Garden City Camp with Unity Baptist Church

Many years ago I was working at Teen Valley Ranch in Plumtree, NC (www.tvr.org) and I met my friend Matt Munday, who is the pastor of Unity Baptist Church in Crouse, NC. Their church invited us a couple of years ago to assist with VBS and we had an incredible time. This year they invited us to come and assist with their summer camp, which was a great time also!

We stayed at Garden City Chapel, just outside of Myrtle Beach, SC. The facility was nice and close to the ocean. There was plenty of space to move about and the weather for the most part was great! Rene (my intern from El Salvador) and I planned games, led worship and I spoke to the students for the week. The theme was “Diving In” since we were at the beach of course 🙂

During the week we did typical camp games but there were a couple of very special moments. One of those moments was when a young girl put her faith in Christ. This is obviously the whole reason we do these type of things.The second was when one of the boys wanted to be baptized in the ocean. It was a great honor to be able to do that!

Even though the remnants of a hurricane blew through on our last full day, everyone still had an awesome time to remember. At the end of the camp, my challenge to the students were to be the ones who would be willing to be the real deal at home and school this year. All of them took the challenge and I am excited to see how that is lived out this year for them back home. Keep Unity Baptist Church in your prayers as they Dive Into all that God has awaiting them!

Watch a short video here from our awesome week of camp!

Vision 2 Hear Weekly

It’s Monday morning and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Recovering from the India trip has been a little more difficult this time for some reason….maybe it was the schedule? Or the temperature? But I have a head cold and sinus issues and I’m still trying to get my sleep pattern back to USA times (and then there’s Daylight savings next weekend)! Currently I’m in NC, and I should be here until about the 16th before heading to Florida.

The NC WAVE Team after the 30-Hour Fast Forward Love Feast.

We finalized our Love Feast 30-hour Fast Forward this year with several from the NC Wave team sharing in the event. We began the fast at noon on Friday and ended at 6pm on Saturday. Everyone fasted on their own this year from their homes and then we gathered together at Golden Corral of share a meal together to celebrate God’s blessing and what He accomplished through the fasting times. This year our totals raised during this Fast Forward season was $3000.00.
We will split it so that Daniel’s school fees are paid and then the rest will go toward helping children of gangs and our deaf students through Vision 2 Hear El Salvador. Thank you all very much for all that you have given to make this effort so fruitful!

The 20 Year Anniversary Celebration

As many of you know, Vision 2 Hear is in partnership with The Korean Baptist Church of Havelock, NC, which is the only ethnic church located in Havelock. For the last 20 years, The Korean Baptist Church has been faithful in reaching out to Korean/Americans with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This past Sunday several churches gathered to celebrate the wonderful blessing HKBC has been and to pray forward with all that God has awaiting.

The NC WAVE Team kicked things off with a couple of Sign Language songs, which really got things moving along quickly. With performances from The Havelock Baptist and Jacksonville Baptist, the 2-hour event was filled with songs and worship of the Lord, telling of His great worth and praising Him for all He has done through the ministry.

Reverend James Lee from Denver Korean Baptist Church in Denver Colorado was the keynote speaker for the evening and gave a great message about the real riches stored up in Heaven when we give our all to Jesus. He spoke in English and Korean, self-translating along the way.

As the worship service closed, it was far from over. We still had the food and cake to enjoy. With tons of Korean cuisine to choose from, everyone was quite satisfied by the end of the night having taken in everything from kimchi to eggrolls. As a token of remembrance, each family received a small hand towel from the HKBC.

Thanks for your continued prayers for the Havelock Korean Baptist Church and the First Baptist Church of Havelock as we continue our partnership in reaching this county and surrounding areas with the gospel.

Mission Trips

Please note the following trips and experiences for the 2016 V2H Awakening Tour. If you are interested in attending one or several of these, we must have your application before March 31. Tickets and deposits for airfare are creeping up quickly. So don’t delay in making decisions and getting your applications in. Contact George if you need more information: vision2hear@gmail.com

May 31- June 13 El Salvador Cost $1500

July 6-10 Kentucky Cost$100

July 15-23 George Camp Miami Cost $200

July 28- August 10 India Cost $2500

 

India Update Week 2

Hey everyone,

I am on the plane writing this update fresh off the trip to India. It was a great time once again and there were several good things that came out of it. Here’s a little review of the time there and what we are looking at for the future.

