Engaging our World
WHY MISSIONS?
Our mission is God’s mission as described in the Bible. The story of the Bible can be summed up in four words: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. God created the entire world in six days for His glory. This means that all of creation exists to bring glory and honor to God, including mankind. Man was the apex of God’s creation in that man was created in the image of God. God intended for people everywhere to bring glory and honor to Him through their fellowship with Him. But man chose to not follow God, and disobeyed Him in an attempt to be like Him. This is what we refer to as ‘the Fall’. When man chose to sin, all of creation was marred by sin, death entered into the world, and man’s fellowship with God was severed. The remainder of the Bible tells of God’s plan for redemption and restoration of all creation. God’s plan was to send His Son to pay the price for humanity’s sin. He died on the cross and was raised again on the third day so that mankind could be reconciled with God. Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to return one day in the future, when He will remove all the effects of sin and, thereby, restore creation to its original God-glorifying intention. The Bible ends with the book of Revelation which contains a glorious vision of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation in the world, gathered around the throne of Jesus worshiping Him as King. Before He ascended into Heaven, Jesus commanded His disciples to take the good news of God’s redemption plan into all the nations. This is how the vision in Revelation comes to fruition. God’s intention is for those whose lives have been radically changed by the truth of the gospel to take that message to those throughout the world who have not heard. This is the reason we are so passionate about missions here at Faith. We have been set free of the bondage of sin and want others to come to know Christ as their Savior. We long for the day when people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship Jesus!
MISSION TRIPS & PARTNERS AROUND THE WORLD
In order to best utilize our resources and efforts dedicated to missions, we have chosen to strategically partner with missionaries who are focused on planting churches throughout the world. Our partnership with these missionaries includes supporting them through prayer, financial support, and sending short-term mission teams to advance their long-term goal of planting churches. These partnerships will not only lead to planting gospel-centered churches, but also to raising up future missionaries and church-planters. Here is a list of current partnerships and the areas being reached:
Pennsylvania
Faith has already sent a church planting team to Harrisburg. We continue to support this team and are actively planning to send future teams to other parts of the state.
Vermont
Vermont is the least-churched state in America. For several years we have been working with New Life Community Church in Northfield as they seek to take the light of the gospel to a very spiritually dark part of our country.
The Netherlands
Amsterdam is one of the most diverse cities in the world, but that has very little gospel presence. We are partnering with missionaries in Amsterdam to plant a gospel-centered church as a lighthouse in this place that is desperately in need of Christ.
Central America
There is a great movement of God happening in Central America. Thousands of people are coming to Christ each year. We desire to help plant new churches that will continue to reach the lost and disciple the new believers in this area.
East Asia
We are working in a country that is closed to the gospel. Using platforms such as English camps, medical clinics, and radio broadcasts, we will take the good news of Jesus Christ that still needs to hear.
Click the button below to sign up for one of the mission trips listed above:
PRAYER
Pray that God would continue to give us his heart for the nations as a church. Pray that we would be burdened for those around the world who have never heard about Jesus Christ.
Pray that God would give us opportunities and the resources to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the nations. Ask God to send laborers into the harvest fields throughout the world.
Pray for our mission partners around the world (The Morrisons and Shays in PA, the Cates in VT, The Darnells in Amsterdam, The Raineys in East Asia, and Good News in Action in Central America.) Pray they will continue to be a light to those around them. Pray for opportunites to share the gospel, and pray they will be able to disciple new believers.
Pray for the staff of our church as we explore the possibility of adopting an unreached, unengaged people group. Pray that God would give us great wisdom as we begin to plan how we might be the “missionary” to one of these unengaged people groups.
Pray for God to give the staff wisdom as they meet with people from the International Mission Board to begin developing a plan to evangelize, disciple and plant churches among an unengaged, unreached people group. (These meetings will probably happen over the next couple of months.)
