Granada, Spain Trip

Date: Jun 7-18, 2012
Team Leader: Ric Lorilla
Cost: $2500
Focus: Teaching, Telling Your Story, Youth Retreat

Spain has less than 1% of evangelical Christians! The team will serve with Houston's First partner Iglesia Evangélica Bautista de Granada (IEBG), a Spanish Baptist Church located in Granada, as they prayer walk at one of the mission churches, relationally evangelize, and encourage the local believers/church leaders through relationship building events. They will also minister and serve IEBG's Gypsy Christian church (located in Íllora about 45 minutes from Granada), participate/serve in a youth/college retreat weekend hosted by IEBG, and help with Casa Vida (Life House) which is the IEBG’s food pantry and teaching English as a ministry point. The trip will include a one-day visit of the Alhambra, the last standing Moorish palace in all of Europe, to better understand Spain’s religious influences. Spanish is a plus but not required.

Valencia, Spain (Xátiva) Trip

Date: Jun 22-Jul 8, 2012
Team Leader: Susana Say
Cost: $2400
Focus: VBS, Teaching English & Construction

The team will work with Houston's First’s second Spanish partnership, Iglesia Evangélica Bautista de Xátiva (IEBX), a Spanish Baptist Church 45 minutes south of Valencia. Spain has less than 1% of evangelical Christians! Week 1: The team will participate in the church’s Vacation Bible School open to church members, visitors and friends. The second half of the day, the team will paint the church. Week 2: The team will teach English (materials/lessons all prepared in advance by the team) to church members and locals. The second half of the day, there will be construction/beginning preparation to renovate an old mission church (renovate into a home for abused women). In addition, the team will have the opportunity to tell their story at the church services. The trip will include a one-day visit to Valencia. Spanish is a plus but not required.

Athens, Greece Trip

Date: Jul 21-Aug 4, 2012 
Team Leader: Dave Weston
Cost: $1350 (excludes airfare)
Focus: Prayer walking, Telling Your Story, Immigrant Ministry

Teams will prayer walk through communities asking God to open the hearts of those they see to the gospel; witness to immigrants by sharing their personal story; partner with long term teams; participate in morning team prayer and devotionals.

Ireland Trip (Dublin & Galway)

Date: Jul 22-Aug 1, 2012

Team Leader: Malcolm Marshall

Cost: $2500

Focus: Sports Evangelism

The team will be partnering with Houston's First missionaries serving in Ireland serving with World Venture. The team will focus on sports outreach, however there will be opportunities to minister via the arts and service projects.

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Date: Nov 3-16, 2012

Team Leader: Sue Marshall (713.681.5372)

Cost: $3,500

Focus: Orphanages

Visit several orphanages, conduct mini-VBS, possible repair work, provide humanitarian aid, interact with and LOVE on the children. It is our desire to provide for the kids physically, mentally, and spiritually by teaching them about God.

Where We've Gone

Grenoble & Lille, France Trip

Date: Mar 10-18, 2012

The team will be part mission conference, part mission trip, and part hiking/skiing/excursions trip. You can tailor your participation to your interests. We will be going to Greater Europe Mission's conference center in the French Alps for 5 days. Each day we will have missionaries serving in GEM's Immigrant Ministry lead us in devotionals in the mornings and challenge us with messages in the evenings. During the day participants will have options to sight see, ski/snowboard, or participate in a mission project in Grenoble. Possibilities will be to prayer walk and interact with North African immigrant markets in Grenoble or perform work projects at a campus ministry house at the University of Grenoble. We will then spend 2 nights in Lille (north of Paris) at the end of the trip where GEM missionaries are working with immigrants to plant churches. We will participate in a mission project day in Lille on March 17th.

Russia Orphanage Trip (Nizhniy Novgorod)

Date: Oct 4-14, 2011

Travel with us to Nizhny, Russia to work in various orphanages! We will conduct VBS for the children, deliver humanitarian aid, and do some types of work projects to improve the facilities at an orphanage.

France Trip (Lille)

Date: Summer 2011 

The team will partner with Greater Europe Mission (GEM).

England Trip (Cambridge/London)

Date:Jul 15-25, 2011

The team will work on the Tyndale House Library in Cambridge. Repairs will be performed on the interior and the exterior including the grounds and garden. Library work will also be performed to catalog more of the library's resources and to get more of them online to allow worldwide internet usage. The tea, will also participate in evangelistic outreach to international students at Cambridge University partnering with Cambridge International Outreach. The trip will close with a day visit to London.

France Trip (Marseille)

Date: Mar 12-19, 2011

We will be partnering with a team of IMB Missionaries to assist them with their ministry. We will participate in student and professional exchanges, English Clubs, prayer walking, and other relational evangelism in the city. We will conclude our trip with a day in Nice before returning home.

