Go Missions - World Changers

World Changers - Ray & Juanita Whalen

2007-03-21T19:07:00.000-03:00

Our culture has a way of over using the term heroes. We use it for sport athletes or movie stars but rarely for those who truly deserve it. I have met 2 real heroes in our own country in the town of Nain in Northern Labrador. The people of Nain have many struggles but poverty, substance abuse and suicide rank at the top of issues that are crippling these people.
Ray and Juanita Whalen are those heroes. After seeing Nain on a hunting trip more than 10 years ago they felt a deep compassion for this town of 1400 people and moved all they had to this small town. They left family and friends who thought they should have retired and not start a mission’s work.

Ray has set up Shining Light Ministry to try to reach these precious people.

Ray purchased the home of the local school principal in 2003 and has been serving the town of 1400 people ever since. Ray’s efforts include setting up a food and clothing distribution centre in the local school. At his own expense Ray has shipped many containers (20 by 8 foot) into the remote town full of clothing, food and supplies which were then distributed to the town.

At this time his home is the main hub of activity for the needy and hurting, it is very common to have people drop by at midnight looking for diapers for their newborns or looking for help of some kind.

The vision Ray has is to build a small ministry headquarters in the next year to house the food and clothing distribution centre and any church activities that he plans. The need for supplies, counseling and training is overwhelming to say the least but we are trying to enlarge the ministries capabilities there. Ray is the man up there; they come to him for advice, food and even help moving from one house to another.

If you ever get a chance to sit down with this couple I promise it won’t be long till they are telling you about the need in Nain and what God wants to do there.

They are giving their lives away for God, now that’s a hero and world changer!

World Changer - Gina Hawes

2006-11-07T21:15:00.000-04:00

Gina is the perfect example of someone with a pure heart and servant spirit. It is often easier to get people excited about serving in missions all over the world than it is to motivate people to give their lives to serving at home. Gina has expressed the same amount of excitement in serving her home church as she has in serving other countries all over the world.

Over the last 3 years Gina has laid down her life weekly at her home church helping in any way possible. She is known for taking weeks of vacation time each year to serve wherever she is needed at the church and offers to work late hours to assist with team training and organizing. As teams go all over the world with Go Missions accomplishing amazing things for God, though she may not always be going with them, Gina is a huge part of the teams’ success and effectiveness. Gina truly is a world changer!

Pastor Bill Wilson - Metro Ministries

2006-07-28T22:38:00.000-03:00

Bill Wilson is the Founder and Director of Metro Ministries International reaching over 20,000 people each week with an inspiring message of hope. His progressive mission is to find and rescue the children left behind in this battleground of drugs, violence, abuse, and filth. Bill Wilson's model for changing lives of urban youth is now in operation in hundreds of cities around the world.

Since the beginning of Bill Wilson's mission to the inner cities, he has always lived with a "Whatever It Takes" attitude. When he began reaching the inner city of New York in 1980, no one was taking the message of hope to the ghettos--not churches, not the government, not the City--no one. Everyone had given up on them.

The first thing Bill Wilson did was to throw out the old rulebooks on how to bring change to the inner city. He knew they needed to make progress by inventing new ways of communicating a message of hope to children in order to save a generation. This was a struggle that could only be won with the power of God. They began a fast-paced children's program that had to work in the chaos of the ghetto and Bill developed curriculum that is now being utilized in over 1000 cities worldwide. Bill Wilson's unique concept for reaching children has been established in dozens of cities across the United States and around the world from Northern Ireland to Malaysia, and from Peru to the Philippines.

But Bill Wilson's life story is incomplete without understanding what makes up this compassionate, insightful and determined man. It's best told in his own words from his book, Whose Child Is This?

My mother and I were walking down the street on the block where we lived in Pinellas Park, Florida--just north of St. Petersburg. It was near the Welcome Inn on Park Boulevard, where she worked as a barmaid.

We stopped and sat down on a concrete culvert that was built over a little drainage ditch. She was very quiet that day. After a few minutes she stood up and said, 'I can't do this anymore. You wait here.'

I did exactly what my mom said. I sat there waiting for her to return. The sun went down, and she still wasn't back.

For three days I sat in the Florida sun on that concrete culvert. I didn't know where to turn. If I had known how to pray, I would have done it, but religion had no place in our home.All I could do was try to be brave and choke back the tears that would fill up my eyes.Mom never came back . . .

That's the beginning of my story, and it's the same one we hear in the inner city over and over again. It's about thousands of kids who have been abandoned by society. That's why we've been working in the city for so long. They need more. They need to be safe and well fed. They need a family. And most of all . . . they need God."

Bill Wilson knows from personal experience and a lifetime of devotion to children -- it takes time to build a generation. But with a commitment to work with committed people all across the globe, this living American legend is working to change the world. One Child At A Time.