John Nelson was ordained last month as an elder and commissioned as a member of the Grace Fellowship pastoral team. Grace Fellowship is the GCI congregation in Pikeville, KY.
The following week John underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. Though he is making good progress, his recovery is slow.
John wants to get back to work and we need our team member. Please join with the Pikeville congregation in praying for John’s quick and complete recovery.
Cards of encouragement may be sent to:
John & Shirley Nelson 165 Cecil Hills Drive Pikeville, KY 41501
In service to GCI churches, Generations Ministries (GenMin) sponsors both camps and mission events (including mission trips). In support of these services, GenMin director Anthony Mullins recently appointed a GenMin Mission Event Resource Team. The team’s primary responsibility is to resource GenMin mission events. Secondarily, it resources GenMin camps and, as requested, GCI congregations – providing these ministries and churches ready access to tools that help them participate actively in the mission of God both locally and globally.
Standing (left to right): Janet Morrison, Lee Berger, Barbara Solari, Charles Fleming, Steve Solari, Anthony Mullins, Joel Clevenger, David Botha, Lynne Botha, Ted Johnston, Wane Creager. Seated (left to right): Carrie Smith, Carla Pearson-Sethna, Mychelle Fleming, Annie Fleming.
Here is what the Mission Events Resource Team will be providing:
Resources to be used by GenMin’s mission events and camps – helping them become fully missional
Assistance to GCI pastors in conducting local mission events that engage all age groups including mission-minded GenMin campers
Assistance to GCI pastors in developing these youth into mission-minded emerging church leaders
An online mission event resource catalog, ranging from starter kits on how to conduct a Vacation Bible School, to instructions on hosting one-day domestic mission events, to instructions concerning sponsoring a team on an international short-term mission trip
Communication to the church – telling the stories of how the Holy Spirit is leading GCI churches, ministries and members in missional outreach
For further developments see genmin.gci.org/missionministries.htm. Though the resource team’s emphasis is on assisting GenMin events, it also assists pastors and ministry leaders of congregations interested in conducting local mission/outreach events. To inquire about this assistance, email Ted.Johnston@gci.org.
Though we don’t always know of all ordinations around the world, here are some that we’ve heard of. These individuals have been ordained as elders within Grace Communion International in the last couple of years. Congratulations to all! If you know of others, please send an email to church.administration@gci.org.
Mattie Tillotson (1/15/12) Baton Rouge, LA
Camilo Umlas (1/22/12) San Fernando, Pampanga PHILIPPINES
Mary Bacheller (1/22/12) Queens, NY
Onofre Lopez (5/16/10) San Carlos City PHILIPPINES
The following report is from Tim Maguire, GCI mission developer in Southern Africa.
Click on map to enlarge
My sincere thanks to GCI Canada for funding my recent visit to Namibia. GCI South Africa has been walking alongside a group of churches in Namibia since late 2010. This was my third trip to visit with their pastor Lascan Sikhosi.
A brief history
In 2006, a German missionary planted a small church in Katimo Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip in northeastern Namibia (see map at right). The missionary returned to Germany in 2008, leaving the new church without a support structure and suggesting that they find a mother church to associate with.
Unsure what to do, Lascan searched the internet and found the GCI South Africa website and started corresponding with me by email. I forwarded him a lot of our literature, which he read. He then asked for a visit. My first visit came in late February 2011.
On that first visit I found a group struggling with legalism and unable to understand the freedom we have in Christ. The Seventh-day Adventists are active in the area and had been trying to get the little group to follow them. Their leaders asked me if they should change their day of worship to Saturday. In reply, I explained the distinctions between the old and new covenants and the reality that Jesus is our Sabbath rest.
I returned to Johannesburg and sent them additional reading material as well as CDs dealing with Trinitarian theology. Also, I had hymn books made for them, with their songs in their language, which I delivered to them on my second visit in September 2011. Lascan then traveled to Zimbabwe towards the end of the year to spend some time being mentored by Zimbabwean National GCI Director, Joseph Mpophu. Lascan then attended a Southern African regional conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in February 2012, a week before my latest visit.
