MHS grad to New York for Sept. 11

Friday, September 6, 2002
Halsey

McCook will have an unofficial personal representative at memorial services scheduled at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. Jaime Halsey, a 1999 graduate of McCook High School, and now a student at Nebraska Christian College in Norfolk, is leaving Monday morning on a New York mission trip with Global Missions Fellowship.

Jaime is the daughter of Michelle and Leonard Wood of Palisade and Mark and Colleen Halsey of McCook. Her grandparents are LaVera and Jim Brooks and Wauneta and Robert Halsey of McCook.

The group, made of volunteer mission workers, will gather Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 7 a.m. for devotions and a period of praise and worship. From there, they will separate into smaller groups, attending the various memorial sites surrounding Ground Zero.

"We will be there, with those suffering the most direct impact of the attacks, to offer prayer support and the message of hope that is the Gospel of Jesus," explained Jaime during a recent telephone interview.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday the members of the mission group will reconvene at The Journey, a new church planted by Global Missions Fellowship as part of an evangelical outreach in the United States. The Journey started offering weekly services on Easter Sunday of 2002.

Although the mission team will spend two days seeking to offer compassion and faith around Ground Zero, they will spend much of their time continuing the outreach that resulted in the establishment of The Journey, a casual, contemporary Christian Church designed specifically for the New York lifestyle. As part of the ongoing mission support to that fellowship, a special day at Riverside Park is set for Saturday, Sept 14.

Included in that outreach is a "dog party," where New Yorkers are invited to bring their dogs for competition in such categories as "cutest dog," and "farthest-or highest-jumping dog." Christian recording artists Steven Curtis Chapman and Fred Hammon will perform. The Christian band Third Day also will add their music to the celebration. According to statistics given to Halsey, an average of 1 in 100 people in New York City have been reached with the gospel message, yet only 1 in 3,750 people between the ages of 20-40 have heard the gospel in that same geographic area.

These surprising statistics prompted a change at Global Mission Fellowship, which had previously focused solely on international missions. The ministry was established in 1987 under the direction of the Rev. Mike Downy in response to a need for church planting first discovered on a short-term mission journey to Mexico.

"GMF realized that the need is great, right here in the United States," Halsey explained.

That need prompted the formation of the as yet ongoing mission in Manhattan which states: "The purpose of the mission trip to Manhattan is to share the love of Christ with the people of Manhattan through service, evangelism and prayer, working with The Journey, an innovative church that seeks to be relevant to the changing culture of New York City.

The short-term mission project will employ several techniques, including "prayer walking" which involves offering a specific prayer for anyone passing by, with the understanding that God knows that person's name and need. No verbal contact is made between the mission worker and the one being prayed for so the mission workers will not know what impact the prayer will have.

"That is one thing we have been counseled about," said Jaime. "The reception we receive may be disappointing since the fruit of our labors may not be evident for many years."

This type of mission work differs from the old-fashioned gospel tent meetings in that there is no formal service, no specific altar call, just a brief encounter, whether it be during an on-street survey, handing someone a bottle of cold water, or inviting them to a church service.

Jaime's road to Manhattan has been cleared by a series of circumstances that continue to impress upon her the sovereignty of God. The cost of the mission was her responsibility. She is not going as a representative of Nebraska Christian College nor necessarily of her home church, First Assembly of God, though they did contribute monies toward her journey.

The bulk of the financing was made available through a chance position offered to Jaime this summer that "coincidentally" was just what she needed, just when she needed it.

"It's been like that through the entire process," Jaime explained. "The day my deposit was due, there it was. Even the way I found the mission project on the Internet showed me early on that this is where I am supposed to be, this is what I am supposed to do."

Her Grandma LaVera expressed no small amount of trepidation about Jaime going to New York, especially during this first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but was reassured when the funding came together and when Jaime reminded her that "fear does not come from God."

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