We began the journey of Mission 418 in May 2010 to embrace the world and challenge ourselves to passionately follow Jesus in order to partner in the fulfillment of His mission to the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed outlined in Luke 4:18. Below is an overview of the elements that we walked through as a church body. For current information on where we are going and what we are doing on this mission, check out the About section of Mission 418.

Fulfilling the mission of Jesus begins with a transformation in our hearts and minds through our love for the world and our understanding of the whole gospel. These gatherings focused on two elements, praying for the world and challenging ourselves through reading the book The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns and discussing it's impact in our lives.

 

To deepen our heart and understanding for the issues of suffering and poverty, we took fieldtrips to experience The Real Life Exhibit at Medical Teams International. This experience dramatically demostrates the profound needs of our world.

 

To better understand and experience what many face each day living in poverty, we participated in 3 "Days Without."

 

A Day Without Money

40% of the world's population (2.6 billion people) lives on less than $2 a day compared with the average Amercian who lives on $105 a day. To fully experience and appreciate what life is like without the resources we are accustomed to, we challenged ourselves to live on $2 or less for one day. This included food and other necessities.

 

A Day Without Water

1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water. Nearly 5 million people die every year from water-related illinesses. Clean, accessible water is something we take for granted everyday. To experience what 1 in 6 people face everyday in accessing clean, usable water, we challenged ourselves to live without our normal use of water for one day. Water for showering/bathing, cooking and drinking was limited to what you could physically carry from any "water hole," lake, river or stream. "Water holes" were designated places throughout the area where people were allowed access to a hose to fill containers with water for the day.

 

A Day Without Food

A child dies on average every 5 seconds from hunger-related causes. It's estimated that approximately 100 billion pounds of edible food is wasted in American every year. Approximately 1 in 7 people in the world do not have enough food to sustain them. To fully appreciate this experience we challenged ourselves to go without food for a full 24-hour period in order to feel the impacts of hunger.

 

A group forum has been set up on Facebook to connect, dialogue and share our experiences and insights along this journey together.

 

 

For further information listen to the message Fulfilling the Mission of Jesus on 5/2/2010 by Pastor John and Steve Wytcherley.