May 1, 2008

Dear Friends and Partners,
 
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains cover it with pools.” Psalm 84:5-6.
 
I believe living the Christian life is the most adventurous lifestyle in the world. Sometimes I become so excited about the things of God, optimism overcomes me and it does not matter what obstacles stand in the way, I know I am an overcomer.

Many times in the ministry of Overland Missions, we travel to remote areas and find people in truly desperate situations. There is little economic help, there is no social hope and with everything inside me I cannot think of an economic solution for the villages. But as I begin to view the situation through the eyes of the Kingdom of God, I can quite easily see the valleys blossom with life.

This type of vision and faith is what changes nations. Over the last year and a half, we have been working diligently. We are now beginning to see the fruit of the vision come to pass and there are many people that are receiving sustainable assistance.  

I have included a letter from the President of Burundi that endorses Overland Missions. I wanted to share this with you as an example of the favor of God upon us to reach nations. I first traveled to the Central African nation in the fall of 2007. The nation of Burundi, with the leadership of President Nkurunziza, is moving forward after more than a dozen years of ethnic violence. A peace agreement was reached in the fall of 2006.

It is with great honor that I have been able to sit with President Nkurunziza and listen to him explain his steadfast desire to see permanent change come to his country. His government is working to rebuild an entire nation and considers Overland partners in the vision of Burundi. We take this as an amazing honor.

It is difficult to explain all that is happening without sounding as if I am exaggerating. Please know that our evangelism, discipleship, rural pastors network and humanitarian efforts are moving forward at a great pace. This pace is applying new demands upon the organization and new occasions that require us to excel.

I trust that as you faithfully partner with the vision of Overland Missions, the same optimism we have to change hopeless nations will be upon you to change your nation and the world.

We love and appreciate you,

Philip and Sharon Smethurst
Overland Missions, Founders

March 1, 2008

Dear friends,

Never before have we been able to see so clearly. We have always known that there were villages just beyond our reach that desperately needed the gospel. Now, the power of technology has allowed us to see the exact location of these isolated people. Recon missions can be done anywhere using a computer to search Google Earth. This program uses satellite imagery to search the world and find people that are isolated.

In the past, Overland had taken a “lateral” approach to reach those in developing nations–the only people we reached were found as we explored just off the paths. This hindered the overall management of unreached people, as well as the stewardship of the message of the gospel.

Two years ago we started exploring the world topographically using satellite imagery. This allowed us to systematically make a plan using a bird’s eye view that revealed the location of every person, every house and every pathway. We soon realized that those that we can see, we can reach. Now they can be located from the air and this obligates us to find them. With the exact location of villages known, precise plans can be made to travel to the location. Google Earth shows so much information that it can be determined from a desk in the USA whether a village is in need of a well.

We divided areas of the world into sectors and each one is roughly 10,000 square miles. A management system is being put in place that will ensure that people are reached and the gospel is shared. In each sector, a missionary will serve for five years concentrating on both the spiritual and practical needs of the local people. They will work with the local pastors and leaders to establish churches through the Rural Pastors Network. This focused strategy engages and utilizes every one of the Overland Missions departments to ensure that the basics of food, water, education and health needs of the community are met.

Google Earth has changed our lives, but it certainly didn’t make our load any lighter. Now that we can see the exact location of people, we are responsible to reach them. This new strategy will greatly surpass the work of David Livingstone whose path we follow so often within Southern Africa. At the same time know that along with this massive endeavor comes the possibility of great sacrifice, so please remember us in your prayers.

More information about the new sector strategy can be found by clicking here. Please support us financially as the needs of the villages and people that have been located become apparent.

We love and appreciate you,

Philip Smethurst
Overland Missions, President

February 1, 2008

Dear Friends and Partners,

I met Jack Mututwa during my first trip to the Western Province of Zambia in 2003. He was still in high school at the time, yet our team discerned that the call of God was on his life.  Over the years, our team has developed a relationship with Jack.  As he has grown older, we have watched his vision for the nation of Zambia and for his own tribe, the Lozi people, increase. Jack is part of a relationship that has already changed his own nation

We are at work in the nations to build lasting relationships with people, which strengthen and encourage the local church.  Not just anyone, but God ordained relationships with men like Jack, who have the call of God to be apostolic leaders in their own nations.

