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Haiti update

This update is from Joseph Franklin, GCI’s national ministry leader in Haiti.

There are new developments to report concerning GCI in L’Asile – an existing Haitian church that chose recently to affiliate with us.

Tijean, Andre Naval and I recently visited the congregation. Though our journey there was long and tiring, we had an inspiring and humbling visit. A group of about 100 welcomed us (part of that group is pictured at right). It was clear that they were anticipating our visit.

I brought a generator to power my laptop and projector so they could view (as I translated) one of Dr. Tkach’s Speaking of Life programs (Pawol Lavii in their native Creole language). They were glad to become acquainted this way with GCI’s president.

After the worship service, the church’s pastor, Jeremy Nicolas and his wife Anotte served us a nice lunch (see picture at left).

Hispanic heritage celebration

This update is from Neil Earle, senior pastor of GCI’s congregation in Glendora, CA.

Left to right: Xochilt, Christian and pastor Heber Ticas

New Covenant Fellowship of Glendora, CA observed its 15th annual Hispanic Heritage celebration on Cinco de Mayo (May 5), with 66 people in attendance. These included guest speaker pastor Heber Ticas, his wife Xochilt and their son Christian from Comunion de Gracia, GCI’s Spanish-speaking congregation in Sun Valley, CA.

Pastor Ticas reminded the attendees of the importance of learning the lesson from days such as these – the need to come out of our own mental and spiritual “villages” as indicated by Jesus’ attitude of tolerance in Luke 9:51-55. He contrasted Jesus’ attitude toward a hostile ethnic group to the vengeful prejudicial attitudes of his own disciples.

Pastor Neil Earle with one of the children

A group of suitably attired singers began the festivities. A delicious meal was then served and children enjoyed the candy shower from smashing the piñata. As Mexico gave the world chocolate and chewing gum, this was only fitting.

“Perhaps the best Cinco de Mayo we have yet had,” added Janet Shay of the Glendora church’s advisory council.

Virginia Beach 41st anniversary

This update is from Curtis May.

Tim and Donna Brassell

On the weekend of April 21-22, my wife Jannice and I joined the New Creation Community Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for their 41st anniversary. We served as Associate Pastor in the Norfolk area from 1974 to 1979.

The celebration was a wonderful experience beginning with an exquisite banquet and dance on Saturday evening where a panel of myself, and another former pastor, Tim Brassel, along with the current pastoral team members Calvin Sledge, Ada Wilson, Calvin Simon, and Clarence Roberts told stories, serious and funny, of our church experiences.

Simons (senior pastor), Ada Parson, Sledges, Mays and Brassells
Maude Shaw is a Charter Member of the Norfolk Church

On Sunday the new Senior Pastor Calvin Simon was installed. Also on Sunday we were joined by members from the former sister church in Richmond in a meaningful worship service. On a personal note, I was deeply moved when one of the lead event organizers told the congregation that I was one of the main reasons he stayed in the church. I visited his mom several times when he was 10 years old. Now he is a pillar in the church!

The Virginia Beach congregation is eager to go forward with a new senior pastor, and reach out into the community with renewed excitement and purpose.

 

Love Wichita

This update is from Ross Hays of Grace Fellowship, the GCI congregation in Wichita, Kansas.

Grace Fellowship of Wichita, Kansas participated in a city-wide all-day service project called Love Wichita. Churches across the city joined together in an attitude of service and hope at the fourth LOVE Wichita event of serving. A total of 235 projects were completed (100 more than last year), using thousands of volunteers and involving almost 40 churches. What an awesome demonstration of God’s love to those in need.

We had nine members from seven communities outside of the city of Wichita serving that day at two project sites. Our team spent the morning working on the West side of town at Woodlakes Senior Residence where we spread 75 cubic yards of mulch, added 800 pounds of top soil into a planting bed used by the residence and removed 10 cedar trees. After lunch we moved to the East side and cleaned out about a mile of Gypsum Creek. We pulled 4 bicycles, 1 scooter, 1 shopping cart, several car wheels and rims, and 38 bags of trash out of the creek.

