ZOEGIRL MISSIONS, BIG WORLD VENTURES RETURN FROM ECUADOR PLANS IN PLACE TO RETURN IN JULY OF 2006

Nashville, TN (September 12, 2005) - - ZOEgirl recently returned from their fourth mission trip to South America, this year as hosting partners with Big World Ventures and joined by more than 70 listeners from KJIL, ShineFM, WMSJ, HisRadio and WPOZ. Returning with remarkable stories and testimonials, ZOEgirl and their more than 80 fellow missionaries worked to serve the people of Quito by offering meals to families living in the streets, shoveling, painting, restoring and repairing roofs and buildings and performing concerts and evangelistic dramas all over the city. Teams had the opportunity to care for the young and the old; those rarely visited or touched at retirement homes and orphanages, by washing and smoothing lotion to feet and hands. The mission also ministered to the families living at the dump by feeding, washing, cutting and combing their hair and applying bandages to their scrapes and cuts.

“I have been on three short-term trips in the last 18 months, but this was the first artist/listener trip I have undertaken. One of the most impressive things I witnessed was the commitment of everyone involved to ‘love at all costs’. Alisa, Kristin, and Chrissy of ZOEgirl, along with Michael Passons, were in the ‘trenches’ of mission work with everyone. This was no vacation to the Andes’, explains Bill Lurwick, Afternoon Guy at KJIL in Meade, Kansas.Caleb David of Big World Ventures offers, “This past summer the people of Ecuador were once again touched by the love of God.” He adds, “ZOEgirl Missions goes beyond just outreach. We believe that those who participate on these trips are forever changed and we have seen God do amazing things in and through us. This trip is not about hype, it’s not about “being cool”, it’s not about us…it’s about Jesus. And we want to challenge each person to not only get their feet wet, but to jump right in!”

ZOEgirl also performed for those who gathered at an outreach concert in a local park, seeing hundreds dedicate their lives to Jesus through performance and drama.

ZOEgirl will be on the road this fall, speaking and performing in five cities with The Revolve Tour, directly addressing serious issues for today’s teens like sexual purity, self esteem, nurturing faith and friendship and family issues. On the day after Christmas, the three-member group will release “With All Of My Heart”, a compilation of some of their greatest hits and 2 new songs. A spring tour is being planned and ZOEgirl Missions will return to Quito, Ecuador this summer.

Art, Information, Interviews:
Melissa Campbell
931.598.5075
cam@edge.net

GARBAGE DUMP LIVES
By Tower

On July 18, as I rushed for the gate at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, I wolfed down a Big Mac and fries. Two planes, nine hours, and one crazy third world cab ride later, the famous Chicago skyline had faded away, and I was looking up at the mist-covered Andes Mountains.

As the afternoon DJ on Chicago’s number one Christian hit music station I’ve been to some amazing places and done some amazing things, like playing basketball with Toby Mac and eating pancakes with Matt Kearney. Staring up at the mountains as a brilliant orange sun sank behind a peak, I couldn’t believe that my job in radio had brought me to this wondrous place.

I had come to Quito, Ecuador—along with about 100 other Americans—to spread the message of Jesus on a mission trip led by the pop group ZOEgirl. The trip was filled with amazing workings of the Holy Spirit. Our team traveled the city performing the gospel in drama form and helping local churches with various construction projects. While each day was memorable, there is one that is forever burned into my heart.

On this day of the trip, our bus drove through dust so thick it almost blocked the sunlight. The bus stopped and the dust settled as the wind died down, revealing a horrific scene. We were in the middle of a massive garbage dump. Trash lay in haphazard piles, except for in one corner where the debris had been organized into makeshift shelters. Our team exited the bus and started setting up the drama, and slowly but surely, pairs of eyes started to peer out from behind the rubble.

This garbage dump, with no clean water and enough blowing dust to literally choke someone to death, was home to over 300 people. As a crowd gathered, I cringed at the way these invisible people lived. The rags they wore were often not enough to offer protection from the blowing dust, which stuck to their skin and hair, forming a grime they could not spare the water to wash off.

Before that day, if anyone had asked if I had ever seen hopelessness in another’s eyes, I would have said yes. But as I scanned the crowd, I knew in my heart that this was the first time I’d ever witnessed true despair. Most of the people were children; only a few were adults. At first, it seemed odd that there were almost no old people, and then the truth hit me like a punch in the face—people here don’t make it to old age.

Our team performed the drama, and a large group came forward to accept Christ, who is truly the only hope these people will ever have. We then washed the children’s hair and handed out food and clean water. I hung my head in shame as I realized that for the price of the Big Mac meal I had bought on the trip down a family in the dump could have had rice for a week. As we played games and shared smiles, the dark mood lifted temporarily and friendships formed.

This is the part where the writer is supposed to deliver a nice closing paragraph that is both hopeful and inspirational, but I simply can’t do that. As the bus pulled away, the children shouted and waved goodbye. Looking back at them, I knew that when I returned next year, at least a few of them wouldn’t be there. The conditions are just too wretched to support life for very long. Some kids will have died of malnutrition or some curable disease or simply from a lack of love. The bulldozers that move the trash will have plowed their delicate bodies into the ground, not to be remembered by anyone on this earth.

The moment we left the forgotten children behind, nothing could have stopped the tears from coming. Only a few other times in my 22 years had my heart ached like that. But at that moment, in the presence of the God of the poor and forgotten, I was as alive as I’ve ever been.

Two days later, I was home. But thankfully that’s not the end of the story because one way or another, I’m determined that I’m heading back to Quito, Ecuador. I’m going to get back on a bus and return to that garbage dump, and I’m going to cry when I look for one of my favorite kids but don’t find him. But I’m also going to thank God that He changed me and blessed me with the opportunity to make a difference.

Big World Ventures, the group that organizes the ZOEgirl mission trips, is now putting together the team for the summer of 2006. In addition to the drama ministry, there are plans to form a team specifically to reach out to the lost people in the dance club culture. If you apply, you’ll have to work hard to raise your own funds, only to work even harder once you reach South America. You’ll get less sleep than you want, probably get a bad sunburn, and I guarantee your heart will break. But I promise you that you’ll have a chance to make an eternal difference, and you’ll walk away forever changed.

Tower is the afternoon Drive DJ on Chicago’s 89.7 Shine.FM, streaming live at www.shine.fm. To learn more about the 2006 Ecuador Missions Trip, visit www.bigworld.org, or call (918)481-5223.

This article was written for and originally published by Barefoot Ministries®. Used/Reprinted by permission. For more information on other youth ministry resources, visit www.barefootministries.com or call 1-866-355-9933.

—-CCM: October 2004, pg. 10/ Different Kind of Vision by Stephanie Ottosen

—-Christian Music Planet: November/December 2004, pg. 70/ In the Spirit by Alisa Girard

—-Christian Music Planet: July/August 2005, pg. 43 / Did You Know?

-—Encounter Magazine: 11.13.05, pg. 6/ ZOEgirl shares their missions experiences – Getting Their Hands Dirty by Christy Barritt

—-Christian Single: June 2005, pg. 28-31 / Michael Passons – Movin’ Out by Jackie A. Chapman