Aim Updates
AIM
Evan Desjarlais grew up at South Plains. After graduating high school he joined the AIM training program at Sunset.
Our Missionaries
Kigali, Rwanda
Justin Rudasingwa
After supporting an American mission family in Kigali for 4 years, Justin, a native Rwandan, became the force that kept the congregation moving forward. Struggling against negative attitudes toward “religious” groups as a result of the 1994 genocide, the church has been working toward fulfilling the church’s mission of touching lives while satisfying the government that it is “adding value” to society. In addition to regular Let’s Start Talking trips, we are involved with LCU to develop English Language training for teachers and the public since the official business language of the country was changed from French in 2008.
Lima, Peru
Maximo Collao
Maximo & Gloria Collao have spent more than 35 years working in Lima, particularly with the Los Pinos congregation. Maximo has been supported by South Plains since the late 90s and has been instrumental in construction efforts of a 3 story structure with worship assembly area plus classrooms and living facilities for students in the Interamerican Bible Institute. IBI is a 2-year program to train preachers and leaders in the church. It graduates an average of 8-10 each year.
Nottingham, England
Bob Eckman
Bob & Jean Eckman are life-long workers in the Nottingham area. Bob is a Houston, TX HS grad who attended University in Belfast, Ireland when his parents were working with the church there. Jean is an English native who married Bob after he completed his University studies and they have been with churches in and around Nottingham since the early 7os.
Lubbock, Tx
Chase Smith
Open Door Ministries is an inner-city church located in downtown Lubbock. Birthed in a soup kitchen in 1997, this ministry recognizes the need for more than simply food or other benevolent resources. Working with Open Door, South Plains has supported Chase Smith as a minister there since the Sumer of 2014. Their focus is on developing a community that trusts God, knowing that relationships with God and one another are the most powerful causes of transformation in the poor and homeless, as well as us all. Since becoming a part of the ministry team at Open Door, Chase has been able to dedicate more time to the ongoing Kingdom work among the community.
Mexico
Ciudad de Angeles is a Mexican Christian children’s home in Cozumel currently celebrating its 20th year of service. Their mission is to raise Christian children to be leaders and productive citizens of Mexico. They currently have around 50 kids, ranging from 5 years old to seniors, in college. They specialize in sibling groups, making the children unadoptable due to the astronomical number of orphans in that country.
The group going to Mexico will take part in construction and community service projects, spend time with kids, host house-parent activities and devotionals, and build lasting relationships with the children through meal times, play, and activities.
We need to raise $35,000 to send 20 adults and college students to Mexico this Spring Break for South Plains’ 7th trip to Ciudad.
Impact Houston
VBS…OH YES! This spring break, the university students at South Plains have the incredible opportunity to serve more than 150 elementary, junior high, and high school kids with the Impact Houston Church of Christ. Once again—as this will make 4 U@SP Impact trips in about as many years—incoming spring break participants from Lubbock and beyond will serve wherever Impact has a need: daily elementary VBS and junior high/high school outings, church food bank assistance, Impact Houston property maintenance, and general ministry with the inner-city population.
Our U@SP students will make an IMPACT for Christ with our brothers and sisters in Houston, TX, this spring.
Impact is a student-led trip (Christian Valentine, Madison Dixon, and Brigette Selman), and the current estimate for 13 students travel, lodging (at Impact), and most meals is $2000.
Brazil
South Plains is excited to add a new partnership for our short-term mission trips: Igreja de Cristo do Campinho, a church of Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil suburb. This church began by missionaries in 1998 but transitioned in 2015 to be run entirely by Brazilians.
We will partner with Igreja de Cristo do Campinho and Impact Houston to have a youth retreat with local churches. Afterward, we will work with a local school to do sports programs and gospel meetings.
This summer, 20 South Plains members (14 students and six adults) will be traveling to Rio to join in the mission work there. This group of youth students and sponsors will be traveling June 7-17. We are asking the church to share in this mission by funding $40,000 for the trip.
Rwanda
South Plains has supported missionary Justin Rudasingwa at the NTCC, the only officially registered Church of Christ in Rwanda, for over ten years. In July 2023, South Plains will sponsor six of our members, led by Ken Rainwater, on a two-week-long trip to work with the New Testament Church of Christ in Kigali, Rwanda.
The group will teach conversational English through Bible readings as a part of the Let’s Start Talking program. Let’s Start Talking provides the English students’ needs and an introduction to the Bible and the church. This work also fulfills the government requirement that registered churches provide services to the local community. The estimated cost to support this trip is $20,000.
Peru
For ten years, South Plains has sent a team of four to conduct eye clinics to screen and fit people with eyeglasses from the Lions Club Eyeglass Recycling Program in various locations in Peru. While waiting, Peruvians hear the gospel message from IBI students. As a result of these clinics, congregations have been created and grown in Pisco, San Clemente, Los Banos, Chiquiles, and Cajamarca; and strengthened in several more locations. We coordinate throughout this mission trip with Maximo Callao, a South Plains-supported missionary in Lima, Peru.
These trips also encourage the members of the various congregations and provide personal contact with Maximo and their families.
COVID suspended the South Plains family’s active service to Peru 2020 – 2022. Plans are to reactivate this activity during May-June 2023. The group needs to raise $16,000 for this year’s trip. Because of local logistics, the number of South Plains maximum participants will be four.
Lubbock
In addition to the other trips already noted, South Plains has other ways to assist with local outreach to our community. The SHARE drive will include funds to support local ministries and partnerships South Plains has developed. This assistance is only sometimes considered monetary. In certain areas, we like to engage South Plains members whenever possible.
We need to raise $20,000 to fund local outreach opportunities, including but not limited to sleeping bags for Open Door, Habitat for Humanity Build, and Blessings Bags for shut-ins.
Thank you for your taking part in SHARE 2023. Your gifts, pledges, and prayers will be going toward Kingdom work across the globe, benefitting those we will minister to and send.