LENT

Of course I am practicing Lent this year but it’s not been the typical Lent season for me. I have not been able to engage as I would normally. However once I got to India I realized they were having prayer meetings as part of Lent each morning at 5am-6am. This was not what I wanted to hear after 29 hours of flying and then another 4.5 driving. But the next morning I got up and went to prayer and it was great.  Lent isn’t just about giving up something like sleep but about embracing sacrifice knowing that it is worth it. Even before the trip, I’ve been trying to engage in prayer more diligently and intentionally and I have noticed a marked difference in my life because of it.  I shared a devotional several times during the prayer meetings over the last 13 days and plan to continue my early morning prayers throughout Lent at least. Hopefully the practice will lead to a habit that will lead to more intimacy with Christ.

CHURCH

The first Sunday, I preached a couple times in the main location but we didn’t go to all the locations. We went out to Vellaturro in the evening, which is about 40 minutes away. The last Sunday we did all the locations but canceled the Nuanna service because of sign practice.

The churches are doing well and growing. Everyone was happy I was there and I conveyed all of our love and prayers for them. A couple of prayer concerns for the churches:

• Snakes. One of the locations is constantly being disturbed by poisonous snakes slithering in during the service. This last Sunday it happened once again 5 minutes after I departed! Pray they can get rid of them and or close the building off in such a way as to keep them out.
• Building. A couple of the churches are meeting outside and really need a location more permanent and unaffected by weather changes. Pray they can secure these things in the coming months.

WAVE

The WAVE conference was great this year, with many commenting about how much they learned and how fun it was to be part of the event. We had 55 on the first day with several of those being first-time signers. Our numbers dropped to about 30 on the second day because unfortunately we were hosting during a time when many are studying for exams and don’t want to miss school or course.

The conference expanded this year by adding a Skype session from the USA with Trevor leading a session on student leadership. This was an exciting thing to offer as we try to amp up our value for those attending.

We worked on several songs but highlighted “Awake”, “No One Like You” and “A Better Way”. They really have picked up so much from watching YouTube and the couple of sessions we have done via Skype. The India WAVE team has only been together for about 15 months but seem like much longer as they have gelled and sign pretty cohesively as a group. I am very proud of their progress.

WEBSITE

One of the other things that was a huge accomplishment on this trip was the relaunch of the SAC website. About a year ago, SAC launched a site but in that time it had suffered from the need of additonal content and updates. On this trip I was able to help them create a new site and get the information updated, as well as create a couple of new pages for them to begin soliciting donations and keeping donors better informed. Take some time and check out www.sacministries.com

SUMMER

We have a return trip planned for the last part of July until about August 10. The schedule will include hosting a 5day camp for the orphans and children who live in the nearby villages. We are estimating about 100 kids each day.

While there we will also be sharing with the churches and WAVE team as well teaching and preaching during several meetings. One other major hope is to be able to get a radio tower installed so that Pastor Rajendra can broadcast services each week. He is already on TV daily as they are recording services and using those to broadcast. We want to be able to round out the media outreach by getting a radio station set up for him to share the gospel from the home location.

I don’t have much information on other aspects of our ministry at this point but hope to catch up and better update you with that next week. Thanks again for all your prayers and support of our ministry in India. If you or anyone you know is interested in serving in India this summer or on any other trip with us, please notify me. All trips must have commitments by the end of March. Thanks!

V2H February 22, 2016 Update

 

 

 

 

Over the last week, here are a few things things that have happened. Thanks for your continued prayer and support of Vision 2 Hear.

Valentine’s Day Everyday.

Vision 2 Hear El Salvador hosted a Valentine’s Day event in Suchitoto to celebrate love with the people of Nuevo Renacer. Complete with decorations, gifts and food, everyone enjoyed the festivities made possible by the love of Christ through His people. We are so happy to be able to partner with Vision 2 Hear El Salvador as they continue to demonstrate the love of Christ to those in the mountains of El Salvador. Here are a few pics of the heartwarming event.

The Movement Moves

As many of you know, The Movement, a church ministry of Vision 2 Hear, had been praying about securing land and a building to formally organize. Growing out of the storefront location over the last two years, The Movement had been packing about 60 people in the tiny space.

Through lots of prayer and “only God” moments and connections, The Movement was made aware of property of a church that was going to dissolve but wanted to give their church property (building and van) to another church in need. The Movement filed paperwork to become its own church and has now become an official “church” in Tennessee under the pastorate of our good friend Terry Davis. Vision 2 Hear and The Movement will still serve together in future ventures and we are excited to see all that God does now that they have launched with their own ministry. Continue to pray for The Movement and church as they make renovations and preparations to impact the Chattanooga area even more with the love of Christ! Congrats to everyone at The Movement and praise God for His faithfulness. If you are in the area and want to visit or join, come to 6739 Levi Road in Hixson, TN.