The trip
A large bull African Elephant we came across alongside the road
David Linker, a GCI member in Canada, had shown interest in a mission trip to Africa, and so it was arranged for him to accompany me on this trip. He flew in from Canada, and we left Johannesburg at 3:00 a.m. on Friday, February 24 in order to make our first destination (Kasane in Northern Botswana) by nightfall. We tented in a small camping ground at the confluence of the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers. This is a beautiful, remote part of Southern Africa, with wild elephants known to be found wandering through the streets.
After a 16-hour car journey, we slept well that night and awoke to a beautiful African morning. We then travelled through the Chobe Game Reserve, before entering Namibia on our final leg to Katima. The contrast in living standards as we entered Namibia was obvious. Small, basic rural homes with mud walls and grass roofs were scattered randomly along the main road into town.
We arrived after lunch and Lascan’s excitement was evident. We discussed the following day’s program and went to examine the church building where we were planning to make improvements, which would turn the little mud structure into a more weather-durable church building.
Pastor Lascan welcomes DavidThe church building as we found it
David on guitar
Sunday was a day of rejoicing. Fifty attended the morning church service. David’s musical talent was a hit – he was asked to keep on singing and playing his guitar. I spoke on Christ’s centrality to all things. As an aside, I mentioned that Christ fulfills the Sabbath-day, quoting Hebrews chapter four. Unknown to me, Lascan had invited four senior Seventh-day Adventist leaders to attend the service. One of them came to him after the service and said they had never seen the scriptures quoted in this context, and asked if they might continue attending with the group. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was giving the message that they needed to hear!
My sermon was followed by a joyful ceremony in which Lascan’s four congregations were welcomed into GCI fellowship: Cow Boy (the congregation with the building) with 58 attending, Makalabani with 64, Singalamwe with 18, and Musambo with 24.
Communion service
Near the end of the worship service the group shared the Lord’s Supper – the first Communion service they had ever taken part in! Following the service we all enjoyed a meal together of boiled chicken and ground corn porridge.
We then traveled to share worship services with two outlying small churches pastored by Lascan – one in Katima Mulio town (about 18 attended), and one about 25 kilometers west of town (about 12 attended). Both congregations meet outdoors.
Arranging building materials
On Monday we went to work on the church building – arranging building materials and trying to arrange for contractors to make badly needed repairs to the building.
A couple days later we traveled about 150 kilometers west along the Caprivi Strip to a small San (Bakwena) community where we held church under the trees. The San (previously known as Bushmen), claim to be the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The greatest problem we face in this community is that the Bible has never been translated into their language. Fortunately, one of the members speaks Afrikaans, a South African derivation of Dutch, and has an Afrikaans Bible, which he translates for them.
On Wednesday we held an evening service back at the church building. At the congregation’s request, we again shared Communion, so touched were they by the experience the previous Sunday. We then said our goodbyes and early Thursday morning headed home.
It is comforting to know that on trips like this, the Holy Spirit leads us to participate in what God is already doing in the region. The greatest comfort of all, however, is knowing that when we depart we do not leave them alone, but in continual communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who guides them into all truth. These GCI churches in Namibia will now be served by GCI South Africa. Lascan will participate in our Pastoral training programs, and our national office will send them our GCI South Africa magazine, Face to Face (www.face2face.org.za) as well as audio CDs and articles.
Lascan has big plans to spread the gospel in Namibia. He is extremely excited by the truth he sees in Trinitarian theology. I’m sure you will hear again from Lascan and GCI Namibia!
We received this prayer request from Ingrid Mandel, wife of retired GCI pastor Willi Mandel.
I would like to ask our members for prayer. I have severe spinal stenosis, arthritis and, since last September, a pinched sciatic nerve on the left side of my spine, resulting in extreme pain all the way down to the foot. I can’t sleep, sit, walk, stand without great pain. I have had every possible treatment without any relief. The doctor has told me that my problem is irreversible and there is nothing they can do for me. Even surgery is not possible. I am taking medication but nothing has helped. Now the doctor is talking about narcotics.
God has healed me many times of back problems and I am looking forward to his healing again.
Mrs. Ingrid S. Mandel 747 Tanner Drive Kingston, ON K7M 9G7 CANADA
What is the best, most effective way to share the gospel with others? This is a question our church has been discussing as long as I can remember. And I think I can say with some confidence that we have tried just about everything except the Goodyear blimp.
