PROJECT 127 - HAITI

                                  

 

 Short-term Mission Trips with PROJECT 127-HAITI

 

 

If you have never participated in a short-term missions trip, we are excited that you are considering it! You can expect that this could be the beginning of a journey that will change your life FOREVER!

These trips are an incredible way to share Jesus with the world and to get a tremendous blessing for yourself. If you have never been on a mission trip, then you have no idea what you are missing! 

 If you would like to join us on a short term trip please click on the application form link below. Print out the form, complete it, and mail it to: or email steve@project127.org for more information.

Project 127, PO Box 321 Harrisburg, NC 28075.

2010 Mission Trips

March 22-27         Rehoboth Pastors Trip                          Planning for Summer Trip

April 5-12              King's Way Baptist - Family Trip         Evangelism & Outreach

June 21-28          Rehoboth Teen & Adult Trip                 E & O, Construction

*Please keep checking back.  We will be adding several more trips very soon!

More to life than football, after all
Burton much more than a football player after mission to Haiti changes perspective

By SCOTT AKANEWICH
scott.akanewich@concordstandard.com

Many soldiers returning home from overseas are different from when they left. They have seen and experienced things beyond their
worst nightmares - things that change them and perhaps even haunt them for the rest of their lives, affecting family life, social interaction and just their perspective in general.

Andrew Burton travelled overseas and saw some things that not only changed his outlook on life, but changed him as a person to the core of his very soul.

However, Burton isn't a soldier.

He's a football player - and a pretty good one at that. The four-year starting running back for the First Assembly Eagles has established many milestones in his time on the field.

In the past, that would have been all that mattered to the senior runner, who just last week racked up over 200 yards rushing in the Eagles' 48-14 triumph over North Stanly. Another good game on the gridiron was one step closer to his dream of playing college football and perhaps even making it to the hallowed fields of the NFL.

"Football was my whole life," said Burton. "I put it in front of everything." Then, this summer, before he'd embark on his critical senior season, he first embarked on a journey that took this young man so consumed by his one passion to a place where scoring touchdowns was the furthest thing from his mind.

He volunteered to work at an orphanage in Haiti at the urging of his father, Farrell Burton, who had been to the ravaged Caribbean country earlier this year.

Naturally, the younger Burton balked at the idea. Seems there was a football camp at Appalachian State he was slated to attend, which
would conflict with his mission of mercy.

"I really wanted to go to that camp," said Burton. Then, as if a light had illuminated his mind to see the big picture, he made his decision. He would go to Haiti and miss the all-important football camp.

"I decided to rely on God instead of football," he said. What he saw when he arrived and during the time he was there shocked him.

Haiti has remained the least-developed country in the Americas with 80 percent of the population estimated to be living in poverty.

Some of it was too much for this well-off young American to bear.

"I cried every day," he said, without going into painful details of what he witnessed on a daily basis. "It gave me a chance to see how poorly those people live compared to how we take so much for granted here at home."

He then provided an example.

"Even a glass of water is difficult to come by," said Burton, as he pointed out the fact he was now sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned building on the First Assembly campus. "They don't have these things there."

Although he still aspires to continue his football career at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia next fall, Burton now is comforted by the fact he knows his life won't be over if he doesn't play a down past high school, for he knows there is more out there beyond the end zones of a football field.

"I really want to focus on being a missionary," he said. "I've realized even if I made it to the NFL, all the fame and fortune won't matter when you go to Heaven. I'll leave it in God's hands."

Ironically, a fellow prep player, Hickory Grove quarterback Dane Pickett, along with Burton, have led the way in local efforts to organize a youth group intent on helping those in need. Pickett took a similar trip to Guatemala and was similarly inspired.

The two attend the same church, King's Way Baptist, which is how they met, said Burton.

"Now we get together Thursday nights and brainstorm," he said of the group, which is currently at about a dozen students. "We want to do something so the seniors of 2009 will be remembered." A good start is the "flip-flop drive" Burton has organized for the Eagles' homecoming game.

Even something as simple as the most basic form of footwear can make a difference to people in countries such as Haiti and Guatemala.

Now that his outlook has so drastically changed, Burton finds he is surrounded by sources of spiritual inspiration - those he refers to as "prayer warriors" - amongst which his head coach and history teacher fill the ranks.

"Ms. Reider is someone I can count on when she promises to pray for me, she'll come through," he said. "Also, Coach Minter is always reminding us to thank God for everything because it could be over in a minute."

But, for now, it's far from over for this focused young man - both on and off the field.

In fact, his new approach has actually allowed him to relax more during games, which in turn, provides better results. "I'm still nervous before games, but not like before," he said.

Don't get him wrong, though.

Burton still has the same burning desire to run with a football, but he said the lessons he's learned on the field, he can now translate off it, as well, even something basic like teamwork.

"If you're not going to play as a team, you're not going to win," he said. "But if you work together, you can do a lot of things."

On the most important playing field of all - the one called life.

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