Awaken India

Right now I’m in India and it’s been a jam packed first week. I’m just now getting adjusted to the time change, which may have been a little easier had I not had a full 24 hours of no sleep due to a bug lodging itself in my inner ear! It’s fine now so no worries. Here’s a summary of the trip so far.

Leaving Atlanta at 3:15pm on Tuesday I traveled for about 29 hours to Hydrabad. With a stop in New Jersey and a little delay, the trip as a whole was what I expected. I even got some fairly decent sleep on the plane which is not usual for me.

I was warmly welcomed on Thursday morning about 6am by Pastor Rajendra and his wife and daughter at the airport and off we went for a 4 hour drive to Vijayawada. As we drove we spoke about upcoming events.

We stopped for some breakfast at a jammed packed rest stop complete with Baskin Robbins and Subway among other local fare. It was a welcome sight to get some food My stomach would recognize. I had a little subway sandwich and of course the others had some Indian cuisine.

After getting to the house and settling in the next few days played out with early 5am prayer meetings. We met for an hour of devotion and prayer and then took about an hour to exercise and get into shape. One of the things that is essential to me staying on top of my game is to make sure I push myself in the area of physical training regardless of where I am. It’s nice that Rajendra wants to join as well. So we have been having a daily boot camp of training.

After exercising and breakfast we then had meetings at 10am-1pm and took rest after lunch until the evening meetings from 7pm-9:30pm which really meant 10pm haha. This was the structure for Friday and Saturday. There were a good amount of people coming to the meetings. One very special lady attending the meetings had heard about them through the TV program Pastor Rajendra does daily and decided to travel 150km to be with us for the three days of meetings. Wow, what commitment!

The weekend ended with several meetings as is usual for Pastor Rajendra. We had a prayer meeting at 5am then church at 8am and 10:30am and then we had lunch. We departed at 3pm to make a church service by around 4. Pastor Rajendras brother spoke at one location and we went to another. We all came back to have the final celebration services which went from 7pm-10pm and then a huge feast afterward. The last service was packed with people literally sitting on the floor in the aisles.

It wasn’t long after the final service ended that I snapped a few pics of the people in the streets and then I went to bed. I was exhausted from the travel, exercise and no sleep the night before from the bug incident. I still don’t know what crawled into my ear but I had been asleep about an hour before being rudely awaken by hearing and feeling something deep inside my ear.

Immediately jumping up, I tried to extricate it with my  fingers, q-tip and of course just shaking my head. I eventually got the spray shower and blasted it into my ear hoping to drown whatever was there and expel it from the canal. This ordeal went on all night until everyone awoke for the prayer meeting and I got some ear drops to apply as a final resort. My ear seems to be fine, a little popping seems to happen when I swallow but I’m sure all will be fine in a day or so.

It’s Monday here now and I’ve had a nice long sleep. Aside from being a little sore from the workouts and travel, I’m doing well. This week we have the conference for two days which will involve all day sign sessions, along with some Bible studies. For the end of the week it will be a little more planning intensive as we meet and prepare for the summer. We will also discuss further the radio station and plans for launching that in the summer too.

The orphans are doing well and growing up quickly! It’s wonderful to see them happy and in good health. All the churches are doing well also and send their greetings. Thanks for your prayers and I’ll update you again next week.

February 15, 2016 Update

AWAKE TENNESSEE

This weekend the TN Movement took Love to the streets in downtown Chattanooga. Even though it was blustery and cold, the members of the V2H church, TN Movement, spent Valentine’s Day downtown serving the homeless and poor. Bringing out coats and warm clothing to give away, they also distributed roses as another token of love. Vision 2 Hear is very excited about what God is doing through the TN Movement and how they are living out the gospel message. Continue to pray for them as they prepare to move into their own facility. Here are a few pictures from the weekend courtesy of Mandy Alexander .

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Also over the weekend, we had our Love Feast with a few people taking part of the challenge from home. The event has raised some funds for El Salvador and hopefully by the end of the month we will have collected all the funds and I can inform you then of how much we will be sending down to help children whose families are involved in gangs as well as our deaf friends with their schooling. Thanks for participating and helping us out. We have another Love Feast 30-hour famine occurring in Havelock, NC over March 4-5.

Our ministry with The Youth Culture Report continues to grow in its reach around the world. Mike Liebler works diligently to ensure that informative and helpful content is loaded up to our website each day to help pastors, youth pastors, parents and volunteers reach students for the glory of God. If you haven’t check it out yet, click here and peruse the site: www.theyouthculturereport.com There’s also a place to subscribe to our weekly Top 10, which is published each Friday, posting the 10 articles listend on the site that might be most helpful to you. It’s free, so why not subscribe today!

