WHAT -- Mission Fest Fundraiser for Sam and Wendy Lemmons
WHEN -- Sat. April 13 from 4-7pm
WHERE -- New LifeBridge property: 16614 Mueschke Rd. Note: in case of bad weather, the event would move to St. John Lutheran church at 15235 Spring Cypress Rd.

As you may know, God has opened some amazing doors for LifeBridge to be involved in missions work in Nepal (see more below). At every turn He has amazed us, and He has done it to us again. We are very humbled to announce that we will be sending two of our own -- Sam and Wendy Lemmons -- to serve as full time missionaries in Nepal.

We are very excited....but honestly, we need some help! The cost for sending them for two years comes out to $84,000, which will be entirely self-funded. This goes beyond what our little church is able to do on our own, so we are reaching out to the St. John Lutheran Church family, along with extended connections of Sam and Wendy, and asking you to partner with us to make this happen.

Please join us on Saturday, April 13 from 4-7 for an afternoon of mission fun as we enjoy a BBQ dinner, listen to the music of several local music groups, have a silent auction, hear from a Nepali singing/dance group, and (most importantly) rally together to raise the money needed to send Sam and Wendy as missionaries to Nepal.

If you are planning to attend, could you please RSVP to help us get a better feel for how much food to prepare :-)

Sam and Wendy leave for missions training in Colorado the very next morning, so we are praying that we will raise the entire $84,000 by the end of this evening. Their house is sold, jobs are winding down, and they plan on being in Nepal by June. Please come out, see the new LifeBridge property, and be outrageously generous as we rally together to support this mission.

Check out Sam and Wendy's donation page to see how they are doing. Also, donations that are given the night of the event will be matched dollar for dollar -- up to $25,000 total.

Nepal, a small and poor country that sits between China and India, is being reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ like never before. It is the home of Mount Everest and the Himalayan mountains, the birthplace of Buddhism, and a country that has long been dominated by the idol worship of Hinduism and a brutal caste system. But, in recent years, Christianity has exploded -- from only 25 believers in 1960 to over 400,000 today (roughly 4% of the total population). While exciting things are happening in missions all over the world, what is happening in Nepal is truly unique, as a nation that had been completely closed to the Gospel is now seeing a dramatic and powerful movement of God's Spirit sweep across their land.

God has opened doors for LifeBridge to be on the front lines of what is going on there. We have become connected with about 50 indigenous church planters through a small missions agency called ServLife International in planting churches in the most remote villages of Nepal. Many of these areas have never even heard of Jesus Christ, which makes this work all the more urgent and exciting.

Because Nepal is one of the most impoverished countries in the world, a key part of the evangelism strategy is to establish micro-finance loans in these remote villages where the church planters are working. Through these loans, the poorest of the poor are given small loans to buy a flock of chickens or a cow, or to open a small store, or any number of options which allow them to provide for their basic needs. This often opens the door to a conversation about Jesus. Working to get this established will be one of Sam and Wendy's primary responsibilities.

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Every November, the church planters gather for a conference in Nepal, for 4-5 days of singing, prayer, and teaching. Then, they make the long trek back to their villages and the churches they are planting. We were so moved by their singing and prayers....

One of the rural villages in western Nepal.

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Here, we share a personal and powerful time of singing and prayer with a Nepali church planter and his family before we continued on our way.