away fast enough. My cute ducky now eats dirt because she doesn’t get that the chickens aren’t eating dirt but just the bugs inside. All these changes in her, but why? Bad company corrupts good character.
If you hang out with the same person enough you start to become like them. When the first disciples came to Jesus they were not perfect! In fact I picture some un-groomed men, then were used to drinking and cursing. Now maybe Im wrong but thats just the way my mind pictures it. But after they hung out with Jesus they became preachers of the Gospel themselves! Transformed. I remember as a little kid, I hung out with this one girl a lot! When I would come home from a sleep over I found myself getting in trouble and sometimes sent to my room. My Mom used to tell me I was acting just like her and that I needed to hang out with some other people.
We can have the best intentions, we can be having our devotions daily and walking with the Lord faithfully! But, if we aren’t having balance in our life, and we find the only people we are spending our time with are our “chicken” friends, our faith will start slipping. Its important to hang out with the chickens, as long as we are making an impact on them instead of us picking up their “dirt eating habits”. As ducks we need to spend our time with other quacking people. That way we have accountability partners, people to help keep our feet on the ground.
My duck has now become a “Chuck.” (Chicken+Duck=Chuck) Reba doesn’t really know what she is. She is slipping. We need to surround ourselves with a good Christian support system so we can better impact the chickens of the world.Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33
Alyssa Munsie
https://www.epicmissions.org
A duck has webbed feet, a chicken does not.
My duck is large and white, my chickens are not.
A duck loves being sprayed with a hose, a chicken runs away.
Chickens can fly a little, my duck can’t.
My duck loves to swim, eats more than my dog, quacks, and cant drink enough water.
Chickens can fly a little bit, take dirt baths, cluck, chase you, and tear up the ground looking for insects to eat.
As you can see chickens and ducks are very different animals! Just about the only thing they have in common is they both have feathers. Not even the beaks on these birds are the same. The first week the birds lived together was rough, Reba didn’t really fit in. On cold nights all the chickens would huddle together in the nesting box and Reba would lay on the floor of the coop all by herself. After about two weeks since the integration, I walked outside and was shocked when I saw Reba snuggling up with three other chickens! My family and I were excited when we saw the chickens accepting her, and when we actually saw them all getting along. Everything was great!
But I now am noticing little differences in Reba the duck. She wont swim in the pond anymore, and all the sudden she hates the hose. Now, Reba actually runs away when the hose turns on just like the other chickens. Before the integration, Reba would run up to the hose and flap her wings, now she cant run away fast enough. My cute ducky now eats dirt because she doesn’t get that the chickens aren’t eating dirt but just the bugs inside. All these changes in her, but why? Bad company corrupts good character.
If you hang out with the same person enough you start to become like them. When the first disciples came to Jesus they were not perfect! In fact I picture some un-groomed men, then were used to drinking and cursing. Now maybe Im wrong but thats just the way my mind pictures it. But after they hung out with Jesus they became preachers of the Gospel themselves! Transformed. I remember as a little kid, I hung out with this one girl a lot! When I would come home from a sleep over I found myself getting in trouble and sometimes sent to my room. My Mom used to tell me I was acting just like her and that I needed to hang out with some other people.
We can have the best intentions, we can be having our devotions daily and walking with the Lord faithfully! But, if we aren’t having balance in our life, and we find the only people we are spending our time with are our “chicken” friends, our faith will start slipping. Its important to hang out with the chickens, as long as we are making an impact on them instead of us picking up their “dirt eating habits”. As ducks we need to spend our time with other quacking people. That way we have accountability partners, people to help keep our feet on the ground.
My duck has now become a “Chuck.” (Chicken+Duck=Chuck) Reba doesn’t really know what she is. She is slipping. We need to surround ourselves with a good Christian support system so we can better impact the chickens of the world.Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33
Alyssa Munsie
https://www.epicmissions.org
As Dumb as a Goat
I have two Dwarf Goats named BillyMoo and MollyMoo. We had MollyMoo about a week before we adopted Billy. Billy and Molly are about a month apart in age and are now inseparable. Where ever Molly goes Billy goes, if Billy starts running and dancing Molly will too. Their relationship is so cute to see but it wasn’t always this way. When we introduced the two of them Molly hated Billy. We had to keep them separated at night for a few days because Molly would slam him into the walls of their cage and try to fight with him. After this period of fighting ended they began to love each other. Now their bond to each other couldn’t be stronger.
It was all a process with the two of them, they needed to go through the hard stuff so that they could move on with the good. In a way, a relationship with Jesus is kind of the same. Bad things happen in our life and when they do we look for someone to comfort us and we ask the famous question, “why?” This famous question is normally directed to the most famous being, God. God is in control of everything. Sometimes this knowledge brings us comfort but when times are hard this question seems to bring more resentment than anything else.