We are utilizing short-term expedition teams to minister to the nations through local leaders, so that at the end of the day it is not about what Overland Missions has done, it is about raising up the national people to be living epistles in their own nations.  Short-term teams are an expression of the Gospel to communicate the message of God’s heart to the nations of the world.  This is successful because the teams do not just travel to an area, say a few things and leave, but they invest time and build lasting relationships with the local people.

All around the world men like Jack are being raised up by Overland Mission’s teams to establish the Kingdom of God in remote and neglected areas.  These relationships have a lasting effect and enable us to sow into local leaders and churches of the developing world.

This year 16 different missions expeditions are planned throughout the world that will utilize short-term teams to enact long-term change. We are going to do this the best way possible, through you, the church. The nations will be touched this year through your involvement with the team whether by going to a nation, praying for the nations or giving to the see Jesus’ sacrifice be made known. The relationship between those who go, give and pray transforms nations. We give glory to God for the relationship we have with local men like Jack and world changers like you.

Yours in the Vision,

David Philips
Director of Operations

January 1, 2008

Dear Partners,

"Never pity missionaries; envy them.  They are where the real action is - where life and death, sin and grace, heaven and hell converge." - Missionary Robert C. Shannon

The early church began on the day of Pentecost when a group of empowered young people believed that Christ was in them and that they could do anything. It is recorded that they left from that place and scattered throughout the globe on journeys that changed the destiny of the Earth.

Several years later the Apostle Paul was on the road to Damascus and had a similar encounter with God. Then he began short mission journeys throughout Asia Minor with a vision to plant churches to see God establish his kingdom. The journeys were so vital and effective that they are recorded not only in the New Testament but also in history books. Even today if you were to travel to Turkey, there are monuments where Paul landed during his mission journeys.

We need to understand that our lives in the hands of God are a duplicate of the life of Jesus upon the Earth. If we disperse and mobilize ourselves on journeys and short-term missions trips the affect upon the ground could be immense. The mass amplification of the gospel to multitudes of sojourners will produce a movement around the globe that equals and maybe even surpasses the Pentecostal movement in the early centuries. 

We deem a young man or woman more useful to the kingdom in villages than waiting in line to preach from a first world pulpit. We must never underestimate a young missionary sending out a support letter, willing to be useful in the hands of God. It is imperative to support and encourage them; you need to be a part of them. Overland Missions has positioned itself to be an organization that facilitates the movement of believers around the globe preaching the Gospel. 

We have increased our fleet of trucks in Africa to seven, allowing us to take double the number of missionaries into the villages. Currently we are mapping out new areas where the gospel has not yet been heard.  We will be able to reach these areas with our 4x4 expedition vehicles. If you have not been on a mission journey before, 2008 may be the year that you deploy on one of our trucks. There are opportunities available in Baja Peninsula, Amazon, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. 

Thank you for you support. Overland is growing at a rapid pace because of your prayers and your finances.

Yours sincerely,

Phil and Sharon Smethurst

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Newsletter: December Newsletter 2007
Posted by philip |&nbspon Sunday, December 02, 2007 - 09:53 PM

Dear Partners,

Throughout Africa there is village upon village where 40% of thepopulation is comprised of orphans and widows, most of them living with HIV/AIDS. The disease has devastated the rural villages of Africa leaving parents living with the knowledge that they will most likely not live more than two years. The rest of their days are filled with worry about who will care for their children. Overland Missions and The LIFE Project are helping to create sustainable infrastructure for these vulnerable people. Also we are endeavoring to provide transportation via all terrain vehicles so that the HIV/AIDS victims can get to the life saving antiretroviral drugs.

In July 2005 I visited an isolated, rural village in Zambia, Central Africa. It was a two and a half hour drive by 4x4 vehicle to reach the area. We then walked for 30 minutes through the African bush and were welcomed by four families in the village. They greeted us with warm hospitality and invited us into their homes. We learned that day that most of the children in the village had not seen Westerners before.

Exactly two years later I traveled back to the village on a routine mission to bring development to the rural areas. I fully expected to greet my friends and see the same smiling faces that I had seen during my first visit, but I was in for a rude awakening. We found a village that had been drastically changed by HIV/AIDS as many of the adults had passed away. This left only two grandmothers to care for all the children. There was a food shortage due to drought and the villagers knew that their supply would not last them the year. Then we met a young child that clearly had HIV/AIDS and was suffering from septic sores all over his body. I was speechless. "I have to mobilize an army," I thought.

