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.
New Beginnings, GCI’s church in Big Sandy, Texas is known for its service to the community. That service has been recognized formally over the years by the Big Sandy Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. Pictured below are members (with their children, some who have received awards of their own) who have received community service awards in recent years.
Row one: Sarah Strub (2012 woman of the year) & George Strub (2012 man of the year) with their two children; Marilyn Canup (2014 woman of the year); Dwayne Canup (2009 man of the year); Helen Ellard (2013 woman of the year), Jane Parsons (2005-07 first lady of Big Sandy); Sonny Parsons (2002 and 2006 man of the year, 1993 fire fighter of the year). Row two: James Jackson (1993 and 2004 senior citizen of the year), Lois Peterson (2010 woman of the year), Anna Peterson (2012 Miss Big Sandy), James Peterson, Josette Peterson (2014 Miss Big Sandy), Rick Peterson (2010 man of the year), Jerome Ellard (2013 man of the year). Not shown, Melven Allen (2012 fire fighter of the year and 2004 senior citizen of the year).
Recently, the congregation honored several couples who have been married for more than 25 years, and some for more than 50. As noted in an article in the local newspaper (pictured below, click to enlarge), the congregation is utilizing this substantial marital experience to provide within the community small groups that will serve premarital and recently married couples.
As a denomination, GCI is providing financial and manpower assistance to aid the relief efforts in the Philippines as the nation recovers from the severe earthquake and the devastating super-typhoon that hit there last year.
Thanks to the generosity of GCI’s U.S. congregations, we have sent to the Philippines $53,000 in aid from the GCI Disaster Relief Fund. In addition to this financial assistance, two GCI mission groups have traveled to the Philippines to assist in the recovery work by providing counseling support, rebuilding, distributing supplies, etc. One of the groups helped feed children at a ministry outreach center (pictured at right) and at the Tacloban Astrodome where about 2000 evacuees were housed following the typhoon.
One of the GCI groups that traveled to the Philippines was sent by Grace Missions–a GCI Generations Ministries mission organization headquartered in Ohio. Leading the group was Joel Clevenger, director of Grace Missions. Also in the group was David Botha, the pastor of GCI’s congregations in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio and a leader in Grace Missions. In the picture below, pastor David is sharing the message of the gospel with Filipinos in the Tacloban area (where the typhoon hit hardest).
The other GCI mission group that traveled to the Philippines came from Australia. That group is pictured below upon arrival in Tacloban. Standing with them is Eugene Guzon (third from left). Eugene is GCI’s national director in the Philippines The missionaries included Daphne Sidney, wife of Bill Sidney who formerly served as GCI’s regional director in the Philippines.
This update is from Sandra Hamilton, a ministry leader in Christ Community Church, one of GCI’s congregations in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.
Dr. Fankhauser
Our congregation conducted its 18th annual Black History Month celebration this February. Our month-long celebration included several events. In one, the featured speaker was Dr. David Fankhauser, one of the 1960s Freedom Rider. Because of his work for racial equality, he was placed for 40 days on death row in a Mississippi jail. Dr. Fankhauser is now a professor at the University of Cincinnati. His lecture to the congregation and guests was informative and the Q&A that followed ignited thoughtful discussion.
The celebration also featured music from Ebony Strings, a group of African-American classically trained musicians from the Cincinnati Consortium of Music. Their performance was an extraordinary gift to everyone who attended. Other highlights were the sacred music of Duke Ellington, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, and a tribute to civil rights leader Nelson Mandela of South Africa. The congregation also held its 9th-annual Black History Month dinner dance.Members invited friends, family and the local community to all of these events.
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.