God is calling us to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7) and to answer his call, we’ll continue to partner to complete service projects throughout the area.

 

 

Tucson outreach

This update is from elder Ted Millhuff.

Emerge Center

After two months of donations at services of Grace of God Fellowship, Tucson, Nanette Krestle took 82 boxes of toiletries to the Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse on March 26. The Emerge Center is very thankful for the donations and was surprised that a congregation of our size could do so much.

During the spring and summer of 2011, we began working with Mentally Ill Kids In Distress (MIKIDS) set in motion by one of our members, Nanette Krestle, a project manager at the firm. The project involved an angel tree which had requests for gifts. Each child asked for a needed piece of clothing, which our members provided. This was a huge success and was heartwarming due to the incoming cards of thanks from several families.

After we finished that project, we took the next step, based on our outreach on the Care then Share approach taught at last year’s conference. We planned an Easter Service for the MIKIDs families to be held at our church. The overall planning by Pastor Tom and Michelle Landess and Nanette Krestel included all of our members taking part in this activity. We had 100 percent participation.

MIKIDs Project

On April 15, 2012, we had approximately 35 adults and children join us for services. Michelle led children’s songs, Tom gave a short message and Nanette led the kids out for an plastic egg hunt. Each egg had candy and there were four with $50 gift certificates and ten with $10 gift certificates. We had a lunch in our fellowship hall with games for kids. We gave away more prizes and bibles for adults, teens, and children along with some CDs and coloring books. Two families talked to Tom and said they would like to start coming to services.

The Director of the MIKID Organization attended this special event as well. She wants to connect more with our church in the future, with the intent of sending other MIKID families to us. The Director sees the need for a faith-based connection for all those families and saw that our people can fill that need for them. Wow – truly great beginnings!

Philippine leadership training

This update is from Pastor Rex Dela Pena, National Youth Director for GCI Philippines.

GCI Philippines recently conducted a three-day seminar for 48 young emerging leaders from 11 congregations in Mindanao. The training, led by Rex Dela Pena, focused on preparing these individuals to step into pastoral team and church leadership positions in five to seven years.

The seminar started with a discussion concerning assessing current ministries. This was followed by discussions concerning missional leadership and spiritual formation. Participants then shared their desires for their local churches and their plans to help serve those churches and their existing pastoral teams.

A workshop on how to plan for the local church as a pastoral team was conducted, after which each church presented their monthly plans including budgets and topics for sermons and small group meetings. Reynan Fernando from Ipil Church in Zamboanga shared, “Indeed, we’ve been equipped and the training has been a channel for us to see the need of the church. It prepares the hearts of the young leaders and widened our perspective as junior pastoral team members in our local churches. We have enjoyed the cool and relaxing place, the fellowshipping, the lectures and the workshops. We crave more training like this to enhance our leadership skills and equip us to lead God’s people in our local churches, especially in these new, upcoming generations.”

On the last day, Pastor Rex shared a devotional on “In the Storms of Life” where he emphasized Jesus’ experience with his disciples when he walked on water, following Mark 6:45-52. Kevin Mugot from Cagayan de Oro City added, “The devotional was my favorite topic. Personally I have been struggling recently with issues of typhoon recovery and deaths in my family. I came for a vacation, but received far more.”

Christine Adelle Rico commissioned

The training ended with the commissioning of Adelle Rico from Iligan City as the Youth Ministry Coordinator for Mindanao. She was commissioned by Pastor Rex and Pastor Jerome Manriquez (Area Superintendent of Mindanao). This was followed by a photo opportunity and a final round of volleyball.

The training was a realization that God has been preparing these emerging leaders for ministries in their respective congregations. Truly, God has blessed these churches with young people who have the passion to serve God. Follow-up sessions will be held in the next few months.

