What is TEAM Network?

One of the most common questions Larry and I are asked about our trip to Ethiopia this summer is, “What is TEAM Network and what do you do?”  Great question!  Hopefully this post will help provide some answers.    The Ethiopia Aid Mission (TEAM) is a network of churches, individuals, and faith-based institutions who are partnering together to grow the kingdom of God in Ethiopia.  TEAM engages in holistic ministry by addressing spiritual and physical needs, with the ultimate goal of seeing the Gospel spread among the Ethiopian people.   TEAM partners with the local Ethiopian evangelical congregation to assist in church development, church planting, and to aid in the alleviation of the physical effects of poverty.  Strategy coordinators for TEAM are Dr. Jim and Viola Palmer, career IMB missionaries with 30 years of experience on the mission field.

In rural Ethiopia, 59 million people do not have access to safe water.  Almost 74,000 children under the age of five die each year from preventable illnesses due to water-borne parasites.  73 million people do not have access to sanitation, perpetuating illnesses such as Trachoma.  Trachoma is the leading cause of infectious blindness in the world and is spread by the improper disposal of human excrement.  64 million people cook on open fires inside the home with no ventilation, causing lung damage for women and children and numerous incidents of childhood burns.  TEAM addresses these issues of extreme poverty with three health initiatives: the rehabilitation and installation of clean water wells, the construction of sanitary latrines, and the installation of fuel efficient, clean burning, safe cooking stoves.  In addition, TEAM operates medical mission trips, de-worming programs for children, and Meals 4 Multitudes nutritious meal packets production and distribution.

The Evangelical Christian community represents less than 1 percent of the population in the Bantu, Tole region of Ethiopia.  Believers are persecuted and socially marginalized.  These physical ministries help provide a clear witness to the commitment of the Evangelical church to the health and welfare of the community.  As a church-based ministry, these projects are focused on appropriate ministry, evangelism, and growth of the local church.  TEAM’s presence in this region helps the local church get their foot in the door for physical ministry that leads to the possibility of spiritual ministry.  Spiritual ministry is the ultimate goal: growing churches, planting new churches, and seeing the Ethiopian people come alive with the joy found in Christ.  TEAM mission trips lead Vacation Bible Schools for children, engage in women’s discipleship within the local communities, and assist with new church construction.  One of the most exciting components of TEAM is the Rural Pastors’ Bible Institute, a three-year program to train village lay-leaders to become missionary pastors in church-plant congregations.  TEAM currently supports five local pastors in vocational ministry and is training 30 more through the Bible Institute. 

We would love for you to be involved in TEAM.  You could join a short term mission trip through one of the partner churches, support the network financially, support us as we serve in an extended capacity for TEAM this summer, or even get your church involved in a long range mission endeavor with TEAM.  We would love to talk more with you about this…please contact us for more information!   

“For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.  From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings.”  Zephaniah 3:9-10 (NASB)

Part Two: Larry's Story

I became a believer at a young age.  I remember realizing that I was a sinner, and had a desperate need for the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  I professed Jesus was Lord and committed my life to follow Him.  I felt the presence of God in my life and can see his guidance in many ways growing up.  As time went on, like many believers, I allowed the distractions of this world to hinder my spiritual growth.  I remained a baby Christian for a very long time.  Although some years were better than others, many times it was probably hard to see a difference in the way I was living compared to a non believer.  I was a believer, but I was allowing things of this world to distract me from focusing on my journey with God.  I was passionately driven in sports through high school and college.  Then after college I was passionately driven toward my career.  These things are not bad things, but I was making them my number one focus.  The Bible says, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thes. 5:19).  Instead, we should “fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Tim 1:6).  As a believer, the Spirit of God was in me, but the flame inside me was burning the size of a candle.  I was choosing the distractions of this world over the journey that God really intended for me.  I was quenching the Holy Spirit inside of me.  In turn I made some poor decisions that were foolish and harmful.  Praise God that He promises not to ever leave us or forsake us.  He continued to make His presence known in my dark times.  Later God would teach me how to truly fan into flame His gift; a flame that can be a bonfire of His Spirit in the soul. 

Marrying my wife, Megan, was the best decision of my life, apart from trusting Christ as my Savior.  She has challenged and encouraged me in my spiritual journey.  It is such a blessing to spiritually grow together with your spouse.   

A pivotal point in my life occurred about five years ago.  God placed a desire in my heart to study the Word of God.  This began a journey that I could not have imagined.  I knew many scriptures over the years but it wasn’t until I began to really study His Word that I began to grow.  Through this growth I began to see life more clearly.  I also was feeling the presence of God stir in my life more and more. As I grew, God began to show me how I had been living a self-centered life.  Everything I was doing was all about me.  My career, my money, my house, my family, and my future goals were all about me.  I reached a point when that was no longer acceptable.  

