2013 Summer Internship in London

For the last 5 years, Citylife Church has sent a short-term missions team to partner with the London City Mission.  In particular, we have partnered with a ministry called Cafe Forever.

Each summer, they are in need of summer interns to come and help support their work.  Please take a look below for an exciting summer internship opportunity to engage in ministry in London!

Summer Project Overview

St. John’s Park is in the midst of an urban priority area in London. Over the past 6 years, the London City Mission has run a community outreach project in this park during the month of August by running programs for youth, children and families. This past year we also ran a summer park café for 5 months, which proved successful as we provided a full time presence in the park making it a safer place and reducing crime. The project also includes running events, programs and sports clubs that run during the summer months. The project activities vary depending on the time of year and when schools are in session. Preferably, we’d like volunteers to commit to coming based on the dates suggested.

Dates:

1. Team A (June 3 – July 19)
2. Team B (July 22 – August 16)
3. Entire Summer (Mid May – August 23)

The Summer Project at a glance….

When is it?

The park cafe opens in May and will run till the end of August. A summer program will begin when school is out on August 1st.

Where will I stay?

LCM has excellent accommodation in central London and on the Isle of Dogs. Where you stay is dependent on availability.

How do I apply?

Contact Tom Carpenter for more details and an application form at tom.carpenter@lcm.org.uk.

How much does it cost?

The cost varies for how long you come. We ask that you contribute £50 (roughly $80) per week to offset accommodation and some food costs. This does not include travel to and from London and visa fees for those outside the UK. You will also need to budget for additional spending money (some food, travel etc). Contact Tom Carpenter for more details.

What will I be doing?

• Running a community park cafe
• Running a 3 week summer program that starts July 29
• Sharing your faith in Jesus when appropriate
• Distributing Bibles to local residents
• Engaging in other forms of community outreach like running events, door to door work, sports projects like football, basketball, and tennis camps.
• Connecting new people with the long term ministries at Cafe Forever and City of Peace Community Church

About the Isle of Dogs

If you don’t know, the Isle of Dogs is in the East End of London. The borough has the least amount of Christians in all of the UK and one of the highest poverty rates. The area is very diverse, and it’s made up of a community from Bangladesh (predominately Muslim), native Londoners (or East Enders) and the international community that works in Canary Wharf or Central London. Finally there’s everyone else from places like Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc… There are 50,000 people living on the Island with nearly 1,500 more people moving here each year. At the moment there are 4 small evangelical churches on the island that are growing, but the need is still great and a long term approach is needed to see God’s kingdom established here.

About Cafe Forever and City of Peace…

The Isle of Dogs Summer Project is run locally by Cafe Forever and City of Peace Community Church in partnership with the London City Mission. Check out their websites to find out more.

London City Mission exists to share with the people of London, patiently, sensitively and individually the transforming love of God in Jesus Christ, and to enable them to join his church.

Meet & Greet: Linda Swallow – MTW Missionary in Ethiopia

This past Monday night, we had the privilege of hosting a Meet & Greet event for MTW Missionary, Linda Swallow (picture above, in the middle).  Linda has been serving with Mission to the World for the past several years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the Ethiopia AIDS Care & Treatment (ACT) Project.  This is the ministry that Citylife Church has been partnering with through sending short-term missions teams each fall.

Linda shared a presentation that included pictures of the city of Addis Ababa, the ministry and staff, and sharing personal stories of her time in Ethiopia.

We are grateful to continue this relationship with the ACT project and look forward to our upcoming trip this fall 2012! For more information regarding our trip this fall, please visit this link.

London Missions Trip

Each Spring/Summer, Citylife Church sends a team to London to partner with the London City Mission (LCM).  The LCM is the oldest and most widely acknowledged and effective mission in London.

Here’s an endorsement from Dr. Timothy Keller, Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, NY:

“The history of the London City Mission is remarkable for several reasons.  First, its dedication to urban mission was far ahead of its time…  Second, its unchanging devotion to the priority of evangelism is singular, almost unique…  Third, its commitment to the poor, to immigrants – and to all other groups who could be called ‘the least of these’ – is deeply impressive…  How is it possible for such a large agency to have stayed so steadfastly committed to its vision for so long?…The LCM faces exciting but daunting new challenges in the 21st century. But despite the inevitable changes that will come, as it holds on to its core value of urban neighbor evangelism, it will continue to play a major, effective, strategic role in the work of the kingdom for years to come. London is one of the three or four most influential urban centers in the world today. I am profoundly grateful that the London City Mission continues to be an anchor for gospel witness in that great city.”