Nepal update

This update is from Rod Matthews, GCI mission director in Southern Asia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

Deben and Manju Sam

We are privileged to walk together in the ministry of Jesus Christ with the Himalayan Gospel Church based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Led by Deben Sam with his wife Manju, this church is a growing network of about 20 congregations. On March 24, Rick Shallenberger and Danny Richardson from Cincinnati, USA, Mohan Jayasekera from Perth, Australia, and my wife Ruth and I joined them in worship as part of our visit to strengthen our on-going relationship and discuss how we might further assist in the work of the gospel in Nepal in the year ahead.

Deben’s main congregation of about 70 people meets in a rented building once used as a carpet factory. We were led in worship by Pastor Joseph. The main message was given by Mohan in English, translated into Nepali by the pastor, one of only a few in the group who is bilingual. A group of very competent young people provided the music for our worship in song. We were impressed to see members arriving with bags of various vegetables and fruits from their gardens, which they put on a table at the front of the hall to be distributed amongst the poorer and needy members who have no land to utilize.

About two years ago, Deben leased some farmland on the outskirts of Kathmandu to grow vegetables and small crops to provide for the poor of his congregation and to generate income for the church. Several of the poorer member families live on site, working the fields. The farm is producing well. Deben tapped the expertise of his brother (who is studying agriculture) to educate the farmers through classes and manual labor. Under Deben’s leadership, the farm has become very profitable by breeding pigs and fish.

In Nepal there are vast numbers of very poor people – many work in slave-labor conditions in brickyards around Kathmandu, in quarrying gravel from river beds, or in other low-paying tasks such as sweeping streets. Deben and his wife have hearts of compassion for the poor and a deep concern for their circumstances and needs. With help from their extended family, they look after 14 orphans in their home in Kathmandu. These young girls and boys, who come mainly from rural areas, now have a secure future of Christian love, education and development.

Several years ago, some of Deben’s church members who worked in a brickyard were prevented from attending church when the brickyard owner penalized them for being Christian and required them to work seven days a week. This prompted Deben to propose that, together, we demonstrate the love of God in a very practical way by opening a medical clinic near many of the brickyards to offer free health care to the poor with particular emphasis on the needs of small children and nursing mothers.

The pharmacist and Raju, Deben’s brother-in-law, serving at the clinic

None can afford medical care or medicines provided by the hospitals in the city; so the clinic is open each weekday afternoon with a pharmacist present to dispense free medicine. One afternoon a week a doctor is on duty to deal with more complex issues. This medical service is in much demand and Deben has proposed that we consider extending the operating hours to five full days each week. That means we have to double the hours for which the pharmacist is employed and cover the cost of the additional medicines needed. He does not plan to increase the doctor’s hours at this stage. So we are evaluating this and hope to be able to meet the additional costs so we can give him the go ahead in the near future. To date the Cincinnati congregation in the USA has been generously supporting about 80% of the costs of the clinic on an on-going basis.

Deben’s compassion for his own people, his own rural background and his gift of evangelism, has drawn him to start congregations in some very remote villages. His most recent trip to a village in the far northwest of the country started with an 8-hour bus trip to a regional city, then an hour-long flight in a small plane, culminating in a 4-day walk over a high mountain. How does he interest the people in the gospel message when he gets there? He shows the Jesus film in Nepali. But there is no electricity, so he and his travelling companions carry the projector and a generator on their backs. The people are amazed at the movie and, invariably, some commit their lives to Christ. And so a congregation is born. This is followed up with further communication and biblical educational material to aid them in their journey of discipleship and, if feasible, an annual visit from Deben and his support team during the summer months.

GCI has been involved in funding the translation and printing of our literature in Nepali, the distribution of Nepali Bibles, and the reconstruction work of several rural church buildings and homes after a severe earthquake in eastern Nepal last year. This year, we need to reprint our Nepali translation of Basic Christian Teachings. It is in high demand from pastors of other churches after they learn about it.

