Recent Mission Trips
At the Kirk we are involved in reaching our community, nation, and world with the gospel. Read more about some of our most recent mission trips.
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Mission Arlington 2008
When I read in the Steeple that there was a short term trip to
Arlington, Texas I began to think. I should stop sitting quietly at
home, figuring and praying that someone else will respond to God’s missionary call. I gave Jim Furman the trip leader a call to find out what it was all about. Jim shared that the trip was a follow up scouting trip to discover the opportunities for small groups and our youth to travel to Mission Arlington on short term mission trips and suggested I take a look at their web site
(http://www.missionarlington.com). The web site
(I encourage you to take a look) shares there goals and gives you a glimpse of life at the mission and what happens their.
When you look at the web site you will see the many ways Mission Arlington is doing God’s work in their community. It kind of takes your breath away. My first thoughts were that the mission does a good job of talking about all the things they would like to do, but I was not convinced that they could cover all the areas they spoke of. Boy, was I wrong.
We drove to Mission Arlington late on Thursday March 6 and were met and given a key to our apartment for the trip. We started Friday with devotions, it was impressive in that it included the staff, clients and volunteers and was in both English and Spanish so all could understand the message which was one of comfort. It gave me the feeling that the mission was a safe place to be. Today people of all ages gather each week to hear the Bible taught in multiple languages in 270 locations in Arlington and the larger Dallas-Fort Worth region. They meet in neighborhood homes, apartment club houses, mobile home parks, and in any other location where people can gather together to hear God’s Word.
Then the real work began, we were given a quick tour of the facilities, including the medical and dental clinics (5 dental chairs and a lab) along with the day care center, food storage and distribution, clothes distribution, holiday stores, furniture warehouse, publishing center and prayer garden they are amazing. Numerous buildings and equipment (all of which have been giving to them) allowing them to do the Lord’s work. Part of the equipment includes a fleet of trucks for the picking up and delivering of donations from the community. David and I were sent out with Tim and we made 4 pick ups that morning that filled the truck. The thing that impressed me, when we returned to the warehouse was more than half of what we picked up that morning was put on different trucks and delivered to those in need that afternoon. The mission is unbelievably well organized in the way they match the needs of others to the donations they receive. That afternoon we picked up a donation from Six Flags… they donated 4 large 4’x4’x4’ cartons of candy to be used in the upcoming Easter egg hunt. They were expecting over 3500 children and had plans to stuff over 100,000 Easter eggs. The impressive part of meeting Tim is that his first visit to the mission was doing required community service. That was over 7 years ago, he has now accepted the Lord and in fact is one of the Sunday leaders at an apartment complex and is on staff at the mission. It was rewarding to hear him talk of his church and how he looks forward to meeting with his group to share the word. 
My curiosity had been piqued by the mission claim that they have learned to take the church to the people since they could not get the people to come to the church. I asked Miss Tillie about it and she told us that, it wasn’t that the churches weren’t friendly and inviting, but that there seemed to be social, and economic barriers in the minds and hearts of people which made it difficult for them to get connected. “We decided then that if people couldn’t come to the church, for whatever reason, we would take the church to them”. While Miss Tillie’s response was indicative of how she and the mission get things done it was her next statement that I will always remember. She was very emphatic that Mission Arlington was not an organization but “a way of life”.
It was impressive to see in a town of 300,000, a group of Christians following the same way of life as shared in the gospels. How God watches and insures there needs are met. Impressive that in the week before Easter they have over 1200 volunteers coming to prepare for Easter weekend (stuffing over 100,000 Easter eggs) for an Easter egg hunt with over 3500 kids. There is much to be learned by volunteering at Mission Arlington and the feeling of helping others makes you glad you did.
—George Hertensteiner
Youth Mission Tulsa '08 
Leading up to last year’s spring break I was really torn about what to do. I really felt like there was a great need right here in Tulsa and the Lord wanted us to be a part of caring for that need. So we did! It was an awesome trip and no one hesitated when the idea was brought up to serve locally again this spring break. Our little trip last year apparently also connected with the heart of another church here in Tulsa, because Believer’s Church youth group wanted to join us!
So on March 15th, eighty eight people met in the Kirk of the Hills parking lot to begin what was a very impacting four days. We did a variety of things during the trip and served with several local ministries. Things got kicked off with the Kirk Karpenters ministry happening at three different sites in one day! We also worked with Lewis Bumpers and the C.A.R.A. program that he was running at Zeigler Park. Some other spots were Grace Nursing Home, Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless, John 3:16 Youth and Family Center, Oxley Nature Center, Comanche Park, Oasis and more. We also did prayer walks and a driving prayer tour of our city!
God did so much in the hearts of all of us that were on the trip. He used that time to make us aware of what was happening right here in our city and what we could do about it. We grew as the body of Christ, not just as a church but as the people of God. David Baggett (8th grade) commented how much he enjoyed linking up with other churches and making new friends from other schools. We also built relationships at the places we were serving and Jeff Rudolph commented: “Every time you go on a mission trip you build relationships with the people you are serving, but then you have to leave them to come home. This time we already are home, so we can keep those relationships going!” The trip was amazing and God is really using our time in our city to show Himself. —Alison Shelby
College "bob" Pittsburg Mission Trip '08
For Spring Break 2008, a group of bob students headed northeast to Pittsburgh, PA. It was not your typical Spring Break destination for a group of college students, but it was certainly an adventure in seeing God at work! Two themes that kept coming to us throughout the week were "community" and "redemption." We experienced a strong sense of community within our team and we saw communities of believers working in various neighborhoods to help bring about God's redemption within the city.
Our contact in Pittsburgh was Megan Lindsey, whose parents are Dennis and Lynda Lindsey from the Kirk. She and her business partner run a hot dog shop, Franktuary, in an Episcopal cathedral downtown. Megan and her husband, Trevor Baker, live in another neighborhood known as Lawrenceville. Upon our arrival Sunday, we went directly to the Lawrenceville community center to help Megan and Trevor’s church with an Easter egg hunt for Somali refugee
children. A highlight was hearing the creative telling of the Easter story to the Muslim children---something that their church has been praying about for a year!
Megan made arrangements for us to visit and work with groups of Christians living in several different neighborhoods. We spent the rest of the week visiting a coffeehouse, a gelato shop, a church committed to racial reconciliation, a tattoo shop with Bible studies held in the basement, a 24/7 prayer room and a church building turned into an employment center/community center/art studio/cafe. 
We did prayer walks, helped weed a garden, did painting and light construction, “de-construction” and major trash pick up in an abandoned apartment building, chatted with homeless veteransand helped with food prep at Franktuary. Each night we returned to Shepherd's Heart Homeless Shelter where we slept on mats on the floor. In every place we saw God's people reclaiming areas for good that had been full of spiritual darkness.
It was an awesome week! Our team came home inspired to look around Tulsa for ways that we, as a Christian community, can bring God's redemption to the people around us. Thank you to all of you in our Kirk family who prayed and supported us on this trip. We could not have done it without you!
—Michelle Bennett
Verse of the Day
