Nayeli’s Baptism:Three Generations of Hope

The ups and downs, the mundane, everyday routines, and the overwhelming challenges of urban ministry can cause a person forget why he began in the first place. But there are certain special divine moments in which God demonstrates his power in the lives of people and brings about the kind of fruit that causes us to rejoice and feel a renewed sense of conviction for the calling He has given us. The baptism of Nayeli, a participant in our Leaders in Training Program, was one of these moments.

I would not hesitate to declare our pilot year of the LIT program a resounding success. But it was not without its challenges and disappointments. We ended with nine of the 13 original participants, losing one to poor attendance, one to behavioral problems, and two because their parents had other plans for them. Each child who was not able to continue left a hole in the hearts of the volunteers as we all wrestled with feeling we had lost the time and love we had invested in them.

Along the way we made adjustments to our math and reading workshops and we will make even more before we start again in the Fall.

Despite the challenges we faced in this pilot year, there were a lot of things to celebrate. Fifteen amazing volunteers served throughout the program and made a real impact academically. One of our students applied to and was accepted in Sumner Academy, a magnet school in KCK for the brightest students in the district. And, for the nine students who completed the year and received their plaque at the Spring party, there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment and camaraderie that resulted from LIT.

Nayeli’s baptism, three weeks ago, was by far the highlight of the LIT year for me because we have been through so much with her. Two years of Kids Adelante, personal crises, a father in prison, and periods where it seemed like her behavior was turning for the worse. And there she was, affirming her faith in Jesus, a new creation in so many ways. And fittingly, her mom was baptized after her. And finally her grandmother. Three generations coming to Christ, beginning with the youngest. Praise God for his gracious work in the lives of lost and broken people like Nayeli and like me.

Reproducing Ministry

Last year our Board of Directors began working on a five year plan that includes reproducing our ministry two additional locations in the Kansas City area. Little did we know that we would have the opportunity to make an impact in Salt Lake City, UT and Hickory, NC before the first quarter of 2009 was complete.

Tony and Tanya Pruitt, long-time personal friends of the Meeks, are now living in the Salt Lake City area and attending a church that has been very successful at reaching Mormons. This church, called Alpine, also has a desire to launch a ministry to Hispanic immigrants in the heart of Ogden, a blighted city with a dense population of Latinos. At the end of February, Jarrett had the privilege of spending a long weekend on site with the Pruitts and other key leaders from Apline, dreaming and brainstorming ideas for this new ministry. While Alpine is still in the planning stages, the meeting was productive both strategically and relationally.

On the other side of the country in North Carolina, the Meeks’ former missionary colleague in Bolivia, Brandon Martin has just launched a ministry modeled largely after Mission Adelante. Their first ESL and Kids Adelante-like programs began in March with 18 adult English students, a small group of kids, and strong volunteer support. We are so excited to see Brandon and his wife Joy fulfilling their calling together and enjoying God’s grace in the beginning of their new ministry.

As far as our plans to reproduce Mission Adelante sites in Kansas City, we are still praying for the Lord’s direction and provision, as we look for the right places and people to start this work.

A Thank You Video from the Meek Family

Enjoy this home video of Meek family highlights from 2008 as a "Thank You" from our family for your support for our ministry with Mission Adelante.

Thank You from the Meek Family-2008 from Jarrett on Vimeo.

Integrating Ministry and Personal Life

Missions has taught me that ministry is a lifestyle, not merely a vocation. One of our greatest blessings (and greatest challenges) over the past few years has been learning to live out our calling in a way where personal life and ministry life are blended into one.

Mission Adelante began by building friendships in a local ice cream shop, having English classes and Bible studies in our home, and inviting neighbors over for dinner. Which category do these activities fit into? Ministry or personal? The wonderful answer is both! Now, when we take a family walk to that same ice cream shop we pass no fewer than five homes where Mission Adelante families live. And, when many of them are out on their front porches or in their yards playing, a family walk to the ice cream shop becomes a ministry opportunity!

Our children get to experience the blessing of being involved with our ministry as well. This Fall we launched a “Leaders in Training” program for pre-teens that meets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons for tutoring and character development. As home-schooling parents we were excited that Annie and Caroline get to participate in this program as a way to supplement what we are doing with them academically and allow them to build cross-cultural friendships.

Of course, the challenge in all of this is that if ministry is our work, and it is intertwined with our personal life, then how can we avoid always being “at work?” Indeed it is a mixed blessing. There are deep ravines on either side. Compartmentalizing ministry into a professional activity strips it of its authenticity. On the other hand, neglecting personal and family needs in the name of ministry is a recipe for disaster.

Enjoying and embracing the blessing of an integrated ministry lifestyle while learning how to overcome its inherent challenges is one of the keys to surviving in ministry for a lifetime. Please pray for us as we continue to learn how to live out our calling in this way. Pray for God to help us know how to minister as a team and to each other.

