associates in missions newsletter

7/29/2019 Associates in Missions Newsletter

1/3

2013: The Year of Increase2013: The Year of Increase2013: The Year of IncreaseJim Poitras

Miranda Alphin

EditorEditorEditor

Director ofDirector ofDirector ofEducation & AIMEducation & AIMEducation & AIM

Jim Poitras

A Word From the Director of AIM

Photo: Zack & Jen Sportsman, Burkina Faso

U.P.C.I. Associates in Missions EU.P.C.I. Associates in Missions EU.P.C.I. Associates in Missions E---NewsNewsNewsFebruary/March 2013

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.(Mark 16: 15 KJV)

I never imagined the airport hall was so long.She purposely walked toward the security

checknever looking back. When I yelledout, I love you MORE! she threw her handbehind her head in acknowledgement butkept moving. My heart leap-frogged into mythroat, and I lightly pounded my chest acouple of times to hopefully knock thingsback in place. So, this is how parents andloved ones feel when letting go of theirprecious AIMers as they leave for the field!Thirty years ago my own wife made such a

journey. A trip of three or four months turned into a lifetime of missions service. Thingshave come full circle. What will happen to our fledgling AIMer? Time and God will tell!

As our own missionary prepared, packed, repacked, and repacked, I pondered what thenext five or six months on the field would bring. She had purchased white mugs from theDollar Tree (expensive shopper!). Special friends and family took colorful Sharpie markersand designed a special keepsake for her. (Im not sure what she is going to do with eightcoffee mugs in one hundred plus weather. She doesnt even drink coffee!) To solidify theink and art I guess you put the mugs in the oven, bake them, and the ink doesnt come off.I thought of her time overseas as an opportunity for increase. I designed her mug with lifespurpose in mind and depicted her AIM tour as 2013, the year of increase. Increase of what,you might ask? Well, I will tell you since I think it also applies to youwhoever you are;wherever you are.

I pray that 2013 will be a year of increase for you. Im sure this involves many things buthere are a few I sketched on the mug:

Increased

Vision

Purpose

Passion


2/3

UPCI AIM NewsletterUPCI AIM NewsletterUPCI AIM Newsletter February/March 2013February/March 2013February/March 2013 Page 2Page 2Page 2

Go to UzbekistanGo to UzbekistanGo to UzbekistanRebekah Kline

I May Never Be A WaitressI May Never Be A WaitressI May Never Be A WaitressMelinda Poitras

Burden

Word-view

Worldview

Friendships

Cross-cultural Experience

Faith

and lastbut not leastsouls!

Her time in all of these will increase. Like John the Baptist reminds me, her time with me will decrease. Im a little bitterabout that. Why must I decrease? But, she will be a better person because of AIM, and Ill be a better father and leaderin the process. So, I leave her and each of you to a time of increase.

I love the picture of her and one of her friends as she was about to step out and walk that long road to the securitycheckpoint. Her mother and I are in the background, tears in our eyes, smiles swelling in our hearts, backing her up, andcheering her on. So, the Poitras household is quieter this evening, lonelier tonight, but the mission team in Ghana is onthe increase.

I still remember the moment that I was reading through a history of apostolic missions and I found it. March 2, 1989.Birth of Melinda Poitras, future Missionary. I thought, at that moment, that such a declaration was horribly unfair. What ifI wanted to be a doctor? Or a lawyer? Or a novelist? Or a waitress? To have a life plan inked into a history before one iseven old enough to read it seemed unjust indeed. Thats the thing about life it isnt fair.

It isnt fair that I was birthed into a family who ate, slept, and breathed souls, saints, writing, teaching, and missions. Itisnt fair that I got to begin my missionary career by spending nineteen years involved in various kinds of ministry inAfrica. That I have lived in Ghana and Nigeria and spent time in the Ivory Coast, Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Malawi,Liberia, and South Africa. It isnt fair that I had a missionary mother who became one of the first AIMers when RobertRodenbush launched the pilot program the same program that enables me to become an AIMer myself thirty-two yearslater. Thats the thing about blessings theyre rarely fair.

