Global Missions

Building a Better Honduras

Since 2008, teams lead by Millbrook Baptist members Debbie Crumpler and Gregg Mealor have worked to build houses for very poor people in San Nicolas, Copan, Honduras. Over the years the team has expanded to include Steven Lingafelt, Janny Mealor, Marnie Semple, Kyle Brinkmeier and Diego Rodas and has additionally involved six other friends, co-workers and family members as participants.  From 2009 - 2023, 60 houses have been built or began for 270 people (147 children & 123 adults). Planning is already underway for another trip in July or August of 2024. Take a look back at our past 15 years in Honduras

Although the houses are of simple block construction with a steel roof and, at 19 feet by 19 feet, are smaller than most of our garages, they are literally lifesaving to those families who have no safe place to live. The impact goes beyond shelter as now parents can provide their children with safe, stable living conditions and begin to live with dignity. We have seen children stay in school and illiterate mothers learning to read as middle-aged adults. In several instances children who suffered from severe respiratory issues have become healthy because their home is now clean and smoke from their wood burning stove is not vented into the living space.

There are numerous ways to participate in this mission project including prayer, monetary donations, or joining the team. You can email our team members at honduras@millbrookbaptistchurch.org  or leave a message at the church office.  Donations can be made by check to the church noting “Honduras ministry” on the memo line or online through this website.

To learn more about this project, please visit our Facebook page or click here for our history, impact, and recent trip summaries.

Fair Trade Missions

Fair Trade items are often for sale in the vestibule, usually on the second Sunday of the month. Our church supports Fair Trade by selling fair trade products (coffee, tea, and chocolate) purchased from Equal Exchange. We sell the items at our cost to maximize sales, which benefits the small farmers.

Using coffee as an example, the traditional chain for the production and sale is: Farmer to Middleman to Processor to Exporter to US Broker to Coffee Company to Food Distributor to Store to You. Every link is making a profit. Through purchasing Fair Trade coffee from Equal Exchange, the chain is shortened from 9 steps to 4. It becomes Farmer to Co-op to Equal Exchange to You.

By cutting out the middlemen, the farmers and workers earn more and you pay less. The farmers and workers are better able to support their families, increase their standard of living, afford health care, and provide education for their children.

Purchasing Fair Trade products also helps our environment because small farmers use organic methods, which are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Planting shade grown coffee eliminates the need for clear cutting and protects certain species of song birds. So by switching to fair trade coffee we can help the small farmer and his or her family out of poverty and positively impact our environment.

JourneyPartners

JourneyPartners connects resources, people, challenges and opportunities around the world and at home. We focus in three main arenas: clean and available water, education and resources, and health and medicine. Past celebrations included the construction of a 75,000 gallon water reservoir in Gweru, Zimbabwe; assisting the new Alliance of Baptists in Brazil in the publication of Walter Shurden’s “Four Fragile Freedoms” in Portugese, and delivery of more than two tons of supplementary textbooks to Jones County Schools in eastern North Carolina. More recent partnerships have brought more than a dozen cross-cultural mission immersion teams to Zimbabwe, and included the construction of a hostel to house AIDS orphans in Masembura and shipment of more than 500 nursing and medical textbooks to nursing schools in several developing areas.

Rise Against Hunger

Millbrook recently donned our gloves and hair nets to a host a Rise Against Hunger event. Rise Against Hunger aims to end world hunger by 2030 in accordance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Goal #2 of Zero Hunger. The organization’s work focuses on crisis relief and safety net food programs that include education and training in skills that foster proper nutrition and sustainability.

Sole Hope

Each year, Millbrook partners with Sole Hope to help provide healthier lives to children in Uganda. The core mission of Sole Hope is to effectively put in place preventive methods to combat diseases that enter through the feet and to create a positive physical and spiritual difference in the lives of individuals in impoverished communities. The solution is simple: shoes! By providing shoes, children are safe from jiggers (a burrowing bug that can cause tissue damage, infection, and great pain). With help from the Dorcas ministry, Millbrookers gather denim, milk jugs, and other materials that will be used to make shoes for children in Uganda. Each April, Millbrook hold its annual Sole Hope event. Volunteers cut fabric for the shoes, which are then sent to Africa to be assembled by local shoemakers. The donations provide healthier lifestyles, and help generate economic support through job creation.