 

AWAKE INDIA

I leave for Awake India tomorrow afternoon. The trip will take about 26 or so hours and have me there for about 2 weeks. It really only comes out to about 10 days on the ground once you remove all the travel time.

This will be my 3rd trip to Vijayawada visiting our partners in ministry. A few of the goals for this trip are to host a WAVE Sign Team conference. One of the new things we hope to try this time is to actually SKYPE with some of our leaders and friends in the USA during the conference, adding more teachers and instruction.

The trip will also allow me to make plans and discuss details about the summer camp week we intend to host in August as an outreach to the villagers and orphans. We have to get the location approved, begin discussing the “marketing” and follow-up plan.

One final thing this trip will allow is for me to be able to get more ground work done in what needs to happen for us to establish a radio station from the church and begin broadcasting by the early September. Please keep these things in your prayers as we seek to advance the work with SAC Ministries.

If you want to keep up with things that are happening within Vision 2 Hear and our ministry throughout, please subscribe to this newsletter and you can also follow me on Instagram @georgelockhart1 on Twitter @georgev2h and of course on Facebook: George Lockhart. I also have other blogs where you can connect: www.georgelockhart.com and www.vision2hear.com

AWAKE EL SALVADOR

In El Salvador here’s a little of what is happening from a post from Jorge:

Almost there…..
The blessings come by the privilage and honor of serving others!

The adventure to make it to the village started at 11am! The mothers and children’s team made it there already, and going back home already! They had a great time! Me, on our way for a youth workshop about our Identity in Christ, Boundries and More….!
And a movie sleepover Whooohooooo! Some of us remain Ricardo Melendez, others abandoned us right Christopher Melendez????
Also thanks to vision 2 hear and our beloved donors we will provide school materials for the special childhood development program that the youth coordinates for the infants on sundays!!!

Thanks to everyone who is helping the ministry in El Salvador impact lives of many others in Suchitoto and San Salvador! We could not do it without you!

As things move ahead, we have several items coming up on the calendar to make you aware of. Please take note and notify me if you have plans to attend a summer mission trip so I can get you the right information. If you will, add these things to your calendar and pray for us as we continue to make WAVES around the world!

Calendar

February 16-29 India

March 4-5 Love Feast, Havelock NC

March 6 Twenty year anniversary celebration Havelock Korean Baptist Church

March 13-20 Miami Florida Spiritual Emphasis Week and starting a new WAVE Team

 

April 4-6 Orlando Youth Pastor’s Summit

 

April 26-30 Tavares Florida Adventure Christian School Spiritual Emphasis

AWAKE SUMMER

June 1-13 El Salvador Mission $1500

July 6-10 Williamsburg Kentucky Cost$100

July 15-23 George Camp Miami Cost $200

July 24-26 Summit WAVE Camp

July 28- August 10 India Cost $2500

Please note that these dates are subject to change and so is the cost. However, please also note that if you are serious about traveling with us on any trip, we will do all we can to assist you in raising the needed funds to go. There has never been a trip that someone has wanted to attend with us who didn’t go because of finances. So please, let us know if you want to go and are willing to commit the time. If you have any questions feel free to contact me: vision2hear@gmail.com

Catch up with you again soon!

George

V2H Update February 8, 2016

 

 

 

Panthers Lose

Yes. The Panthers lost and I am sad about their poor performance. Everyone has days like that when things just don’t go your way. The Panthers were just outplayed and outmatched for the entire game. Hats off to the Broncos and Peyton Manning for a great career! Hopefully the Panthers will learn from this experience and become a stronger team next year. Now onto other things 🙂

The Love Feast

We are hosting the first Love Feast this coming Saturday at New Vision Church from 9am-6pm. There’s no food since we will be fasting during this time. Our gathering will be to become more informed about poverty and social issues around the world and mission opportunities, we are involved with in El Salvador and India

We are asking people to consider praying and fasting from Friday lunch until Saturday 6pm. This will make 30 hours. We are also encouraging people to give $1 per hour or solicit donors for this amount equalling $30. This money will go toward helping children in El Salvador who are deaf and of families who have been affected by gangs in El Salvador.

The Love Feast in NC will begin on March 4 at noon and end at dinner March 5. We will meet at the Korean Church on Saturday March 5 from 9am-6pm for times of prayer and teaching.