God's Metric: Enduring Faithfulness

"Victory belongs to those who believe in it the longest." Those inspiring words were spoken by the commander of an Air-craft carrier in the movie Pearl Habor. They were true in that context, and they are true in ministry. Ministry, especially cross-cultural ministry, requires persevering faith in the ultimate victory of God. Everyday battles are won and lost. Peoples' lives are destroyed by the enemy and by their own poor decisions. Pastors and missionaries who are desperately looking for results and confirmation that they are winning battles struggle with their own sin, and with the discouragements and disappointments of people who seem to love God one day and then crash and burn, or disappear, or turn on them the next. How can a person stay in ministry for a lifetime?

The only real answer to that question is, "by God's grace." Ministry by its very nature is a pouring out of oneself. When lived out as Jesus modeled it is sacrificial, it gets involved in the messy lives of sinful people, it endures abandonment, and yet it always believes in the ultimate victory of God's kingdom. It does NOT believe in the ultimate goodness of the human heart. On the contrary, it must come to peace with the fact that that so called "goodness" is a myth, in order to avoid disillusionment and synicism. Instead, enduring ministry comes to believe in the certainty of God's ultimate victory and rejoices in it.

Over the past two and a half years since we began Mission Adelante, mixed in with some glimpses of exciting ministry fruit, we have experienced a lot of these disappointments and discouragements. Several times during those discouraging seasons, Kristen and I have lain in bed asking ourselves, "what if this ministry doesn't grow?", "what if nobody responds to the gospel?", "what if we were left to do this alone?", "what if immigrants never open up to us on a personal level." Each time we have asked those questions God has only solidified and increased our commitment to this calling and ministry. While we currently enjoy measurable results and occasional victories in Mission Adelante, God reminds me that He is measuring "Enduring Faithfulness."

Will we continue to believe in His ultimate victory even when all we see are disappointing defeats? By His grace we will. Over the years, please make this your number one prayer for our family.

Caroline, Annie Finish Suzuki Piano Book One

After about 17 months of piano lessons, Caroline(9) and Annie (7) are finishing book one of the Suzuki series! It has been a great experience for our whole family! What began as hours of peck, peck, pecking annoying rhythms such as "MI-SSI-SSI-PPI HOT-DOG" has metamorphasized into beautiful music echoing off the plaster walls and the hard-wood floors of our 1922 home. Caroline and Annie have both become good young pianists, playing songs such as Claire da Lune, and Musette. And Charlie...well Charlie always takes a bow with the girls after their lessons even though he hasn't begun playing yet.

What has been most exciting to me is the girls' continued enthusiasm for it. They don't seem to view practice as drudgery and they often sit down at the piano to try their hand at making up their own melodies. I have become a believer in the Suzuki method which emphasizes playing familiar songs by ear before learning music theory. This gives young children enough early success to keep them interested while gradually introducing the necessary skills of sight reading. And, the repetition required to master the songs progressively instills fingering mechanics. Of course, our instructor, Charlotte Garwood, has just the right balance of discipline and patience and genuinely enjoys teaching. This combination of method, instructor and emphasis on parental involvement seems to be working marvelously for Caroline and Annie. They are excited to discover what come next in book two!

God's Soverienty in a Risky Plan

Before Jesus ascended to Heaven He gave His disciples what is now referred to as "The Great Commission". He told them to "go and make disciples of all nations." Disciples of Jesus learned this process from the Master. Jesus' method of making disciples was investing his life in them. Walking, talking, eating, doing ministry together, praying together, teaching them. It was a much more integrated approach than Sunday school or a Bible study program.

From a human standpoint it seems awfully risky that Jesus entrusted the future of His church in the world to a rag-tag group of wavering disciples. And yet that was His plan; call, equip, and send. And sending was not alone, but with the power of the Holy Spirit.

From the beginning, our passion and mission with Mission Adelante has been to "Serve Hispanic Immigrants to Christ and mobilize them to serve". For us this is just another way of saying we want to do what Jesus did with His disciples. Serving is the beginning of calling immigrants to a knowledge of a loving and gracious God. As we build relationships and invest, and walk alongside, and teach, we hope that the Holy Spirit will work to bring them to a place of being able to invest in the lives of others as well to share the gospel and bring them to maturity.

Leticia received Christ as her savior in January of 2006. Since then we have invested our lives in her in many ways. Last week Leticia began doing an introductory evangelistic/discipling study with two other Hispanic women. It was not a Mission Adelante scheduled event. It was Leticia initiating and meeting by herself with these women with the promise of walking alongside them to see them to maturity in Christ. And so the miracle of the Great Commission continues, and I stand in awe at the sovereignty of God in His seemingly risky plan that the nations should know Him.