London Missions Trip Overview

2013 Trip Dates:
Depart Boston on Saturday, June 8.
Arrive in Boston on Sunday, June 16.

Cost:
$1,500 (includes airfare, lodging, food, ground transportation; subject to change)

What to expect:

We will be serving alongside the staff of Café Forever, which is in partnership with the LCM.  Café Forever is more than just a café but viewed as a community center in the Isle of Dogs (see below).

TEAM GATHERINGS
Each morning, our team will gather for a group devotional as we study the Bible and pray together before going out for ministry. In the evenings, we’ll debrief about our experiences and pray together. At the end of our trip, we’ll have a final team debrief to recap the trip and think of concrete ways to bring our experiences back to Boston.

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION
Since 2011, Café Forever has embarked on a project called, “Project 400″ which has been an attempt to provide free Bibles to every resident on the Isle of Dogs.  2011 marked the 400th year anniversary of the King James Bible translation.  Throughout our week, we’ll offer residents a free copy of the Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible, and a DVD of The Jesus Film. At times this has facilitated residents to become more engaged with the life of Café Forever.

CITY OF PEACE
Café Forever is also the location of a local church, City of Peace. We will attend Sunday services here as well as participate in a mid-week Bible study gathering.

EAST LONDON MOSQUE
During our trip, we will have an opportunity to visit one of the largest Muslim communities in all of the UK.  Through a tour of the mosque and periodic teaching moments by the Cafe Forever missionaries, we’ll learn about the Islam religion and its influence on ministry in this part of London.

FUN DAY

Our week will culminate in an afternoon carnival event called, Fun Day! Good weather permitting, this event has attracted upwards of 500 children from the neighborhood.  Fun Day consists of an assortment of carnival stations (e.g. Ball Toss, Crafts, Face Painting, etc), a number of large group activities (e.g. Beach Ball Bonanza, Cakewalk, Limbo, etc), and as the event name says, a lot of FUN!

About the Isle of Dogs
If you don’t know, the Isle of Dogs is in the East End of London. The borough has the least amount of Christians in all of the UK and one of the highest poverty rates. The area is very diverse, and it’s made up of a community from Bangladesh (predominately Muslim), native Londoners (or East Enders) and the international community that works in Canary Wharf or Central London. Finally there’s everyone else from places like Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc… There are 35,000 people living on the Island with nearly 1,500 more people moving here each year. At the moment there are 4 small evangelical churches on the island that are growing, but the need is still great and a long-term approach is needed to see God’s kingdom established here.

Please contact Tim Chang if you would like to receive more information.  Recruitment occurs year-round, so please contact Tim for specific dates of upcoming trips.

Slideshow of 2011 Trip

Summer Internship with London City Mission

For the last 4 years, Citylife Church has sent a short-term missions team to partner with the London City Mission.  In particular, we have partnered with a ministry called Cafe Forever.

Each summer, they are in need of summer interns to come and help support their work.  Please take a look below for an exciting summer internship opportunity to engage in ministry in London!

Summer Project Overview

St. John’s Park is in the midst of an urban priority area in London. Over the past 5 years, the London City Mission has run a community outreach project in this park during the month of August by running programs for youth, children and families. This past year we also ran a summer park café for 16 weeks, which proved successful as we provided a full time presence in the park making it a safer place and reducing crime. This year will prove to be even busier as we’ll be engaged in outreach events in light of the 2012 Olympics. We’ll use this opportunity to connect meaningfully with our local community.

Please note that due to the Olympics you must be able to commit to dates for either Team A (June 1 – July 15) or B (July 20 – August 18) or for the entire summer. For more info, please contact Tom Carpenter at tom.carpenter@lcm.org.uk

The Summer Project at a glance….

When is it?
The park cafe opens June 4th and will run till the end of August. A summer program will begin when school is out on August 3rd.

Where will I stay?
LCM has excellent accommodation in central London and on the Isle of Dogs. Where you stay is dependent on availability.