Awaken India

I’ve recently purchased my ticket to travel to India. I am still seeking donations toward this trip, as the costs of travel and mission work is costly. My plan is to be there for two assisting with the WAVE team, hosting a conference for them, where we will basically sponsor the event with name tags, papers, food and travel for some to get there. I will also be working with the orphans and with the churches (7 of them) along with discipling some of the students during my stay. We will also begin our plans for setting up a local radio station for the church to broadcast the gospel and determine the place and dates for the summer camp we will host this coming August. So there’s a lot to be done on this trip. Thanks for your prayers and support!

New Vision Church

Some of you may be aware that the pastor of my church has stepped down from the senior pastor role and our church is transitioning in many ways. During this time, I’ll be helping more with some speaking and of course any other way I can outside of my “normal” responsibilities. Please keep our church in your prayers and all of us as we seek God’s direction and what our next steps should be as a church and individuals.

Lent

Lent is the 40 day period that many Christians mark between Ash Wednesday and Easter. That period starts on this Wednesday and goes until Easter Sunday (minus the Sundays in-between). I usually give up something during this period. I would encourage you to also consider doing something of significance during this period as a discipline of sacrifice and surrender. Here’s the thing: don’t do it to out of pride or trying to become spiritual. Practice this because of love and desire to draw closer to God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Schedule

Right now we have several things in the works for the summer. Here are the things we are fairly sure about and the approximate costs. If you would like more information, please contact me.

May 31- June 13 El Salvador Cost $1500

July 6-10 Kentucky Cost$100

July 15-23 George Camp Miami Cost $200

July 28- August 10 India Cost $2500

Please note that these dates are subject to change and so is the cost. However, please also note that if you are serious about traveling with us on any trip, we will do all we can to assist you in raising the needed funds to go. There has never been a trip that someone has wanted to attend with us who didn’t go because of finances. So please, let us know if you want to go and are willing to commit the time.

Thanks!

George

V2H Update February 1, 2016

 

Hello Everyone,

It was a busy but great weekend! Thanks for your prayers concerning me and all the travel and events unfolding over the last couple of days.

Conference In Miami

On Thursday I flew to Ft. Lauderdale to get into town a little early for the Becoming a Woman of Influence conference. Many have wondered what was I doing at a conference like this. Here’s why I was there; I was invited.

A friend of mine os a pastor at New City Church in Miami, Fl. His kids attend Christ Fellowship Academy and they have all seen me perform many times at their school for Spiritual Emphasis Week. So when Joe, the pastor/dad/my friend saw me perform several months ago, he asked me if I would come and be part of the event. Because of my “deal” with God, I don’t turn down any event where the door has been opened and I have an invitation, especially from a friend. So that’s how it came together. I was honored to be the only “male” guest speaker at the event.

There were about 100 attending this conference from several churches in Miami. It was hosted at the Sheraton at the Miami International Airport and let me say what a great time I had being there! New City Church and the team who put this together did an exceptional job of not only maximizing the venue space but caring for me as a guest/speaker and providing what I feel was also a great lineup of other guest speakers for the ladies to learn from and be encouraged by in their growth of influence.

I was at the conference to share a few songs and then some words about how God has influenced my life and brought me to where I am today. My songlist included the Lawnmower Dance, Shark Song, Awake, No One Like You, Watch The Lamb and Jesus Paid It All. God removed my apprehensions and gave me peace as I shared and it really went well. There was a great sense of community and I didn’t feel out of place, which was nice given it was geared for “women”, which goes to show that when we do whatever we do for the glory of God, He will bless it and use it.

Thanks to my friend Pastor Joe Mira and all those at New City Church for investing in the lives of the women of Miami. You guys did an outstanding job this weekend and were a blessing to all of us involved…even us “guys”. Also a special shoutout to my good friend Mike Liebler who was driving me around over the last few days and making sure I made my appointments. And the Gallos who hosted us during my stay.

Wedding In Atlanta

When I agreed to do the conference for Joe in Miami, I failed to remember and check my multiple calendars. This caused a little scheduling conflict as Henry Bruce had notified me of his upcoming wedding on the same day. When I realized this, I called Joe and thankfully he was able to arrange the schedule so I could get a ticket back to GA without having to miss Henry’s wedding, which I certainly didn’t want to happen.

With God’s hand at work, I was able to make it see another one of my “children” get married on Saturday evening. This was not without its challenges however. When I got to the check-in kiosk, I couldn’t seem to do so. After numerous attempts, I went ahead and stood in line to speak to real person.

After waiting in the que for about 10 minutes, the lady informed me that the flight had already closed and that was why I couldn’t check in. She told me that they want people like me there an hour ahead of time and I had gotten to her 45 minutes ahead of time. Really? Ugh. So now we were having to look at rebooking me etc.