Overland Missions and The LIFE Project are working in these neglected areas where people are truly suffering. The painful reality is that this type of suffering is not uncommon in Central Africa. The solution is simple for the people of this village as antiretroviral drugs are only about a four-hour drive away. With little access to transportation it is nearly impossible for the villagers to get to town to receive treatment. Overland Missions and The LIFE Project will utilize the fleet of 4x4 vehicles and provide transportation to those in need of life-saving antiretroviral drugs. These trucks become tools as they reduce the distance between the villages and towns, between lack of medical assistance to access to life-saving medication.

In Christ,

Philip and Sharon Smethurst
Founders Overland Missions

Oscar's Hope

By Sharon Smethurst

The sound of prayers mingled with the shouts of children in the village that day. Our team laid hands on a woman with a coal black smudge on her forehead and a wiggling baby in her arms. The smudge barely concealed a gash that she had cut into her forehead with a razor blade. She believed the cut would relieve the intense pressure she was experiencing from a migraine. We prayed to God that she would be healed of the migraines that had led her to torment her own body to such a degree.

I saw him leaning against the tree trunk that only highlighted how tiny his body was, as the other children ran and played around him. A shy smile spread across his face as we made eye contact. He gathered the courage to wave and I found that his little smile was infectious. Soon I was mimicking his gesture of little boy kindness and smiled, waving back at him.

After we finished praying for the woman, my husband Philip noticed the little boy and brought him forward by the hand. Oscar was his name. His smile transformed into a frown as flies covered the open sores like people on a crowded city street. Then I realized how sick he really was. The biggest sore on the back of his head appeared to have the inability to scab over and flakes of skin were barely hanging on. The red, tattered t-shirt he wore was unable to cover his bloated belly that had swollen due to lack of protein. His eyes were lowered and he stared blankly at the ground as if trying to focus on something else other than the intense pain. One moment of witnessing his condition was hard enough; he lived with this sickness for four years.

We asked to meet the little boy's parents and the two grandmothers of the village explained that his mother died the previous year. As the flies buzzed around his open wounds it became apparent that he was a bit of an outcast, as if when they touched him they would share the same fate. Not only that but there was no medicine, no clinic, and no means of treatment for him. They had no other option but to let him live in that condition. The team placed their hands on him not fearing the open sores but knowing God's promise was for a complete healing, so with faith we prayed. We then offered the simple medicine we had and slowly gathered to leave. Oscar showed his smile one last time as he waved goodbye.

As we walked through the high bush and the village slowly disappeared behind us, Philip turned to Eneas our friend and translator and asked about a woman, Agnes that he remembered meeting in the village two years ago. Eneas nonchalantly said, "She died." My husband immediately put the pieces together and realized the mother of this orphan boy was Agnes. Just two years ago she put on her best blouse because she was so proud to show it to the visitors and greeted them with her biggest smile. Her husband was already deceased then, and now she was gone as well. "HIV. The mother died of HIV," Eneas said. This is why Oscar's wounds won't heal and why people are scared to touch him for fear of contracting the disease. I know the statistics of HIV/AIDS and the suffering that comes with it, but it became so tangible that day when I realized someone I knew by name is now part of that statistic.

Never before have we witnessed such a drastic change in a village in such a short amount of time. We were there one year and the little boy was part of a family, he had someone to care for him and provide for him. Somewhere along the timeline of two years he became an orphan, left alone to cope with life.

The suffering that he experienced I haven't experienced, my own children haven't experienced. When I met him, I just wanted to express through my face and smile that I could see the child in him through all of the sickness. I wanted him to know that I saw he was just a little boy and that he needed to be loved.

This little boy lived in a village that is just two hours away from the nearest urban city. If he lived next door to you in the United States it would be absurd if he didn't receive treatment. It isn't that treatment is unavailable in Zambia; it is that the village is so remote and that makes it nearly impossible for him to reach help.

When I met Oscar I felt that if someone knew about him, he could get the help he needed. I know now about him. I know what he has suffered. As a parent I can only imagine that the mothers and fathers of children like this wish, hope, and pray that someone would reach out in love. Philip and I, Overland Missions and The LIFE Project are reaching out in love to Oscar. Not only to Oscar, but to as many families and orphans affected by HIV/AIDS as possible. This is just one little boy in one village. How many other children are there like this in the rural areas of Africa?

