More of Europe

We are back in Dublin again after visiting four other countries: Italy, Kosova, Hungary and Romania. We found our co-workers doing well and having good success in their work. We were able to worship with the team in Ancona, visit the new American High school in Kovova, preach in a Sunday morning service in Hungary and visit a school for Gypsie children in Oradia, Romania.
We only had one travel problem worth mention. We missed a flight in Rome because of a connecting flight delay and a mix-up in the airport largely caused by an airline workers strike that threatened to shut down the Rome airport. We were able go get a flight the next day, but have heard the Ilatalia, the national airline is in danger of failing somewhat because of the strike.
Tonight I will go out with our team here to do street evangelism in downtown Dublin. Some think that type of thing is of the past, but it has been so successful here, (see the previous entry) that dozens have been baptized and a new church has started from the results of the John 3:7 group and their work. Our co-worker, Philip Thompson is leading the effort to disciple the new believers and establish the church.
Pictures: Above left is sign carriers on Grafton street. Right is the infant church meeting in a home. Philip (brown shirt, center right) is leading the Bible study.
Monday we will be heading home after a total of 26 days, five countries, and a total of 12 take-offs and landings. We appreciate all those who have prayed for our safety.

Here is a link to a Youtube video about the John 3:7 group.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=DDULbxbaYnE&feature=rel

Europe Trip

Greta and I are in the second stage of a five country trip to Europe. We spend just two days in Dublin, Ireland with our co-workers, Philip and Shirley Thompson. They are members of Team Expansion and are involved in a new church plant venture in Dublin. They work with a group of street evangelists called John 3:7. Most Bible readers will remember this passage as the one that says, "You must be born again." Like the folk who manage to hold up the John 3:16 signs in sports events in the States, this group has done the same with the John 3:7 signs for over 25 years. Everyone in Ireland has seen the signs and many are curious about it. Now the group is out on the streets of Dublin on Friday nights holding up the John 3:7 signs. People coming out of bars, night clubs and sports events will walk up to them and ask about the sign. In the last two years enough people have listened to the testimonies of the street evangelists to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ and many have been baptized. The John 3:7 group has asked Philip to lead a church plant in Dublin from to disciple the people who come to the lord in this way. Greta and I went with the Thompsons to see the possible meeting site.
Leaving Dublin on Friday we flew to Ancona, Italy and are visitin the Team Expansion church plant team here. We spent much of today, Sunday, recovering from the long day yesterday. We were up at 3 AM to get to the airport in time to catch our 6:30 AM flight. This evening we will attend church with the Caseys and the team here in Ancona. The new church here is only a few months old but has finally begun to grow. I have been taking pictures and will add them as I am able to do so.

Photoserver | photo 7 of 97 | Meece 50th Anniversary

Some folk are having trouble reaching the links. Try this one for our 50th celebration.

http://photoserver.zenfolio.com/p67913169/slideshow

Fifty Years Together

Sunday afternoon, July 20, Greta and I, along with family and friends, celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary. The actual date is July 18, but we had the party Sunday.
It all began like this (left) in Greta's home church in Pine Flats, Pennsylvania on July 18, 1958. We were both 20 years old, needing our parents permission to get married. At the time we were both students at Kentucky Christian College in Grayson, Kentucky. The school allowed wives of students to attend the college tuition free, so it was to our advantage to be married during school. I was the preacher for two small churches near Owingsville, Kentucky.
During our 50 years together we have three children and five grandchildren. Only Jackie Ralston, our oldest granddaughter was not able to attend the celebration as she and her husband Micah had only recently returned from their Honeymoon and were getting settled into married life. It was great to have the rest of our family (below) with us Sunday.
We have served churches in Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri and worked as missionaries for 23 years in Liberia and Ivory Coast, West Africa. After retiring from the mission field, we joined Team Expansion, a mission sending agency in Louisville, KY and serve as Field Coordinators and Member Care providers for mission teams in Europe and Africa.
In addition to our own immediate family, we were joined by Greta's brothers, sisters and nieces from Pennsylvania and Alabama and several of my extended family from around Kentucky.
I have put together the pictures that Mark took during the celebration. You can view the "slideshow" at this link.

