Category: Stay Connected

This update is from Lee Berger, director of Crossing Borders, one of GCI Generations Ministries’ short-term mission groups.

This June, we conducted our 15^th Crossing Borders mission trip into Mexico. Ten GCI missionaries spent eight days sharing services and resources with our ministry partners in Mexico.

Those we served in Mexico deeply appreciated the food, clothing and other physical resources we gave them. However, they told us over and over that, “if you came to see us and did not bring even one box of any physical thing, the most important thing is that you came.”

These people need to be noticed, listened to and to know that God loves them and to know that we are their friends and are glad to share life with them. It is all about relationship!

While in Mexico, we spent two days building a new home for a family; we fed and prayed for people who had been deported from the U.S.; we handed out hundreds of meals and clothing to the homeless and other needy people; we reconnected with a family we built a house for last summer; we held a worship service in a park; we distributed $1,000 worth of Bibles; and we cared for dozens of orphans and other children—playing with them, feeding them, taking them on outings, laughing with them and hugging them to the point that we all had tear-filled eyes when we said our goodbyes.

A few weeks before the trip, we arranged with one of our Mexican pastor friends to help build a house for a needy family in Mexico. We sent money ahead to buy supplies and hire workers, but a week before we arrived the family’s baby girl—their only child—died from a birth defect. With all the emotional trauma and the funeral, we were not sure about the status of the house-building.

As it turned out, we were able to build the house. The father worked with us every day and we visited with the mother and other members of the family on several occasions. Not only were we able to help provide the family with their first home, we were blessed to spend time with them, praying with them, and offering comfort in their time of great loss.

Each mission trip is truly a blessing from the Father, Son and Spirit—an opportunity to share in their love for people. Whether close to home or “across the border,” it is all about relationship.

In early July, Shepherd’s Community Church (South Holland, Illinois), along with Pastor Willard and Brenda High, hosted a celebration of the 50th anniversary of GCI’s Chicago Southside and Hammond, Indiana congregations. Over 400 people attended the 3-day-long Jubilee Celebration, traveling from throughout the US. Guests included Dr. Joseph Tkach, Ms. Helen Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Barr, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Abels, Curtis and Jannice May, Mr. Frederick Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. James Tate and Mr. Albert Atlas.

The celebration began Friday evening with a Meet & Greet. Saturday festivities began with a worship service that included video greetings from the Schmedes and Perkins families, a presentation of the history of the Chicago Southside and Hammond churches and several musical selections by the Shepherd’s Adult Choir (pictured at left). The service concluded with remembrances and words of encouragement from some of the guests.

During the service, recognition was given to Jesse and Audrey Bellamy, Eugene and Juanita Dumas and Dolphus and Barbara Williamson. All had served the Chicago Southside church for most of its history. Assistant Pastor Barbara Williamson was recognized for her recent ordination—she is the congregation’s first female elder.

Over 320 people attended a dinner dance on Saturday evening. A highlight was the awarding of Mary Lee Bellamy Scholarships to four attendees for outstanding academics and community service. The Jubilee Celebration then ended on Sunday with a gospel/jazz brunch with music from the congregation’s worship band and vocal selections from guests.

On June 23, Living Grace Church, GCI’s congregation in Vermont, honored four octogenarian members with a luncheon, cards and a cake.

In April, eight members representing several of GCI’s Philippines congregations participated in a short-term mission trip to the Philippine city of Borongan. The team was led by Pastor Ronald Hernandez.

The mission team conducted several outreach meetings (one of the groups is pictured above) where they shared the gospel and taught those attending how to make soap and fertilizer. As a result of these meetings, at least six children and three adults committed their lives to Christ. Plans are being made to disciple these new believers.

GCI Philippines national director Eugene Guzon and missions director Rey Taniajura frequently state that it is GCI’s aim to engage the churches of GCI in the Philippines in missions through training followed by short-term mission trips like this one.

