Mission Aroha 2007

Our world, this world we live in, is consumed by tragedies, unspeakable tragedies, climatic expressions of chain reactions of evil. I just watched a documentary on Myanmar, previously known as Burma, in, which a distraught man shared that the Burmese army had burned his children alive.

As you read this, a genocide is unfolding, in our day in Darfur. 500 New Zealanders reach a place of such desperation and hopelessness each year that they take their lives. We know. We’ve heard about tragedy after tragedy. Crime statistics are on the rise, murder, rape, abuse. Families in our nation, we as a nation are facing moral bankruptcy. We have become a nation of the abused and broken hearted.

In the midst of this, would you dare to dream with me? In the face of evil, in the midst of darkness, would you dream with me?

I dream an impossible dream. The dream of prophets, of fools, the dream of crazy men and revolutionaries. If you dream with me you will be laughed at, misunderstood, you may give your life to a dream whose fruition you never live to see. I see the day that God comes for this nation. I see the day when the Bride of Christ in this nation is so holy and so hungry for the presence of God, that God can’t help but come. Like a flood, like a thunderstorm, like a hurricane, a tsunami, like wild fire. With love and power and vision as we have never imagined, thought possible or ever dared to dream. I see the day when God transforms this nation, redeeming the abused and healing the broken hearted, by the millions. Dream with me.

In beginning the adventure toward the fruition of this impossible dream, I have discovered that so often the journey’s we take in pursuit of our dreams are just as important as the fruition of the dreams themselves. A transformation takes place in us as we walk the road of our dreams, the greater the dream, the greater the transformation. Mission Aroha is both, a dream and a journey. In the two and a half years I have walked toward the coming to pass of this vision, I have transformed exponentially. In the short term, Mission Aroha is the pinnacle of my personal dreams that have come to pass, in the long term, Mission Aroha is a journey that is shaping me, forging me for the days that lie before us. Mission Aroha is a dream inside a dream. It is the day of small beginnings, an opening chapter, in one of the epics of our time. Dream with me.

This journey that we as a team are undertaking, over five months will take us to places where this impossible dream has become a reality, it will take us to places of great darkness. We will find ourselves in places, which are like an oasis of love, light, truth and life in the midst of a dessert of hate, darkness, lies and death. We go because there is hope. The message that we bare, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of this world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of this world, and it is the hope for our nation, for our people, for New Zealand, for Aotearoa. We go baring the gospel of Jesus Christ to this world and to our nation, dreaming of and believing in the impossible, that God can transform an entire nation, redeeming the abused and healing the broken hearted, by the millions. Dream with me!!!

I have been humbled, blessed, made speechless and felt so loved that it has been hard to sleep by the support and generosity that I myself, and our team have received. The encouraging words, the hospitality, the financial support, the prayer and above all the aroha and friendship that have been lavished upon us, have brought us this far and made this outrageous dream, our reality. I want to express a deep thankfulness to you all, from the very depths of who I am. I thank the living God, the creator of the heavens, the earth, the seas and all that is in them, for his amazing holiness, love, faithfulness and power. All glory and honour to our Holy God.

God Bless and Love Always,
Benji Alexander.
ICAC Manapouri