Recently, one of our partners, Dave Dias, and his wife Irene have been undergoing a difficult journey as Irene courageously battles a rare, terminal disease called Primary Amyloidosis.

We thought the visitors to this website might be interested in reading more about how God is sustaining this couple as they face life circumstances which they never anticipated. Feel free to check out the blog at IreneDias.com and also read about the new book recounting their battle, Irene’s Journey of Faith.

Our hope is that the story of Irene and Dave will be of great encouragement to those in the Lord’s service who are facing frightening circumstances as you read about the God who promises to uphold you no matter how difficult and painful your life’s journey may seem.

There is a lot for you to explore here at Mission:Equip. Here are some of the sections we would encourage you to check out:

Prepare
Tools for those getting ready to go on a missions trip or are just getting started.

Insure
Options for missionary medical insurance.

Go
A suite of travel-related tools especially chosen for missions-minded folks.

Connect
Tools to facilitate ongoing communication between missions workers abroad and their family, friends, and supporters back home.

Share
A network of over 450 country-specific and issue-specific blogs and wikis which allow missionaries, short-term workers, missions pastors, missions agency staff, etc. to tell their stories to the broader missions-minded community. Includes the ability to embed a financial support url with all stories submitted.

Opportunities
A place for missions agencies and denominational missions boards to post short-term and long-term opportunities and for people looking for such opportunities to find their place in the world to serve.

Even though the Mission:Equip website officially launched only a little more than three months ago, we are hard at work to improve the site, add new helpful tools, and enhance your experience. Here are some things that are on the horizon:

Making It Easier to Submit Stories and Opportunities
While you may currently add a story or opportunity to our website through a few simple steps (see the front page of the Opportunities section for directions on adding an opportunity or a country-specific or issue-specific Submit Your Own Story page for adding a story), we are working on an easier, more universal way of adding stories and opportunities.

A Comprehensive Missions Database
We are working on a way for organizations, missionaries, churches, etc. to add their information to a comprehensive, country-specific missions database which will list those entities involved in specific countries.

Enabling Organizations To Embed Our Tools In Their Websites
We are implementing a strategy which will allow organizations to private label our portal and provide our tools to their constituencies through their own websites.

As you browse our site, if you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be very happy to make your acquaintance and even happier to help you in any way we can!

Frank Johnson
Co-Founder & Internet Strategist

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Doing it this way would allow us to use the partial feed and then each time we bring an article into MissionEquip.com, we would edit the link to the full Assist News article to make the article launch in the “Thickbox”. This would enable Assist News to continue to correct errors on their site and not expose their full feed to being available to be scraped by anyone, and it would also allow us to keep people on the Mission:Equip site (which is important to us, especially since we have just launched the site and don’t want to lose traffic if we can help it).

The attribution to Assist News is kept intact, it increases exposure for Assist News articles (including the ability to have every article have a Support This Ministry link in its footer), but also serves to expand Mission:Equip’s news offerings.

I think it might be a “win-win” for everyone.

Where is Justice?
Today, my imaginations have been replaced with realities, and I look around at the social injustices that abound.  Oppressed workers, human trafficking, slavery, children being trained as soldiers, the list goes on.

Is This The American Way?
American Idol has become the American Way.  We are focusing on more fruitless pursuits and consider violence entertaining, while the reality of violence is too horrific for us to bear.  Even our spending habits (mine too!) support corporate bureaucracy at the expense of the poor, and we don’t even notice it.

Where is this Superman when you need him, anyway?

The Truth
In John 14, Jesus tells of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.  We have the truth.  We are in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10).  His church is the messenger of the truth (Ephesians 3:10).  So, then, why are we not leading the causes for justice around the world?

I hope that Mission:Equip can serve the church and the mission community by helping to fight for truth and justice.  We’ve just partnered with TradeAsOne.com, a company out to “break the cycle of poverty and dependence” through encouraging us to modify some of our spending decisions.  Their founder, Nathan George, will be blogging on MissionEquip.com about their mission, his story, and how you can get involved (wherever you are in the world) in propelling the Christian community to the forefront of the social justice movement.

The Spirit’s truth, God’s justice, Jesus’ way. Beat that, Superman.

It was refreshing to have a focus on this calling on our lives, wherever God has placed us, to reach the lost.  It is not His preference for us to witness; it is our mission to do so, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul defends all Scripture as being God-breathed, “so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

So here we are with the same tools that the apostles in Acts had at their disposal:  The Holy Spirit and Scripture.  Armed with these, the Word can and will go forth.  Having said that, is there an advantage in having other tools and resources in the fight?  Absolutely.  Let me say again, nothing can substitute for the Holy Spirit and Scripture; without these essentials, the cause is doomed to failure.  But with modern technology, cultural preparedness, social networking (I believe our word is fellowship), and good stewardship, might the work go a little more effectively?  Or the journey easier?  Or the adjustment quicker?  I can only believe yes is the answer to all of these. 

Enter Mission:Equip. Our goal is to link the global church in its efforts to build the Kingdom by providing tools and resources to the missions community.  Whether you are on a short-term trip or planted long-term far from home, we believe that our efforts to help you Share, Connect, and Prepare will help you along the way.  We believe that this is one of God’s callings on our lives: to design a platform to strengthen missionaries worldwide. 

Please take some time to browse our current offerings and to take advantage of them.  We hope to add more in the future through your constructive feedback. 

We look forward to your contributions to this community of believers who understand that God has given us one heartbeat, with different gifts and passions to serve where we are able.  Please join us as we build this for His glory.

Toby Meisenheimer, Co-Founder, MissionEquip.com