What Will YOU Do With $5??

If someone handed you $5 what would you do with it?
- Buy a cup of coffee?
- Get a few extra tacos from Taco Bell?
- Save it? Spend it?

Did you know that if each person on my mailing list committed to giving an extra $5 a month to the ministry in Uganda, I would go from being 83% funded to 100% funded on my monthly expenses!!

With $5 a month from YOU, we could…
- Get curriculum to 5,000 Ugandan kids
- Help rescue babies from the streets of Kampala
- Get orphans adopted into loving homes all around the world
- Bring the “Father” to the fatherless
- Transform a society with Christ’s Love!

I need YOUR help! I am leaving in 25 days and need more financial sponsors! If you are not yet giving, please consider committing to $5 a month now! Sign up online at:

www.nmsi.org/donate.aspx
“reoccurring payment” for Helena Pira

MTI Lessons from the Week

MTI has been full of value topics and discussions. The days are centered around things that we as humans deal with each day but don't always have time to dive into and really examine just because of our crazy schedules and agendas. MTI (Mission Training International) seeks to do this...help us examine our lives...see what it is that controls us...see where we need to change...see where we need to continue to grow.

That said, this was a changing week. Full of some hard topics...Rather than tell you about them with words, I figured I would just share some of the videos we watched during our class sessions. They will make you ponder, they will make you think, they will make you contemplate your life, and hopefully they will draw you closer to our Savior and Lord.



Topic 1 (Beginning of the Week): Dealing with Adversity





Topic 2 (Mid-Week): Stress and Conflict





Topic 3 (End of the Week): A Time for Silence and Solitude

My Schedule

Here it is...just in case you wanted to know :)

June 26, 2009 - PILAT/SPICE Training Ends
June 26, 2009 - Arrive in Los Angeles at 6:24pm
July 1, 2009 - Leave Los Angeles at 4:45pm
July 3, 2009 - Arrive in Entebbe Uganda - 2:45pm
July 6, 2009 - New Hope Uganda Institute Training Starts
Nov 20, 2009 - New Hope Uganda Institute Training Ends
Nov 21, 2009 - Move to Ggaba, Uganda to work with ARMs

Lena on LA Talk Radio.com

Find out more about Lena's ministry from her interview with LA Talk Radio Show Host Cameron Datzker, show aired May 22, 2009. Enjoy!

A Little Perspective....

Some one showed me this today and it really blew my mind...yes I know...it doesn't take much!!

• Africa remains the least developed continent


• Africa is the continent most plagued by disease, poverty & malnutrition


• Africa also largely remains off the news radar in the developed world


• Yet...Africa is larger than China, the USA, Western Europe, India, Argentina and the British Isles...COMBINED!

Maybe this blows my mind because I am so used to living in a "ME" centered country where our problems are the "most" important, or our advancements are the "best"...maybe we as a society should start thinking about others more often rather than it being "all about us"!

Map and Info care of: "strangemaps.wordpress.com"

New Contact Info

Hey All,

Here's the new contact info while I'm in Colorado (May 25 to June 26th)

Phone Number:

Use my cell phone number as usual OR if you have a huge desire to call me on a land line you can call me at:
719-487-0111
It will ask you the room number (Room 207)

Mailing Address:

Lena Pira
c/o Mission Training International
PO Box 1220
Palmer Lake, CO 80133

Keep in Touch!!

Scum of the World...

Is it your goal to be the "scum of the world"?

I have to say that it has not been mine...it has been far from it!

Today as I was reading 1 Corinthians 4 I noticed something I had never really seen before...it was a challenge to us. A challenge to us from Paul, one of Christ's apostles.

1 Corinthians 4:9-13:
God has exhibited us apostles as:

• last of all
• like men sentenced to death
• a spectacle to the world
• a spectacle to angels
• a spectacle to men
• fools for Christ's sake
• weak
• held in disrepute
• hungry
• thirsty
• poorly dressed
• buffeted
• homeless
• laborers with our own hands
• when reviled, we bless
• when persecuted, we endure
• when slandered, we entreat
• We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

WOW...Okay so that was the apostles....where's the challenge??

Check out the next three verses (1 Corinthians 4:14-16):

• In verse 14 Paul says he writes these things to "ADMONISH us"
• In verse 15 Paul says that he is our father and GUIDE in Christ Jesus
• Then in verse 16 we get the challenge..."I urge you, then, be imitators of me."

So if Paul is admonishing us, that means we are doing something WRONG that needs CORRECTION

And if he is our GUIDE that means we should be following what he is doing!

BUT if that isn't clear enough he says "BE imitators of me"
...Notice it doesn't say "try to imitate me" or "do your best to imitate me" it says "BE" - that is a verb that requires action on our part!

So basically...BE all of those things on the list...the things that Paul and the other apostles were.

How are you looking in comparison to the list? Are any of those true of you? Are you considered the scum of the world? If you aren't, you should be trying to be or at least working toward it!!

Do you think it is worth it?
I think it is!

This Friday

This Friday will mark a first for me....

It will be the first time my voice is heard on a talk radio show...a live talk radio show!

I was invited to be on LA Talk Radio.com this Friday from 8 to 9pm to talk about Uganda, my faith, my ministry plans, and my fundraising! I'm not sure what station number it is but I know that it will be broadcast on XM Radio at 8pm. So if you are around, take a listen :)

Pray for me to speak clearly and boldly! Also pray that the last of my monthly support will be raised through the radio audience!

I will try and post the transcript or the show here once it airs :)

XM here I come!

Monthly Sponsorship Update

As of today, I am at 72% of my monthly support!

I still need 13 partners at $100 a month to reach 100%

Please prayerfully consider becoming a monthly donor!
The goal is to be at 100% by May 25th, when I leave for my next training in Colorado!

You can sign up for automatic payments at:

www.nmsi.org/donate.aspx

Thank you for being willing to support me in this way!

God's Accuracy

I received this via email and thought it would be cool to share it with you...enjoy!

How lovely to think about the way our Creator God planned everything so carefully and perfectly, everything with a plan. As His highest creation, "we are fearfully and wonderfully made."

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.
For example,
The eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
Those of the canary in 14 days;
Those of the barnyard hen in 21 days.
The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
Those of the mallard in 35 days.
The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven).

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other Quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.
A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.
How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

Each watermelon has an even number of strips on the rind.
Each orange has an even number of segments.
Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks
The Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence. Only the God-planned life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is safe.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO PRAY AND GIVE THANKS TO GOD THE GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS...

*Author unknown