-Sharon Smethurst

November 2007
Posted by philip |&nbspon Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 12:00 AM

We believe that our trucks are not just vehicles, they are not simple nuts and bolts, transmission and tires - they are instruments. These trucks make it possible for one person to touch another person with the truth of the gospel. The geography and terrain of Africa necessitates the use of these trucks to reach people. This is why I am so excited to tell you that we have purchased four DAF 4 x4 trucks from the Dutch military!

Two months ago I was in England searching for UK surplus yards to buy overland trucks for our work in Africa. By faith, we were believing God for four trucks, but when we found the price of the trucks in Europe, we found that they had gone up by four times and they were around $35,000 a truck.

I began to pray for an open door and a way for us to purchase these four trucks. I knew that there would have to be a miracle of God to raise that much money. I decided to venture into Holland to knock on doors in the Dutch military and find out if we could find favor with them.

The Dutch military welcomed us with open arms, and rolled out the red carpet! Later on, we learned that they gave us the highest military charity approval that the Dutch military gives. It turned out that they gave us the trucks at half price of what they usually sell the trucks to charity for. Which turned out to be $10,000 a truck, saving $25,000 per truck from the price of the trucks in England!

I set out on a course around the world to fundraise and many of our ministry partners came together to help me raise the money to buy the four trucks. We purchased the trucks and then began to outfit them for the mammoth journey from the Netherlands all the way down to Zambia.

We are so excited about the global trek that the team is embarking on. They will be driving two of the trucks down to Zambia and the other two DAF trucks will be shipped from Holland to Africa. Please consider giving toward the cost of shipping these trucks, as it is $6000 per truck.

The process of preparing these trucks for the way south is no small undertaking. Currently, we have six missionaries in Holland working on outfitting the trucks for the overland trek. It takes a lot of experience, a lot of research, and a lot of supplies. We even managed to find favor with the British triple A, who insured our trucks all the way down to Africa. I have been in the ministry for 19 years and there has never been one day that I can remember when the favor of God was not upon us in everything that we have done.

We feel that we have turned a page in the history of Overland Missions, as the addition of the four new trucks opens new countries for us. This very month we will move into Sudan and Burundi. Now there is an arsenal of eight overland trucks in the field and many hearts willing to be useful in the hands of God. These trucks will be going farther and reaching more countries, villages, and people in Africa.

Also, this month we have opened our UK office in Portsmouth, England. This office is a logistical office to facilitate the movement of volunteers out of the UK and into the nations. Again we were met with favor in every area in England.

As always, please continue to pray for Overland Missions as we continue to pioneer in everything we do and have no manual to follow.

In Christ,
Phil and Sharon Smethurst
Founders of Overland Missions

Blind Dusty Faith

The emotion in her voice echoes off the walls as Lindsay Rairick, 19 remembers the story and tells it like it was yesterday.

I remember the first time I stepped out of the Overland truck. We had stopped in one of the villages and I could see the children at the well. The sky was the brightest shade of blue I had ever seen and there they stood against that backdrop. A little boy stood by the well and his hand moved up and down, pumping water. As I watched the water flow from the well, I felt my heart beating at the same pace as his hand pumping the well. From that point on, I felt like I was truly called to the nations.

This summer Lindsay was a co-leader on an expedition to the Masukatwane area in southern Zambia. It is one thing to feel that you are called to the nations, yet another to have the faith to lay hands on one whom is sick with some aliment.

"I had seen us pray for people that didn't get healed and I was just really, really struggling in my heart before I even got to the village. I struggled with the whole healing issue and I would just sit there at night thinking, 'God, why do some people get healed and why do some people not get healed?'"

"There would be all these teachings that I would hear about healing and I just felt like I couldn't get it down pat. Is it the lack of my faith or is it the lack of their faith? I don't understand why it doesn';t work sometimes," she said.

During a time of ministry in one of the villages, Lindsay and the team were asked by a leader of the village to lay hands on the sick.

"So this lady was sitting down and I had noticed her earlier in the meeting. She had seemed to not really be paying attention...she seemed very distant."

The distance didn't last long as a fellow village woman began to help her up by her wrinkled hand and walk her towards Lindsay. The lady's friend then explained, "This lady, she cannot see, and she cannot hear."

Immediately all the questions and insecurities that Lindsay had about healing flooded her mind.

