The day began with Sunday worship with World Vision staff at their national office. Pastor Robin assured staff that we will remember them after we leave, that remembering means praying and giving thanks for their work. Their work is difficult, but one of Lake Grove Presbyterian...
Today, February 9, was our first full day in Bangladesh - which seems funny because we left on Wednesday, February 7 from San Francisco at 9:30 am and arrived at our hotel in Dhaka around midnight on February 8, having only witnessed one sunset. The stars were bright as...
January 27 was an exciting day for the Bangladesh team as we were commissioned, by no less than four encouraging services, to represent the Lake Grove Presbyterian Church (and Jesus Christ - a tall order!) with eagerness and determination. We were asked to serve the people we...
It's almost time! Our Bangladesh Vision Trip is February 6th - 17th. Join us in praying for each team member; Diane Bays, Melinda Gordon, Lisa Okada, Todd Olson, Amy Patton, Linda Rinnan, Alan Shiffer, and Pastor Robin Garvin; their ministry in...
What is a Vision Trip? World Vision explains the difference between a mission trip and a vision trip as the difference between a short-termeffort of hands-on relief in response to a natural disaster, for example, and the observation of long-termrehabilitation or development programs. The...
We arrived home late Monday evening, safe and sound and on time. Thank you for your prayers of support and your interest in these postings. Our last couple days in Beirut included some sightseeing and ongoing debriefing (our final debrief discussion in Lebanon occurred at our hotel, above; we...
It's been fun to watch our lead pastor in action in the mission field. Mark has been eager to learn, attentively listening to World Vision staffers as well as refugees and church workers ministering to refugees. He takes careful notes, either on his phone or laptop. If it seems prudent just to...
Today, Alan Shiffer, Pastor Graig, and I rode down with Steve Haas (of World Vision) to visit Sidon - the place Jesus walked and where we know Paul was and traditionally Peter as this was the location of their debate about whether or not to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to non-Jewish...
Mark and Alan arrived safely last evening, via Chicago and Amman. Today they pitched in as if jet-lag were nonexistent. We are grateful for safe travels and for the full program we experienced today, including a visit for orientation to the World Vision office in the Bekaa Valley. We also...
FROM JORDAN - I appreciated Mark's post about our visit with World Vision's Rich Stearns and his encouragement that Lake Grove consider getting involved. (I also liked the link to a background video that Mark provided). Here's more background (this time for reading), by Rich Stearns himself...