How do I apply?
Contact Tom Carpenter for more details and an application form at tom.carpenter@lcm.org.uk.

How much does it cost?
The cost varies for how long you come. We ask that you contribute £50 (roughly $80) per week for Team A and  £100 (roughly $160) per week for Team B to offset accommodation and some food costs. This does not include travel to and from London and visa fees for those outside the UK. You will also need to budget for additional spending money (some food, travel etc). Contact Tom Carpenter for more details.

When are the Olympics?
July 27th – August 12th. We’re 2.5 miles from the Olympic park.

What will I be doing?

• Running a community park cafe
• Running a 3 week summer program that starts August 1st
• Sharing your faith in Jesus when appropriate
• Engaging in other forms of community outreach like running events, door to door work, sports ministries etc…
• Connecting new people with the long term ministries at Cafe Forever and City of Peace Community Church

About the Isle of Dogs
If you don’t know, the Isle of Dogs is in the East End of London. The borough has the least amount of Christians in all of the UK and one of the highest poverty rates. The area is very diverse, and it’s made up of a community from Bangladesh (predominately Muslim), native Londoners (or East Enders) and the international community that works in Canary Wharf or Central London. Finally there’s everyone else from places like Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc… There are 35,000 people living on the Island with nearly 1,500 more people moving here each year. At the moment there are 4 small evangelical churches on the island that are growing, but the need is still great and a long term approach is needed to see God’s kingdom established here.

About Cafe Forever and City of Peace…
The Isle of Dogs Summer Project is run locally by Cafe Forever and City of Peace Community Church in partnership with the London City Mission. Check out their websites to find out more.

London City Mission exists to share with the people of London, patiently, sensitively and individually the transforming love of God in Jesus Christ, and to enable them to join his church.

London City Mission 2011 – Slideshow

Below is a slideshow that recaps our short-term missions trip to London, where we partnered with the London City Mission and Cafe Forever.

Thank you for your support!

London City Mission 2011 Team Update – July 13

Hello LCM Prayer Team!

Well we made it to London safely! The past two days have been very full and challenging, but very exciting and rewarding. We have been working with the LCM staff running Cafe Forever.

Café Forever is a project within LCM that reaches out to the community in the “Isle of Dogs” in East London. They sell hot food and drinks, but their primary focus is bringing the community together and forming relationships with them. Yesterday (Tuesday) Tom Carpenter, the team leader at Cafe Forever, gave us a tour of the cafe and the Isle of Dogs and gave us an overview of the philosophy and strategy behind Cafe Forever. After that we helped out the LCM staff with their “Project 400,” a Bible distribution program in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the English translation of the Bible. Most of us went door-to-door on different streets near the cafe asking if they’d like a free NIV Bible, children’s Bible, and/or “Jesus” film, while the rest delivered Bibles to people who had already expressed interest. Some people blatantly rejected us, but we were still able to have a lot of very good conversations about the Bible and Christianity. We found that many people were happy to just talk to us, even though some had clear problems with the idea of Christianity or religion in general. Overall, it was a very encouraging day, and we are inspired to do something similar in our own city of Boston.

Today (Wednesday) we visited a large mosque in the East End of London, where over 5,000 Muslims worship each week.

It was very enlightening for all of us since none of us had ever been to a mosque. We learned a lot about the way in which Muslims worship and a bit about the Bengali people and the tensions between the Sylheti (religious) and non-religious groups. After some delicious “beigels,” we went back to Cafe Forever. Half of us did some more Bible distribution again while the rest of us worked at the smaller cafe under Cafe Forever in the nearby park to play with the local children.

In addition to the Bible distribution and working at the cafe, we have been planning a community outreach event with the rest of the LCM staff. “Fun Day” is an annual Cafe Forever event where hundreds of local children come to the park to play games and do crafts so the LCM staff can form relationships with the children and their parents. This is a very important event because it will bring together children from communities that are very divided because of class and cultural differences. This event will take place this Friday.

Please continue to pray for us as we work with Cafe Forever. Pray that we may work diligently and effectively, allowing God to turn hearts towards Christ. We especially need prayer for the upcoming Fun Day.

Until our next update, cheers!

