Church of Christ
400 East 41st Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57105

CHURCH OF CHRIST MISSIONS

Nigeria Mission

Doug Wheeler is our "Missionary in Residence" at the Westside Church of Christ in Norman, Oklahoma. For over 20 years, Doug has been traveling over to Nigeria, West Africa spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and sharing the love and benevolence of many American Christians. For five years now, our congregation has personally helped in expanding this great work by giving thousands of dollars annually to support the spreading of the gospel in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Nigeria has a population of 135 million. It is 1/10 the size of the United States (which has a population of 330 million). There are 36 states in Nigeria, one of which is Ekiti State. The two most populous cities in Nigeria are Lagos and Ibadan, each with over 15 million people. There are 330,000 members of the church of Christ meeting in 3,700 congregations.

Our Brothers From Nigeria Visit Us
Sept 3rd, 2008

Doug Wheeler, Monday John, Sylvester Imogoh, Austin and Dave speaking about Nigeria at our Mission Meal 2008. This was the first time Sylvester had ever been to America and the stories Monday and Sylvester shared were both encouraging and inspiring.

2008 Nigeria Trip A Huge Success

Doug's trip to Nigeria in 2008 was a wonderful mission of mercy and salvation for many souls. Over 130 people were baptized into Jesus Christ for the remission of sins as well as many widows and orphans being cared for with our benevolent funds.

Many of our members continue to show great support in Nigerian Missions. Here Tom, Mary, Brian, Matthew and Rebecca Wilcox meet Sylvester for the first time.

Phillipines Mission

Bill Westerberg is our Missionary to the Philippines. Bill is a native South Dakotan who, after being converted to Jesus Christ, went on to complete his education at a Christian College and has served the Lord faithfully for many years. Bill lives in Talisay City, Cebu Province, Philippines and works as an Evangelist for the local church there. Many people, including our congregation, support him with their monies. In his latest Mission Report there have been 12 more baptisms since August ?04 and they have a church membership of around 25 souls.

Bill Westerberg Doing the Lord's Work

Bill Westerberg baptizes a woman named Gloria into Jesus Christ on August 2nd, 2006.

India Mission / Lifeline of Hope
International Orphan Aid and Adoption

LIFELINE OF HOPE has been aiding and supporting orphans and homeless children in Far East Russia for more than five years and is now providing aid in several other countries as well. LIFELINE currently supports over 17,000 orphan children through financial contributions and gifts in kind from our many caring doners as Churches, individuals, other organizations and businesses.

Mission Statement Our Mission and Yours!

To bring hope to the orphans of the world by providing food, shelter, medical, children's Bibles, educational assistance, adoption services and more in a manner that breaks the cycle of dependence and promotes individual and societal productivity as well as charitable character within the community.

Our church family has contributed thousands of dollars to this very worthwhile organization. Recently this church took up a special collection to specifically help Indian orphans and we collected over $10,000 to send to their aid. God bless these needy children as they grow and understand the grace of our Lord in their lives. And God bless those who gave from their abundance and who understand what the Lord teaches us about what pure religion is all about. Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows and refuse to let the world corrupt us. James 1:27.

MISSION GUATEMALA
by Jeff Miller

I had the privilege to go on a mission trip to Guatemala with my parents, Kent and Shirley Miller, as well as two high school classmates, Frank and Lori Walker. The trip was organized through Hope Haven International Ministries out of Rock Valley IA. Hope Haven has a wheelchair ministry and has made distributions in 103 different countries to date (http://www.hopehaveninternationalministries.org/). Many of these countries have distributions each year and some, like Guatemala, have a local presence and in fact manufacture and re-manufacture wheelchairs in the country for distribution within that country.

Many Ministry Opportunities

Our trip to Guatemala was filled with many opportunities to serve including helping to get the new manufacturing facility set up and organized, visiting a children's hospital/orphanage, visiting a soup kitchen and helping some of the widows that come daily, working with a local church to supply food needs of their widows, distributing 50 plus wheelchairs along with walkers and canes to a extremely poor community, and working with a small community government to determine how to partner with them to help supply the needs of their poor.

Watching God at Work

We all came home with many heart warming stories of how God was at work even in area of the world that seemed to be impoverished. Many that we came in contact with live day to day and give God thanks for every meal they get. It was great to see the praise that was given to God for even the small things like shoes or candy. This trip helped me to realize how very blessed we are in this country and how much God has given me that I can share with others. God had given us all time, talent and treasure in differing quantities but He calls us to serve in any of the ways that we can.

Dick Rutgers

My heart goes out to the people of Guatemala and those that serve them on a daily basis. One gentleman we met there from the States that now lives in Guatemala and has a heart for serving was Dick Rutgers. I worked with him at both the orphanage and during our wheelchair distribution and he has a heart of gold. He has a web site that he journals his daily experiences on that I would encourage you to visit. His site is: http://dickrutgers.com/.

Consider How You Can Serve

God bless you as you consider how you can serve others in this country, as well as abroad.