The Women of King United Methodist Church will celebrate their annual UMW Spring Fling on Saturday, May 3, with a covered dish lunch at noon at the church, located at 1608 Odell St. in Great Bend.
The guest speaker will be Ciera Nelson from Little River. At 1:30 p.m., she will talk about her experience as a team member of The World Race, a ministry of Adventures in Missions.
She traveled to 11 countries in 11 months with the M Squad, a team consisting of about 50 people. In each country they visited, the squad was then broken down into smaller teams of six or seven, with everyone working with one goal in mind — sharing the love of God. She served with her team to partner with churches and outreach organizations in local communities, working in orphanages and schools, and ministered to children and women affected by human trafficking.
During the last month of her ministry trip, Nelson posted on her Adventures in Missions blog (cieranelson.theworldrace.org), “Tomorrow I leave for India and my heart is racing just thinking about it.” She writes about meeting two junior high girls in Honduras who struggled with eating disorders, and about overcoming her shyness in Thailand so she could talk to two women who work in the Red Light District of Chiang Mai. “I was able to tell them how much they are worth to God. I listened to their dreams and stories of their children. I became a light in a really really dark area through the love of Christ.”
Each team member has to raise money to fund his or her trip. Nelson raised over $15,500. “That just goes to show you that nothing is too big for our God,” she said.