GCI Canada director Gary Moore provided this update.
Montreal English church celebrates 45th anniversay
On March 29, the Montreal English congregation celebrated its 45th anniversary. The celebration included a special church service and a meal. John Adams and his wife Edna (at left in the picture) were guests. John formerly pastored the congregation.
The day was designed as a reunion, giving current and former members a chance to reconnect and share memories. Several former pastors sent greetings, as did GCI president Joseph Tkach and GCI Canada director Gary Moore.
Men’s retreat planned
GCI men in Ontario are hosting a men’s retreat (they call it an “advance”) on May 2-4, 2014. It will be held in Eastern Ontario (about a 90-minute drive from Montreal). GCI men in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere are invited. For information, email Ken Brady at kbrady@caladena.com or phone Ken at 514.923.0414.
In February, we reported on the “Africa Connected” competition being held by Google. We learned recently that GCI was one of ten finalists in the competition.
GCI mission director for southern Africa, Tim Maguire, was in Nairobi, Kenya recently, where Google hosted the finale of the competition. “Google outdid themselves in making us 10 finalists feel like superstars! Although we did not win the competition, Google donated $10,000 to GCI’s water project in Mozambique! Thanks so much for all your support and votes, and to Google for their generosity.”
GCI in Ghana, which has about 700 members, is conducting a year-long celebration of its 40th anniversary. The celebration includes the recently held launch celebration and an upcoming youth camp.
Gabriel Ojih
At the launch celebration, hundreds of members thanked God, sang and danced to gospel songs. Gabriel Ojih, associate pastor of GCI’s Dallas North, USA congregation and former GCI leader in Ghana, was the featured speaker. He exhorted those present to depend on the Holy Spirit to lead them., and urged the represented congregations to be submissive to the Word of God and to patiently seek God’s grace. According to Gabriel, the church should grow in love and share that love with society through charity and unity.
Anniversary cloth unveiled
Unveiling the official cloth for the anniversary, Pastor Solomon Ayitey, a founding member of GCI in Ghana, noted that the cloth signifies the unity and bond within the church. He urged members to stay united in seeking to emulate the life of Christ.
In an interview with a local newspaper, Pastor Emmanuel Okai spoke about the two schools that GCI operates in Kutunse and Atwima-Koforidua.
This update is from Hector Barrero, GCI mission developer in Central and South America.
Last month, I visited our congregation in Ezeiza, Argentina. Upon arrival I learned that Ruben Soto Castro, a long-time member of the church there, had died. So my visit began with Ruben’s funeral on Saturday, which had been planned as the first day of a seminar.
On Sunday, amidst the sadness, I conducted a seminar on the topic of spiritual disciplines, using material from Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.
On Monday, pastor Julio Fernandez and I spent much of the day discussing the subjects presented during the International Conference held last summer in Orlando, Florida. Julio was anxious to receive this update. We focused much of our time on discussing the presentations from Gerrit Dawson on the meaning of Jesus’ continuing incarnation.
This update is from Anthony Mullins, coordinator of GCI Generations Ministries (GenMin).
left to right: Anne Stapleton, Jeff Broadnax, Mark Stapleton
It’s my pleasure to report the recent successful completion of GenMin’s Converge East gathering near Columbus, Ohio (I reported earlier on Converge West, which was held in the Los Angeles, California area). Now that these two events are in the books, I find myself often thanking God for the people who participated. From our camp coaches (pictured at right) who did a superb job organizing both events, to the young adults who invested their time and money to attend, to the church pastors and other church leaders who not only came but gave generously of themselves to the younger generation, to the denominational leaders who value this ministry and show it through their support and, above all, to our relational God—the love, freedom and binding together of Father, Son and Spirit were on full display in both locations.
We had a record crowd at Converge East of 167 people (see the group pictured below). The combined attendance at the two Converge gatherings was a 37% increase over last year, falling just short of our goal of 250 people total.
The feedback from Converge East has been encouraging—many commented how much they were blessed by the event. Particular mention was made concerning the time in which we gave one another verbal affirmations in small group gatherings. One young adult told me how much it meant to have GCI veterans like John Halford and Jeff Broadnax speak to them encouraging words of life. We also were blessed by the life-giving, gospel words spoken by the various Converge East presenters: Meredith Macy, Heber Ticas, Gary and Cathy Deddo, Jeff McSwain, Jeff Broadnax, Mark and Anne Stapleton, Greg Williams, Jon Kuhn and others.
During the Saturday afternoon session, we rallied around Dan Rogers and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing over him (see picture below). Dan will be retiring at the end of this year from his responsibilities as director of GCI-USA Church Administration and Development, and we wanted to express to him our deep appreciation for his unwavering support for youth ministry in general and GenMin in particular throughout the years. Dan, you are a blessing!!
For those not able to attend a Converge event this year, we’ll be posting video vignettes of some of the meetings and interviews with some of the leaders. We’ve embedded below one of those videos—this one excerpts a presentation from Michelle Fleming about this year’s GenMin camp teaching curriculum, which she authored. Stay tuned for other videos here in Weekly Update and at these other GenMin media locations:
All in all, it was a wonderful Converge experience this year and I conclude this report with our Converge 2014 rally cry: Let’s build something together! Thanks to God, that building is under way in and through the body of Christ, the church. I always encourage our GenMin folks to be active participants in their local congregation, for that is the primary means that Jesus is using to advance the Kingdom of God.
