Tuesday, Nov 29
My wife Cheryl dropped me off at the Colorado Springs airport 1:45 hour before my scheduled departure for Lilongwe, Malawi. I wrestled three 70 lb boxes out of our Explorer and carried them into the check-in area, one at a time. The folks working at the African Bible College in Malawi got word that I was coming and asked if I would bring several items with me due to the difficulty of international shipment. These boxes took all of my allowed luggage and I was happy that we weren't charged extra. I went outs one more time to say goodbye to my wife of 20 years and grab my things - a backpack and a roller board carry-on. In the last several years, I've had to learn to pack light and take my personal items with me because I seem to be the one left at the luggage carousel waiting for bags that never show. When traveling to remote places in Africa, it is always a good idea to have few creature comforts like clean underwear, flashlight, knife and soap.
My check-in process was not filled with good news. My flight plan was to go from Colorado Springs to Chicago to Frankfurt to Johannesburg to Lilongwe. The united person told me that my flight to Chicago was delayed making the connection for the flight to Frankfurt impossible to catch. Needless to say I was deflated and stressed. I shut my eyes and prayed. God brought to my memory of my 10 year old son, just the night before, giving to God his fears and anxiety and asking God for help. I prayed a similar prayer and a spirit of thankfulness came over me. The United person quickly snagged a seat on a flight to Houston and then another seat from Houston to Frankfurt, allowing me to connect in time to the original plan going on to Johannesburg and then on the Lilongwe.
This process took about 30 minutes and the flight to Houston boarded 30 minutes earlier than my original departure time - meaning I had only 30 minutes ledt to get through security and to the gate. Meanwhile, two of the three 70lb boxes got flagged by TSA. Before I ran to security, I watched them cut open the boxes and proceed to slowly remove each item and then check each item by first cutting the packaging material away.
I mentioned to them that my flight leaves in 30 minutes, could them speed up the process as I can't afford to lose these boxes. This request made them work slower. I asked one worker who was just standing if he could help. His response was "No". Once I saw that one of the boxes was being taped back together, I headed for security fast. I was now down to 20 minutes.
I made it! God is so faithful.
Please pray that the boxes make it completely intact all the to Malawi with me and that all of the items are safe. Also, ease pray that upon arrival in Malawi, the customs officials will let me pass with a of the items with no problems.
Wednesday, Nov 30
Groggy seems to sum up this day for me. After the 9 hours overnight flight, I arrived around 11:30 AM in Frankfurt and don't' fly again until 8:30 PM - another overnight flight about 10 hours. I found my way through the airport to the Lufthansa Business Lounge. Within the first 10 minutes or so, I was able to take a hot shower and get woken up for the day. Counting my blessings...this is one huge blessing. The rest of the day was spent working on email, catching up on scheduling things all the way out through July 2012 and planning the details of things scheduled that are soon to hit my desk like staff the major end of year all-staff meetings in Colorado Springs during the second week of December. I am ready to get to Malawi and begin learning about the country, the people, the children and how God wants to use VisionTrust. ;-)
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
PRAY LIST for Matt Storer & Scott Couch: Upcoming trip to Liberia
Matt Storer (President) and Scott Couch (Director of Project Management Services) will be traveling to Liberia next week. VisionTrust is currently developing 4 schools at the moment in Liberia, reaching over 700 preschoolers and students with the gospel, regular Bible teaching, education and health. They fly out of the USA on Sept 13, Tuesday and return home on Sept 22, Thursday.
Please pray for the following as their schedule is super full:
1 - Taking 500 backpacks, 2 truck shocks, office supplies and VisionTrust sponsorship materials among other things. Please PRAY that all of the luggage makes it and we don’t have any issues getting through Liberian Customs.
2 – Meeting with ELWA (SIM ministry) asking them if we can take over the operations of their Guest House. It continues to be an issue to house (me) our guests and the place is currently a dump and poorly managed. PRAY that they give us favor to do this. It is a long-shot.
3 – Meeting with Water of Life (well drilling ministry) to build partnership in Liberia to encourage them to drill wells and manage them at our 4 project locations. Pray for quality, heart-felt partnership.
