In April our mobilization efforts expanded significantly.  We originally planned 3 mission trips in 2012 and we have now increased to 8!  What an increase in short term teams that will serve along-side Mobile Messengers in 2012!  We are partnering with Westmont College (west coast) and Johnson C. Smith University (east coast).  A team from each campus will depart in July as part of our new ‘PathFinders Program’.  They will serve for 3-4 weeks at new church plants and then share their stories through digital media platforms in an effort to raise awareness for With Open Eyes and activate their peers to get involved.

What an amazing experience for these young college students and what a blessing they will be to the people in the communities they will serve.

Now that our first class of 2012 Pathfinders has been selected, they are on their way to raising the funds needed to ride alongside Mobile Messengers this summer in Kenya and South Sudan! If you would like to support them, please give today!

Click the links below:

Pathfinders Kenya

Pathfinders South Sudan

- Mobile Messenger, Nuba Mountains

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of poverty and pain, but great leaders lead no matter what!  Today, there are great servants like these Mobile Messengers making a difference in the difficult South Kordofan region of Sudan.  Despite their circumstances, they see the opportunity to save lives, not the dangers of losing theirs.

With Open Eyes has committed to walk alongside these warriors for Christ as they seek to change their country with both help and hope.

We are equipping them with much needed aid. Join us. Multiply our efforts today, and empower these Mobile Messengers to save lives!  Our partners in Sudan currently have a new type of urgency beyond anything we have ever experienced. There is a small window of opportunity to reach them and we are moving today. We have a direct path to the people in Nuba Mountains, Yida Refugee Camp and the Blue Nile region, but the window is narrow. We need to act NOW before it’s too late.

We must schedule deliveries today before the rainy season starts in July.  And with your help, we can bring new life and new hope to the overwhelmed people of Sudan.

For disaster relief distribution in June, we need to raise $50,000 for items such as:

• Medicine: antibiotics, anti-malarial, etc.
• First Aid and Wound Care Supplies
• Water Treatment Tablets
• Food with Nutrition Supplements
• Salt
• Mosquito Nets
• Bed Sheets and Blankets
• Hygiene Supplies
• Transportation & Clearance Costs

Prayerfully consider joining us to act quickly.

DONATE TODAY

Off a dirt bike, these young men are quiet, self-disciplined, well-mannered, humble, and determined.  On a motocross bike, they’re thrilling, fearless, competitive, driven and passionate! Now, these amateur pro racers and their team of mini racers are using their network to raise awareness and ‘team raise’ for Mobile Messengers. Their goal is simple, one Mobile Messenger Kit.  For the past three weeks, they have taken a Mobile Messenger fundraising kit to their races, handed out promotional cards and sold merchandise at various dirt track series races.

They stopped by our office this week and we loved hearing their racing stories and ideas on how they could help.  So far, their team has raised almost $500 and they’re as determined as ever to hit their goal of $2500 in a few more weekends.  We are praying for them individually, for their team and yes, for their wins!  We also want to thank them for using their platform to be a voice for Mobile Messengers.

I’ve been racing since I was 9 years old and have had probably 15 motorcycles since then.  We take for granted that what we can get so easily and use for fun, for a sport, is something a pastor prays to have one day just to reach his people.  It can help them make such an important impact somewhere else.  I didn’t get it til now.” Jake Bailey, 21 years old

For more information on how you or your group can get a fundraising kit and begin to equip a Mobile Messenger, call (704) 442-7117 for more information.

A powerful business luncheon was held on March 29, 2012 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, featuring key speakers Steve Reinemund, former Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo and our Co-Founder Frank Harrison, Chairman & CEO of Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated.

Local award-winning news anchor, Neile Jones emceed the event which was opened by the amazing voices of members from the Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir led, by Charles Moore.  Dr. Ronnie Floyd of Cross Church led an opening and closing prayer and additionally, there was a special guest speaker introduction provided by Don Soderquist, Executive Founder of The Soderquist Center and former Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart.

Since Bentonville Arkansas is home to Walmart’s international corporate headquarters, business men and women from various retail and supplier industries attended.  Also on hand was a local hometown celebrity, Jim Bob Duggar of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting.   All were eager to hear wisdom and insight from two former rivals in the beverage industry.  Steve Reinemund and Frank Harrison both shared powerful words on how their faith has impacted their business leadership throughout the years. Their messages focused on how their rooted walk with Jesus Christ has driven the values, principles and decisions that have led to success in their personal and professional lives.

The highlight of the event was at the very end when Dr. Ronnie Floyd of Cross Church delivered the closing prayer and invitation, giving everyone the opportunity to accept the Lord as their personal Savior and 5 of those in attendance joined our family, the family of Jesus Christ.

As believers, our definition of a successful event and our greatest reward is not in the number of attendees who showed up, how great the lunch was, or how successful the keynote speakers were.  Our success comes in knowing His purpose was accomplished when a path through these speakers was made so that HIS Word could be shared.  Our reward comes from our Heavenly Father who is overjoyed that there are 5 who finally had “that day” and chose to live a life in HIM.  Praise the Lord for our 5 new brothers and sisters in Christ!

Thank you to all that attended and participated in making this event a huge success! We are excited to see how God continues to grow our new friendships in Northwest Arkansas!

All proceeds raised will fund Mobile Messenger initiatives for the purpose of accelerating the sharing and teaching of the good news of Jesus Christ to the unreached and underserved peoples of the world.

With Open Eyes has Mobile Messengers (see picture below) and their families in this region that is being bombed and persecuted by the Sudan government. Below, there are links to two videos by an op-ed reporter for the NY Times, detailing the immediate need for action by our U.S. government and humanitarian aid agencies on behalf of the people of the Nuba Mountains. An American, Ryan Boyette, is featured in the two videos as a former Samaritan’s Purse worker that chose to stay behind to document the atrocities and help the people of Nuba even when all aid agencies were forced to pull out in 2011. Boyette was also part of the With Open Eyes original documentary raising awareness of the tremendous needs of the Sudanese people.

Please pray daily for the people of Sudan, listen to the news stories below, share the links, and write or call your state and local government officials.

We serve a BIG GOD that hears the cries of His people. “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” Mark 10:27

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/02/23/opinion/100000001379424/besieged-in-sudan-s-nuba-mountains.html

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/02/25/opinion/100000001385038/the-man-who-stayed-behind.html

Blessings,

With Open Eyes Team