When asked the question, “When do you communicate with God most?” Most people, if honest, respond by saying that they talk with God the more when hard times come around. I know some people that never pray unless there is a crisis in their life. Maybe thats why God allows hard times to hit. If there was no death, sadness, poverty, hunger, sickness, war or hatred then life would be perfect. If the world was this way then that would mean there was no sin in the world. None of the things above even existed until Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God back in the Garden of Eden. Once sin occurred the world as Adam and Eve knew it changed. Sin is the cause of all this turmoil in the world. If there was no sin then we wouldn’t need Jesus to pay the price for our screw ups. If there was no sin, life would be perfect. But sin is here.
Maybe God allows us to go through hard times to bring us closer to Him. Lets face it, on our own, in a perfect universe, we don’t go to God. Our prayer life becomes sloppy, reading God’s word becomes less of a priority and our relationship with God starts to struggle. If we don’t go through the hardships of life then we won’t grow with God. I think God allows hard times so that we have an opportunity to cling to Him. Jesus knows that on our own we won’t cling to Him. Jesus knows that we are stubborn and all around stupid. We need Jesus because the world around us is filled with heartache and troubles. We need heartache to point us back to the One who will help us pick up the broken pieces.
Just like Billy and Molly needed that hard time to have the sweetest little friendship, we need the hard times to build our relationship with God. Its at these moments we have the opportunity to grow with God instead of apart from God. When the rest of the world around us has crumbled we have the opportunity to turn to Jesus. Hard times are really just an invitation to grow with God.
Alyssa MunsieDeuteronomy 33:27
The eternal God is your refuge, and His everlasting arms are under you…
https://www.epicmissions.org
It was all a process with the two of them, they needed to go through the hard stuff so that they could move on with the good. In a way, a relationship with Jesus is kind of the same. Bad things happen in our life and when they do we look for someone to comfort us and we ask the famous question, “why?” This famous question is normally directed to the most famous being, God. God is in control of everything. Sometimes this knowledge brings us comfort but when times are hard this question seems to bring more resentment than anything else.
When asked the question, “When do you communicate with God most?” Most people, if honest, respond by saying that they talk with God the more when hard times come around. I know some people that never pray unless there is a crisis in their life. Maybe thats why God allows hard times to hit. If there was no death, sadness, poverty, hunger, sickness, war or hatred then life would be perfect. If the world was this way then that would mean there was no sin in the world. None of the things above even existed until Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God back in the Garden of Eden. Once sin occurred the world as Adam and Eve knew it changed. Sin is the cause of all this turmoil in the world. If there was no sin then we wouldn’t need Jesus to pay the price for our screw ups. If there was no sin, life would be perfect. But sin is here.
Maybe God allows us to go through hard times to bring us closer to Him. Lets face it, on our own, in a perfect universe, we don’t go to God. Our prayer life becomes sloppy, reading God’s word becomes less of a priority and our relationship with God starts to struggle. If we don’t go through the hardships of life then we won’t grow with God. I think God allows hard times so that we have an opportunity to cling to Him. Jesus knows that on our own we won’t cling to Him. Jesus knows that we are stubborn and all around stupid. We need Jesus because the world around us is filled with heartache and troubles. We need heartache to point us back to the One who will help us pick up the broken pieces.
Just like Billy and Molly needed that hard time to have the sweetest little friendship, we need the hard times to build our relationship with God. Its at these moments we have the opportunity to grow with God instead of apart from God. When the rest of the world around us has crumbled we have the opportunity to turn to Jesus. Hard times are really just an invitation to grow with God.
Alyssa MunsieDeuteronomy 33:27
The eternal God is your refuge, and His everlasting arms are under you…
https://www.epicmissions.org
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
A New Command
I am still in the book of John and in Chapter 13 verse 34 and 35, Jesus shares with His disciples at the last supper this: "I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." If you think about the last supper Jesus had with His disciples one thing He did was He washed their feet. Jesus always lead by example. He came into this world not be served but to serve. It even goes deeper than that, He loved these friends so much that he humbled Himself before them and washed their dirty feet!!
Jesus' walk with His disciples showed us how we ought to be. We need to fellowship with each other. Fellowship with other believers is so vital to our spiritual growth. I think today we spend so much time "doing" we forget that a Christian is suppose to be about "being." "Being" in Christ not doing in Christ. We were created as human beings not human doings. Fellowship with each other is a vital part of "being" in Christ. Jesus talked and laughed and cried with His friends. He has "fellowship" with them.
Another activity Jesus did with His disciples was he "broke bread with them." This wasn't only communion but He also had meals with them. Think of your own family. You sit at a table together and you eat together. During that meal you talk to one another and find out what each has done that day or what each one is going through. Around a dinner table we communicate. So many families have stopped family meal time and it is a huge part of the break down of the family. Jesus showed us that friends and family need to share a meal together and talk to each other.