She put me on the list for the next flight but told me to go to the gate for the flight I was originally booked on and see if I could make it. So I did with haste. As life would have it, my terminal and gate were on the far side of the airport, requiring me to have extreme patience in the TSA line and on the SkyTrain as I made my way to D-60!

Once I got there they were still boarding the flight so I jumped in line. The ticket I gave the lady was not for that flight, which I knew and I explained to her what happened. Then she passed me off to another guy who looked up some information and told me that I never had a “seat” confirmed on that flight. Really? Wow!

Now he tells me that I have a confirmed seat on second flight but I was put on the standby list for the first one. So I sat and waited and had to trust God to get me on the flight. And He did. Within a few moments, they called my name and another woman, who ended up sitting right next to me to take the last two seats on that flight. Praise God!

So that’s how it worked out. I made it back to celebrate with Henry and Lauren as they joined together in God in holy matrimony. It was a wonderful wedding and a joy to be there with them in this life-changing event.

Henry was one of my students in youth group at Bethany Baptist Church many years ago. He was also part of our sign WAVE team there and at The Point. Henry traveled with me on a few mission trips including one to Florida for George Camp. He’s always been a faithful friend to me and the ministry and always served well regardless of his role. He loves to sing and has made it known on various trips like the ski trip to Winterplace 🙂 You can watch that video here:

Henry has a passion for life and a passion for God. But He also has a passion for the love of his life, Lauren and I am so happy for the both of them as they embark on this journey together! Henry has gone on to learn sign as an interpreter and works at a local school in GA with the deaf. What a great circle to the investment of Vision 2 Hear. I am grateful for what God has done!

It was also awesome to catch up with these fine folks at the wedding reception. Some of them I have not seen in years, while others I recently saw at Krista and Carey’s wedding a couple of months ago. I have resigned myself to the truth that now I will see most of these people at such events as weddings as they have all grown up. Where has the time gone? It was great to see you all and I love and miss you guys. Thanks for being such a blessing to me and part of the V2H family! It’s people like you and all the others who have made my life so special.

Preaching At Church

The weekend concluded with me preaching at my church in Fayetteville. With my pastor recently resigning, the church had asked for me to cover a few Sundays as they put together a search committee etc. So this weekend I launched a 3 week series called Awakenings.

With no surprise to those who have been part of my ministry, we had many technical issues leading right up to the beginning of the service. From trying to understand why the screen color was “pink tinted”,  to trying to hook up my “Mac” to run from the back, to getting the signals set for a scenario for me to run it from the front, to transferring 50 slides to another computer so someone else could run it, everything finally came together with about 5 minutes to begin. But it came together, at the last moment, right on time, which seems to have been the case for all things concerning this weekend.

God moved in the service and removed my apprehensions of speaking; and for that I am always grateful!

In Other News

Angela is back from El Salvador and I am waiting for her to send me a little note about her experience. Once I get it, I’ll send it out so you can hear about how this trip shaped her life.

Also, I’ll be making a definitive decision about India this week. As you may know I am supposed to head out on Feb. 16 but I have not generated enough support yet for the airfare. So will see. This may be God saying wait. So I’m praying over the next day or so to see what all happens. Of course, they would like for me to be there but I also have many irons in the fire here to take care of and deal with. So please pray God’s will be done. I’m willing to go or stay…whatever I need to do.

If you’d like to give toward this trip, or any other mission project, you can do so at vision2hear.com or just follow this link: paypal

Thanks so much! Catch up with you next week.

George

V2H Update January 25, 2016

Another week has passed and here is some of what has been happening around Vision 2 Hear. As you may know, I recently returned from El Salvador. Upon leaving, I gave a little cash to Jorge to help with some work and celebration happening in Suchitoto as they would go this past weekend. From these pics, one can see they had a great time. We are grateful to be a small part of the larger work going on there, supported by friends from Oregon and Jorge and his family and ministry.

Vision 2 Hear El Salvador is helping this community with fresh clean water in conjunction with individuals from Oregon. We are also helping with ministry to all ages as seen in the pics above by providing school supplies, helping with education and discipling in Jesus’ name. Please continue to pray for our partners in ministry in El Salvador.

This event is coming soon and we need your help to make it successful. We are trying to generate support and help for many in El Salvador this season. There’s no greater time to show love than around Valentine’s Day!

Each year, Americans spend billions of dollars to express love. This year, why not share some of that love with kids from another country? We are challenging everyone to donate $30 toward the Love Feast, which is out 30-hour fast to raise money and awareness of needs around the world.