Spain Trip (Granada)

Date: May 25-Jun 6, 2011

The team will serve with Houston's First partnership, Iglesia Evangélica Bautista de Granada (IEBG), a Spanish Baptist Church located in Granada. Spain has less than 1% of evangelical Christians! Overall the team will be involved in prayer walking, relational evangelism, encouraging the local believers and church leaders through relationship building activities, leading and teaching the college and youth students through personal testimonies, music, and teaching. They will also be ministering and serving IEBG's Gypsy Christian church (located in Íllora about 45 minutes from Granada) in whatever needs they have (there might be some manual labor); they will participate/serve in a youth/college retreat weekend hosted by IEBG; and there will be a 2-day trip to Seville (2 hours from Granada) where the team will work with another mission church. The trip will close with a quick visit of Madrid, the capitol of Spain. Spanish is a plus but not required.

Russia Orphanage Trip (St. Petersburg)

Date: Oct 6-15, 2010

We will be partnering with Orphan Outreach and will be going to St. Petersburg.To meet the needs of orphans and share with them the unconditional love and hope we have through Christ by conducting VBS. To encourage and disciple the children we work with.

Russia Trip (Nizhniy Novgorod)

Date: May 23-Jun 1, 2010

Focus: Evangelism & children's theater

This team consisted of a children's theater group who presented 2 plays—one from American history and one that showed the life of Christ. In addition, an ESL conference was offered to the local churches.

Spain April Trip (Granada & Seville)

Date: Apr 14-26, 2010

Focus: Relational evangelism, prayer walking, university/youth outreach, construction

The team served with Houston's First partnership, Iglesia Evangélica Bautista de Granada (IEBG), a Spanish Baptist Church located in Granada. Overall the team was involved in prayer walking, relational evangelism, distributing food to those in need through the IEBG's food bank, relationship building activities, leading and teaching the college and youth students through personal testimonies, music, and preaching. They also visited IEBG's new northern campus and a gypsy Christian church (located in Íllora) where the team did light construction, painting and the like; they participated/served in a city-wide concert hosted by IEBG; and there was a 2-day trip to Seville (2 hours from Granada) where the team worked with a mission church called Montequinto. The trip closed with a quick visit of Madrid, the capitol of Spain.

France Trip (Marseille)

Date: Mar 12-21, 2010

Focus: Evangelism & prayer walking

Over Spring Break, we partnered with a team of IMB Missionaries in Marseille, France to assist them with their ministry. We participated in student and professional exchanges, English Clubs, prayer walking, and other relational evangelism in the city. We concluded our trip with a day in Paris before returning home.

Spain October Trip (Granada)

Date: Oct 7-19, 2009

During this trip, our mission was to serve Iglesia Evagelica Bautista (a Spanish Baptist Church) located in Granada (an hour away from the Mediterranean coast). Our goals were to reach the unreached and lost souls of southern Spain through city prayer walking, street evangelism, distributing food to those in need through the church's Food Bank, relationship building activities, leading and teaching the college and youth students through personal testimonies, music, preaching, and scouting new ground for possible future church planting in southern Spain specifically Malaga (a coastal city). We also had an opportunity to take a two-day exploratory scouting trip across the Gibraltar into Morocco to visit a missionary couple, participate in prayer and street evangelism. We closed the trip with a quick visit of Madrid, the capitol of Spain.

Russia Orphanage Trip (Nizhniy Novgorod)

Date: Oct 5-17, 2009

We worked with the local First Baptist and Second Baptist churches in support of their orphanage ministries. We returned to Roika, an orphanage/medical facility, for our 5th year and conducted VBS with the children. We also visited other orphanages to assess their needs and discover ways we can help them physically, mentally, socially, and most important, spiritually. We also spent one day sightseeing and absorbing the culture of this beautiful city founded in 1221.

Scotland Trip (Aberdeen)

Date: Aug 7-16, 2009

This trip focused on a youth event with 65-70 teenagers in Aberdeen, Scotland. Activities included a day-time American sports camp, vacation Bible school for younger children, and an evening youth event including games, worship, and teaching. The event was sponsored by two Aberdeen churches who have partnered in past years to host this event. Houston's First provided a team of 12-16 eager short-term missionaries to coach sports, build relationships with the teenagers and children.

Lativia Trip (Jelgava)

Date: Jun 26-Jul 13, 2009

Youth/adult summer missions team to Latvia to do Vacation Bible Schools, men's ministry, women's ministry, youth ministry, and more. Our work in Latvia is an ongoing partnership with the people there.