Category: Stay Connected

GCI’s congregation in Kansas City, Missouri, recently held a backyard Bible camp for children. Here is a video showing the camp in operation.

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=482302985173302

In May, 51 campers from the Philippines participated in the SEP Visayas camp held at the Wuthering Heights beach resort in the city of San Jose.

The campers were served by 35 enthusiastic staff members from GCI churches located in the Philippine provinces of Visayas and Mindanao. The staff was led by camp director Sarah Lynn Bahinting.

Camp activities were designed to develop the camper’s body, mind, social skills and spiritual health. With assistance from GCI Generations Ministries, the staff used these activities to help campers come to know and serve the God who loves them all as his dear children. GCI Philippines national director Eugene Guzon conducted a baptism class. As a result, 15 campers were baptized.

GCI member David Dizon, son of GCI pastor Bermie and Carmelita Dizon, was named valedictorian of his class at John Muir High School in Pasadena, California. David delivered a keynote speech at his graduation (watch it below). He was trained in public speaking through speech clubs in his GCI home church and through leadership training in GCI camps and short-term missions.

http://youtu.be/2rcvvYx08wA

Randy Bloom, who directs GCI’s Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM), recently visited Alaska for meetings with leaders of GCI’s Kenai and Anchorage congregations (see the group picture below). The focus of the meetings was how these churches can establish a church planting network to support the planting of new GCI churches in the region.

Rod Koop from the Foursquare Church joined the discussions. Rod who formerly served as Foursquare’s US director of church planting, now is Foursquare’s mission director in Alaska. He has offered to assist GCI in recruiting, preparing and deploying GCI church planters in Alaska.

Interested in church planting in Alaska or elsewhere in the US? Email Randy.Bloom@gci.org or go to http://cmm.gci.org/.

 

This update on GCI’s relief work following the recent tornadoes in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area is from Mike Rasmussen, pastor of GCI’s church in the area. Tornadoes hit the area in two waves (click here for a report on the first). The second occurred last Friday-Saturday with multiple tornadoes and severe flooding that took at least 18 lives.

The devastation caused by the recent storms here is unbelievable. With assistance from GCI’s Disaster Relief Fund, our members here have been helping in the relief effort. We served hot meals to dozens of first responders, many of whom had not had a hot meal in several days. We also helped serve meals to tornado victims and we provided victims with large plastic bins to store valuables recovered from the rubble of their homes. We also gave gift cards to purchase necessities not provided by the relief agencies. Every person helped expressed deep thanks.

At one point, having run out of storage bins, I was headed out of the disaster area. I came across an elderly woman digging in the ruins. I gave her a couple of gift cards and asked, “What is the one thing you need right now that is not being offered by the other relief organizations?” She thought for about two seconds and quietly said, “If only I had a few bins to load my stuff into.” I smiled and thought about how good God is and how he has such a wonderful sense of humor. We told her to hold on and we would buy her some bins and bring them back to her. She started to cry and said “Are you kidding?” I assured her that we weren’t and went to buy the bins.

Despite such encouraging encounters, I found myself getting quite depressed as the week wore on. There is so much devastation and so many people left with nothing. Yet in the midst of it all, God’s love has been shining brightly—through the first responders, through the relief organizations and through all the people who have rallied to help.

We were starting catch our breath following the Moore tornado when we were hit again. A huge super cell that packed something like 17 tornados headed for the neighborhood where both our church building and our home are located. I arrived home to find that my wife Juli had built a fortress in our hallway with mattresses, blankets and pillows.

As the tornado started to pick up speed it suddenly changed direction and started to head down toward Moore. Juli and I were calling and texting our members who live in the storm’s path to be sure they were watching the news. With these came massive amounts of hail and a deluge of rain. Area streets flooded and cars and people were stranded. We thank God that none of our members were injured or suffered any major damage.

My thanks to all who have been praying for us and to those who have texted, emailed and phoned. Your support is much appreciated! Many GCI congregations have contacted me offering financial assistance and/or work parties. I am deeply moved and encouraged by this support. To keep things legal and fully accountable, it is best for you to send your donations to the GCI Disaster Relief Fund and then our headquarters staff will send us the money needed to help the tornado victims.