"It took me a while to actually start praying for her because in my head I was thinking multiple things like, 'What if this lady doesn't get healed? What is that going to cause in the village? Will she think that the God that we all believe in doesn't heal everybody?'"

"It was like all those cautions just came flooding back into my head. I just had to stop them and I had to say, "I don't care. I don't care if it is a lack of my faith, if it is a lack of their faith. It doesn't matter because I am going to pray like I know that she is going to get healed because it says in the word that Christ had already died for her pain and for her suffering."

"I prayed so hard. Probably the hardest I had ever prayed for anybody. I just wanted it to happen so badly."

Yet, the woman did not respond. Lindsay said it was at that point that disappointment almost came to her when she realized that the woman had not gotten healed. After praying for the rest of the people the team left the village.

The next day the team was doing door-to-door ministry when they met a woman that began to share her testimony with the interpreter.

The interpreter said, "She said that she was healed by the Bible."

Lindsay said, "Praise God! How great! Jesus heals!"

She then turned to the interpreter and asked him to speak to the woman about what she was healed from. He responded by saying, " She woke up this morning and she could see and she could hear!"

It was at that moment that Lindsay realized that the woman that she prayed for the day before had been healed overnight. The transformation was so complete and there was so much joy and life in her face that Lindsay did not even realize that it was the same woman. Her lifeless face had been filled with the joy of the Lord.

"I was so excited because God proved himself to me and proved himself to her. God proved himself to the whole entire village. I was just one person that came from America and I don't know all about how God works, but He can still use someone like me. It has changed my life. It has changed the way I think about everything."

This summer Lindsay spent five months in Zambia and completed the Advanced Mission Training and co-lead the expedition team with the training she received. She is now a full-time staff member with Overland Missions.

September, 2007

Dear Partners,
We have recently been given a limited opportunity by the Dutch military to purchase four DAF YA4440 4x4 diesel trucks. These trucks are available only with the permission of the Dutch military. We desperately need these powerful 4x4 diesel trucks in order to reach the countries that have opened their doors to our teams and the Gospel. These trucks will be key in the safe transport of our teams in and out of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Also the trucks will aid in the delivery of food and supplies to many of the remote villages that have been devastated by disease and poverty.

The Dutch military has offered us four incredible trucks at $10,000 a piece! They have very low mileage and are in top condition. We have raised the money for two trucks and need $20,000 to purchase the two remaining trucks. Please pray and consider partnering with Overland Missions in the advancement of God's Kingdom by giving to the purchase of these two DAF trucks.

Zanzibar's Dark Secrets

Overland Missions was hard at work this summer and many amazing things have been accomplished for the Kingdom. Teams of missionaries were scattered throughout the earth preaching the word of the Lord. They stood in villages and huts, on street corners and in churches telling of the goodness of Christ that sets unbelievers free.

This month I want to share a life-changing testimony with you. This story came to us from Christy Philips, who was a co-leader on an expedition to Zanzibar in July. This summer was Christy's fifth year with Overland Missions.

Christy led a three-person ministry team into a village and came upon a young woman named Margaret. Margaret explained that she had been visiting the local witch doctor to get relief from a demon that was tormenting her.

"I began to feel my cheeks get hot with anticipation of what I knew was coming next. God wanted this girl delivered and it was only a matter of whether the demon was going to go quietly or dramatically," said Christy.

The team began to sing a song about the blood of Jesus in English, joining Ester their interpreter as she sang in Swahili. As the presence of God began to fill the hut, the demon began to manifest itself.

"Margaret began to wail and thrust her body about. Her arms went up and then her body would get tense, then she would collapse and go quiet. A few seconds would go by and she would repeat it all over again."

Christy said, "Ester's voice still rang out in worship and the intense prayers being prayed aloud in Swahili all filled the mud hut we stood in."

A team member, Emily bent down to look into Margaret's eyes and commanded the demon, "to leave in the name of Jesus."

Emily had never been outside of Michigan, much less been on a missions trip, yet there she was in a hut, face to face with a demon.

"Margaret began to repeatedly scream something in Swahili and then raise her hands and go limp. Emily began speaking in tongues and kept saying a phrase that sounded strangely familiar," said Christy.

Then she bent down and looked directly at Margaret and said, "We see you demon. You're not hiding and you must leave in the name of Jesus."