This update is from GCI pastor Linda Rex. She reports on the recently held US Generations Ministries summer camp named The Rock.

My daughter and I recently returned home from spending more than a week at The Rock summer camp held in Westfield, North Carolina. The camp provided many opportunities to be challenged with something new and “out-of-the-box.” High ropes, giant swing, rock wall and an evening banquet all challenged the campers. God’s Spirit was actively at work throughout the camp, bringing healing, comfort and deliverance to many.

The highlight of each morning was the camp chapel service, where the campers met to share positive moments through shout-outs, singing praise songs and to hearing God’s word for the day. The theme for the camp was “Built on the Rock.” At the first chapel service, camp chaplain Rocky Ray talked about the way God knew and planned for each of us before the world began, giving his Son, Jesus Christ to be our Savior. At another chapel service, Jeff Broadnax, a regional coach for Generations Ministries, gave a message that looked at how Jesus is the foundation for our lives, including our relationships with God and with others. As co-chaplain, I gave a chapel message reviewing how God prepared the ground and Jesus is the foundation. I noted that we need to build our lives on this foundation using the quality building materials that God provides: faith, hope and love.

To illustrate these chapel messages, campers and staff built two small houses; one on a foundation of sand and the other on a foundation of concrete. Camp director Stephen Webb then gave a chapel message about the storms of life that God allows to come our way and how they show if our lives are built on sand or on the rock of Christ. Following his message the campers went outside where Rocky Ray blasted the two houses with a pressure washer. The one built on sand fell, but the one built on concrete stood firm.

On Friday, campers and staff shared moving testimonies about how God had worked in their lives during the week. The consensus was that God had shown his love and power throughout the week. Campers were encouraged to be positive influences in their world, building up their friends, families, communities and country. Built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and bound together in the Spirit, they are and will be transformers of their world.

For more information about this camp, click here.

As part of the recent GCI pastoral intern gathering near Cincinnati, Ohio (see June 19 Weekly Update), Odyssey in Christ presented a day-long seminar entitled A Deeper Walk.

During the seminar, GCI pastor Larry Hinkle, Caribbean Mission Developer Charles Fleming and his wife Carmen gave instruction about developing greater awareness of God in daily life, and how to use meditative prayer and Scripture reading to help us hear and respond to God’s voice. Instruction was also given about a team-based approach to healing prayer and principles that help us experience a more intimate, personal and fulfilling relationship with the Lord.

Pastor Karl Reinagel who attended, wrote this:

Understanding how to have a deep relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit and how to tune into God’s voice in all matters are essential parts of a solid foundation for pastoral ministry. The practices of Lectio Divina and transforming/healing prayer are vital as well. Had I received this instruction prior to becoming a pastor, I would have been less concerned and perplexed over the “what” of ministry and more focused on the “who.” I would have understood that it is not my ministry but that of Jesus. What an awesome experience this was for the pastoral interns before they return to the mission field.

Here is a video of the seminar introduction in which Larry overviews Odyssey in Christ:

View on YouTube at http://youtu.be/mCJZtV2pSWw.

This update is from a report by Rod Matthews, GCI mission developer for SE Asia and the Pacific.

Nepal: house churches, mobile Bible school

We are reaching with the good news into the foothills of the Himalayas! In Nepal, GCI provides project support for our partner in ministry, Himalayan Gospel Church led by Deben Sam. Deben is working to plant house churches in several remote villages north of Kathmandu on the border with Tibet. When he visits these villages, he takes Bibles translated into the local languages and sometimes a small generator and movie projector to show films about Jesus.

Deben reports that less than 5% of the pastors and church leaders in Nepal have opportunity to attend a seminary and thus are weak in their ability to expound Scripture. As a result, most members of local churches are poorly grounded in even the basics of Christian doctrine.

