Heath Church of Christ

Paul and Carisa Curtis, Crossroads Christian Church, Brooklyn, NY
 
Crossroads Christian Church is located in one of the largest mission fields in the world – New York City.  Brooklyn to be exact.  There are 2.5 million people in Brooklyn alone, but the city can still feel like a pretty lonely place.  Crossroads strives to reach the un-reached and the un-churched of the urban jungle.
Earlier this year, the church opened The Storefront, a community arts center that is attracting great interest.  The Storefront also houses the church offices.  On Sundays, the congregation meets down the street at the High School of Telecommunications.
Lead minister Paul Curtis grew up in Phoenix and has lived in NYC since 1994 with his wife Carisa and two sons.  Also on staff are a worship leader and a youth & children’s ministry leader.
The church runs two Sunday services as well as small groups and youth programs at other times.  Attendance at Sunday services has grown to 110.
For more information, see www.2crossroads.com and www.thestorefront.cc.

Dave & Donna Linn, Team Expansion, Venezuela

Dave and Donna Linn and family are back in the United States for the summer. They will be with us for our church picnic on August 17th. Dave will also be speaking during our Bible School hour that Sunday. We look forward to sharing time with them before they return to Venezuela. Deshay graduated from high school this spring and will be staying in the states to begin her freshman year of college.
The Linns report good things are happening in Venezuela during their absence.
We rejoice to report that from the Casarapa church, in spite of our absence, she continues to reach new heights. On one particular Sunday this past month there were 671 in attendance. The monthly average was 542. Also during the month of June, 11 more were added to the Lord in baptism, bringing the year total to 65! We are still hopeful of reaching the 100 mark this year for God’s glory and the growth of His Kingdom!
Another exciting event taking place in Venezuela this summer is a mission retreat. There are Christians in Venezuela who are interested in being personally involved in global missions. John Bliffin and Chris Irwin, veteran missionaries with Team Expansion, are leading the retreat. It is thrilling to see the Venezuelans Christians providing great leadership and sharing a passion for spreading the Gospel around the globe.
Mark and Leslie Smith from Heath Church of Christ recently took on the responsibility of Forwarding Agents for Dave and Donna Linn. If you would be interested in receiving the Linn’s newsletter, email the Smiths at MLS75@roadrunner.com and put Email Newsletter for Linns in the subject line.

Christian Children's Home of Ohio
Christian Children’s Home of Ohio (CCHO) was built in 1982 and has served hundreds of children over the last 26 years.  CCHO is presently involved in a total renovation of one of their cottages.  They are converting all the bedrooms to single rooms, replacing most of the floor coverings, refurbishing the kitchen, and basically doing a complete extreme makeover. They are doing this internally with their own two maintenance staff.  The building codes have changed since the home was built, so all of the windows must be replaced as well.  The children have been moved from this cottage into one of the other four while this project is completed. 
CCHO’s newest specialized ministry is growing very rapidly.  They have offered residential care, foster care, adoption services, and outpatient counseling for some time.  Last year, they began to provide in-home services for children and families.  These could be families where the children are acting out, where the parents struggle with alcohol abuse, or just lack parenting skills.  CCHO staff are asked to go into these homes and work with the family unit to prevent abuse or prevent the children from being removed from the home.  Staff sometimes spend 6-12 hours per week in these homes. This has been very successful and the people to whom they are ministering really appreciate their help.
CCHO opened a New Beginnings outpatient office in Ashland in July 2007 and are already serving far more people than they had anticipated, over 400 clients.  Also, they now have over 100 clients on a waiting list to be seen. Recently, CCHO was invited to open another counseling center in Mansfield.
CCHO needs more foster parents, but are concentrating in northeast Ohio at this time.  CCHO still has to turn away between 80-100 children each month.  Not all of them would be appropriate for their homes, but many would be.  CCHO has a dedicated staff person working full-time to recruit and train more foster parents.
CCHO wants to thank the Heath Church of Christ for all that we have done for them for so many years. 
Please continue to pray for CCHO and their ministries and please pray for more foster parents.

Mission of the Month (May, 2008)

Mountain Mission School, Grundy Virginia

Mountain Mission School exists to minister to the needs of the whole child...caring for the body, mind and spirit.
This Ministry Provides...
Home
The children live on the campus in attractive, comfortable residences staffed by Christian people who provide loving care 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
School
The children learn in the on-campus private school staffed by competent Christian teachers. We offer a full education program for Nursery through High School. Over 90% of our children go on to attend college after graduation.  
Church 
The children learn of love in the on-campus chapel. They enjoy a full church program employing all the graces of a local congregation especially tailored to the needs of children.
The child of poverty, neglect or abuse finds hope and opportunity at Mountain Mission School.