Christy explained that everyone's prayers started getting louder and more intense. Then suddenly Margaret started screaming something different and shook violently then went completely still. After a moment she sat up opened her eyes and began to say, "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus" over and over again in Swahili.

"Margaret is free of the demon that tormented her. She is now my sister in Christ and she is free in Jesus," said Christy.

The team then spoke with their interpreter, Ester who explained that Margaret was screaming in the beginning, "I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving" and then at the end of the experience began to shout, "I'm going, I'm going."

Emily was shocked to find out that when she was speaking in tongue's she was speaking Swahili, a language she had never learned! The one phrase that sounded so familiar and that she kept repeating was "get out, get out." The power of our Savior is astounding and that power was manifest in a dark mud hut in the middle of Zanzibar Island.

This story is not an isolated incident; it is something that you have contributed to by your partnership. Thank you for your contributions so that all the Margaret's of the world can be reached and set free by the saving message of grace.

In Christ,

Philip and Sharon Smethurst

August, 2007

Dear Partners,

"Let men think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" ~ 1 Corinthians 4:1 This month we have been truly plundering the gates of Hell, with teams of evangelists in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mexico, Sumatra Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Dominical Republic.

God is calling Overland to raise up an army to wage against the ignorance that prevails
on the earth. It's my understanding that not all people will come to salvation because some simply won't believe. But it is my conviction that all should hear of the grace of God and the act of Christ's death and have an opportunity to believe.

We began in May with the first phase of raising the army with the AMT course held in Zambia. It is a 3 month course designed to equip people for the third world work that needs to take place to advance the kingdom. This has been hugely successful and we expect it to fill up to overflowing for next year. We also are planning a 6 week condensed course in the USA. These training programs should produce a large number of disciples willing to carry the baton into the future.

We are forming the army by a coalition of visions from around the world including local churches, evangelistic organizations, humanitarian organizations and Overland Missions' recruits that travel the globe unafraid. Prioritizing firstly to preach the gospel and then using many different infrastructures to Shepard nations into the care of the Gods kingdom. These infrastructures are seen in our "RPN" (Rural Pastors Network), "Life Project" (orphans and widows), "SAM" (sustainable-development and micro-economy), "Pure Water" drilling rigs for fresh water in villages, "Malaria Project" and "HIV Project". These necessary missions of ours are all for temporary relief until the gospel can have an effect in a long-term way in both social and spiritual ways.

To build this army means that I must ask my team to sacrifice once again. Please pray for us as God is directing us to do this, because it will take literally hundreds of thousands and Millions of dollars.

We love and appreciate you,

Phil and Sharon

Posted by philip Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 11:53 AM

Dear Partners,

It was early morning when he reached the bush camp. The camp was miles from any village,
far from any developed cities. He awoke before sunrise to find us. There was anticipation in his stance as he waited for us to welcome him from the long journey. He came for one reason: a rumor of foreigners proclaiming the name of Jesus. He came to us, because he too, knew this Jesus.

As we sat around the fire that morning, smiling, praying and planning, I was overcome by the magnitude of God's kingdom. Relationships are the reason! We have relationship with the Father, therefore, our relationship with others is, "that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:3.

As you read this letter, our teams are building relationships to strategically communicate the gospel in neglected regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

As I write this letter, I can only implore you to join the Adventure, find your place, and be part of the army of love that embraces people with the message of Christ. Below are some practical ways you can be involved.

August 1st, we are in urgent need of short term missionaries to be a part of our Mexico operation. Expeditions are departing from San Diego, California to the tip of the Baja Peninsula. Only $1000 all inclusive. Please see the web page for more details.

September 1st, an event of epic proportion is happening and you can be a part of it! There is a conference that will challenge you to go further in the things of God. More than speakers from a pulpit or famous names in a conference center, this Coordinates Challenge will require you to find a location that is only defined by a longitude and latitude coordinate and reach that location before you can attend. There is no charge for the conference. You only need to Reach us if You Can.

September 10th, Advanced Mission Training: 12 weeks of the most sought after advanced training course available to prepare young adults for the rigors of mission work in the third world. The course is located at the Overland Missions training base, Victoria Falls, Central Africa.

Please visit our web page for more details on how you can get involved. Thank you for your partnership in the ministry. Your contributions speed the communication of the gospel in neglected regions.

If you would like to make a donation to help further our mission to preach the Gospel, please click here.

In Christ,

Philip and Sharon Smethurst