-Your LCM Team

London City Mission Team 2011 – Prayer Requests

Our team of 6 is ready to depart to London this Monday!  Our 2011 team members who will partner with the London City Mission are:

Tim Chang
Hobin Chi
Edgar Huerta
Andrew Kerhoulas
Joanna Lee
Shinyoung Lee

We will be arriving in London on Monday, 7/11 and we will return to Boston on Sunday, 7/17.

Please remember us in prayer in the following ways:

Pray for strong team unity.  We have participated in 5 training sessions and have hung out on a number of occasions, but due to different summer schedules, our team has not had many chances to be together as a complete unit.  Team unity is vitally important for any short-term missions trip, so we ask you to pray for us that we would be patient with one another and learn to work well together as we serve in London.

Pray for a humble and servant heart as we serve the people in London.  One of the primary purposes of any short-term missions trip is to serve the already existing missionaries and indigenous leaders to where we are going.  And so the only agenda we are bringing is one of service and flexibility; to do the will of the staff in London.

Pray that we would all grow a stronger sense of God’s mission throughout the world.  Another purpose of any short-term missions trip is that the participant who goes may gain a broader vision of global missions.  Pray that we would all see and experience that the advancement of the gospel is happening all over the world and not just in the US.  Pray that as we see the gospel going out in London, that this would encourage us to be supporting the work of global missions to the nations.

Pray that we would not leave our experiences in London but that we’ll be able to bring them back and encourage others about the trip, but more importantly to become more missional here in Boston.  Pray for us, that by participating in missional work in another world-class city like London, that we would grow a stronger desire for missions to happen in Boston.

Desiring God National Conference

DesiringGod will be hosting a conference this September 2011 and the theme is:

Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples 
Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged

More detailed information about the conference can be found on their main conference page:

http://www.desiringgod.org/events/national-conferences/2011

Here is a link to a video promo by John Piper.

Christ Bible Institute – Japan

Michael Oh is an MTW missionary in Japan and is involved with a ministry in Japan called Christ Bible Institute (CBI).  You can hear more of Michael’s heart in this address he gave at Urbana 2009:

Recently, Michael sent us a note regarding some exciting advances in the ministry in Japan and is trying to mobilize people to pray for what God has been doing in that country.  Read his note below:

Today we’re starting a prayer campaign for some critical needs between now and July 31st.  It’s a crucial time when our new ministry center that the Lord graciously provided will begin repairs/renovations, we’ll seek final approval from the government for religious non-profit use, and Lord willing we’ll do earthquake reinforcement. This last issue is a big concern as an engineering test revealed that the 1st and 2nd floors of our new center need reinforcing, especially in expectation of the Great Tokai Earthquake hitting in the near future (90% chance in the next 30 years).  This could be the largest quake that Japan has ever experienced.  It’s an exciting time for CBI Japan!  After repairs, renovations, and earthquake reinforcing we hope to furnish and move into the building in August.  Then we hope to have a building dedication in September!

More information can be found through the links below:

CBI’s 60 Days of Prayer

CBI’s Blog

CBI’s main website

Blog article by Michael Oh at DesiringGod

Thank you for your support and prayers.

Medical Missions Opportunities

Below is a note from the Medical Missions Department at Mission to the World (MTW) and they are in need of some additional medical professionals to join future trips.

If you are interested, please contact Tim Chang.

Thank you for your consideration!

Note from MTW Medical Missions:

The coming of spring not only brings warm weather but also new opportunities for medical mission trips. The need is great and, without our partners, our trips can not happen.

In particular, we would like to highlight the following events:

Cambodia, June 3-17th: Join us as we hold mobile clinics in villages outside of Phnom Phen, along with mentoring Cambodian medical students. We have providers, but need nurses and college/medical students in particular.

Acapulco, Mexico, July 9-16th:  We will hold primary care medical clinics at both Casa Hogar (an orphanage), and along the outskirts of the city.  We need doctors and health professionals of all types.

Effective Health Teaching Course, June 19-25th, Cherokee, NC: This hands-on course presents the fundamentals on how to use culturally-relevant methods to teach people about health problems that affect their community. People from all backgrounds are invited to attend.

As you look at your calendar, we encourage you to prayerfully consider either joining us on a medical missions trip, or praying for our teams and the Medical Department. We have seen God use medical missions in incredible ways to further the work of His global church, and would love to have you witness that impact first-hand with us in 2011.