Team #647 - Monterrey Mexico

Check out the following video from the most recent STEM Team from Austin, TX to Monterrey Mexico!

Short Term Missions Leader's Confrence

The Short-Term Mission Leader’s Conference was held on campus last weekend. This was the first time the conference had been held as a partnership between Bethany International and STEM Intl. It was a very successful event! Huge thanks to Bethany’s STEM Ministries team - Ryan Schlangen, Alison Goldhor, Jim Levin, and Rachel Norman - who worked so hard to make this conference a great experience for short term mission leaders from around the country. It was great to see such a strong showing by Bethany College of Missions students who also participated in the three-day conference.

The STMLC conference theme this year was Becoming the Best Partner You Can Be! Author and speaker, Daniel Rickett challenged us in our thinking on what it looks like to form authentic partnerships saying, “We assent to the idea of relationship in the West and we think we’ve done it because we are “nice” to them [our partners]. But in fact it’s perfunctory relationship, easily forgotten until the next time we show up. It’s not intimate relationship. It’s acquaintances, but not intimacy. Partnership is more about communing with God and one another than anything else. It’s a way of thinking and being that Jesus modeled for us. Why do we look for more of a base for mission than this one reality? Communion is the ultimate end, not mission. We will still have communion when our mission is done. Communion should be the dominating paradigm. It’s more than just friendship or fellowship. It’s about life together the way that Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote about it. It says, ‘I’m with you’.”

Gulf Coast Team #636

Here’s a review of our activities:

We know we clearly shared the gospel with at least two home owners, but I think there were more opportunities to share and pray for people
We did not see anyone make that decision to give their lives to Christ
We worked in at least five different homes doing:

• framing
• repairing
• scrubbing with bleach
• pulling nails
• insulating
• sheet rock prep
• sheet rocking
• electrical work, repairing, upgrading, installing receptacles,
• primed an entire house (interior)
• laid sub floor
• removed & replaced windows
• built a deck stairway and railing
• reinforced a floor
• misc siding
• closed in an open wall
• hung a cabinet

We also had chances to do more than work physically

• gave three prayer shawls
• blessed home owners with lunches
• got to know some local people at the community supper
• toured parts of St Bernard Parish & the Lower Ninth Ward and the French Quarter
• had about 10 devotion times, giving everyone on the team a chance to share a brief meditation
• had a few brief teachings such as “the Armor of God,” “Give What You Have,” “Short-Term Mission – Who’s it For?” “Let Your Light Shine”
• representatives from the team scouted new possible locations for future Eagle Brook teams

There is probably much more we could list, but this is at least a snap-shot of what God did on this team!

Team #625

This was my 1st missions trip ever. God totally led me straight away. I was able to connect to the homeowner (who is a believer) in such a personal way that we were able to cry and pray together. To hear her eagerness to have her home built in time for Christmas was heartfelt. To listen to her story of loss, damage, and theft was even more heartbreaking. To see the damage left from Hurricane Katrina still several years later makes my heart ache. There's no doubt in my mind I'll be back. Being able to partner with UMCOR in Slidell was a HUGE blessing! It was neat to connect with others who were there serving and called by God through other organizations. It reminded me of the body of Christ. I was so nervous to be an add-on, but it was an incredible experience to meet up with 12 strangers and spend a week doing something I'd never do otherwise! - Emily

Team #596

“This past summer, I, along with 6 teens and 5 adult leaders from Valley Community Baptist Church had the privilege to venture to Tepatitlan, Mexico for a two week mission trip. I found, and I think most the team will agree, that those two weeks were filled with the most blessings, growth, fun and unity than any other two in the past.

While on the field we had the opportunity to grow strong bonds with the people, young and old, of the church we partnered with in Mexico through futbol (aka soccer), tasty Mexican meals, long bus rides on which we all brushed up on our Spanish and the renewing church services. With the help of the church community our team traveled to many different villages throughout the state of Jalisco in which we presented the message of the Gospel through powerful dramas, testimonies, puppets/songs and speakers. Each person on our team found a different role to fill and gave it their all during these presentations which allowed us all to see a noticeable impact God made in many people’s lives.

Not only did we build everlasting relationships with the people in Mexico, but also had the blessing of having such a God-driven and indescribable STEM leader, Ryan, who we all feel is now a part of our family. In January, I knew God was calling me to pursue this mission trip, not really knowing why. After receiving the joy God gave me from this trip by serving Him, I am so thankful I followed His will and now have this life-changing experience to remember forever.” --Lauren

TEAM #627

"STEM Ministries put together one of the greatest, most life-changing trips I have ever been on. Our youth ministry spent 5 days in Biloxi, MS helping re-build homes and lives.

We had amazing opportunities to meet people and hear stories that we will never forget. I watched teenagers rise to the occassion and meet every challenge given to them head on - they were stretched - they were changed and they had fun doing it !"

-- Pastor Cheri Halek

New STEM & Bethany Missions Partnership!

STEM Ministries and Bethany International announce the formation of a missions partnership.

STEM Ministries, a nationally-recognized leader in Christian short-term missions, and Bethany International, a mission training and sending agency for career missionaries, are joining their respective short-term mission and career mission competencies beginning September 1, 2008 to expand the mobilization of short-term and career missionaries. STEM brings 24 years of recruiting, training, and sending thousands of short-term missionaries into more than two dozen locations around the world to the partnership. Bethany brings 63 years of training, sending, and supporting more than 700 cross-cultural missionaries into 40 different countries. Its Bethany College of Missions and Bethany International Ministries focus on mobilizing a new generation of missionaries.

STEM Founder and President Roger Peterson notes, “Our partnership with Bethany will allow STEM short-term mission teams to penetrate places we never dreamed possible. Bethany will help ramp up our administration of these multiplied short-term mission efforts, and also provide opportunities for training and career placement to those short-termers in whom God places a longer-term vision during their STEM short-term outreach.”

Bethany CEO Dan Brokke notes, “STEM has pioneered church based short-term missions and has laid a foundation, both in relationship with church and with field mission leadership, to provide high impact mission service opportunities. We look forward to mobilizing together with STEM a whole new generation of short and long-term missionaries.”


Rev. Roger Peterson
Founder & President, STEM Int’l
http://stemintl.org/

Dan Brokke
CEO & President, Bethany International
http://bcom.org/