In the midst of all this, we are reminded that God’s love and faithfulness toward us never end. We know that he holds us in his loving embrace and carries us when we feel we can no longer go on. Here in Oklahoma we prayed at church last weekend for all those in Missouri and farther east as these storms continue to wreak havoc in the eastern United States.

This update from Pamela Gebauer describes an event our French-speaking congregation in Montreal Canada helped plan and organize.

Several GCI members participated in Praises Beyond Cultures, an interdenominational outreach concert held on April 27 in Montreal. More than 150 attended, celebrating the unity in diversity that is a gift from our Lord.

We were blessed by the diversity and fervor of several musical presentations including ones from a Vietnamese band, a group of Cantonese singers, a Ghanaian choral group, a Mandarin praise group and two groups of GCI members: the praise group Ensemble and the youth band Collision.

Dr. John and Naomi Biswas and Roger Lippross, representing GCI and the Bengali Evangelistic Association (BEA), recently attended a meeting of the Southern California Coalition on Ministry to Muslims in North America. The event was held at the Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, California where executive pastor Scott White welcomed the group of about 70 people with reflections on Christian leadership. He was followed with presentations from churches and pastors who are reaching out to Muslims in the Los Angeles area.

Event organizer Vance Nordman of the Jesus Film Project, gave a presentation about a new computer app that enables a person to easily email a link to anyone worldwide so they can watch the Jesus film in their own language. According to the Jesus film website, every eight seconds a person becomes a Christian due in part to the film.

Special guest speaker Zeebandee Abedini (shown in the center of the picture at left with John and Naomi Biswas) told of her brother Saeed Abedini, an ex-Muslim who was sentenced to an eight-year-long prison term in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Saeed, who is a Christian pastor, has been the subject of various press reports telling of how he has been beaten and tortured due to his Christian faith. Zeebandee also told of how she and her parents were led to Christ by the Jesus film. She asked for our prayers for her brother and for the underground church in Iran.

Other presentations at the event focused on the worldview of Muslims and how to reach Muslims with the gospel message. During the event, GCI/BEA representatives received many positive comments concerning what BEA and GCI are doing to reach out to Muslims in the US and in Bangladesh.

GCI in the Philippines recently held one of its youth camps (called SEP) in Luzon at the Alta Rios Resort in Alfonso, Cavite. There were 151 campers representing about 20 GCI congregations in Luzon.

The camp theme, Make Your Mark, encouraged participants to discover their unique God-given potential and make a difference in the world. When campers were asked if they would like to be part of SEP again next year, they shouted “yes!” and were excited to pray for it, to prepare early and to invite friends to join in.

In addition to camps held already in Luzon and Mindanao, others are scheduled for this summer in other parts of the Philippines. According to national director Eugene Guzon, the SEP program is one of GCI Philippine’s highest priorities in that it helps young people grow in their relationship with God and with the church. He commented further: “As our youth realize their identity in Christ and the ways that they can participate in his work, I know that their generation will make a wonderful mark in the church and in the world. To our young people—we love you and we praise God for you!”

New Covenant Fellowship, the GCI congregation in Glendora, California recently celebrated its 17th annual Hispanic Heritage/Cinco de Mayo festival.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla in Mexico in 1862, in which the Mexican army defeated a French invading army. Cinco de Mayo has become a major holiday and is celebrated with great enthusiasm among the Hispanic population in the U.S. The congregation’s annual celebration has proven to be an effective way to reach out to honor members of the Hispanic community.

Guest speakers were district pastor Glen Weber and church planters Saddie and Angie Tabin. Pastor Glen gave insights into how church planting efforts can renew and revitalize existing congregations as well as giving new or returning Christians a church family to worship with. The Tabins told about what it really takes to plant a church—meeting their neighbors, showing concern for them and praying with them, forming small groups and holding neighborhood social events leading up to launching a new church.

After church, the congregation and guests enjoyed a festive potluck meal, followed by the children smashing a piñata filled with candy.

Here is an introductory video from GCI Generations Ministries, featuring GenMin director Anthony Mullins. The video was recently posted on the GenMin website homepage.

http://youtu.be/Yb2IriCMsVA