September Partner Highlight

Arizona is blessed to have many leaders and ministries collaborating across our cities for the sake of unity, prayer, church planting, justice and mercy, and reconciliation. While there are many we celebrate and support, we have key strategic partnerships that we deeply collaborate with. In this spirit, our hope is this newsletter would increase collaborative kingdom work and highlight partners we work alongside.

Community development. That’s how we describe 1MISSION’s work. It’s right there in our mission statement: We're a community development organization giving people in poverty the opportunity to earn a house by serving their community.

But what do the words community development mean, exactly? What do you think of when you hear that term? For the people in your church who work as realtors, it may bring to mind a multi-million dollar suburban housing venture. Your older members may think of a master-planned community, complete with a rec center and a pool. You, on the other hand, may think first of your church's small group ministries, fostering fellowship and spiritual growth.

While each of those things may involve some kind of community and some form of development, they’re not exactly what we mean when we say community development.

For us, community development is a process. More specifically, it’s a process in which neighbors in places like Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua link arms with neighbors to find solutions to local problems. Community development is collective action that results in a positive change for everyone involved. Whether it happens in other countries or right here in Phoenix, community development is about entire neighborhoods being raised out of poverty. Forever.

Since 2008, 1MISSION has been inviting churches, businesses, schools, and families from Arizona and beyond to join us in this transformational process through mission trips, working side by side with local families to build houses. The work of community development begins long before trip participants arrive, and it continues long after they return home. But build trip participants play a vital role in the middle of that process.

We'd like to invite your church to join us in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, for a three-day weekend build trip. Our upcoming trip season runs from late September 2022 through May 2023.

Our team in Mexico are pros, eager to host groups of four to four hundred—no church is too large or too small to partner with us. Air-conditioned bunks, hot showers, and delicious carne asada await you at our basecamp, an easy four-hour drive from Phoenix and close to the neighborhoods where we work. See this video to get a better feel for what to expect.

To learn more and to explore possibilities for your church, me anytime at nate@1mission.org or 602-550-0993.

Blessings,

Nate Hughes
VP, Partnerships