Drupal

This summer, Ridge Pointers will be all over the world serving the “least of these” in practical ways that display the Good News of Jesus. We will have teams of Ridge Pointers serving locally and as far away as Belize – Africa will come this fall and winter. Just like in West Michigan on our three campuses, our focus is to intentionally reach spiritually lost people and lead them to full life in Jesus. The further away from West Michigan we get, the more we see that people can’t listen really well when they are hungry, ill, homeless, oppressed, or discouraged. So, we – that’s every Ridge Pointer, not just the ones going on the trip because we make all of it possible as a team – seek to meet practical needs in ways that can be sustained as we prepare to tell them why we are serving them. Once they see Jesus in our actions, people always want to hear about Him. Wherever we are partnering with a group – locally or globally – we are always seeking to build up the local church in that area. Our teams are only “on the ground” for 7 to 10 days and the needs are there 365 days a year. Our ongoing influence is found in raising up a local church to be our partner and to serve all year. More and more we are looking for community partners – Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like USAID and local business partners. God has called us to mobilize the church, the community, and commerce. We can see – and are seeing in Zambia – lasting change when we engage all three of these sectors. I will be in Belize in June when one of our teams is there serving at a kids camp. We partner with Son and Sea camp on Ambergris Caye in Belize (http://sonandsea.com/). While our team is there assisting in leading the camp for kids who won’t otherwise hear about Jesus, I will be meeting with potential partner organizations in order to start a church on the island. Right now, there isn’t a church we can tell these kids to go to after they find Jesus and there isn’t a church that can help them introduce their families to Jesus. Pray that we can get a church started. Later in June, I will spend time in Honduras. I will be there right after our RP48 (our Allendale Campus) team is there. We have an orphanage in Comayagua, Honduras that we partner with so that children will have a home, food, an education, and hope. Arvil and Miriam Smith serve the children there and our teams come along side of them to make a home for the children. We are currently seeking a solid church partner there and I will be spending some time there in order to seek out a solid body of Jesus followers to carry on 365 days a year as an extension of Ridge Point. Pray for these two trips. Ask God to keep the teams safe and to cause me to make the connections I need to in order to strengthen the local church and the business community. I will also be journeying to the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Ridge Point’s behalf sometime in the near future. Stay tuned. I will give you details of that trip soon.