Rob, Kimberly, Landon, Thomas And Aaron

robharrell@adventures.org

 704-500-2031 704-682-4218

 http://robharrell.myadventures.org

September, 2008

 WOW-What a great summer!

 This summer has been one that is hard to put into words. First, let me start by saying that God has truly worked in our lives as well as the lives of our group participants this summer. Kingston, Jamaica Our summer started off with a trip to Kingston, Jamaica in June. We had 39 participants that went on this trip. I never thought I would experience a heat like that of the border of Texas and Mexico. That was until I arrived in Kingston, Jamaica. It was truly one of the hottest places that I have ever had the opportunity to minister! But, God placed us in the Salvation Army there in Kingston. It was truly one of the best mission trips as far as ministry was concerned that I have ever led. The Salvation Army was an extremely large compound that housed an orphanage, a blind school, and an elder center all in one. When I asked the Salvation Army commander there on base what his biggest need was, his response to me was, "Prayer. We need your prayer because this area is under attack. There are drug gangs all around us. Please pray for our safety." We took his request seriously as we set out on the week. Prayer walking was a part of our ministry everyday! We spent hours walking around the compound, inside and out, praying for the people of this community. While we were there we had VBS for the kids in the orphanage, led swimming lessons, played soccer with them, and basically just loved them for who they were. These children represented the outcasts of Jamaica-the unwanted and unloved! But, through a group of young people from the United States we were able to share the love of Christ with these children. We had several young people accept Christ, as well as some of the older people in the elder center. On the morning that we were due to leave Kingston, at approximately 3 am, three armed robbers broke into the dormitory and held us all at gunpoint. As they waved guns in our faces, they took our wallets, cell phones, MP3's, and even some passports. However, what amazed me through all of this was that not one person was hurt! God protected each one of us. Also, as the robbery was taking place, several of the people in our group were brave enough to hold hands and pray for our safety, as well as pray for the robbers themselves! When asked if they would return to Kingston, each group said without hesitation, "Yes!" I would definitely go back as well. We are in the process of putting into place security measures that would protect returning groups so that we can once again return to Kingston.

 Costa Rica, Central America

 Our next trip for the summer was to Costa Rica. This is a place that I have always wanted to visit, and it was everything that I could possibly imagine. We stayed in a small hotel in Philadelphia, in which each room had a small window unit. This was a welcome commodity after our trip to Jamaica. Our ministry took place in a small colonia about 10 miles away named Belen. There were about 3500 people in this small colonia. Our primary focus was children's ministry; where we saw the numbers of children attending our host church grow from 25 the first day to 150 the last day. Of these 150 children that started coming to VBS, we saw many of them accept Christ during the week. Our door to door outreach also proved to be fruitful, in that we saw 11 adults accept Christ!! We also helped the pastor of the local church by doing various construction jobs around the church, and also helping with hurricane cleanup. We also spent time with the pastor and his family encouraging them in the Lord. It was a great week for the participants, in that they all grew closer to the Lord and became more comfortable sharing Christ with others.

 Praise & Prayer

 We are ending our summer in a state of rest. Thanks to one of our supporters who has a house at the beach in NC, we have had the opportunity this past week to take a much needed rest and spend time in reflection of all that God is doing in our lives. This brings us to a huge prayer request that we have, and we are asking everyone to join us as we pray about our next step of faith. As most of you know, when we returned from Mexico in 2005, our support went down as we had supporters that dropped us for various reasons. But, God is faithful, in that He led us to Adventures in Missions. We have been truly blessed to be a part of this organization over the past couple of years. We have had the opportunity to see approximately 10,000 people, both young and old, go to the mission field! I can remember sitting in our house in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico praying for God to expand our territory-He went above and beyond! While in Mexico we had anywhere from 100-300 participants come to the mission field, now we are experiencing 10,000!!!! We spent 1 year living in mission houses in Florida and North Carolina. This was especially hard for Kim and the boys, as we often felt like nomads. Through much prayer, we decided to settle down and purchase a home. Since our support had dropped, our only option was for Kim to return to the workforce. For the past 2 years, we have been trying to homeschool, do full-time ministry, all the while Kim has worked. It has been hard! When Kim and I accepted God's call to full-time ministry back in 1999, we were a team. We feel that God is leading us to take a new step of faith for Kim to step back in to ministry work with me at Adventures in Missions. With her by my side, we can help more people get to the mission field. She has a passion for missions, and I need her on my team. The only way this will be possible is for us to raise approximately $1800/month! Our goal is to raise approximately $16,000 that would pay off the little expense that we had in fixing up our house, as well as pay our necessary expenses for the next year. We know that God is going to provide this, and we are trusting Him to guide and lead us. If you would like to be a part of what God is doing through our ministry, we would love to talk with you in more detail about all that God is doing!

 Because of partners like you, we have been empowered to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Thank you for being part of our AIM family!

Adventures in Missions 6000 Wellspring Trail, Gainesville, GA 30506

Local: 770-983-1060 Toll free: 800-881-2461

 Send Monthly donations to:

 AIM C/o Rob Harrell Family

 PO Box 534470, Atlanta, GA 30353-4470

 Home Address: 216 Park Street

 Statesville, NC 28677