Hope you are encouraged by these stories from the incredible staff, students and church leaders we have partnered with. If you have pictures or stories to tell, post to our Facebook page, or email us at jenny@kaleomissions.org!
“This week the Lord showed me that as I talk to others about his great and mighty works, I can’t do it on my own. He will always be my constant delight, and community is a key ingredient for ministry.”
“Working at the drug rehab center, I met Brother Rod who has been at the end of his rope and is now living his life actively and passionately seeking after a lasting relationship with his Lord and Savior. The change that God has wrought in so many lives is truly rewarding!”
“In many ways, seeds have been planted in our lives to live out ministry back home. This week I learned that ministry and witnessing is a privilege.”
“I was impacted to how our Bible Club inspired the church to start reaching out to their community. Our ministry helped renew their passion for reaching their neighborhood and I can’t wait to see how God continues to move as that church impacts the area.”
“My team developed a deep passion for the lost this week. They have a genuine concern for God’s people. I believe God will continue to open up many doors for us.”
“This week I realized first hand that prayer is powerful! Our first day of ministry was discouraging so when we got home, we fell on our knees and prayed! While we drove in the car we prayed, before everything we did, we prayed! God drastically moved when we faithfully prayed!”
“This week was life changing for me. I was never one to break out of my comfort zone and talk to strangers about my faith. Throughout this week God has really pushed me through ministry, praying with others and talking to people downtown. I have learned that He will help me as long as I ask and it has been so amazing for me to see myself doing things I wouldn’t normally do and knowing it wasn’t because of me but because of the Lord. God rid me of a lot of the insecurities that I had about talking to other people and helped me put myself out there.”
“It’s so amazing how close we can get to people/kids in such a short time and how much they can impact us. Many of the Bible club kids want to continue to learn more about God. I am so thankful for the chance to work with them and I hope that God sends more people to further spread His word.”
“Tonight my group met a lady downtown who had obviously been crying. We asked how we could pray for her and she shared that she had just taken heroin for the first time in three years and she was so discouraged that she had let herself get caught up in this addiction again. We were able to listen to her and encourage her and hare with her about what Christ has to offer.”
Whevever God calls, He equips, and that means that our part is walking in faith. I have been taught that, I have read that, but this week I actually got to SEE that. –Corinne, college student
This place needs love… a lot more than a week’s worth. We need people to spend time here developing real relationship with people. But that’s not limited to here. It’s true in our town, too. –Paul, college student
Everything we do here, is by faith. Our primary textbook is the Word of God, because we know that He who the Son has set free, is free indeed!
It is incumbent upon us, the church, those who are followers of Christ, to pick up and help those who are less fortunate, as the Bible calls, “the least of these,”and the Bible tells us that what we’ve done for the least of these, we have done for God. What can we do for God? Really nothing, but to love Him and to love our neighbor as ourself. –Pastor Mel, Bethel Colony
There’s a lot of brokenness in this city and a lot of people hurting, and from my work at the Union Gospel mission I see that people just want to know that they are loved. These people who are homeless and are struggling on the street, they just need to know that Someone loves them. And I think that having people come here and show them how much love God has for them, is exactly what they need. –high school student
Where I am from we have people who are homeless, and I just want to look away and pretend that they aren’t there. But after serving this week, I want to go home and look them in the eye and tell them that we really care about them.
I have been taking junior high groups on missions trips for close to 17 years, and I have been thoroughly impressed with Kaleo during our week here, for a couple reasons. Number one, the quality of relationships that we were able to form this week. That’s one of the things we really wanted to see happen, to see our students put in a place where they can learn from and be in a relationship with others while they serve. It was also great because we were able to serve in really meaningful way, to leading VBS and Kaleo provided us the resources but let our kids lead. We got to learn about ministries, we got to be hands and feet, we got to serve. Kaleo put us in really great position to do all of that and it’s been a really great week for us and for our kids to be able to experience what it’s like to serve others, what it’s like to be in relationship with one another, what it’s like to be able to learn from someone else’s story, and how to share our own stories. We’ve had a great week and we’ve been blessed to be here. 
Before the trip, I loved God already, but I wasn’t quite sure. But now, from this trip, just seeing how other people think of God and how He inspires them, I’ve come to realize that God really is amazing and that He’s there for you always, no matter what you do, and I have just now accepted fully that God will always be there and He’s just awesome.
We have a lot of ministry opportunities, we have great, godly people, that are really interested in serving Him, and I’ve had the opportunity to personally work with these teens, to lead them out into the city and to introduce them to homeless people and to help them serve and it’s been a transforming experience for so many of these kids. They’ve really grown a lot and I’ve been blown away time and time again by just how much they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and really pushed themselves and it’s been a rewarding experience.
