Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I thought you might enjoy some photos from the recent writers workshop that John Halford and Mike Feazell conducted in South Africa for the staff and potential writers for GCI Southern Africa’s Face to Face magazine. Face to Face is in its second year of production and growing steadily. South Africa national director Tim Maguire requested the workshop to strengthen the magazine’s editorial, distribution and theological effectiveness.
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Photo Captions: 1. Face to Face staff 2. John Halford discusses identifying your readers. 3. Mike Feazell discusses Christian journalism. 4. The group relaxes for a lunch break. 5. Waiting for Tim’s brother to come to the rescue when the truck broke down. 6. A male impala poses with his harem. 7. Left to right: Mike Feazell, GCI vice president; Tim Maguire, GCI South Africa national director; Kalengule Kaoma, East, West and Central Africa missions director; John Halford, GCI international publications advisor.
Fred and Maryann Stevens’ son, Alex, was part of the Arcadia, California, drum line that just won the national competition in Ohio. Fred is an elder in our Eagle Rock, California, congregation. You can view Alex’s team’s winning performance here on YouTube: http://wgi.thefannetwork.org/?vod_id=5d9c9452-c256-4b6f-a963-d52d7382009c
Sri Lanka
From Rod Matthews
The GCI Discipleship 101 course continues to be one of the most useful resources in our evangelical and mission work in Asia. Last year we had it translated into the Tamil language in Sri Lanka to complement the Sinhala language edition, which is already in print. The Tamil edition has just been printed by the Publishing Division of the Colombo Theological Seminary (CTS), so both the major ethnic groups in Sri Lanka now have an edition in their native language.
Mohan Jayasekera, pastor of our Perth, Australia, congregation, and who oversees our Sri Lankan church, has shared with me a message he received from his cousin, Lokendra Abayaratne, a retired Anglican archdeacon, and prominent religious leader in Sri Lanka. Lokendra has taken responsibility as the “person on the ground” for coordinating the translation and printing. He personally distributed copies at a major church near Colombo when he went there to preach last week and then asked the pastor to announce the availability of the publication at next Sunday’s service.
Lokendra also forwarded the following message he received from the director of Publishing at CTS:
Dear Father,
I thank God for using us as partners of this project. We are confident that this book will be a blessing to the Tamil speaking community. We thank God for Pastor Mohan and Grace Communion International ministry. Thank you for choosing us as partners of this publication. May the hand of the Lord be upon all your future endeavours.
Yours in His service,
Lal Wijesinghe
Publishing Coordinator
Reconciliation Ministries
From Curtis May
We are nearing completion of a DVD about the life of a woman who was kidnapped along with her two sons and held for several years. They went through unspeakable torture. Eventually she found a way to flee with her sons and get help. Long story short, she is now a member of GCI, serving in the church and working as a counselor. She has been able to forgive her attackers and has triumphed in Jesus. Her story is very moving and inspiring! Please pray that the DVD will be an effective witness of the grace and power of God!
Another opportunity that recently opened to us is a request by the Burleson/Cleburne (Dallas, Texas area) Ministerial Association and the Baptist Director of Missions to conduct a three-day reconciliation conference to help bring the local communities together. These communities have a history of racial conflict even among people in the same fellowship. GCI churches are involved in this process of building unity among them. Your prayers would be much appreciated. The dates of the conference are May 31 through June 2.
Lisburn, Northern Ireland
European Missions Director James Henderson is scheduled to preach at the inaugural service of Grace Communion Church, Lisburn, on Resurrection Sunday, April 24.
The new congregation hopes to provide a haven of God’s peace in a long troubled, but slowly healing region. They ask for prayer that with God’s help their limited resources will be focused effectively and that they will faithfully follow the Spirit’s lead.
Prayer Requests and Updates
Pastor Paul David Kurts reported that no GCI members have been hurt by the recent tornados in North Carolina, but as we have seen in the news reports, dozens have died from the severe weather the region is experiencing. Your prayers for protection and for the ability to help those in need are much appreciated.
Remember that prayer is the battleground where we fight the good fight of faith. Let’s encourage everyone to join together in prayer, for we belong to Christ, and by the Spirit it is in Christ that we pray. Prayer and other spiritual activities help keep our hearts in tune with God and remind us of who we are in Christ. He is our all in all, and in him we are eternally beloved of the Father and blessed to share his good news with others.
Love from my family to yours,
Joseph Tkach
