URGENT REQUEST FROM KEITH PARKS OF SEEDS!

Dear Friends:
This is the first time I have felt compelled to contact you in this way. An unprecedented opportunity came before me a few weeks ago. Church leaders in Cuba heard about Project Seedbag and asked me to come and meet them. After two days of sharing our vision and how it could impact the children of Cuba, they asked if I would return right after Easter, in April, to implement the program. In the passion of the moment I said “Yes.” Here is what we agreed to do:
1. Print 20,000 Spanish Seedlings and 1,000 Teacher’s Guides on a church press in Cuba. (Literature cannot be taken into the country). They told me that “Semillitas” would be the first book most of these children would own.
2. Take a team, in April, to teach over 500 children’s workers in three seminars with three major denominations. Take as ma y toys and stationary kits as we can carry in our luggage. They will cut the crayons and pencils. They will share them among the children.
3. Try to gather 20,000 New Testaments. One for each child.
4. Take 1,000 prayer-pal cards in our luggage with picture and handprints of Canadian children.
They promised to:
1. Gather over 500 children’s workers to be trained.
2. Divide the Semillitas (Seedlings) between the trained workers (30-40 each).
3. Oversee the project in the 500 children’s cells.
4. Partner in a prayer-pal system between Cuban and Canadian children. (They begged for this.)
Another missionary organization, IN Network, agreed to partner with us in the project. However our Seeds International share in this venture is approximately $50,000. This includes: printing, New Testaments, seminar expenses, hands on leadership and oversight for one year. As of today I have $4,850 designated funds.
As I woke this morning and thought what do I do? I thought of sending an email to some special friends who could help me out in two ways:
1. Please pray for this venture. We can’t make a public appeal because of where it is. We need God’s favour at every point in the next few weeks.
2. Consider a special financial response before the end of March. I apologize for the shortness of time, but the need is urgent - and the dates where theirs. Send to my personal attention and make payable to Seeds International.
I am taking a training team of four people and another four or five are joining us a prayer partners and to help hand the books (inside the plastic bags which we also have to take with us) to the newly trained workers.
Thank you for your consideration and your prayers.
II have kept names of people and denominations out of this letter for good reason. Feel free to phone or email me at any time.

Yours faithfully,

Keith Parks
President: Seeds International
P.O. Box 276, Abbotsford, BC V2T 6Z6
Office: 888-817-3337
Home/Desk: 604-826-9927
Cell: 778-908-2522
Email: kp@seeds.org

to go or not to go, but is that the question?

OK, obviously i'm a BIG short-term mission fan. i wouldn't be directing this network if i wasn't! i've been thinking lately that the question was NOT IF you should go on short-term mission trips, but that it was more about the HOW you go now.
not everyone shares my opinion. it would be a scary world if everyone did! i recently had the opportunity to teach a class on STM teams @ vanguard college in edmonton. i showed the students an episode of "travel the road" (http://www.traveltheroad.com/), a missionary reality show, to provoke a discussion about the need for flexibility and adaptability while on short-term mission trips. after the class ended, one of the young ladies approached me, very upset about the video. in her opinion, the short-term missionaries hadn't done "enough" (witnessing, disciple-making) to even warrant their trek that particular day/episode. another young man joined the discussion, offering his thots that it didn't matter what they accomplished, it was simply important that they went.
i decided to continue the discussion in class the following day. it turned into a heated debate! on one side, we had a group of people who believed that in going on STMs, if you can't stay around and make disciples, you shouldn't even bother going. the other side argued that it was important to just GO, obeying and fulfilling the Great Commission, even if it meant you made no disciples.
tough arguments. i can see the validity on both sides. how can you not go, just because you can't stay for months and disciple people? isn't it better that you give someone the opportunity to hear the Gospel? then again, are we actually disobeying the GC by not "making disciples" as Jesus commanded? maybe it's better to leave people with their own beliefs if you can't stay around to help them walk thru their new faith.
ultimately, when you're doing a STM trip, it is best to work through a church or missionary that can be there to follow-up and continue to teach those who make decisions for Christ. then at least you went, and someone else discipled. if it all gets done, does it matter who did it? paul didn't think so, and said as much in 1 Corinthians 3:6 - "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow."
sounds like everyone has a job to do. i'm OK with that! any thots?