http://photoserver.zenfolio.com/p67913169/slideshow

Pictures of Africa Trip

It has taken longer than I would like to arrange the pictures we took on our Africa trip so that people could view them. We would love for our friends to enjoy them. Click on the following link or copy and paste (the safest way) the link into your internet browser and enjoy. Click on the "slideshow link" and let your mouse pointer hover over the little dialogue box on the lower right to see the captions.

http://photoserver.zenfolio.com/p101537956/

Back To Africa

Friday, May 23, Greta and I returned from a three week trip back to West Africa. It was Greta's first trip back since we left in 2002 and my 4th. Our trip was divided into 3 parts.
First we actually drove in a pick-up truck with no AC from Accra, Ghana to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire - 12 hours and about 600 kms. The drive was long, hot and challenging, but we drove by some beautiful country. In some areas, the road is along the coast with beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean. Other parts of the road are less attractive and crowded with truck and "Tro-Tro" (busses) traffic. We found that the things have not changed much since we lived there except that there are a lot more people and many more vehicles on the roads. In Ghana, much of the road has actually been repaved and/or improved a lot since the last time we made this trip. If I remember correctly, we have made the same trip at least a dozen times over the past 10 to 12 years.
Abidjan has changed a lot. Since we left there has been a war and the country is still largely divided between the Muslim north and the Christian/Anamist (African religions) in the south. The French army, in conjunction with the United Nations has been keeping the peace. Most of the missionaries we knew have left the country and many others havemoved away as well. We visited our co-workers there, missionaries from Liberia, Roujee and Juliet Morris. Roujee actually continues to oversee the mission work Greta and I were doing during our 13 years in Côte d'Ivoire.
One day we visited church leadership training classes on the Island of Vridi. The island is in the harbor area and requires a 15 minute boat ride through the harbor. There are several churches and three leadership training classes on Vridi and another island, Boulay, which is near by. We were encouraged to see the churches still functioning well on their own and the leadership training classes still going on under local leadership. We were able to visit with the leaders and some students on Vridi. We did find that one of the pastors of the church on Vridi was very ill and had gone to Ghana to get medical treatment. Most of the people living on the islands are fishermen who come over from Ghana to fish the seas around Abidjan. Ivorian fishermen are afraid to go to sea, so they have a have made a mutually beneficially agreement - Ivorians fish the lagoons and the Ghanians go out to sea. The pastor's name is Baidoe and he would appreciate your prayers as he tries to deal with high blood pressure where medical treatment is less than the best to say the least.

Pictures:
Top left - The "Gold Coast of West Africa"
Center right - The Morrises and Meeces: Roujee, Juliet, Greta, Easton and Wayne
Center left - A fishing boat - made of a hollowed out log with boards added to the sides. The boats are usually powered by outboard motors mounted on the side.
Bottom right - Church leaders and students with Roujee Morris at the right

How much do you know about world missions?

I ran across these facts in a letter from the International Bulletin of Mission Research and through people might be interested in these not so trivial facts.

1. There is a total of 37,000 different church denominations worldwide.
2. Of the 6.6 million people currently living in the world about 31.4 % or 2.2 billion people call themselves "Christian".
3. About 44% of Christians are "white" and 56% are "non-white".
4. There are about 259 million evangelical Christians.
5. Some portion of the Bible has been translated into 2,238 of the worlds languages.
6. There are 4.4 million women in full-time Christian ministry serving around the world.
7. There 443,000 foreign Christian missionaries from 4340 agencies serving around the world.
8. The countries that receive the greatest number of foreign missionaries are: U.S.A. - 35,100, Brazil - 26,400, Russian - 20,100, France - 16,900, Britain - 15,800, D.R Congo - 15,800.
9. There are almost 19,000 Africans serving as foreign missionaries on other continents.

Most people think of the church being centered in Europe and America, but in reality there are more now Christians in Africa, India and Asia than Europe and America. As an example of how Christianity is growing in Africa, I recently received a report from Ghana that more that 1200 people attended the Easter Convention of the Fellowship of Christian Churches of Ghana in Salaga, Ghana, a small town in the north-eastern region of Ghana. It is so remote that many people traveled more than 16 hours to reach the site of the convention. Great things are happening in the church throughout the world.