New Life hosts the New Life Community Garden, where community members come together to plant and care for garden plots during the Nebraska growing season. Our garden was established was established through and operates in partnership with The Big Garden, an Omaha organization dedicated to cultivating food security and educating the public on issues related to hunger in our communities.

For more information about the garden, see our Community Garden page.

During the summer of 2015, a team of dedicated volunteers came together to create Monarch AFB, New Life's official monarch butterfly way station, certified by MonarchWatch.org.

Becky Mann has been working with the Hmong, Lahu, Lisu and Karen tribal women, helping with craft ideas, developing patterns and marketing of crafts. She is also committed to helping the Integrated Tribal Development Program, which her husband Mike Mann leads, with the marketing of Thai coffee, and working with parents of special needs children.

Mike is a global consultant for American Baptist International Ministries in development.

American Baptist International Ministries works cross-culturally to invite people to become disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim, through both word and deed, God’s reign of justice, peace and abundant life for all creation.  For more information, visit our website at https://www.internationalministries.org.

Our story can be traced back over 55 years to Richard and Marlene Mann who are considered Thailand’s coffee pioneers. Richard and Marlene came to Thailand in 1959 with the goal of seeing Thai highland villages become self-sustainable and free from the oppression of the drug cartels and human traffickers that inhabited the area. The solution came in the form of a coffee plant.

The Manns (Richard's son Mike) started an organization called The Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP), which slowly began working one village at a time, with the hope of eventually freeing all of northern Thailand of poverty. Today, over 25 villages are growing coffee, and all crops are owned 100% by the villagers.

Lanna Coffee Co works alongside ITDP and the villagers to purchase that coffee, often paying beyond the Fair Trade value. This allows villagers to be self-sustainable while Lanna Coffee Co works to further support the cause by offering this specialty coffee to the U.S. market.

Profits of Lanna continue to go back to Thailand to help with clean water projects. 

Moses Merrill Camp and Conference Center is nestled in the rolling hills near Linwood Nebraska. Our mission is to provide a Christ-centered place for discovery, growth, and renewal. We are a ministry of the American Baptist Churches of Nebraska.