Pray for future trips to work with the unengaged people group we end up adopting. Hopefully within the next year we will send a vision trip on which some of Faith’s staff will be able to see first hand our adopted people group and further develop a plan for taking the gospel to the people. Ask that God would use this vision trip to continue to develop a passion for these people. Also pray for the future mission teams that we will send to our adopted people group in the coming years. Pray that God would provide the people and finances as well as safety on these trips.
Pray that all of our mission efforts will lead to many churches being started around the world and will play a role in fulfilling the vision in Revelation of people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping Jesus as Savior.
TESTIMONIES
“I was walking back to the park and saw a young man who looked like he had been in an accident. He had a sling on his arm and bandages on his person. We talked to him and started talking about his accident. He said he had been in a construction accident. He was upset because now he couldn’t work. This allowed me to start into the gospel. I asked him what if he had been killed in the accident. I got to share the gospel with him and he accepted Christ as His Savior.”
~ Patrick Cottrell
. . . . . . . . . . .
“As we were talking to a lady about the Gospel we noticed another women listening in. We asked the lady we were talking to if she wanted to make a decision and she said no but the lady who was listening in said yes and we prayed with her right there.”
~ Van and Anne Clifton
. . . . . . . . . . .
“I talked with a lady named Monica tonight who had her daughter with her. After talking with her for a short time, she shared with me that her husband had just run off with her sister and she had been left alone as a single mom. She ended up accepting Christ and after praying said that she had joy in her that she had not experienced in a long time.”
~ Rich Paradis
. . . . . . . . . . .
“We walked up to house and a younger lady came out. We started talking her and shared the Gospel but she didn’t want to make any decision. She walked back inside and we moved on. We got down the road and we heard her yelling for us, so we walked back. We thought maybe she had changed her mind but it was a young girl who had heard us as she listened from inside the house. The house was a school and there were six students inside. We went inside and talked with the girl and she prayed to accept Jesus in front of her school class.”
~ David McNeill
. . . . . . . . . . .
“Haiti was my first mission trip, and I am very grateful for the experience. Being there allowed me to appreciate what I take for granted here in the U.S. Take Romil for example, one of the Haitian workers who I befriended. The home Romil and his family rented prior to the earthquake had been completely destroyed. I couldn’t believe how he and his family lived now. Romil, his mother, and three sisters now lived in a 12’x12’ shelter with a dirt floor. His shelter was just like the ones the team built throughout the week – a structure Americans would hesitate to even use as storage. What a humbling sight!
Romil is a Christian, and he asked me to pray that God would provide a bigger place for him and his family to live in. When he shared this request with me, I asked him if I could pray with him right then. As we bowed our heads in his shelter and began to pray, my heart was broken for him and his family. I had never experienced compassion for a man and his family like this. What a great experience it was to be praying with a Haitian man whom I had just met. It’s amazing how you can go to another country and meet a Christian who you don’t know and feel like you have a connection with him. Interacting with the family of God around the world is such a blessing!
Serving God on the construction team was an awesome opportunity to impact God’s kingdom. I had such a good feeling knowing that I was helping to build better shelters for the Haitian people. Our last night in Haiti it rained, and it felt so good to know that our team had contributed to providing better shelter for a number of families. Those families would be able to stay dry. I also took great pleasure in meeting and conversing with some of the Haitians who helped us work. We passed out candy to the children and gave some of them fake tattoos for fun and even had an opportunity to pass out tracks on the street.
Whenever life gets hard, I can now remember what I’ve seen in Haiti and how the Haitians live. This trip will forever encourage me and help me to remember how truly blessed I am because I don’t have to live in the conditions they do there. Knowing many of the Haitian’s lives ended suddenly in the earthquake is also a constant reminder of how important sharing the gospel is. I encourage everyone who hasn’t gone on a mission trip yet to do so soon because you will not regret it.”
~ Chuck Bernazzani
PASSPORT INFORMATION
Every one of our international mission trips require a valid US passport. Ordering a passport now can help you avoid paying costly expediting fees. For more info on how to apply for a US passport visit: http://travel.state.gov/passport.
