Category Relationships For Christ

I can’t believe sometimes the great privilege God has given me! To live and minister here at Project Samuel with this wonderful group of people, is an incredible blessing! I can’t find the right words to express how grateful I am to serve in a ministry that not only touches the lives of the children we care for and the community but God also uses us to affect the lives of everyone who comes here to Project Samuel to serve. We had an amazing summer this year and were honored to host three mission teams of some of the most amazing people!

One of the highlights for me this summer was to see that even when you are doing your best to bless others God turns that blessing back upon you! One of my greatest joys is to see God radically touch someone’s life as they are serving others.

Our last mission team from Faithbridge Church in Spring, Texas, greatly ministered to us and our entire community. They even brought new shoes for all of our children! Our children were ecstatic! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier group of children as they ran to their house-mothers to show off their new shoes. But as I watched the men from the Faithbridge team tearing up as they gave out the shoes and as they prayed over every child, I realized we were all blessed as much, or more, than our children. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

Malachi 3:10,
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in My Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “ I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test!”

Love,

Rebekah Bullen

Photos of Rebekah’s work in Zambia

Like many missionaries, Rebekah has no source of income other than love gifts from back home.

If you would like to help Rebekah you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

or give online below.

100% of your gift will go to Rebekah in Zambia.

One of the highlights of my week here at Project Samuel is our weekly women’s Bible study that I lead on Tuesday afternoons.

I have developed a close friendship with every one of the ladies of our Bible study group. For the last month we’ve been studying through the Psalms and we’ve enjoyed every minute of our study.

Last week we where in Psalm 123:3

“Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious to us, for we are greatly filled with contempt.”

We talked about how no matter what others think of you or say about you, God will always be gracious to you and He is always for us. If God called us, no man can stand in our way. We must always believe what God says about us not what others say about us.

The ladies really opened up to how at times they almost give up because of what their family or friends have said about them and because their families don’t believe in them. I told the ladies, “Only God can give us our worth and if He is on our side we can always accomplish our tasks.”

Please pray our Bible study and pray for victory in the lives of all these ladies.

Love,

Rebekah Bullen

Photos of Rebekah’s work in Zambia

Like many missionaries, Rebekah has no source of income other than love gifts from back home.

If you would like to help Rebekah you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

or give online below.

100% of your gift will go to Rebekah in Zambia.

I am so proud of our children!
 
They’ve grown so much in the last year, both physically and spiritually. Of our older boys Isaac used to be the only one that would participate in our children’s bible study but now Zavier, Webby, and Castro along with Isaac, not only participate in the Bible study, they also memorize our weekly memory verse and are excited about what they are learning every week.

Our bible study is growing a little more every week! I am also so proud of Lizznet and Kennedy because they are doing so well in school they were able to skip sixth grade and are working very hard along with Patricia and Alick who also are in seventh grade this year, to pass their seventh grade test at the end of this school year so they can go into high school next year.

Patricia and Lizznet love singing in our church praise team and Lizznet is now able to lead us in a few songs. All of our children are doing really well in school and are growing in the Lord. I am so grateful every day that God has given me the privilege of being a part of these children’s lives.

Love,

Rebekah Bullen

Photos of Rebekah’s work in Zambia

Like many missionaries, Rebekah has no source of income other than love gifts from back home.

If you would like to help Rebekah you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

Give online below.

100% of your gift will go to Rebekah in Zambia.

I have the great privilege of tutoring students from our children’s school in the village of Mashikili. The students are from fifth to seventh grade and are eager to learn English. My goal is to help these students pass their seventh grade test, which is written in English. It is sobering to realize that I stand at a crisis point in these children’s lives.

If the children don’t pass their test they will not be able to go to high school and they will end up dropping out of school to help their family in the fields with no hope of finding a good job. At my first class two weeks ago I had the children take an assessment test and the results were shocking! Out of the thirty children that came only five could write a basic sentence.

The need is so great sometimes I wonder if I can help these precious children but I know God has called me and He will make a way when there seems to be no way. Today as I stood in front of these expectant children hoping I could give them the education they so desperately need, I prayed for God to give me His strength because I know I can’t do this alone.

