AREAS | firstlove

Areas of Ministry

As First Love grows, we continually look for new opportunities to help those whom God daily places in front of us. When looking at all the ministries taking place around the world we find that each fits into one of six general areas. They include:

Acts of Compassion
Disaster Relief Efforts
Medical Assistance
Evangelism Outreach
Education
Housing Solutions

We're careful to make sure each area of ministry meets a felt need to a specific person. Ministry for the sake of itself isn't the goal. Rather, it's all about helping a person in their time of need and showing them God's love.

Dear children, let us not love with words
or speech but with actions and in truth.
(I John 3:18)

Acts of Compassion

We've all most likely had a time in our life when things were just falling apart around us. A job loss, a major illness or injury, financial hardship or even the death of a close friend or family member. It's in those times that a simple "helping hand" can make all the difference and get us through until the next day. As we come to the aid of hurting people we can actually give them hope in knowing that there is a God who loves them.

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Disaster Relief Efforts

As with all of our lives we can plan for tough times. Sometimes that planning though is not enough when disaster hits. At these times if someone doesn't step in all hope can be lost. First Love International has had a number of these divine opportunities.

Since 2008, Kenya has gone through several cycles of severe drought. This has devastated their agricultural production and put countless numbers of people at risk of starvation. First Love has used their network in Kenya to purchase large amounts of food. They then distribute it through "Food For Life" to those that can distribute it responsibly.

In the November of 2013, Super Storm Yolanda hit the Philippines as one of the worst recorded Typhoon's of all time. It killed tens-of-thousands and displaced hundreds-of-thousands. One city at the center of the destruction was Tacloban City. First Love had already been working in Tacloban for years doing church planting and humanitarian work. The local First Love pastor immediately jumped into action to help where he could. Within days First Love had relief supplies going out to the most needy. On top of the supplies, First Love supplied grief counselors to help those who lost everything, including entire families. Over the past year First Love has continued the rebuilding of lives in this region. They have helped with medical needs, counseling, food, supplies, and rebuilding. To this point we have rebuild over 100 homes for the local people. The work continues even now.

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Evangelism Outreach

Firmly believing that Jesus Christ is returning soon, our passion is to see people come to know Him as Savior and Lord. Therefore, a bottom-line priority ministry of First Love is to be actively engaged in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who are lost in the darkness of sin. Our evangelistic strategies and methods are patterned after those of the Apostle Paul who said: "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." (I Cor. 9:19 & 22)

It is often said that people won't hear what you say until they see what you do. First Love keeps that reality at the center of all it's evangelistic work. We first make every effort to meet a felt need of each person we encounter. Only then can we share about the love of Jesus and the forgiveness and restoration He offers. We look to use many avenues to connect with people: providing food, clothing or medical care, help with housing, vocational or economic assistance, disaster relief, education enrichment, or even sports.

Medical Assistance

Providing for the basic medical needs of people in crisis is of of First Love's growing concerns. After providing food and clean water, care for your sick or injured loved ones is easily one of the next most important needs. First Love seeks to help with some of the basic health issues through volunteer medical and dental teams, individual assistance and regular free clinics. People who come can receive a check-up and basic medicines as well as counseling for care of more serious or long term needs.

One of the newer ministries of First Love is the Pregnancy Support Center in Taiwan. For such a small country, Taiwan has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. It is estimated that for every live birth there are 2-3 abortions. For a country of 23 million there are approximately 300-500 thousand abortions yearly. PSC seeks to provide housing, counseling and adoption assistance to those women and teens who chose not to go the route of abortion.

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Housing Solutions

One of the largest ministry areas within the First Love world is that of providing safe environments for at risk children to live. Currently we take care of 350 children in five countries, with that number growing every day. These kids come to us due to a variety of reasons: death of their parents, abandonment and rescue from trafficking. These children are all provided for by our simple child sponsorship program. This covers all their housing, food, clothing, education, medical and spiritual needs. We also maintain a home for widows in the country of Nepal.

Education

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we seek to motivate, mentor, edify, and train people in general education, life skills and how to be disciples of Jesus Christ for the purpose of making them fruitful participants in society and as active members of the harvest force through local churches.