Itinerary & map...

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The pink flags are where we've been, the purple lines are the routes we've taken, and the blue flags are the places friends have suggested or invited us to visit. Africa

• July 2nd fly to Johannesburg, South Africa, to visit Mutodi & Leslee Neshehe
• July 9th bus to Maputo, Mozambique, to visit Lisa Frist, lead games & devotion with ministry to street kids, a local youth group, and possibly a outreach cafe' ministry... visit orphanges and more
• July 15-20th make our way on to Lilongwe, Malawi, to serve with Ministry of Hope, lead a recreation training for youth workers, reconnect with people in Selengo & Matapila, possibly visit Mzuzu, Malawi, to visit Ministry of Hope outreach
• August 10th make our way back to South Africa, then to Lesotho, Durban, Pretoria, Cape Town and possibly Swaziland... hopefully meeting up with Mark Walkup, Sharlene Shwartz, 13th Floor, and more...
• September 12-23rd fly to Madagascar, back through Johannesburg for a day

India

• September 24th fly to Mumbai, India, where we hope to connect with our friend Manju's family
• Spend a few weeks traveling south to Kerala where we hope visit Immanuel Church of South India (where our friends Julie & Adrian served), and then maybe fly north to New Delhi and take a few weeks to travel east to Durgapur where we hope to visit with the Diocese of Durgapur, India Episcopal Church (sister Diocese to Diocese of WNC) and maybe even the Sisters of Mercy in Kolkata

Southeast Asia

• November 8th fly from Kolkata to Bankok, Thailand, to visit with Amy & Kip Baggett (Ruth Ann Somerville's sister) then on to travel through Southeast Asia including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam

Hong Kong/Southern China

• January 24th fly to Hong Kong hoping to visit the McEntire's, the Woods, and more and hope to make it into southern China to visit the Vinzani's

New Zealand

• February 15th fly to Christchurch, New Zealand, to travel through the south & some of the north island connecting with youth workers/colleagues of Aaron Roberts

Australia

• April 14th fly to Sydney, Australia, and from there travel to Canberra to catch up with Pete DeVries, to Adelaide to spend time with the Dowlings (my host family from 1991), to Melbourne maybe, and more... hopefully track down some old friends while meeting new ones and make it north to the Brisbane and the Great Barrier Reef

Fiji / Vancouver

• June 2nd fly to Fiji for about a week, then to Vancouver, British Columbia, to visit Sue & Johnny Wilson, Amy & Aaron Roberts with Nieu Communities, Johannah Wetzel, Joyce Heron with Jacob's Well, and Rachel & Ed

Final Leg

• June 24th fly to San Francisco to visit Tony Deifell & Mardie Oakes
• July 1st fly back to Charlotte, NC... just in time for July 4th in WNC

Whew! All these desinations and order are set but the timing is flexible with RTW tickets. So the dates are subject to change... and probably will. As you can tell, our contacts are 'jelling' in Africa but slowly coming together beyond. It makes me a little anxious but I know it's God's lesson of faith and trust. Please let us know if you have any contacts (friends, family, or ministries, etc.) in any of the places we plan to visit. We know that we will gain a better perspective of each culture if we are connected to locals. Please be in prayer for us as we have too much to humanly accomplish in these last 5 days. Ginny Owens' song "I AM" keeps running through my head. Please watch this blogspot. You can even subscribe to the rss feed (below the picture) to get a notice in your inbox anytime we update. Keep praying... it's the backbone to this unique call. Blessings, Heather