I have already spent nineteen years in Africa, but it turns out that isnt enough. Because the country I grew up in has apopulation of roughly 24,965,816 people who need the Lord. I need to tell them. I have to admit, its beginning to looklike I may never be a waitress.

As most of you know, my main motivation in being a missionary comes from a call that God put on my life 10 years ago,"Go to Uzbekistan". I didn't know the country existed or anything about it at the time, but I knew I had heard the voice ofGod and didn't question the "How?, Why? or What?". I just said "I Will Go."

This past month, the month of December, Bro. Shutes designated me the job of working through prayer for the country ofUzbekistan. Over the past couple of weeks I have been, and I am continuing to, put together an Intercessor Prayer Team


3/3

UPCI AIM NewsletterUPCI AIM NewsletterUPCI AIM Newsletter February/March 2013February/March 2013February/March 2013 Page 3Page 3Page 3

AIM ChatAIM ChatAIM Chat

I Can Still HearI Can Still HearI Can Still HearMelinda Poitras

for the Country of Uzbekistan. Already God's leadership and guidance are amazing me. My team has already been usedby God to speak to each other across the nations. Where unity is, the spirit and direction of God can flow.

It is awesome that no matter where we are, or how diverse and spread out the team is, God is still able to do greatthings. To see one person's specific prayer from one country be answered within minutes in another country is justamazing to experience. There is a connection that only God can provide when we only choose to follow Him. We aregoing to work through prayer to Impact the country of Uzbekistan for Christ like it has never been before!

One of our churches had an amazing block party! There were close to 600 visitors and more than 1500 people in at-tendance. Many were baptized in chilly water and a host of people at the altar. This was a kick-off event for their forty

days of extreme evangelism. I cant wait to see what the results will be. Amber Corey, Guatemala

I can still hear her screaming.

It was my eighteenth summer and my youth group and I were on a missions trip to the village of Nkwanta in Ghana. Ouractivities had included teaching Sunday School, attending night services, painting buildings, evangelism, and, that day,visiting a hospital. We were supposed to walk around singing, praying, just letting people know that they werent alone.One of our first stops was the room of an eight year old boy, horribly emaciated by hunger. I stopped by his bed andwhispered a few words of prayer. Empathetic tears rolled down my cheeks and I felt really good about myself. Here Iwas, a veritable mini Mother Theresa, visiting the sick and crying beautifully. We were just finishing our rounds when Iheard it, the piercing, screaming, shriek of grief resounding from the inner corridors. The shrieking continued as the boysmother followed his lifeless corpse out of the hospital. He was dead. And I was right there. I had stood over his bedholding the keys to life eternal in my hands and I had wept tears of compassion and said prayers of comfort but notone time had I ever said words that could have saved his life. And before I so much as left the hospital, he ran out oftime. I can go back to Africa a hundred times, and I can tell a thousand children, but I can never tell thatone.

Why am I telling you this? Because in Africa, over fifty percent of the population is under eighteen. That means that in

Ghana alone, there are roughly 12,482,908 children living, and left to reach. Someone has to go. I am more than willing.

Because they live in my home. Because they step into my heartbeat. Because I can still hear her screaming.

We finished 2012 on a high note. Andrea and I were blessed to be a part of the UPROAR Youth Conference in theNetherlands the last week of December. There we witnessed many miracles of healing and the lives of young peoplebeing changed forever. During our first service of the year at our daughter work, two people were instantly healed. Thefollowing night at service in Barcelona, four people were instantly healed. The following Sunday, over twenty claimedhealings in their bodies. Over forty miracles of healing in the month of January! Not only is Jesus perfoming miracles ofhealing, but six were filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost.

David and Andrea Nutt, Spain

What can we do to promote AIM and Next Steps at the North American YouthCongress this year? Put on your creative caps and send your best ideas to

[email protected].

associates in missions newsletter

Documents