Praying Pelican Missions

I love partnering with Praying Pelican Missions! They have a heart to serve both in the country of our mission(Belize) and the local church team from the US. They provide excellent leadership and an appropriate amount of structure and flexibility in terms of the mission focus for the week and the daily schedule. The PPM staff is competent, humble, organized, efficient and open to the Spirit's leadership and influence. I am blessed to count them as friends and ministry partners! Pastor Harold Zimmick

I've been involved with Praying Pelican Missions for over 10 years. My home church served on a mission experience to Belize in 2004. I was highly impressed that my home church in Duluth, MN was serving alongside a local church from Belize City, Belize to plant the first church ever in the village of La Democracia, Belize. The church shell was already built when PPM joined the local effort in completing this structure. The church in Belize City was already driving the 45 minutes out to the village of La Democracia and holding church services on the basketball court as well as holding meetings in home with key leaders and families in the community.

A couple things stood out:
1. The local Christian effort was already at work. We were simply partnering with on ongoing effort.
2. PPM listens to the local pastors and leadership. There is no PPM agenda, except to assist and support the local church and her efforts.
3. There is a high emphasis on the local church and community serving together with the mission team.
4. PPM raises up, trains, and employs local leadership for meals, service project direction, and even to help lead their mission groups.
5. PPM not only allows, but encourages long term partnerships between North American Churches and the local church they desire to serve. This emphasis is on relationships over the idea of checking off a country to serve in or a project to complete. PPM seems to be leading a new moment and philosophy in short term missions organizations in this respect.

In serving with PPM over the last ten years, here are some additional items I appreciate:
1. PPM's model (developed by the local pastors and leaders) is not to build a camp and run groups through their compound. In 2015, PPM serves about 50 unique communities each year in Belize only. One community may only see one mission team a year. PPM serves over ten countries currently.
2. The culture of Praying Pelican Missions is one of the pursuit of excellence and to learn, implement, and model best practices if need be. This usually takes more time, money, resources, and development of relationships then a tradition camp style mission effort.

My degree is in education. I am currently on the Board of Directors for Praying Pelican Missions and serve as the Vice President of Operations for Praying Pelican Missions.

We are planning our forth short term mission trip with Praying Pelicans. Here's why I feel that Praying Pelican's is the most effect mission group that I have ever served with. 1, Their missions serve indiginous churches and pastors. The Indigenous pastor knows the needs of their community better than any missionary could. 2, Praying Pelicans understands our goals in serving in Belize. 3, They plan and execute well. 4, The pastors and churches that they serve have been carefully selected. 5,We have a very strong return rate year after year due to the positive experience that our volunteers have had.

My relationship with PPM started over four years ago during a less than inspiring and captivating Plenary Session during a conference that led me to seek refuge out on the Mezzanine where I saw a Praying Pelican Missions table and the one and only Jon Nelson. Jon and PPM were the first mission organization who took the time to listen and hear what I had to say and what my particular church and ministry was looking for and not just spew a sales pitch back at me. By the end of that first conversation, I decided that somehow I was taking my team on a mission trip THAT year with PPM. Well, four years later, I have led 3 mission trips with PPM and am currently planning our fourth. The level of professionalism and the lengths to which everyone at PPM goes to in order to make the experience worthwhile and meaningful continues to amaze me. I have had the pleasure of having Christopher Fry lead 2 of my trips and he is going to lead our trip this year as well. While every trip consultant/leader is awesome, I can not say enough good things about Christoper! When I need information or help or just want to talk about ministry and mission, he is always there to answer my questions and go the extra mile in order to make sure I have everything I need. When he finally has to sleep to take a day off, the rest of the PPM staff is equally as helpful and awesome. I feel like I am on a first-name basis with a great number of the staff and they have become more than an organization that plans an annual mission trip for my church; they are my partners in ministry, they are my friends and they are my family.
Praying Pelican allows you to stop focusing on the minutia of leading mission trips and allows you to place it back where it belongs; on serving a lost and dying world and presenting them with love, compassion and mercy through Jesus Christ.