Love,

Rebekah Bullen

Photos of Rebekah’s work in Zambia

Like many missionaries, Rebekah has no source of income other than love gifts from back home.

If you would like to help Rebekah you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

Give online below.

100% of your gift will go to Rebekah in Zambia.

For the last three weeks we were blessed to have a team of Relationships For Christ missionaries working with us here at Project Samuel.

Since they where coming to work with us for a whole three weeks, Amanda and I went to our kid’s school to ask if we could assist the school in any way.

To our surprise the head Mistress, Christen, asked us if the school bought the paint if we would paint the whole out side of the school.

We were thrilled to be given the chance to improve the learning environment not just for the children from Project Samuel but for all the children who attend the school in Mashikili.

I think it would be hard for anyone to have as much fun painting as we did!

We only had one sturdy ladder and the rollers we were using were as old as you can imagine.But I wouldn’t have traded the time we spent with all of the kids for better equipment.

The teachers thanked us for giving the kids the opportunity to learn in a better environment.

Love Rebekah Bullen

The Teachers

I am so blessed to have this opportunity to pour God’s love into the children at Project Samuel every day. I love how every minute of every day is filled up with either reading or playing with these amazing children. The last two weeks all of the children have been on vacation from school, so I have been teaching an English class to all of the children every morning and in the afternoons we are starting an art class with them. I am still in awe at the eagerness to learn every child displays. I could spend all the time in the world teaching them and they would still ask to learn something new.

For our first art class Chris, Amanda and I made a hand craft with all of the children for pastor Timothy. The kids had a blast. Especially Patricia and Lizanet, who after the craft was over played patty cake with each other with the paint still on their hands. Every day after my classes are over I will sit on our front porch and read as many of the new books that Pastor Timothy brought for the children as I can before lunch. I couldn’t have imagined how quickly the children here would capture my heart with their love and need for companionship. Please pray for the new Bible study Amanda and I are leading for the teachers at the children’s school in the village.

Here the children are making a puzzle for the first time in their lives.

Today, Wednesday, January 23, 2013, started early but awesome as we were blessed to meet with Pastor Manuel for breakfast at 7:00 am at the Colombian National Bible Society. Pastor Manuel is pastor to Esperanza from Colombia Chiquita and also the president of the society. After a wonderful breakfast we heard about the great work of the society. It was founded in 1825 and they print and distribute Bibles all over South America. Last year alone they distributed 700,000 Bibles. They give free Bibles to the FARC and other guerrillas and they have seen many come to Christ and leave the fighting.

The exciting thing for us is that in my 15 trips to Colombia we have bought Spanish Bibles and paid the $70.00 extra bag charge for sometimes 20 extra bags in order to get Bibles to the orphans that we minister to. Pastor Manuel says that he can supply us with cases of Bibles at $3.00 each printed right here in Bogota! Praise God! They also have a Bible curriculum written for children with beautiful artwork. Pastor Timothy had the great idea of getting the society to put together a package deal for each orphanage of this curriculum and Pastor Manuel said they would also train the workers at the orphanage to use the curriculum. Please pray that someone with a passion for biblical education to step forward and finance this. Also the Bible society is in need of translators and donations to continue their work of getting God’s word into the hands of His people in Colombia.

We thanked them for the wonderful breakfast and headed to Nuevo Planeta. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about this next foundation because I knew that it housed 150 children that have each been raped and/or been exploited in the sex trade and this is why they are in this particular foundation. Also, they send buses out to the worst parts of the city and pick up 100 children who are living on the street and whose parents are addicts, prostitutes, or simply homeless and bring them in for a hot meal and a shower. I prayed with a little more intensity than usual as we headed there asking the Lord to superintend our visit there and override our fear and apprehension and allow the children to see Him in us and feel His love through us. We arrived and met the young woman in her mid thirties who founded this ministry 12 years ago with 12 children. Those who work for her know her as the “angel”.