4 – Submitting building plans for a new 17,000sf school building to the Ministry of Planning for approval. This school needs to be get started ASAP. We have almost 500 children attending in the old place. The new place will support up to 900 students, using 2 shifts per day. PRAY for government favor to approve plans quickly and without bribes. We will also be interviewing/hiring a Liberian construction manager and begin materials acquisition. PRAY for a quality person, we will need discernment!
5 - I will personal be life-coaching Robert Sondah, our Director of VisionTrust Liberia to help him manage and develop all areas of his life. Please PRAY that God gives us both wisdom and understanding and the discipline we need to make improvements/changes. Robert is doing a great job…
6 – Evaluating progress on school #3 and #4. Both of these are in early development stages.
The list is longer, but these are the biggies ;-)
Please pray for the following as their schedule is super full:
1 - Taking 500 backpacks, 2 truck shocks, office supplies and VisionTrust sponsorship materials among other things. Please PRAY that all of the luggage makes it and we don’t have any issues getting through Liberian Customs.
2 – Meeting with ELWA (SIM ministry) asking them if we can take over the operations of their Guest House. It continues to be an issue to house (me) our guests and the place is currently a dump and poorly managed. PRAY that they give us favor to do this. It is a long-shot.
3 – Meeting with Water of Life (well drilling ministry) to build partnership in Liberia to encourage them to drill wells and manage them at our 4 project locations. Pray for quality, heart-felt partnership.
4 – Submitting building plans for a new 17,000sf school building to the Ministry of Planning for approval. This school needs to be get started ASAP. We have almost 500 children attending in the old place. The new place will support up to 900 students, using 2 shifts per day. PRAY for government favor to approve plans quickly and without bribes. We will also be interviewing/hiring a Liberian construction manager and begin materials acquisition. PRAY for a quality person, we will need discernment!
5 - I will personal be life-coaching Robert Sondah, our Director of VisionTrust Liberia to help him manage and develop all areas of his life. Please PRAY that God gives us both wisdom and understanding and the discipline we need to make improvements/changes. Robert is doing a great job…
6 – Evaluating progress on school #3 and #4. Both of these are in early development stages.
The list is longer, but these are the biggies ;-)
Friday, August 12, 2011
Terra Nova
I am excited to have the priviledge of speaking at Terra Nova this weekend. My son Matthew and I went to the Dominican Republic with their first VisionTrust mission team last week to serve orphaned and at-risk children in the community of Comendador (a Haitian border town). We need to sponsor another 20 children in this project this weekend. The $35 per month sponsorship gives every child a nutritional meal each day, attend school, receive medical care and learn about God.
If you are in the Columbus, Ohio area, please come - I would love to see you!
To find out how to get to Terra Nova, click on http://www.terranovacc.com
-Matt Storer, President of VisionTrust
If you are in the Columbus, Ohio area, please come - I would love to see you!
To find out how to get to Terra Nova, click on http://www.terranovacc.com
-Matt Storer, President of VisionTrust
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Microsoft Friends - Thank you!
Last night, Dan Shepherd and I met with nearly 20 very special friends from Microsoft Corporation in Denver. We appreciate their support of VisionTrust and passion to help orphaned and neglected children around the world grow into healthy, educated leaders truly equipped to make a difference in their own communities.
It was great to have their encouragement as well. Most of these folks were our contemporaries when Dan and I worked at Microsoft in the past. Having their support built up our commitment even more to do this work.
Thank you guys!
Sincerely,
Matt Storer
President
VisionTrust.org
It was great to have their encouragement as well. Most of these folks were our contemporaries when Dan and I worked at Microsoft in the past. Having their support built up our commitment even more to do this work.
Thank you guys!
Sincerely,
Matt Storer
President
VisionTrust.org
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Have you wondered if God is really real?
Have you wondered if God is really real? Or asked yourself, “Where is God?” Even though we have faith, these poignant questions can still come when we face personal tragedy or witness outright injustice. For many of us, we go so fast through the motions of life that God seems to slip from the driver seat, to the middle seat and eventually to the rear seat. Why is it that our faith can become so brittle? One reason may be that our “God Experience” is limited in an intellectual experience.