Also, most members and pastors are so poor that they do not have the resources (including time) to leave their family-supporting farm work and go for training outside their home area. Therefore, Deben plans to provide training via a mobile Bible School that will visit them where they live so that they can learn then teach their own people. He also plans to train missionaries who will reach into areas where there is yet no church. Deben dreams of an annual three-month-long Bible School in Kathmandu.

In teaching his classes, Deben uses two GCI publications that have been translated into Nepali: How to Become a True Disciple of Jesus Christ and Basic Christian Teachings. We recently funded the reprinting of 3000 copies of the second one.

India: suffer the little children

Because India has a large number of abandoned and needy children, our congregations in India support a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children (see picture at right).

GCI Indian pastor Danny Zachariah reports that GCI held a residential camp at his congregation’s building last May. There were 27 campers, age 4 to 14 (see picture below). Members provided food and served as camp counselors.

One of our Indian members, Dr. Piria Suntharam, built and now runs a home for children in the Indian village of Kalthanipadi (see picture below). The home houses about 35 youth who are orphans or whose parents cannot care for them. GCI congregations in India and Australia support the home. Various building projects there are underway.

This update is from GCI Canada member Mark Yandt who was one of the riders in the event.

Our Canadian youth camp, Camp Connections, recently held its third annual Peddling Kilometers fundraiser. The 200 km bicycle ride was completed by 13 riders (pictured below) who worked hard prior to the ride selling pledges for the kilometers they would cover. In this way funds were raised for Friends of Camp Connections (FOCC), an organization that subsidizes the registration fees paid by needy campers.

Over the past three years the event has brought participants together from Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Peterborough and Petawawa and has raised over $22,000 (Canadian). Though this year’s results are not yet finalized, it looks like we’ve raised over $10,000! This is a testament to the efforts of the riders who worked for months doing fundraising prior to the ride. Not only did they gain support from friends and colleagues (in person and online), they had the opportunity to tell people about the value of Camp Connections.

This year’s ride started at Parliament Hill in Ottawa and took us through eastern Ontario to Hawkesbury where we stayed overnight before heading the next day to Montreal. Camp director Lynn Lawrence welcomed us with a hot shower and a BBQ dinner.

SEP Florida, a GCI Generations Ministries camp, held its 2013 summer session on June 11-14 at beautiful Camp Shalom north of Ocala, Florida with 48 youth and 22 adult staff. The group enjoyed sunshine, great food and challenging activities. Most of all, they enjoyed sharing, with Jesus, fellowship with God and one another. Several youth were first-time campers.

Camp director Marty Davey noted that after the camp concluded, the owner of the facility commented that in his 15 years of hosting camps, he considers ours to be one of the top five, noting our spirit of love and cooperation. He said were we are one of the most respectful, courteous, knowledgeable and organized groups he has ever worked with.

The Australian National Conference, Life Together in Christ, was held on the beautiful Gold Coast on May 31 to June 2.

More than 200 participants enjoyed a wonderful celebration of fellowship and learning. The conference was open to all who wanted to attend. People came from all over Australia and some from as far away as Malaysia and New Zealand. Participants included representatives from Perichoresis and GraceWalk ministries that, like GCI, embrace a Trinitarian, incarnational perspective on theology.

Here are comments from conference participants: “It was most uplifting, encouraging and enjoyable.” “I left feeling uplifted and filled with contentment.” “More—more learning, more fellowship, more opportunities like this please!” “Awesome conference—inspiring, encouraging and lovely atmosphere.” “It was so spiritually rich, refreshing, edifying and rewarding to spend time together exploring the deep things of God.” Joseph Tkach commented: “It was wonderful to have visitors attend the conference with us. Their fellowship enriched the gathering. Many people told me that they were encouraged and inspired by the growth God is giving to us.”

A positive spirit was evident throughout the conference. There was deep joy in appreciating our union with Christ and the communion we have with our Triune God and one another. The next Australian general conference is eagerly awaited.