This year our efforts will go toward helping Daniel and paying his college fees, helping children from families of gangs and helping some of our deaf students. All of them reside in El Salvador. Please consider giving and participating in the fast during one of these weekends: New Vision Church February 12-13 or Havelock Korean Baptist March 4-5.

If you would like to make a charitable gift, you can do so by mailing a check to 2046 Khyber Pass Snellville, GA 30039 or giving online at paypal.com

WAVE Teams Are Back

All of the WAVE teams are back for a new season and things seem to humming along well. With teams in Hixson, TN, Lawrenceville, GA and Havelock, NC, WAVE is putting together it’s spring selections surrounding the theme for the year, AWAKEN. We are very excited about the launch of the new season and songs and anticipate God speaking to us and through us as we share. Continue to pray for the sign teams as they grow and go in Christ’s name.

What’s happening this week?

I’ll be leaving NC on Wednesday to go back to GA for a night. I fly out to Miami on Thursday to prepare for a conference where I was invited to speak and share music.

The Becoming A Woman Of Influence Conference is being hosted by a friend of mine from New City Church in Miami, Fl. The event will focus on inspiring women to take their God-given abilities and using them for God’s glory. I am privileged to be the only “male” speaker.

Then next Sunday I start a 3-week series called AWAKENINGS for my church. Our pastor recently resigned and so I am filling in speaking for the next three weeks. The series will follow the course of awakening faith. hope and love. I am excited and grateful to have the privilege to speak at my church. Please pray for New Vision Church as we transition and move forward into the great unknown.

 The TN Movement has made steps toward becoming their own entity. Under the leadership of Terry Davis, longtime friend and board member of Vision 2 Hear, terry is also the pastor at the TN Movement.

For several years the gathering has met in a storefront location but recently outgrown it. For a few weeks now they have been praying, looking for and seeking out property to help in reaching more people for Christ.

I spoke to Terry last week and he informed me that a local church has offered to give them their church…yes “deed it over” to Vision 2 Hear and the TN Movement, along with their van and whatever funds were still in their bank account. That church had decided to dissolve and wanted to give it to another church. We praise God for his miraculous works! Continue to pray for the TN Movement as they process the paperwork to become an official church in TN and move forward with the doors God has opened!

A trip to India has been scheduled but of course, it’s not possible without generating the needed funds to make it happen. Over the course of the next several days I am trying to generate about $1200 toward the trip which would include airfare and money toward hosting the WAVE team conference for the children at S.A.C. in India. If you would like to help with this trip, please follow this link to give using paypal.com

 

Thanks! Update coming again next week!

 

George

Final ES Update January 2016

I’m back from El Salvador and what a great trip it was! continue to pray for Angela, the college student from Messiah College, who is still there until January 25. Here are a few final details about my trip.

Prostitutes and Gangsters

It was a great opportunity to reach out to people just down the street from where the mission house is located. One of the stories I heard when I arrived was that the missionaries living in the mission house hosted a dinner for the local prostitutes (comprised of male and female), for the Christmas dinner. What a message of Christ! When I heard this, I knew we needed to do it once again and I wanted to be part of exhibiting Christ’s love. Last week, we were able to fund a meal for 8 prostitutes and some of the missionaries helping us un ES. It was uncomfortable, yes, but great at the same time. Of course I was limited in my communication to all but through a translator communicated my desire as someone coming from the States in Jesus’ name, that my goal with helping sponsor the mission house is to bring change to El Salvador which is done only through the love and power of Jesus Christ. There was no “preaching”, no “judging”, just sharing a meal with people who are not like us. In fact, that night was one of their birthdays and we got to celebrate through song. Pray as we continue to develop loving relationships with some of those who are the outcasts of El Salvador…and ask how and what we can about it the States as well!

On the last day in ES, I went with Daniel to visit the children he works with in La Colonia. This area is one of the more dangerous areas in ES, and it’s where Daniel grew up and currently lives. It was truly impressive to see his report with the kids and “gangsters” of that community.

The children of gangsters getting school supplies.

As we strolled down the narrow streets I was able to shake hands with some of the gangsters and asked permission to take pics of the area and people. Like the Pied Piper, Daniel had kids trailing us through the passage as we invited them to the day’s event.

Once we gathered everyone, (which took a little while), I shared a few sign songs and then a message about Jesus and my story of how I ended up in ES doing al of this kind of stuff. Needless to say, these kids were roudy. With many of them living without a father in the home or spending much of their time exposed to violence, it’s no wonder. However, after a while they did calm down and by the end were very grateful and appreciative of the school supplies given to them.

Let me give you a few stats I learned about ES on this trip:

It’s been called the “most dangerous country in the world”. With an average of 30 people being killed a day, one can understand this moniker. 