As we reported in an earlier issue of Weekly Update, Deben was attacked by a mob a few weeks ago while on an evangelistic mission trip. The mob accused Deben of bringing “cultural and religious pollution” into their society. We offered to help Deben with his medical expenses. He gratefully declined, indicating that he could manage on his own. However he heard that the wife and eldest son of one of his pastors in a remote village in northwest Nepal had been badly injured when lightning struck their home. The local doctor referred them to a distant hospital, which they cannot afford. Deben said he felt a personal responsibility to help. So yesterday we sent Deben some money for that purpose. We also asked Deben to let the family know that hundreds of friends from the Body of Christ around the world are praying for their speedy recovery.

Africa update

This update is from Kalengule Kaoma, mission director for Central Africa.

Zambia

The Zambia-based pastors’ wives hosted a Pastors’ Wives Retreat for the region that includes Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For the first time, the women received a visitor from Nairobi, Kenya. Anne Kimani, wife of East Africa Area Pastor Kimani Ndungu, attended. With her counterparts, Anne shared insights on prayer and being a participant in the ministry of Christ.

Angola

While in Angola I conducted a two-day leadership seminar. The church has made a remarkable turn towards Christ-centeredness, growing in their understanding of the new covenant. With a lot of enthusiasm and positive outlook, we discussed the future of GCI in Angola. “We are just waiting for registration. When we are registered, we will go to many regions of Angola and share the gospel with other people,” assured Oliveira Kitambala, National Director for Angola. Fragoso Lunji and Andre Kaliale from Luanda Kilometro and Estalagon church areas respectively echoed positive sentiments. Fragoso emphasized: “We have many opportunities to share God’s word with other people. What we have in Grace Communion is too good to keep to ourselves.” In Luanda, two of Oliveira’s pastors invited me to speak in their well-attended congregations. Oliveira is networking with clergy in his community.

Part of the Angola leadership team. Oliveira Kitambala is third from left.

Zimbabwe

Pictured below are the leaders from Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe who met recently in Harare for their annual leadership conference. Gordon Green, Regional Pastor for Natal, South Africa attended as a resource person. Among other topics, Gordon encouraged leaders to Cultivate People Skills in Leadership.

Kenya

Kimani Ndungu, Area Pastor for East Africa; Anthony Gachanja, National Director for Kenya; and I traveled to Kisii to meet pastor Javan and his team, who have expressed interest to be part of Grace Communion International. We are watching this developing story.

Uganda

William and Jessica Othieno, pastor of Tororo, Uganda, congregation

There is a surge of interest in GCI here, particularly from three groups of children age five to sixteen. Most live with grandparents who are not able to feed or clothe them well. These children carry sad memories of losing their parents to HIV/AIDs. Often I ask Jesus to show me what he is doing in the lives of these seemingly hopeless children. We are telling them that Jesus loves them. What a joy to see them smile!

Ghana

Charles and Comfort Akuwoah, pastor of Kumasi congregation, hosted me in their home. In a Bible Study with 22 attendees, I pointed out that each of us matter to God. We are very close to his heart because God has included us in his circle of love.

Togo

Immigration officers at the border welcomed Pastor Alfred Ablordeppey and me. Seeing Pastor Daniel Yovo again brought joy to my heart. I recalled my few French words of salutations and greeted him. Over the weekend we attended leaders’ workshops and church services. We shared communion and tasty meals. God is building close-knit communities among us.

Benin

Before our Saturday morning leaders’ training session, we went to the river for a baptism ceremony. Herbert and Jane decided to go through baptism.

Besides leadership training, we spent time with the youth and general membership in Bible Studies. Eagerness shown by members to learn God’s word made me want to spend more time with God’s children in Benin.

Pastoral intern summit

This update is from Carrie Smith, a GCI pastoral intern in the San Diego, CA, area.

On Friday, April 13, GCI pastoral interns, pastors and guests gathered in the hills of Flat Rock, NC (near Hendersonville) at the Bonclarken Retreat Center. This summit was the first of its kind, gathering interns and pastors from across the U.S. for a time of sharing and processing concerning GCI’s Pastoral Internship Program. Seven GCI-U.S. pastoral interns were in attendance: Skyeler Lewkowicz, Jason Frantz (who was ordained as an elder on April 8), Hilary Irusta, Aaron Armstrong, Joe Lamb, Stephen Dobritch and Carrie Smith. Also present were several supervising pastors and/or mentors.