During a recent trip to Tacloban, GCI Philippines National Director Eugene Guzon, accompanied by SEND International Executive Director James Aberin, visited the ministry center that GCI is helping with to assist survivors of typhoon Yolanda. During the visit the men discussed GCI and SEND partnering to develop the ministry center into a church congregation. The leaders also discussed starting a youth camp in the area this summer to help young people heal emotionally by finding comfort and purpose in Christ and a sense of community. The camp start-up is being assisted by the Jon Whitney Foundation.
Eugene thanks those who have helped in the relief efforts, including GCI Philippines, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Bahamas and Thailand. As Eugene noted, “Typhoon Yolanda disrupted people’s lives and destroyed much of the region. Nevertheless, this has led to a new beginning—new opportunities to experience God and to share his love.”
From left: James Aberin, Erwin Torregoza (GCI construction foreman), Eugene Guzon and Gerardo Palanas (GCI outreach ministry coordinator).
This update is from Sonia Orozco de Vengoechea, pastor of GCI’s church in Barranquilla, Colombia.
We held our annual seminar in early March. It lasted for four days and was attended by 58 adults and 8 children. We met in a hotel in Santa Marta Colombia where we enjoyed worship services, meals and social activities (including much dancing!).
Our guest speaker, Regional Pastor Héctor Barrero, taught us from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi to continue in our divine calling without fainting. We returned home refreshed and determined to continue serving in the work of our Lord.
Odyssey in Christ, a GCI affiliate ministry, recently held a Transforming Prayer Retreat in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Twenty-one GCI members, attending from several congregations, learned how the healing ministry of Jesus Christ continues today as they experienced the Lord’s healing presence and learned to position themselves and others they serve to receive the Lord’s healing touch.
One participant gave this commendation: “I encourage and highly recommend this retreat. We all have deep wounds that God can heal!” Charles Taylor, pastor of GCI’s church in Mirimar, Florida also commented:
It would take many words to fully describe the blessing of the retreat. It was a weekend filled with transforming prayer, connection, learning and joy. Friday evening inspired us to see Jesus as our healer at work in all of life’s situations. On Saturday, we saw many breakthroughs—chains were broken. The testimonies shared were a demonstration of the power of God’s love at work in the lives of his people.
As we worshiped in ways that engaged all our senses, we were led into a non-threatening, yet lovingly challenging environment where through transforming, healing prayer we could hear God’s voice and be open to the Spirit’s lead. We saw the love and power of God at work as we prayed in small groups and individuals were instructed in how to lead prayers of blessing and healing. The closing service on Sunday was also an inspiration. The messages again pointed to the loving power and healing desire of God in our lives. The music was a powerful complement to the message and prayers. We thank God for the wonderful weekend and pray that Odyssey in Christ will continue to share in what God is doing to help his people practice transforming prayer.
GCI Philippines held a strategic planning workshop recently in the Bicol area. It was led by pastor Rex de la Peña and facilitated by pastor Jonathan Jimenez. The workshop’s objective was to craft ministry plans for the year ahead. Topics addressed included:
The nature of the transformed life—emphasizing what Jesus is doing to share with us his love, service, commitment, diligence, perseverance and righteousness.
Developing fellowship in the churches that more fully reflects our Trinitarian, incarnational theology.
Preaching for life transformation with sermons relevant to the members’ life situations; helping them see how the Spirit is working through their life situations to help them mature in Christ.
This update from GCI Canada director Gary Moore concerns developments in GCI’s Canadian camps.
Leigh Smithson, camp chaplain at our SEP Silver Meadows camp in Alberta, visited the Winnipeg congregation recently to commission Clayton and Gillian Houghton as the new camp directors. Our thanks to Jennifer Pasanen for the wonderful job she has done as camp director for the last couple of years. Leigh commented: “Jennifer has done a fabulous job as director but desired a change in order to concentrate on the camps’ apprenticeship program. That program gives older teens a chance to experience camp as a volunteer in the hopes they will come back some day as camp workers.”
Leigh also commented on related matters: “The Winnipeg congregation includes a lot of enthusiastic camper-age kids and the parents and youth workers are full of energy—you can feel the camaraderie and fun this group shares for camp. However, it is costly to drive the many kilometers between their homes in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the camp in Alberta. We are grateful to the GCI-Canada board for setting aside funds that we can use to help cover some of these travel costs.”
The purpose of both of our Canadian youth camps (SEP Silver Meadows in the west and Camp Connections in the east) is to evangelize and/or disciple those who participate. Many campers come with friends and many of those friends have never been taught about Jesus. It’s a thrill to reach out to these teens to present Jesus in a setting that is conducive to evangelism.
On March 29, the Montreal English congregation celebrated its 45th anniversary. The celebration included a special church service and a meal. John Adams and his wife Edna (at left in the picture) were guests. John formerly pastored the congregation.
