June 2020
BEYOND NEWS
Jason Orndorff Story – PHS Food Delivery
AP COVID Project
Grace helps field worker start a food assistance program in Southeast Asia
Our field workers are spreading the love of Jesus during a time of great need that is felt around the world. One of our workers has seen first hand the devastation her community is experiencing. Tourism is the main revenue stream for this community and most families work today to eat tomorrow. COVID has stripped away their ability to work. AP spent time in prayer and felt the Lord leading her to create a feeding program for locals. God’s perfect timing and provision allowed Grace to release $4000 in funds to start the project. AP (our field worker in Southeast Asia) asks that our church body cover her in prayer as she seeks to be the hands and feet of Christ to those in need.
2020 Impact Trips // Ready to serve in 2021?
We are grateful to Grace members that applied for 2020 Impact Trips. The decision was made to cancel all trips. The safety of our partners and church members is a top priority. We have begun to plan and dream about 2021 Impact Trips. Would you join us in praying for God’s plan to be made clear and for God to prepare the hearts of our partners and church members that will take part in these experiences?
BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR: FOOD BOXES, HARD CONVERSATIONS, AND GOSPEL TRANSFORMATION
One of the unexpected joys of delivering food to our neighbors is that often, it doesn’t stop there. Kristin Weinig shares about the first time she dropped off food boxes to a family in need: “After I knocked on the door and my husband stood beside me holding the box, we saw a young boy at the window that wouldn’t open the door. We went back to the car, brought our two young kids to the sidewalk and they held up the sign with his name on it. A smile came over his face and he opened the door. We showed him the groceries and he called his mom to come down. She was so thankful to see and talk to us. After a brief conversation, the young boy said ‘I was really afraid that you were here to take our stuff.’ It didn’t hit us until later when our 6-year-old son expressed confusion over why the other boy would be afraid of us. It sparked a hard conversation, but lately we’ve had to have lots of hard conversations with our kids.”
YOUNG ADULT COMMUNITY SERVING
Our YA community groups have adopted our local fire stations and are delivering them care packages!! It is such a small way for us to care for those on the front lines who are caring for all of us.
OUR SABBATICAL LEAVE
An Update from Jesse and Mei
The emergence and initial impact of the corona virus pandemic in Indonesia became much more real and tangible on March 16th. That’s when the central government implemented social distancing and quarantine measures nationwide. As we prepared for a likely lockdown of our city, we had no idea what the next couple of weeks might look like, never mind the next couple of months. In January we had already booked our plane tickets to return to Maryland in late June to attend our son’s wedding in July, planning to stay in the U.S. less than a month.
I thought you all would enjoy hearing what happened this past Saturday. First some background for those who don’t already know the story:
After Brandy and I signed up with Safe Families, our first placement in January 2018 was three siblings. They were great kids and there were a lot of ways that God helped us, but it was a really, really hard time. They came with a lot of trauma and we wanted so badly to fix everything but were overwhelmed. After almost 3 months, one of the girls got in trouble at school and when their mom found out she decided to terminate the hosting and take her kids back. It was very sudden and unpleasant; it all happened one day while I was at work and I never even really got to say goodbye.
Safe Families always has a goal and a plan for how to make the most of temporarily hosting children. In this case, the mom made some progress but didn’t accomplish her goals before quitting the program. Brandy and I were left pretty upset at how hopeless the situation seemed. The kids, and their mom, had so much stacked against them and we had worked so hard and sacrificed so much to serve them. And it wasn’t enough. But the Safe Families coaches helped us to see that we could only do our small part and the situation was overwhelming to us because we weren’t meant to bear it. God is not overwhelmed. He is able. He had invited us to be a part of the story and we had to trust that he had a plan for the family and had all the resources he needed to see his plan to completion. Later, God reiterated this lesson through Tandi’s devotion about the little boy who offered his fishes and loaves even though his small offering seemed laughable considering the size of the need. But it was still hard for me to believe that the situation wasn’t hopeless.
Which brings us to Saturday. Friday, Grace sent out an urgent request for a few men to help deliver food to some families in Baltimore. Grace partners with Garrick Williams and helped him build a community center, mostly for youth mentorship in the Parks Heights community. I was the last person to sign up. Saturday we brought a truckload of groceries to deliver to some families that he knew could use the help. One of the first houses that we went to was a single mom that he had added to the list at the last minute the night before. Before we walked in, he said “This is a single mom who is trying real hard but… well, you’ll see”. We took the groceries in and told her we’d like to pray with her, so she called her kids down from upstairs. We were all wearing facemasks and so was she. But when her kids came down they were not wearing masks. Can you imagine my surprise when I recognized the kids coming down the stairs? It was the three kids from our first placement! They had just moved into the house directly across the street from Garrick! He had interacted some with the girls through his mentorship program at their school and of course because they lived so close.
We had traded text messages a few times with the mom and had tried several times to get together but the most recent time COVID ruined our plans and the times before that the mom ended up not being able to make the trip. These kids had weighed so heavy on my heart but I hadn’t seen them, or hardly spoken to them, since before the day they left. And suddenly, unexpectedly, I was able to hug them and pray with them.
I spent the rest of the day thinking about how amazing this chance encounter was. And one of the main things that I thought about was my fear and hopelessness for them. God didn’t have to, but he gave me a glimpse into his providence for this family. They are together, they have a house, and of all the places they’re living right across the street from a man who has been serving his community in youth mentorship for decades! I’m not sure I could think of a better place for them to be.