 Mission of the Month (April, 2008)

Mashoko Christian Hospital, Dr. Zindoga Bungu. 
Mashoko Christian Hospital and Mashoko School of Nursing are located in Zimbabwe, Africa. The hospital's last report showed an average of 90 daily bed patients and a range of 100-200 patients daily.  Along with the hospital, Dr. Bungu is overseeing the completion of the Mashoko School of nursing.  This very large project was born out of a severe staffing shortage of qualified nurses in the area.  The first phase of the school was dedicated in September of 2006.  Now the first class of 20 students is capable of nursing duties including dispensing medications.  At this time Zimbabwe is experiencing hyperinflation which causes shortages of many items.  Also, AIDS continues to be a national problem.  There is much more information available about Dr. Bungu's family and projects on their website: http://www.asheisusa.com/.

Mission of the Month (March, 2008)

Strategic World Evangelism
Strategic World Evangelism was started in 1971 as the mission work of Leonard and Pam Thompson who are natives of India belonging to the Anglo-Indian community.  They both graduated from colleges in the USA. 

Leonard and Pam’s present work includes two weekly prime time broadcasts called “The Divine Connection.” They are designed to reach Hindus and other non-Christians.  They broadcast on two channels in three languages. Responses come from all over South India and from other countries like Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia, Oman Bahrain, Kuwait, and Yemen.  Thus they reach Muslim countries with the Gospels.  The TV stations estimates that the watching audience numbers over 10,000,000.
 
Leonard and Pam are in need of prayer warriors that would be willing to pray for individual requests that come from their viewers.  If your are interested please email them at sweprayerwarriors@hotmail.com. You can also find more up to date information and pictures on Leonard's blog at www.chaiwithleonard.blogspot.com.

TCM International Institute
Training Christians for Ministry in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 

TCM is based near Vienna, Austria, and serves as a training facility for church leaders in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  The majority of students earn their M.A. degree over a period of four years.  Classes are primarily offered in Austria, but are also offered in other countries for students who cannot travel to Austria.  At TCM’s graduation service in May, 2007, three certificates were awarded, thirty-six M.A. degree diplomas, and one M.Div. degree diploma.  These forty students were from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania.  750 students are currently enrolled at TCM.

Please pray for TCM and the work that it’s doing, as well as for current students and graduates living throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  There is still much persecution happening in some countries, and TCM students are boldly working in their respective countries to reach people for Jesus Christ.  For more information about TCM and how God is working, go to http://www.tcmi.org/.

Hear Dave Linn's recent message delivered at the Heath Church of Christ on February 3, 2008.

(Click to stream, right click and choose "save target as" to download.)

Mission of the Month: Kentucky Christian University

The mission of Kentucky Christian University is to educate students for Christian leadership and service in the Church and in professions throughout the world. The Bible is exalted as the foundation of every curricular program.  The pursuit of scholarship at Kentucky Christian University is distinguished by the conviction that to be truly educated one must have the capacity to make responsible moral decisions, be committed to serving the needs of others, and be recognized as a skilled contributor to one's profession.  Such a distinction requires that students be exposed to the moral and spiritual principles taught in the Bible and that they be able to think ethically as well as logically, analytically, and critically.  

Mission Committee
The Mission Committee is a rotating committee. Members are selected from the congregation by the committee to serve a three - year term. If you are interested in serving on this committee please contact any of the members listed above .

The committee meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month. During these meetings each supported mission/missionary is reviewed for current updates and special requests. As part of the Heath Church of Christ Missions Committee by-laws, ten percent of the gifted monies are set aside for special requests or needs of missions abroad. The remaining ninety to ninety-three percent is dispersed among the 10-12 supported missions.

Supporting Missions Through Faith Promise
What is the Faith Promise program all about?
In simple terms, Faith Promise is a personal covenant between you and the Lord. Each spring, members and friends of the Heath Church of Christ make anonymous pledges to support missions for the coming year. The money collected for Faith Promise is kept separate from the general fund and the land/building fund.

What are the advantages of using Faith Promise to support missions?
The Faith Promise method provides several advantages. (1) It allows the congregation to support a variety of missionaries rather than just a few. (2) It facilitates more involvement from the congregation in the missions program. (3) It provides people who have a passion for mission work a convenient way to give to the mission of their choice.

Who decides what missionaries are given support?
The missions committee, consisting of seven men and seven women plus one designated elder, is responsible for distributing Faith Promise funds to the various missionaries. Each member of the rotating committee serves a three-year term.