Through the years, most of us have been taught, either intentionally or unintentionally, that our God Experience is developed by going to church, reading the Bible, and praying. These activities are necessary to grow our understanding of God, but they tend to be inward oriented – representing only one half of our God Experience. When this happens, we can’t see His miracles which make it hard to see God at work in our lives. When we don’t see Him at work, our faith may become brittle.
To combat this feeling, we must build our faith by being on the offensive – by doing good works. In other words, I believe that we will see God at work in our lives when, in faith, we do good works for others. This outward oriented posture takes the focus off of ourselves, creating opportunities for God to work through our lives. When our faith is put into action, we will see miracles happen. This is an action experience that you can “do and see”. It brings glory to God, builds our faith and creates a complete God Experience that goes beyond the intellect.
God Experience = Intellectual experience + Action experience
James said it best, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17). The Word of God gives us hundreds of instructions to defend and rescue the weak and the fatherless, to speak up for them and provide for them. When we obey these instructions and take action, we balance our God Experience equation – building a strong faith that is ready for life’s challenges.
I challenge you to balance your God Experience equation by taking action today. You can rescue a child in need by sponsoring them for $35 a month. You can mentor that child by visiting them on a mission trip. Or, you can advocate for these children that live so far away, right in your home town, by collecting supplies or encouraging others to sponsor children at work or church.
Through the years, most of us have been taught, either intentionally or unintentionally, that our God Experience is developed by going to church, reading the Bible, and praying. These activities are necessary to grow our understanding of God, but they tend to be inward oriented – representing only one half of our God Experience. When this happens, we can’t see His miracles which make it hard to see God at work in our lives. When we don’t see Him at work, our faith may become brittle.
To combat this feeling, we must build our faith by being on the offensive – by doing good works. In other words, I believe that we will see God at work in our lives when, in faith, we do good works for others. This outward oriented posture takes the focus off of ourselves, creating opportunities for God to work through our lives. When our faith is put into action, we will see miracles happen. This is an action experience that you can “do and see”. It brings glory to God, builds our faith and creates a complete God Experience that goes beyond the intellect.
God Experience = Intellectual experience + Action experience
James said it best, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17). The Word of God gives us hundreds of instructions to defend and rescue the weak and the fatherless, to speak up for them and provide for them. When we obey these instructions and take action, we balance our God Experience equation – building a strong faith that is ready for life’s challenges.
I challenge you to balance your God Experience equation by taking action today. You can rescue a child in need by sponsoring them for $35 a month. You can mentor that child by visiting them on a mission trip. Or, you can advocate for these children that live so far away, right in your home town, by collecting supplies or encouraging others to sponsor children at work or church.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Mission Team Update from Cotui, Dominican Republic (Ernie Taylor)
We just concluded Thursday in Cotui. It has been a great week with the team from NY.
They spent Sat and Sunday without me but the schedule was great for them. Sunday they had a special open air service beside Milagros house. Hundreds of children and adults were there. A pastor on the team preached, several others gave their testimonies and there was lots of music. They also did a walk thru the community stopping to pray with people and sharing their testimonies.
Monday through Thursday we worked laying concrete blocks for 2 of the classrooms. It was blistering hot in the full sun. The women had almost a hundred children each morning for the VBS program. It was a wild time but when they shared the stories about Noah, Abraham and Adam and Eve, the kids were attentive and quiet.
This team includes people from three churches. We also had two men here who had been part of the church who sponsored the first 13 VTI children in 1997. They had never met their sponsored child before so it was a real emotional time for them.
They spent Sat and Sunday without me but the schedule was great for them. Sunday they had a special open air service beside Milagros house. Hundreds of children and adults were there. A pastor on the team preached, several others gave their testimonies and there was lots of music. They also did a walk thru the community stopping to pray with people and sharing their testimonies.
Monday through Thursday we worked laying concrete blocks for 2 of the classrooms. It was blistering hot in the full sun. The women had almost a hundred children each morning for the VBS program. It was a wild time but when they shared the stories about Noah, Abraham and Adam and Eve, the kids were attentive and quiet.
This team includes people from three churches. We also had two men here who had been part of the church who sponsored the first 13 VTI children in 1997. They had never met their sponsored child before so it was a real emotional time for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)