Richmond Road Blog & Events

Here at Southland, we generously extend hope to the poor by spreading a revolution of love through our Global Outreach Ministry. Each year through your generosity, Southland gives about $1.5 Million to support works all over the world!

Global Outreach is working in areas like Haiti, Mozambique, Asia, Europe and the Northeast United States. From rocking babies to meeting medical needs, Southland is involved and reaching out to people.

We'd love for you to get involved! We have three amazing opportunities that can make a huge impact in the lives of others:

1. Take a Trip
Short term trips are a great way to understand what we're doing all over the world. Head over to our Global Missions page to see upcoming trip details. If you'd like to know more about what these trips are about, or want to look into going with us, contact Andy.

2. Sponsor a Child
We partner with Danita's Children who rescue orphans, feed, clothe, and provide life-saving medical care and shelter to many needy children in one of the poorest countries in the world. Your family can sponsor a child for just $29 a month. If you'd like more information on sponsoring a child, contact Mark.

3. Pray for Global Missions
We're praying for Global Missions for 30 straight days beginning May 24. Sign up to receive four emails that include a daily schedule of what to specifically pray for on each day. Each email will go out on Friday mornings from 5/24-6/14.

 

Imagine your church moving each week from location to location, being led by women because the government does not think women can lead churches, and always thankful for the Lord’s protection. This is the case of many Christians around the world, including places in Central Asia.

Imagine growing up under Communism, working for the KGB, and then your world...

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My dear friend Monica, a volunteer on the worship team, recently went to Haiti. She shared a story with me that truly touched my heart and I couldn't help but share one of the experiences she had while serving there. May it encourage you to worship God at all times, in all things, through every circumstance.

True worship is not only displayed when we sing pretty songs at church on the weekends. People will see and come to know our God through our daily interactions with others, how we treat our kids...

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At the beginning of April, I was given the opportunity to lead worship at a youth conference in Haiti and it really changed my life. The conference was at Sonlight Church and School, which is the same one that Jon worked with when he lived down there. It was the same church a group of production staff from Southland visited and did a technical install last fall and it was an amazing experience.

After a days worth of plane rides and a six hour bus ride, it was great to arrive at the church and see that most everything was working great from our install last fall. There were a few things to tweak, but for the most part everything looked and sounded great.

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Arriving at Lifeline Christian Mission’s compound after dark I did not fully appreciate the beauty of the people or the land. The next morning, Andy Sims, Dale Coates, and I met with 27 pastors and leaders from 14 churches Lifeline started. For two days we unpacked various tools we brought with us to assist these men and women in learning more about discipleship leadership development. We taught them how to use their time wisely; how to rest well so they could work hard; how to listen to God’s calling in their lives, and the lives of their congregations; how to bring a focus on God, other believers and their communities; how to use the gifts of the congregation to strengthen the church; and even how to think about the next steps for their church. Many Haitians live day to day, so thinking about the future was a stretch for these leaders, but they participated, asked questions, challenged our thinking, prayed deeply, and sang enthusiastically. They wanted answers to many questions, but we told them we would give them the tools to discover the answers themselves, and while at times they wanted us to do their thinking for them, by the end of the two days they knew how to begin using their new tools. If they continue to use these tools in their congregations, the members of these churches will be stronger and more mature followers of Jesus.

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"If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." - Isaiah 58:10-11 NIV

This was the scripture that Jon sent our six member team on the day we were leaving to visit Haiti. What a great truth from the Word of God to remind us of the importance of standing in the gap for those who are spiritually and physically poor. Our fourth expression here at Southland says that, “we generously extend hope to the poor.” This trip that we were taking was a learning trip - exploratory - all about how we as a church can mobilize our body and resources to extend hope to those in the country of Haiti. We desire to raise light in the midst of darkness.

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We want every person to walk away from Southland with a desire and a passion to serve people on a daily basis. That's what our fourth Expression is all about. We Generously Extend Hope to the Poor. That can mean the emotionally poor, the physically poor or the spiritually poor. 

We have many opportunities you can get involved with, in our community or around the world. 

The Bible is full of stories of God preparing man for upcoming storms, of all varieties. Noah is a classic example and one that everyone should be able to relate to. But as obvious as this story of Noah is, Southland has a similar story of preparation.

It’s been nearly 20 years since Southland began partnering with an organization called The Orchard Group. This organization functions as a church planting ministry, and has planted numerous churches around the country. In recent history, Southland agreed to partner on a specific project in the New York metropolitan area through finances and idea sharing. The result was five churches in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs of New York City. Through this partnership, we’ve helped the churches grow by providing groups of Southland members to go and serve as well as leadership guidance in their infancy.

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For this blog post, I wanted give you a short description of a mission trip to Haiti I took last week. A group of production staff and volunteers traveled to Port-de-Paix, Haiti to help install audio, video and lighting at Sonlight church and school. It's the same school and church that Jon taught at when he was in Haiti.

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