She explained about the children and their history and how they have purchased land and are now raising the funds to build a new facility that they hope will house 500 children when it is completed because the need is so great. Our first order of business was touring their existing rented facility which consists of 3 houses connected together and busting at the seams. First we went up stairs and into a nursery like room with 25 of the cutest little 2-4 year olds you can imagine. As soon as we walked in the door they crowded around us hugging our legs and smiling and putting up their hands to be picked up. I picked up the little boy closest to me and he gave me a big hug and smile. Brooke sat down on the floor and 4 little ones piled into her lap hungry for love. I looked over and saw big crocodile tears running down her cheeks. We only stayed a moment and then had to move on for our tour and all of us were near tears as we walked on to view the rest of the facility and meet the other ages. After our tour we took a group to the park and played and played. It was so fun.

We had lunch together in the foundation and then took a class of 8-10 year olds taught by one of the orphans we used to minister to in another orphanage years ago that now works at this foundation to the park. Our dear friend Jair Montiel of the Christian band Viraje and Christ for the City came over for the day and as we sat down on the grass with the boys he took out his guitar and we sang several worship songs. I had told Jair that if we got the chance I wanted Pastor Timothy to share his testimony because I knew that these boys could really relate with Timothy’s painful childhood and so as we finished singing Jair called Timothy up and he spent the next several minutes sharing his story and how at age 13 after hearing the gospel at his grandmother’s church he knelt by his bed alone and felt Jesus telling him that He would be the dad he never had and he was saved and his life was changed. Every little boy sat there spellbound listening intently and when Timothy asked if they would like to believe on Jesus and ask Him to be there Papa and share his love with them nearly every hand went up and how sweetly they prayed asking Jesus to be their savior and their dad and to hold their future in His hands. When we finished praying a shout went up from the boys and they clapped. Praise the Lord! He is faithful and will continue the work in their hearts that was started today.

Then it was time to play. The big ones played soccer while the same little ones we had met that morning wore us out with piggyback rides and tag and swinging and jumping on us from the monkey bars. We had a blast. When we got tired we sat in the grass and they climbed all over us. Michelle had a sack of candy and she nearly got trampled as they all clamored to get a sucker or a sixlet. They were so cute. She also made little cross necklaces for each one with different colored ribbon. The crosses had engraved on them Dios Te Ama (God loves you). Each of us decided we could take 3 or 4 of them home if they would let us. One little girl 2 ½ or 3 named Sophia decided that I was her best buddy and hung on me all afternoon. All of my apprehension was for naught because those 150 children turned out to be just sweet little children starved for love and attention. Something all of us were thrilled to provide.

Another friend named Paul came and spent the last hour with us. Paul found our ministry through the internet a couple years ago and we have become dear friends. He and his wife just adopted a little boy two months ago. Praise God. We left exhausted but very happy, ready to go get some rest and come back again tomorrow and spend time with them again. All day I had daydreams about Jesus taking the little children into his lap and blessing them and reminding His disciples that the kingdom of God is for such as these. I love this ministry.

Thank you for your prayers and I want to thank Relationships for Christ and Pastor Timothy again for making this trip Mission Possible and thank you Oscar Perez for all of your hard work. Usted eres una gran bendicion a mi vida.

Matt Bullen

Again today, Tuesday January 22, 2013, God blessed us with a wonderful day. We spent the day with Maranatha International Foundation. They have a very interesting ministry. They focus on three different projects. The first is a Habitat for Humanity type ministry where they build houses for the poor in Bogota. Their goal is to build 100 houses. The second project is evangelistic events where they bring in evangelistic speakers like Nick Viujicic and hold giant evangelistic meetings. They have had approximately 95,000 conversions recorded in the last 6 years. The third project is Hogar De Paz (Home of Peace) where they take in children from the street each day and feed them, educate them, and win them to Christ and disciple them. This is the project that we came to see today. We were immediately impressed with the appearance and spirit of the place when we walked in. It really is a home of peace.