My heart for mission work has really evolved over the past few years.  My wife has always had a passion to go to Africa and get involved in missions there.  She has been instrumental in stirring that passion in me as well.  We were both approached with the opportunity to join the Ethiopia mission team at our church three years ago.  Everything in our lives said it was not the right time.  We had small children, it was a lot of money, and I would have to arrange getting time off work.  Even with all the obstacles, we felt like God was telling us to go.  When we committed to the trip, it was amazing to see how God worked out all the things we thought would hinder us.  God used that first trip to Ethiopia to change our lives.  We were able to work with some truly passionate believers who showed us what it really meant to take the Gospel to the nations.  God used the work there to ignite a strong passion for mission work inside my wife and me.  There has not been a day that goes by in the last three years that I don't think about the work there and our Ethiopian brothers and sisters in Christ.

After that first year, my wife and I have been able to stay involved in the mission and return several times.  We have learned some of their language and built close relationships with many believers there.  We have also been able to work alongside a great career missionary who has taught us many things about the mission field.  We have truly been blessed to be able to join God's work in Ethiopia.  The Christian brothers and sisters in Ethiopia have truly been an inspiration to me with their passion and hunger for Christ.  This passion is contagious, and I can see how God is continuing to grow that passion in me.  He is teaching me to bring it back and apply it to my life at home.  I have also had the opportunity to teach a Bible study class at my church.  It has been a tremendous springboard of growth to dive into the Word and study deeper to teach it.  I am very thankful for the leadership and guidance that has been provided throughout my life and my church.  There is no greater fulfillment in life than to have a deeper walk with God. 

Megan and I returned from our last trip to Ethiopia knowing God was speaking to us about our future.  He has aligned our desires to be more and more like His.  We have a passion for God’s mission of spreading the good news of Christ and the glory of God to all nations.  We came home and sold our house, began Seminary, and began to focus on a life of vocational missions.  We don’t know exactly what God has for our future.  He is just revealing this to us a step at a time.  Whatever He has for us, we trust His guidance and provision.  There is a quote I heard once, “If you can’t see very far ahead, go ahead as far as you can see.”  We love the people of Ethiopia and are passionate about the work there.  We have an opportunity this summer to spend three months there in exploration of mission possibilities that could possibly be long term for our family.  We are excited!  To God be the Glory.   

Part One: Megan's Story to this Point

My passion for missions was ignited in my childhood.  After finishing college, my mother served two years as an IMB Journeyman in Liberia, Africa.  I benefitted from the stories of her experiences, and they fueled a love for and fascination with the African people that has only grown through the years.  I loved participating in missions as a youth; it was the main avenue where I really felt alive in Christ.  However, over the years as obligations and expectations encroached, I found fewer opportunities to serve.

I graduated from Baylor with a bachelor’s degree in 2002 and a master’s degree in education in 2004.  After six years in Waco, I moved south to The Woodlands to teach and be close to my family.  What a fortuitous move it was, because it was here that I met Larry.  He is a perfect example for me of Ephesians 3:20, because he is more than I could have ever imagined for myself in a spouse.   How blessed I am to have a husband with not only a deep desire to serve the Lord, but with passions for service that mirror mine.  We were married in 2005 and became very involved in our church.  I taught adult Bible study and sang in our praise band.  We loved our small group and built all our friendships around it.  Both of our careers as a teacher and an airline pilot were progressing nicely.  We had our first son, Logan, in 2008, and I left my job in order to be a stay-at-home mother.  Our second son, Joshua, soon followed in 2010.

In February 2011, a very good friend approached us with a deceptively simple question.  Would we be willing to join our church’s first mission trip to Ethiopia?  Here was an opportunity to do what I’d always dreamed, but there were many reasons to say no.  In fact, the opportunity felt like both a tremendous blessing and a huge burden.  I was almost sick at the thought of leaving our very young children, the financial obligation was great, Larry’s ability to take off work was uncertain, the dangers of travel to Africa were significant.  And yet, we felt as though this was exactly what God wanted for us.  With some anxiety and much excitement, we made our first trip to Ethiopia in June 2011.  It would alter the course of our lives.

Coming home from Ethiopia was difficult in many ways.  While working in the country, we felt that we were exactly where we were supposed to be, minus our children.  It was a struggle to come back and renew daily activities.  In a very short amount of time, we had ceased to fit-in with our normal lives.  We had a new awareness of our many blessings, hearts aching for the realities in which most of the world lives, and a deep desire to see God’s glory and word spread to the nations.   Larry and I began a two-year journey that involved a new intensity of studying the Bible and teaching God’s word.  We felt as though God was preparing us for our next step in missions.  Over the past two years we have purged many material items and have sold our house in order to be free and ready when God speaks.

Larry went alone to Ethiopia in June 2012 while I stayed home with our newborn Matthew.  How hard it was not to be together on that trip.  This year, we were able to go together again thanks to very willing grandparents.   We came home knowing that we were no longer simply preparing and waiting for God to speak.  Ten days a year working for Him in Ethiopia are not enough, but we don't want to leave our children any more than that.  We have finally fully agreed with Him that missions will be vocational for us; the question is no longer 'if' but 'when and where.'