3 weeks and counting

The tickets are booked.
We're working on logistics daily... which includes research, networking, designing trainings, praying about objectives, and saying goodbye to this blessed community in WNC.
I would love to say that everything is coming together... well it is, in Africa. Lessons of faith... He will give us the sense of things 'jelling' as we go. It'd be too easy if it were all planned perfectly... plus we'd think it was all because of our effort, not because of His sovereignty. It will come together.
We will leave on July 1st and land gently off this international cliff into the arms of our friends Mutodi and Leslee in Johannesburg. After a week we are on to our friend, Lisa Frist, in Maputo, Mozambique. Then the Ministry of Hope in Lilongwe, Malawi for a few weeks and maybe our friends, Mark & Ruth Walkup, in Zimbabwe on our way back to South Africa. We hope to make it down to Cape Town and to Lesotho to visit with the Dimmocks. We plan to go to Madagascar from Sept. 2-12 with a day lay-over in Johannesburg before flying to India.
So, that is the first few months. We will keep you posted as we go.
Please keep us in your prayers as we work on logistics. Pray that we will sense Christ walking with us, leading us, each step of this journey. And that we will culturally sensitive along the way.

Come hear Heather share her vision for the trip over dessert

Sharing My Vision over Dessert
An opportunity for me to share a short presentation explaining the various components to this global mission project followed by time to answer questions.

• Monday, May 14 at 7:00pm in the Fellowship Hall of Gaither Chapel in Montreat: Gaither Circle off Lookout Road

• Monday, May 21 at 7:00pm in the Flood Gallery of the Phil Mechanic Building, Asheville River District: 108 Roberts Street, corner of Haywood St./Clingman Ave.

project brochure

project description

How has God refined our project? What does it look like exactly? First, we yearn to connect with the Body wherever we can. In fact, we recognize that God has given us the unique opportunity to network with and for others, so we're constantly trying to keep our eyes, ears & hearts open to His will. Some examples include the research that I'm doing about youth work (below), but they also include the day-to-day "survival" in trusting that we'll find places to rest, paths to take, people to support, and conversations that facilitate fellowship. Second, I desire to gain a global perspective on work with youth culture... specifically to learn about the ministries, the missions, the visions, the issues youth are facing in different communities, the testimonies, the histories, the populations served, what’s working, what’s not working, new ideas, frustrations, etc. Third, we desire to serve others in any way we are capable: • Leading workshops for youth workers on "recreational ministry/evangelism", so they can learn to use informal fun games/activities to share Scripture with youth in an experientially-educational way. Ideally, the workshop lasts 3 hours long, and the attendees invited to participate are those who lead youth and/or minister to youth in some capacity. We don't need any special equipment -- just a few recreation/soccer balls and any kind of open space to play games (inside or out)! • Leading youth in recreation ministry activities. An efficient time frame would be about 1-1½ hours in order to keep within youth attention span. • Serving in anyway we can to help meet a program’s needs: build, paint, clean, cook, baby sit, network, teach, listen, encourage, ... we’re open to suggestions.

Support Letter, by Heather Deifell

Hello to my encouraging Loved Ones,

I am on the cusp of an incredible, new stage in my life: planning a year-long trip around the world to go to ministries, especially with those working with youth, to serve, train, and encourage youth workers. It's exciting to begin moving forward in a call God set in my heart 3 years ago, a call to a specific, purposeful global mission trip.

I'm aware that this call has been influenced by many of the experiences God's put into my life. I worked with The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club (TSABGC) in Asheville as the Program Director for almost 6 year which led me to the Urban Ministries Certificate program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. As I finish this certificate, I'm now switching gears to the MA in Christian Leadership program. I have also been working with the senior high youth group at Montreat Presbyterian Church (MPC) for over 5 years. In November I began doing social work at a local elementary school by providing community support for children who have significant behavioral & circumstantial challenges, most coming from the government housing neighborhoods in Asheville. Through all of these experiences, God has given me a passion to serve urban youth and facilitate the training of youth workers with a similar passion.

There are several components to this mission trip.

• To serve in whatever capacity ministries desire. We hope to help further develop & support youth programs, teach English, facilitate building play spaces, and serve to meet any ministry needs. I would also like to learn, observe, and survey what each ministry is all about: the mission, leadership, staff, volunteers, and population served. This research of urban ministries will be for the Center for Youth Studies as well as for my own career development as an urban youth worker.

