Covenant News
Merge Reports Growth in Short-Term Projects
McALLEN, TX (April 15, 2004) - A record number of people have volunteered this spring for short-term projects, Covenant Merge Ministries reports.Merge will have 275 participants on 15 mission teams this spring serving in Texas, Mexico and Honduras, according to Dale Lusk, executive director. Participants, representing mostly adult and family teams, come from eight states including California, Kansas, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Colorado.
A small mission team from North Park University already has traveled to Honduras, serving near the city of Tegucigalpa, and Crossroads Covenant Church in Forest Lake, Minnesota, helped with a large construction project in Mexico.
First Covenant Church in Salina, Kansas, sent teams to Mexico and Jamaica for mission work. The Jamaica group ministered to churches that are considering joining the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). The Mexico effort, accomplished by college students from First Covenant in the city of Monterrey, helped a congregation re-open its church.
Merge Ministries, which is affiliated with the ECC Department of World Mission with assistance from Covenant Mission Connection liaison Lana Heinrich, is expected to have more than 1,000 people serving in different projects during 2004. That will more than double last year's number of participants. New ministry sites are being readied in Guatemala, Spain, Chile and Argentina and funds are being raised for Carlos Sosa, Merge's first-ever regional director.
In addition to Lusk, Merge has received direction from Covenant short-term missionaries Andrew Vanover and Edith Cardenas. The ministry seeks people fluent in Spanish and English, those with construction experience, and people well versed in food purchasing/organizing as it considers its summer mission schedule.
To learn more about Merge Ministries, call Lusk at 956-458-9568 or email him at covmerge@earthlink.net. More information can be found in the Merge section of the Covenant website at www.covchurch.org. Click on the Departments link on the home page, select Covenant World Mission and then Merge Ministries.
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