God used our time together to help us remember where we started, embrace where we are, and look ahead to where he is leading. As interns embarking on new adventures, we wanted to know what to expect in pastoral ministry. We wanted to ask others who have gone before us what they did, learning from their successes and mistakes. The weekend was packed with stories of hope, encouragement and affirmation as we worked together to figure out where the intern program is headed.

During one session, interns and supervising pastors broke into two groups to discuss the internship program to date. When we came together to debrief, we found that both groups had been led by the Spirit to recognize the same challenges, areas needing improvement and areas of success. We all felt God’s presence as we laughed, talked, prayed, worshipped and even hiked together during the weekend.

A highlight of the weekend was affirming one another by pointing out how we see God revealed in each one. It was a weekend of living out the reality that is described in our Trinitarian theology – relationships with one another in the communion of our triune God.

One of the main themes emerging from the weekend was each person’s need for a Paul, Barnabas and Timothy. We all need someone to walk alongside us and keep us accountable by challenging us (a Paul), someone we can be honest and open with, who will listen without judging us (a Barnabas) and someone who we are walking alongside and encouraging along their journey (a Timothy). Everyone’s journey is different, but we still need to have the help and support of others beside us along the way.

Speaking as an intern, I am humbled to share this part of my story with so many Pauls and Barnabases, and I look forward to reaching out to my Timothys as so many have done for me.

Note: for additional information about the GCI U.S. Pastoral Internship Program, go to http://mindev.gci.org/internships.htm.

 

Mexico conference

Greg Williams, Dan Rogers and Lorenzo Arroyo

This update is from Lorenzo Arroyo, who works in U.S. Church Administration and Development and assists with mission development in GCI Mexico.

On April 6-8, 73 of our Mexican pastors, leaders and youth attended the National Pastors and Leaders Equipping Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. Instructors were Dan Rogers, Greg Williams and Lorenzo Arroyo of GCI U.S. Church Administration and Development.

Conference topics for pastoral leaders included missional church, discipleship pathway and leadership development. The teens and young adults took part in Journey with the Master – a Generations Ministries leadership training program conducted by Greg Williams and Samuel Mercado (see picture below). The youth devoured this material, with many writing out their responses during discussion periods (something Greg had never seen before!). The youth also made plans for a New Year’s weekend camp by the beach.

On Domingo de Pascua (Easter Sunday), 108 attended worship services. Dan Rogers preached on the Resurrection of Christ, covering 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. The conference then concluded with communion and a parting meal.

The conference was clearly a turning point for GCI’s Mexican pastors, leaders and youth. It helped them understand and embrace the concept of being missionaries in their own backyard, that is, engaging others by cultivating intentional relationships, sharing the gospel, and discipling new believers to maturity and reproduction. Most came to a clearer understanding of what it means to be a missional church, and are determined to take on a new paradigm in participating on mission with Jesus.

During the conference, three Mexican leaders were commissioned as senior pastors, two as associate pastors, and one as a commissioned pastor, respectively as follows: Ruben Ramirez, Arnold Trigg, Rigoberto Pantoja, Luis Soto, Humberto Perez and Mario Saenz. Most of these leaders had been serving in these roles for years.

Also, new Articles of Religious Association were ratified by the assembly of pastors, per the requirement of the Mexican government. Newly elected Association officers are as follows: Alfredo Mercado, main pastor; Ruben Ramirez, secretary; and Luis Soto, treasurer. We are grateful to Alfredo Mercado and the Guadalajara congregation for their generosity in hosting this event, offering us genuine hospitality (and lots of traditional Mexican food!). Also, we are grateful to the Seattle-Bellevue, WA and San Fernando, CA, churches for giving generous donations to make conferences like this possible.