We had breakfast with them and then we spent the morning learning all about their foundation and about the children they serve. It was very refreshing to see a ministry serving vulnerable children whose main focus is the gospel and discipleship. They do many of the same social programs to help the children as others but their main focus is the heart because they know that true transformation of a child’s life is a supernatural happening brought about by the Holy Spirit. And all of the other needs in their life are secondary to breaking the cycle of sin, hopelessness, and abuse prevalent in their families because the life that Jesus gives is absent.
In the afternoon the children arrived and we played at the park for awhile and then came in to play board games and puzzles. It was so much fun playing with these sweet and happy children who once were withdrawn and angry and had witnessed horrible atrocities on the street and in war but now through the work of Hogar De Paz and the glorious gospel they are new little people. I had the most fun playing a memory game with a bunch of kids where we had these giant cards with pictures of all different faces of dinosaurs on them. We had the whole table covered in these cards face up and then we would give each child two seconds to look at the cards and then we turned them all over and they had to guess from memory where the duplicate cards were located. I was stunned at how smart these little 5 and 6 year olds were as they would just walk up and pick out the pair over and over again. It was so wild because they would scream and dance and jump around when they got it right. It was too cute.

An hour before it was time to go we gathered up for devotion. Some of the parents of the children who are now working during the day while the children are at school and then Hogar De Paz began to drift in while we were singing worship songs and then the children sang several songs and then it was time for the devotion. Each of the team members got up and gave their testimony and it was amazing how some of the team members childhood testimonies resembled what these children have seen and how good it was for them to hear the difference that Christ has made in each of our lives. David Attaway gave the entire gospel message from Romans and all of those parents were sitting there listening intently.

God is doing a great work through Maranatha and we were very blessed to spend the day with them. God has given us a very blessed, calm, and intimate trip and we are grateful and blessed. One of the team members this morning, Jay from Chicago, said that he originally was supposed to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua but it didn’t work out and so he sort of felt at the time like he was settling for the Colombia trip but WOW has God blown his mind and he knows that this is where he was supposed to be. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Saturday was  a great day of fun, fellowship, and missions awareness. It was my family’s first opportunity to participate in Relationships For Christ’s annual March For Missions. It is a 10K run/walk to raise funds and awareness for different mission projects around the world. This year was to raise funds for Project Samuel, a project in Zambia, Africa for vulnerable children. Our friends, the Vowell family, head up this ministry.

I had signed up to form and lead a team of runners/walkers for this event. I was blessed to win an award for having the largest team.

The largest part of my team consisted of my friends from Team 2:10 (Do good works Eph. 2:10) who are a part of Masterpiece Fitness our partner in the Orphan Hope Marathon. John Hurtado, one of the Team 2:10 members was the first to finish the race and he won a trophy.

This group inspires and encourages me with their big hearts for orphans and missions. I hope to work with them on many projects to come.

My dear friend, Mike Ford, was also on my team and won 3rd place. What an inspiration he is. When I met him just a few years ago he weighed in excess of 400 pounds and now he is a fitness trainer and competition runner.

We had a wonderful time. Lisa, Beverly, Brooke, and I set out together but Brooke quickly joined the runners, Lisa took off with a fast walking friend, and sweet Beverly stayed back to hold my arm and plod along with slow dad. We had a wonderful time to talk and enjoy the beautiful Woodlands day. Because of my battle with Lupus and the pain and inflammation that always is ravaging my body, I didn’t think I would be able to walk even 1/2 of the specified distance but Beverly and I just kept walking and walking and our conversation helped me to ignore the pain and the next thing you know we were at the finish line! It was fun and Relationships For Christ raised $8,000.00 for Project Samuel. Praise God.

I had lunch this week with Pastor Timothy Vowell and Scott, both of Relationships For Christ.  They are building an amazing work in Zambia, Africa called Project Samuel (click on the logo above). I was introduced to Timothy by Scott and Anita Gilbert, parents of our own missionary Chris Poole. From the moment I met Timothy, I knew that we were kindred spirits. I love their core values, one of which is working with the whole body of Christ. We at Orphan Hope International hold this very dearly as well. We believe that God has called us to cooperate with anyone who is following Christ to expand His kingdom in the world. I was so happy when Bill Byrd invited Timothy to speak to us at our annual OHI board retreat recently and he helped us in more ways than I can tell you. Anyway, due to our shared core value of working together, he has invited me to come to Zambia and see what God is doing for them there and then seek the  Lord together as to how we can help Project Samuel. In the same vein, I have invited Timothy and possibly his son Brenden to come with our team in January to Bogota, Colombia and see if God would have us partner on some projects there. One of my favorite things about being on mission with God are the marvelous people that He brings me into contact with who are also chasing Him on this glorious adventure. To God be all the glory.