Jesus also prayed with His disciples. He shared their burdens and prayed to His heavenly Father for His disciples. When Martha came to Jesus weeping for the loss of her brother and Jesus' friend, Lazarus, Jesus wept too. He cried out and shared Martha's pain. That is what we are called to do, share each other's burdens. Pray for each other and with each other.
Our command from Jesus is to "love one another" and serving each other fellowship, and communion together and praying for and with each other are all a part of truly loving one another. Jesus humbled Himself to serve his friends, he laughed with them and had fun with them. Jesus prayed with them and for them and shared in their joys and in their sorrows. This is what it is to love each other.
"I give you and new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." This is the verse our family chose for Epic Missions. We chose this verse because it is what God has called us all to do. When you come on a missions trip with Epic Missions you will serve others, pray with and for others and you will sit at a table together and fellowship with one another. Each day you will sit with your friends and share a meal together and talk about the day, sharing in each others joys and sorrows. It is what we were all called to do.......go to our website, www.epicmissions.org and find out how you can serve and love by doing short term missions! Can't wait to serve with you!!
https://www.epicmissions.org
https://www.epicmissions.org
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Mundane to Majestic?
I want to take you to the book of John when Jesus heals the blind man. Here Jesus and His disciples are walking along and come up to a blind man sitting propped up holding a basket for donations. His parents probably took him there each day to to collect some money to put toward his room and board. Today, would be life changing for this man born blind. This man who was born a burden to his family. Today would be different because Jesus walked by.
Jesus did not make lightening crackle through the mans body and have thunder blast through the sky....no not Jesus. He simply swirled around his mouth and gathered his own spit. He then spewed it onto the ground and used his finger to make some mud. Pretty gross huh? Pretty mundane, no bells and whistles, just his own saliva and dirt from the ground. I imagine the crowd around Him was wondering, “what in the world is he doing?” Some of the women i am sure were horrified to see Jesus actually spit in public!! Jesus then gathered the freshly made mud into his hands and rubbed it onto the blind mans eyes and sent him to a near by pool of water to wash his face.
The man came back amazed, grateful, thrilled beyond belief, he could see for the first time in his life!! Imagine one of the very first things he got to see was Jesus! Jesus took the mundane, the spit and the mud, and turned it into something majestic! That’s how He works. Jesus takes what we offer, He takes us exactly the way we are and makes something absolutely amazing out of us.
You may be thinking today that your life is mundane and simply just ordinary. You may feel you have nothing to offer. Friends i am telling you if you offer what you have, who you are to Jesus Christ He will take it and do something amazing. Epic Missions is a wonderful way that you can offer yourself to Jesus. Through short term missions you get to see firsthand how God takes the mundane and turns it into something majestic! You can make a difference in someones life today by just being you. Offering “you” just the way you are to God and allowing Him to use you in a mighty way. Do you have 6 days to offer Jesus and allow Him to use you and make a difference for all eternity? Go to www.epicmissions.org and see how you can be a part of something awesome! Come make a difference!!
https://www.epicmissions.org
Jesus did not make lightening crackle through the mans body and have thunder blast through the sky....no not Jesus. He simply swirled around his mouth and gathered his own spit. He then spewed it onto the ground and used his finger to make some mud. Pretty gross huh? Pretty mundane, no bells and whistles, just his own saliva and dirt from the ground. I imagine the crowd around Him was wondering, “what in the world is he doing?” Some of the women i am sure were horrified to see Jesus actually spit in public!! Jesus then gathered the freshly made mud into his hands and rubbed it onto the blind mans eyes and sent him to a near by pool of water to wash his face.
The man came back amazed, grateful, thrilled beyond belief, he could see for the first time in his life!! Imagine one of the very first things he got to see was Jesus! Jesus took the mundane, the spit and the mud, and turned it into something majestic! That’s how He works. Jesus takes what we offer, He takes us exactly the way we are and makes something absolutely amazing out of us.
You may be thinking today that your life is mundane and simply just ordinary. You may feel you have nothing to offer. Friends i am telling you if you offer what you have, who you are to Jesus Christ He will take it and do something amazing. Epic Missions is a wonderful way that you can offer yourself to Jesus. Through short term missions you get to see firsthand how God takes the mundane and turns it into something majestic! You can make a difference in someones life today by just being you. Offering “you” just the way you are to God and allowing Him to use you in a mighty way. Do you have 6 days to offer Jesus and allow Him to use you and make a difference for all eternity? Go to www.epicmissions.org and see how you can be a part of something awesome! Come make a difference!!
https://www.epicmissions.org
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