Garrick mentioned that he had already been thinking he’d like to figure out transportation for some of these families to attend the churches he partners with (I think I understood this correctly), so we talked about me driving up to pick them up and drive them down to Grace. He also told me that the community center “isn’t mine, it’s ours” so if I wanted to meet them there, he’d bring them and we could hang out there. It sounds like we might be able to finally have our get together, which is good because my kids were pretty jealous that they missed out and we would love to continue our relationship with this family.
AP COVID Project
Grace helps field worker start a food assistance program in Southeast Asia
Our field workers are spreading the love of Jesus during a time of great need that is felt around the world. One of our workers has seen first hand the devastation her community is experiencing. Tourism is the main revenue stream for this community and most families work today to eat tomorrow. COVID has stripped away their ability to work. AP spent time in prayer and felt the Lord leading her to create a feeding program for locals. God’s perfect timing and provision allowed Grace to release $4000 in funds to start the project. AP asks that our church body cover her in prayer as she seeks to be the hands and feet of Christ to those in need.
Info about project directly from AP
My teammates and I have set up a COVID-19 Response Project, to empower our local partners to care for the most vulnerable impacted by COVID-19. This project is currently feeding 100 families, an orphanage of 30 children, and 20 college students far from family. All distributions are happening through our local partners who have identified both what is most needed and who is most impacted within their reach. We’ve partnered with an empowerment sewing business that employs women at risk of trafficking, to sew all the face masks provided in the care packages. Thank you for your continued commitment to pray and generously care for vulnerable communities here during this difficult time.
BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR: FOOD BOXES, HARD CONVERSATIONS, AND GOSPEL TRANSFORMATION
One of the unexpected joys of delivering food to our neighbors is that often, it doesn’t stop there. Kristin Weinig shares about the first time she dropped off food boxes to a family in need: “After I knocked on the door and my husband stood beside me holding the box, we saw a young boy at the window that wouldn’t open the door. We went back to the car, brought our two young kids to the sidewalk and they held up the sign with his name on it. A smile came over his face and he opened the door. We showed him the groceries and he called his mom to come down. She was so thankful to see and talk to us. After a brief conversation, the young boy said ‘I was really afraid that you were here to take our stuff.’ It didn’t hit us until later when our 6-year-old son expressed confusion over why the other boy would be afraid of us. It sparked a hard conversation, but lately we’ve had to have lots of hard conversations with our kids.”
When we intentionally live in close proximity to vulnerable and marginalized populations, we become more eager to understand, empathize, and enact justice for that population–for the sake of the family that we know and love! Children witness and learn about poverty and racial injustice. Families practice liturgies that prioritize addressing the needs of the poor, the outcast, and the downtrodden. The gospel is dynamically lived out as bridges are built and eyes are opened. The Weinigs and other Gracers continue to deliver food boxes to the same families week after week. When we trust in Jesus and proclaim his gospel in all that we do, these small acts of service have the potential to have a ripple effect, transforming entire neighborhoods.
OUR SABBATICAL LEAVE
An update from Jesse and Mei
The emergence and initial impact of the corona virus pandemic in Indonesia became much more real and tangible on March 16th. That’s when the central government implemented social distancing and quarantine measures nationwide. As we prepared for a likely lockdown of our city, we had no idea what the next couple of weeks might look like, never mind the next couple of months. In January we had already booked our plane tickets to return to Maryland in late June to attend our son’s wedding in July, planning to stay in the U.S. less than a month.
As the infection “curve” rose over the next few weeks, we looked into advancing our departure date, not certain whether Indonesia would lock down the entire country as neighboring Malaysia had done. In the course of those deliberations, a dear friend and co-worker brought up the idea of taking a sabbatical. After praying about it and seeking counsel from family members, leaders from PIONEERS and our supporting churches, we decided to seek approval for a recommended 6-month sabbatical through our organization.
After experiencing a few difficulties and anxious moments trying to secure new plane tickets and land transportation, we finally arrived at Dulles airport on April 29 and jumped right into our sabbatical schedule, aided by a 14-day self-isolation/quarantine in the basement of our townhouse. So what’s this sabbatical about? We determined the following as objectives or outcomes for the sabbatical: 1. Rest, refreshment and renewal (40%); 2. Ministry transition discernment (40%); 3. Re-tooling, re-equipping for ministry (20%).
As we approach the end of the first of three phases (each lasting about 2 months) of the sabbatical, we are thankful for the Lord’s grace and provision whereby we have been able to rest from our labors and recover physically, emotionally and spiritually from the pressure and strains of day-to-day life and ministry responsibilities overseas. We’re thankful for our ministry partners and sending churches who have graciously allowed us to disengage from most ministry-related responsibilities and tasks during this time, granting us the freedom to say no and to choose which ones to participate in. We’re also thankful for our sabbatical advisors and support team for their willingness to come alongside us, keeping us on track and holding us accountable to pursue the agreed-upon objectives and plans so far.
The next phase of our sabbatical will focus on “Reflection and Refocus”, in which we will primarily be focusing on answering the question: “How have You created me and shaped me for Your Kingdom purposes, Father?” We appreciate your prayers for us and for those who will minister to us toward this pursuit during the next couple of months. Please continue to pray for our teammates and ministry partners in Indonesia as they continue to labor to make multiplying disciples among the Bridge people. Please pray also for the Lord’s grace and blessing on Daniel and his fiancee Avanell, as they make final preparations for their wedding on July 11 and also as they launch and transition to married life.
In His grace,
Jesse and Mei