• To facilitate education about and research for the Center for Youth Studies website. This website is an amazing resource for youth workers. I will be writing for the “encyclopedia” component in hopes to build resource lists of ministries that will be accessible through the Internet to anyone seeking missions to support and/or serve around the world. I hope that through plugging youth workers into the networking component of the website, communication between ministries will be facilitated. This will hopefully lead to forums on the website and local collaborations between ministries. Please send me your email so I can keep you linked to developments in our progress with youth and youth workers.

• To train and encourage youth workers. Shawn Stewart, MPC's youth director and Youth Specialties trainer in South America, is serving as my mentor for the Mentored Ministry component to the MACL degree. He is supervising me this spring in developing trainings to bring and implement in ministries around the world. One such ministry is the Ministry of Hope which is closely affiliated with Montreat Presbyterian. I joined Shawn, 2 other youth leaders, and 9 youth in a mission trip to Malawi in June of 2006 to work with the Ministry of Hope (many of you helped support me in that blessed mission trip -thank you!).

I'm working closely with Shawn Stewart and Dean Borgman, founder & director of the Center of Youth Studies and Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary CUME campus in Boston. I'm blessed to be mentored by two gifted, experienced men who are helping me prepare for this unique mission experience. I'm also blessed that the Center for Youth Studies (see attached letter) and MPC have endorsed this trip. I’m thankful that my sister, Hope, will be my traveling partner for at least 6 months.While in Malawi I was blessed by many experiences but two specific experiences have helped to refine my vision, influencing my call to a global mission trip. One was observing Shawn’s training of Malawian youth workers in the village of Salengo. As I watched, God impressed upon me the similarities between Shawn’s training and my own experience facilitating trainings for my staff at The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club in Asheville, NC.

The second experience was meeting a director of an urban youth ministry in Lilongwe. After sharing, he invited me to come train his staff. I told him my vision of returning and asked him what kinds of trainings he felt his staff would benefit from. He expressed his desire for program trainings such as education, arts, and games. Then he expressed their need for training of “the psychology of these youth.” As I’ve reflected of his requests I am amazed at how God has been preparing me for a different kind of call through my experience with The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club, my undergraduate degree in psychology, my current pursuit of a MA in Christian Leadership with a Certificate in Urban Ministries, and a new experience in social work with behaviorally challenged kids. Through all of these rewarding experiences, God has called me to train and equip youth workers around the world to bring Christ's love to this next generation.

This trip is much bigger than me. I know that God is using me to encourage ministries around the world, spread the knowledge of their mission, vision, and needs to others, and bring valuable resources to missionaries working with youth around the globe.

Some of you may be able to support me financially. As best I can see the budget for this trip is $15,000, of which the MPC missions committee saw fit to support me with $3,250 leaving a balance of $11,750. Checks can be made out to “Montreat Presbyterian Church” with “global mission trip” in the memo (NOT my name... so this to can be a legitimate tax write-off for you) and sent to:

Heather Deifell
c/o Montreat Presbyterian Church Missions Committee
P.O. Box 279
Montreat, NC 28757

But I know first hand that prayer is the most valuable support given. Please pray that as I pursue God's call I will discern His will for this trip, ministries to visit, designing our itinerary, being flexible, preparing trainings, working out logistics, and raising funds. Also pray for us throughout this trip for safety, discernment, wisdom, encouragement, and communication. Thank you.

Blessings in Christ,
Heather Deifell

p.s. Remember to send us your email so we can keep you updated along the way.
p.p.s. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who might support this unique mission trip.

Resources needed: high capacity flash drive for power point trainings & documenting surveys/ resource lists/ research or a used, small laptop with Internet abilities

Projected itinerary-leaving June:
fly NYC (or Atlanta) to Johannesburg, South Africa
by land up to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (via Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, & Kenya)
fly Addis Ababa to Calcutta, India (into southern India)
fly Calcutta to Bangkok, Thailand (into Laos, Cambodia, & Vietnam)
fly Bangkok to Hong Kong, China (into southern China)
fly Hong Kong to Sydney, Australia
fly Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand
fly Auckland to Vancouver, Canada
fly Vancouver to NYC (or Atlanta)