Category: mission

Shower of Blessing

Posted on by Susan Panzica

To celebrate our anniversary, Tony and I spent 2 lovely days at the Jersey shore. After a day of salt, sand and surf, my time in the shower was awesome, not just cleansing, but revitalizing. My thoughts drifted to Jesus describing Himself as “living water.”

As the water poured in a steady stream, my thoughts drifted some more. I thought of my daughter, Lauren in Uganda using a bucket for her shower, and how much more will she enjoy a “real” shower when she gets home.

And then I thought about the people she is serving, the people who live there permanently and will only ever have bucket showers. My daughter’s team is small part of a year-round ministry to provide these people with a new well (as well as a sustainable farm and a vocational training center). How much more do these people know what the term LIVING water really means. Their lives depend upon the life-giving water from the well.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, He told her “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”   John 4:14

Thirst is a craving – drinking water quenches our physical need. Jesus, of course, is talking about providing “water” that quenches our soul’s needs. Too often, we seek after earthly means to meet those needs: work, relationships, food, drugs, entertainment. But, as Jesus said, these do not satisfy. We will thirst again and again. Only He can truly satisfy our deepest needs.

As with the Samaritan woman at the well, God comes to us where we are. He meets our needs and arouses in us a thirst that can only be quenched by Him. May we respond as she did, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty…”

To support the life-giving work in Uganda, contact www.ttwuganda.com.

Hazy, Hot, and Holy!

Posted on by Susan Panzica
I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. Really, I haven’t!
But I have been super-busy.


From my last post, you may remember that God miraculously provided for my daughter’s mission trip to Uganda. Well, since then, we’ve been in a flurry of activity getting both her and my son ready for their trips.


AJ is leading a large group of middle-schoolers to Eleuthera, Bahamas. Lauren is leading a small group of high school/college students to Kampala and Gulu, Uganda. More on that later.


They left for 3 day leadership training last Wednesday, June 30th. Then, on Friday night, my husband and I joined a small army of volunteers for Touch the World’s 5 day training camp. Tony did grounds crew, while I taught the teens how to teach Bible stories to children on the mission field. It was grueling. Getting up at 5 am, working all day in over 100 degree weather, serving in the dining hall. Yet at the end of the 4th day, we felt as if we had been on a retreat!


The worship and teaching were awesome, ushering us right into the throne room. But beyond that, there was a sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves. These young people are the future of the church. To see them sacrifice weeks of summer fun to minister to needy people in the U.S. and across the globe was inspiring.




I’ll be sharing some testimonies in the days and weeks to come. But for now, I’m requesting prayer for these youth out on the mission field. Many got quickly and violently sick on the last night just before they left for the airports. A few teams stayed back until all recovered. Some traveled while sick. At this point, most are at their destinations or soon will be.


Please pray for their swift healing. Pray that God is glorified in the lives of these teens and their leaders. Pray that the teams are unified in Him, that they accomplish much for the kingdom, that they will be effective in their mission. And please pray for the staff at Touch the World. They work tirelessly, especially when the youth are out on the mission field.


As for my two-


Lauren is in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for the beginning of her trip. TTW has a permanent ministry there, and Lauren and her team will be leading VBS for over 300 children who live in an orphanage there. The second half of her trip will be 6 hours to the north in Gulu where her team will minister to the residents of the displaced persons camp and help with construction of a Dream Center, which will provide a sustainable farm and vocational training to the residents, many of whom were child soldiers abducted into the former rebel army. Check out the ministry at http://www.ttwuganda.com/.


AJ is in the Bahamas, but far from a resort experience! In the early morning (before the temps hit 110 degrees), he and his team will be doing construction at Camp Bahamas, a Christian camp for inner city kids. Then in the afternoons, they’ll provide a sports camp and VBS for the local children. AJ’s team is comprised of 5 leaders and 18 junior high students, so he’ll be ministering to the youth on his team as well.
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Thank you in advance for your prayer support. The teams will return on July 18th, 25th and 29th.

 

MISSION is POSSIBLE

Posted on by Susan Panzica

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
Luke 18:27
This morning in church, our pastor prayed for the youth who are going on mission trips this summer, including my son and daughter who are going as youth leaders.



As part of his message, our pastor shared that with the Lord, all things are possible. Of course, we need to do what we can, yet trust the Lord to deliver what we cannot do on our own. He then had us write our impossible situation on an index card. Individually, we wrote our cards and laid them at the altar, giving our situations to the Lord.

I didn’t know it at the time, but on her card, my daughter’s impossible situation was that she had to raise $1300 in the 10 days remaining before her trip to Uganda (she needed to raise $3800 in total.)

After our family Father’s Day celebration following church, Lauren spent 2 hours on facebook, contacting 60 college friends to whom she had not sent support letters, informing them about her upcoming trip. She asked for a donation amount equal to cost of a cup of coffee. 18 seconds after she logged out, she received the following email:

  • Prayers are answered, the Mission Team has voted to give you the entire amount. $1,300. If you still need that much, if not let us know what you need. I’ll need your address so we can send the check, or if you prefer you could pick it up at the church office or at my home. Please let me know. Sorry it took a little while but we needed to contact the as many team members as possible.


The sender: First Reformed Church where Lauren was invited to share a liturgical dance as part of their worship service last fall. Then twice in the spring, she shared her gift of dance with them again. Knowing that they are mission-minded and that she was short of her goal, a few weeks ago, she asked if she could share about her upcoming trip with the congregation and possibly raise support. The initial reply said that many teens from the church were going on trips and have been doing fundraisers, but they’d see what they could do, if anything. And then she didn’t hear back from them… Until 18 seconds after she logged out of facebook tonight!

Despite giving her impossible situation to the Lord, despite singing “All Things Are Possible” this morning, despite her conviction that the Lord was calling her to Uganda, Lauren doubted. And she wasn’t alone. With so much money to raise in so little time, and with the people who contracted malaria on the recent Uganda trip, Tony questioned whether God was closing a door. This most unexpected email with this abundantly generous gift erased our doubts and confirmed much more than just a mission trip experience.

While at first, Lauren thought that she shouldn’t have sent out those facebook messages, perhaps bothering her non-Christian friends, she further realized what Pastor Steve had said. That we must do what we can. We ought not to slack in our efforts and claim that we are waiting for God like a deliveryman. The added benefit to her actions is that she now has opportunity to share what the Lord has done and will do in her life and on her trip. Any extra money raised will be donated to Touch the World Uganda and will benefit the ministry there.

Lauren’s conclusion:
“It’s Father’s Day, and my Father gave a gift to me.”


Do you have an impossible situation? Can you trust the God of the impossible?