Gangs and gang violence have been rising over the years and many kids have become victims from this growth.

Many businesses are pulling out of El Salvador and relocating to other countries because of the violence.

The average family V2H is working with makes less than $7 a day.

God is still powerful and mighty and doing great things in and through the people of El Salvador. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us as we seek to help the deaf students and children or gang members achieve all that God has for them? They need your help and we want to be part of a solution. Thanks for your support of Vision 2 Hear and helping us make a difference in ES. I’ll be posting pics of the deaf students we want to help and if you’d like to “sponsor” one, there will be info on how to do that. Also Daniel has a working budget for teaching the kids of gangsters English and reaching them for Christ. We will have a way you can give toward that project. And if you’d like to travel with us during the summer, we’d love to have you. Currently, our trip is scheduled for late June.

More info coming soon!

George

 

Vision 2 Hear Update January 11,2016

 

I’ve been in El Salvador for several days now. It’s been a great trip thus far. From spending time with old friends to making new ones, Vision 2 Hear is off to a great start for 2016. Here’s some of what’s been happening.

Before we even left from the USA, we were already excited about being able to offer this trip for Angela Lowe, a college student from Messiah College in PA. She found Vision 2 Hear online, actually looking at sign videos from YouTube. Needing to have a cultural “deaf experience”, she contacted me to see if there was any way we could help. With El Salvador being the primary place we have ministry with deaf people, we were able to work things for her to be part of this trip and spend the required days she needs in order to graduate on time. If this didn’t work for her, there was a very good chance she would have to postpone her graduation until December…So we praise God for His mighty power and the use of the internet to connect us so that she could benefit and help us in ES. The first time we met was at the airport in Atlanta.

Even though the plane was delayed several times, the overall trip wasn’t too bad. But we were basically awake with travel for about 24 hours.  We were met at the airport and made our way to San Salvador, discussing possibilities for the week. Angela is here to learn about deaf culture and interact with the deaf primarily and I am here to assist with teaching music for the WAVE Team, which is primarily made of deaf students, preach at a church, host a couple of meetings and plan for the summer.

We plan to disburse the school supplies to several groups of people since the primary school we were going to give them out at has closed down. These school supplies were collected from Christ Fellowship in Palmetto Bay last October while I was there for Spiritual Emphasis Week. We brought down three suitcases of glue, pens, pencils, markers, etc. and still have more to bring back in June.

Because the school were going to go to has closed down, we thought we would have the students all deaf, along with their siblings come over and spend time with us at the mission house. So for three days last week they came over and we worked on music, signing songs, playing games and watching Netflix. They have loved it. Most of the don’t get to do things like this, so it’s a big deal for them to be able to come and have fun and build community as well.

As we met and talked about the things that happened with the closing of the deaf school we explored the idea of having the students meet at the mission house for some of their educational needs. It was a wonder to me why couldn’t we do this? So after talking a bit and finding out what the real problems might be, we decided to move forward with using the mission house as a temporary location for these students to gather, learn, continue their education and get tutoring on the weekends, until they find a different location sometime in the future. School technically is just starting back so the timing is perfect! God knows what He’s doing! Because we were here, I was able to use some of our ministry donations to help provide the chairs, tables and school supplies they will need to use this facility. We give God praise for what He’s doing!

 

Another thing that is really coming together is the work Daniel is doing with several children teaching them English and of course sharing the gospel. These kids all live in the area where Daniel grew up and are faced with gang-related violence everyday. If you didn’t know, El Salvador has about 40 people killed each day!!! We have been supporting Daniel with his college education and now he’s investing in the lives of others. We are very pleased to see and hear of all he is doing. He’s given me a budget and we are going to have the Love Feast Fundraising event on Valentine’s Day weekend, a 30-hour fast to generate some funds for his program.

 

 

 

I was able to get a filling for one cavity while here, which was a huge blessing as I had started to feel some pain and discomfort from it. Also one of the local church plants had me speak and share the message yesterday, which was very well-received.

Last night I met with some of the Vision 2 Hear El Salvador staff and a couple of missionaries from Oregon who support the work here. We had a great open and honest talk about the future work in Suchitoto, which is growing tremendously. Some of that work includes helping with water irrigation, discipling families by providing special meetings for men, women and children. Jorge and his whole family are deeply involved in this work there and they have seen God’s hand moving in people’s lives. So please keep that ministry in your prayers. They travel to Suchitoto twice a month for programs. Only twice because it’s a couple hours away in the mountains.

So that’s a quick update with what’s been happening here. Thanks for your prayers. Another update to come soon!

George