We have published millions of magazines and booklets, used radio and network television, launched evangelistic personal campaigns – and in recent years we have experimented with web casts and other types of social media.
Which of these has been the most effective? It’s very hard to quantify the results. Some work for a time, and then the novelty wears off. Others seem to be effective, until we add up the cost. Then there are those methods which generate a huge initial response, but very little actual returns. Like the Plain Truth Newsstand programs. Or the advertisements we put in the Reader’s Digest about forty years ago. Believe it or not, our offices still get the occasional request for literature from those.
But is there one method that is the most effective? Yes there is.
Many of you will remember Ed Stetzer who was a guest speaker at our International Conference two years ago in Orlando. Ed is a missiologist and the president of LifeWay Research, and he provided us with a helpful, humorous and colorful presentation on evangelism. He noted that while driving down the interstate, especially in the “Bible belt” in the USA, you will come across some interesting billboards and marquees, set up by well-meaning religious organizations that seem to have more enthusiasm than theological insight and marketing savvy. Here are two examples:
Like me, you probably wonder what made them think that messages like these would turn people to the gospel. As Ed said, “You feel frustrated at how silly they seem. But more importantly, you wonder about the reaction of the countless unchurched who are reading them.”
Ed has done more research on this topic, and has come up with some interesting information about how unchurched people respond to various evangelistic approaches. He conducted a survey with more than 15,000 Americans, asking them about different methods of church outreach. The survey covered 13 different evangelistic methods to discover ways that Americans are willing to receive information about local congregations. The top five, in increasing order of effectiveness, are:
5) Newspaper or magazine advertising – 46%
4) Outdoor sign or billboard – 46%
3) Informative ad in the newspaper – 48%
2) Personal conversation with a friend or neighbor from the church – 56%
1) Personal conversation with a family member – 63%
So the research showed that, whereas mass marketing methods have some effect, the biggest impact, by far, is gained by the least expensive techniques.
Additionally, the research discovered that some people are more or less receptive to considering issues of faith at different times in differing circumstances. The following are the top five times that people are most open to considering matters of faith:
5) After the birth of a baby – 28%
4) After a natural disaster – 34%
3) After a major national crisis, such as 9/11 – 38%
2) During the Easter season – 38%
1) During the Christmas season – 47%
What Ed Stetzer’s research has shown is that unchurched people are more willing to talk about Jesus than we may realize. But it has to be the right person and the right time. So while the research shows that marketing and advertising do provide support for outreach, they are supplemental at best. Contact based on relationships is the most effective approach.
And so it has been since the early years, when Peter exhorted the first Christians to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).
The message of Jesus is best shared by example, one conversation at a time. Perhaps that explains at least some of why, rather than hovering over us for all eternity in a heavenly blimp, Jesus came to us in time and space, in flesh and blood, in person, face to face!
Mike, who retired from GCI in January, continues to host GCI’s video series, You’re Included. Recently, Mike’s science fiction fantasy adventure, The Irregular Ones of Luemenor: A Max Fletcher Adventure, was released on Kindle, Kobo and Nook. Mike comments:
Fourteen-year-old Max Fletcher just wants to find his dad, not hook up with shape-shifting unicorns, galactic super spies and power hungry dictators, but he’ll do whatever it takes not to lose another parent. On a desperate mission that sends him globetrotting to Switzerland, the wilds of Central America, and into another world beyond black holes, Max learns that love is greater—and more dangerous—than he’d ever imagined.
George Denn
George, who is a member in Minnesota, is a fifth-generation farmer from Blue Earth County. He grows a variety of crops, but specializes in pumpkins for his main source of income. He is actively involved with several GCI youth camps and has written for Christian Odyssey magazine (see his article at http://www.gci.org/CO/1012/pumpkins).
George recently published his third book, titled Hey By George! III, Uncut Stones (available at Amazon.com). In this book, George applies Scripture to all aspects of life: sharing his personal experiences to help his readers better understand God’s identity. George comments:
You will read of various things that I have had to deal with, and how I dealt with them on my spiritual journey. Like stones, if things aren’t dealt with that the Lord is bringing your way, they may come back to haunt you! Like the subtitle “Uncut Stones” the stories that you are about to read, have been unedited.
Some time ago we asked for prayer for Elaine, wife of Steve Elliott of Turlock, CA (click here to read the original request). Steve sends this update:
We are thankful that Elaine’s surgery and recovery went well and that the pathology reports were “as good as we could have hoped for,” in the words of her surgeon. Now, it’s on to radiation and chemotherapy. The latter is necessary because her cancer is an aggressive type, and though there is no indication of the cancer spreading, it is required to insure there are no cells straying where they shouldn’t be.
So, we are grateful to our God for good reports, and for your prayers, and we ask you to continue in helping us in that most important way.
The following report is from Rod Matthews, GCI mission developer in SE Asia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Thailand
In Thailand we have a congregation made up of Karen refugees from Myanmar. It is probably one of the most isolated of our congregations – not because of physical distance from others but because of their unfortunate circumstances.
This congregation has about 50 in attendance, more than half being children. They are in one of five camps along the Thai-Myanmar border which together hold more than 100,000 Karen refugees. Most have fled the fighting with the Burmese army over the last few decades. Most have nothing to return to, even if it was safe. Many of the villages back across the border in Myanmar have been burnt down and/or repopulated. So most of these people are essentially stateless and cannot move freely within Thailand. The children know of no other way of life but living in makeshift homes of wood, bamboo and thatch, in a vast town where (in this case) 40,000 people exist in cramped conditions with dirt lanes -either dusty or muddy – lining the hills for kilometers along the road that follows the border in the picturesque country north of the town of Maesot.
Yet we are privileged to serve the congregation that God has given us there to look after. On February 12, South East Asian pastoral coordinator from Malaysia, Wong Mein Kong and I were able to visit the congregation in the camp for services. It has been two years since we had gained approval to enter the camp.
Upon arrival we were amazed to see the large (and permanent) baptism pool the church members had built in preparation for four pending baptisms. The church service was planned around the baptisms – three people from member families, and one new member. Wong Mein Kong spoke on the significance and meaning of baptism (with local pastor, Lah Shi, translating into the Karen language).
After the baptisms, the celebration of this wonderful event included a communion service, and before we all took the bread and wine, I explained its significance and the joy of partaking together the elements that recognize Christ’s life-giving work to reconcile us to our Triune God and his Body of which we are now a treasured part.
Several more member families have been granted UN approval for resettlement overseas in the months ahead after the paperwork and medical exams have been completed. But although the numbers regularly attending our congregation have declined in the past few years for this reason, others have started attending. This day there were over 40 children in attendance.
As I meet with congregations like this one, I am moved to note that none of us chose our nationality or place of birth, and in their case, their very difficult circumstances. We pray more earnestly “Thy kingdom come” as well as hoping that the day will soon be here when these refugee camps will no longer be needed. Only God knows how many millions around the world live in such distressing circumstances as a result of man’s inhumanity to man.
Vanuatu
On November 6 last year, Obed Slee, the eldest of our members in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, died, possibly of a heart attack. His age was not known but he was probably in his mid 80’s since he had mentioned that he was a teenager when the Americans were in the country (then called the New Hebrides) during World War II. More intriguing, however, is that Obed (pictured with his grandchildren) had confessed that his grandfather had been a cannibal. Rex Morgan, pastoral supervisor for Vanuatu, recalls Obed once telling him this, so perhaps he was one of last surviving adults who have heard accounts firsthand from a relative who practiced cannibalism. (The last recorded incident of cannibalism occurred in 1969 on the island of Malekula where our church is located).
The following report is from Joseph Franklin, GCI pastor in Haiti.
Recently, I was approached by Pastor Jeremy Nicolas, representing a church of about 55 adults and children meeting in the Haitian village of L’Asile, about 100 kilometers south of Port-au-Prince. The congregation’s name is Eglise Universelle de Dieu of Pradine. Pastor Nicolas, who has read GCI literature since the 1980s, desires that his congregation become part of GCI.
I first spoke with Pastor Nicolas by telephone. He had many questions. Then, along with his leadership team, he visited with us for two days. During our time together we studied God’s nature. They had questions about baptism, the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ dual nature (as the Son of God incarnate).
We found Pastor Nicolas and his members to be a fine group of believers with an honest desire to seek God.
