Category: Stay Connected

About 55 members and children from Lima and La Huaca, Peru gathered in Piura on September 28 through 31 for a GCI-sponsored seminar. Piura is a large Peruvian city about an hour’s flight from Lima, Peru’s capital city. During the seminar, GCI Mission Director Hector Barrero presented lessons focused on Steve McVey’s book Grace Walk Experience. His goal was to help members draw closer to Jesus and to join actively in what our Lord is doing to proclaim the gospel. Members expressed gratitude, noting that the seminar helped them gain a closer connection with GCI.

During the event, Juan Carlos Florian, a GCI leader from La Huaca, Cajamarca, was commissioned a ministry leader (deacon). Also, with parental consent, two children were baptized: 15 year-old Christian Nieves and 10 year-old Camila Gutierrez. Activities for children were provided, including their participation in a talent show.

 

More than 500 members and guests from GCI congregations in Ghana converged recently at the Kutunse grounds to celebrate their annual convention. Speakers included Casely Schandorf, Cleo and Catharine Sturdivant (from the U.S.), Theophilus Nii Okai, Augustine Adih, Francis Ablordeppey, Alfred Ablordeppey, Emmanuel Okai and Emmanuel Sogbo.

Activities included worship, drumming, dancing and a women’s tournament. Children from the church’s Kutunse Ambassador International School provided entertainment. A film was shown one evening and hymn singing was featured on another.

During the event, it was announced that an association of pastors’ wives has been started in support of the Kutunse Ambassador International School. The Sturdivants also delivered a donation to the school.

 

On September 11-16, 1,231 GCI members gathered in Baguio City to celebrate the 50th anniversary of GCI in the Philippines.

The celebration, titled Awesome God—Amazing Journey, included worship services, a variety show and a dance night. Special guests included John Halford, representing GCI headquarters, and Wong Mein Kong with his wife and daughter, representing GCI churches in Singapore and Malaysia. John brought with him special 50th anniversary greetings from GCI president Dr. Joseph Tkach. In one of his messages, Mr. Halford encouraged the group to participate in what God is doing through them—being what God wants them to be and doing what God wants them to do.

GCI Philippines national director Eugene Guzon encouraged the group to abound in God’s love (Philippians 1:9-11). For those wondering where GCI Philippines is headed, Eugene explained that “abounding in God’s love” will always be its direction.

Sonia Orozco, GCI’s pastor in Barranquilla, Colombia, recently led an outreach event in the neighborhood where her church meets. The event included food, singing, dancing, poetry and performances from the children—multiple ways to share God’s love for all people. Here are some pictures:

This update is from Rod Matthews, GCI’s mission director for Asia.

India

Daniel Zachariah (pictured at right), pastors GCI’s congregation in Secunderabad, India. He was asked recently by the Director of Person-to-Person Institute for Christian Counseling, Samson Gandhi, to present two seminars on his behalf. Mr. Gandhi is recovering from an accident that dislocated his shoulder.

Mr. Gandhi, who has preached in the GCI Secunderabad congregation on several occasions, appreciates our approach and emphasis on counseling in church, and as a result he invited Dan to join with him to help the churches and people of the Hyderabad/Secunderabad twin city area.

Dan has been volunteering as a counselor ever since and conducting seminars for the Institute’s program to train counselors. Dan also reported that recently the Director of Agape Bible Academy (an informal Bible school ) asked if he could conduct some classes for them. Their leadership asked him to teach a class on “Essentials of the Christian Faith” and after one session, requested he continue with two classes a month until the end of the year.

Sri Lanka

Mohan Jayasekera (pictured at right), is GCI’s National Director in Sri Lanka and the Senior Pastor of GCI congregations in Western Australia. He was invited recently to Sri Lanka to be guest lecturer for a four-day course at the Colombo Theological Seminary (CTS), titled Views of Scripture. The course covered important attributes of Holy Scripture, addressing such important questions as: How did the scriptures come into being? Did God override the personalities and personal efforts of the writers? What does “inerrancy” of the scriptures really mean? Mohan also presented a condensed version of the course at the Calvary Theological Seminary in Colombo.

The Colombo Theological Seminary’s publishing division printed both the Sinhala and Tamil editions of GCI’s course Discipleship 101 and the booklet The God Revealed in Jesus Christ. Discipleship 101 is used as a text in one of CTS’s entry level classes, and the Sinhala edition of the booklet has been distributed to hundreds of Anglican pastors across Sri Lanka.

New Zealand

At a recent special dinner in New Zealand’s national capital of Wellington, the CEO of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), John Morgan, presented the first-ever NIWA Excellence Awards. These awards were established to recognize people who have made exceptional contributions to NIWA, New Zealand’s premier research organization. The final award of the evening was presented to GCI New Zealand elder Dennis Gordon. In a special Executive Update, John Morgan stated:

Dennis Gordon, Group Manager, Marine Biodiversity, Wellington, won the Research Excellence Award for his central role in the creation of the three-volume New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity—documenting all the known species in New Zealand, over all time. Dennis instigated the project, managed the contributions of over 200 scientists, and oversaw the arrangement of taxa and editing, as well as making the inventory highly readable.

An article in The Wellingtonian reported,

For Mr. Gordon, compiling the catalog meant working with 238 scientists from 19 different countries to produce chapters on each living and fossil species of New Zealand’s plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms…. He launched the project at a millennial symposium in 2000…. Volume one was published in 2009, volume two in 2010 and volume three earlier this year. He said it was challenging to find authors to describe all the groups of species, so he wrote 11 chapters himself.

The picture above shows Dennis (at left) being congratulated by the Chairman of the NIWA Board Chris Mace. Dennis commented later:

I was utterly stunned—there are so many excellent scientists in NIWA far more deserving and cleverer than I am. There was a financial reward and a bottle of Moët & Chandon that went with the award but that is small compared to the recognition by one’s peers (and the executive). I was overjoyed.

The boxed set of the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity is being made available to New Zealand schools.

We are pleased to announce that the “launch service” for Hands for Christ — the newly planted GCI congregation in Staten Island, New York — occurred on September 16. Here is a report from Pastor Mary Bacheller.

What a great day it was! God was surely present. Our Launch Sunday service had 38 people (33 adults and 5 children) in attendance. The average age was about 38.

We opened with prayer and the whole service was conducted in American Sign Language with no voicing. It was truly wonderful! Following the service we met in the fellowship hall downstairs to celebrate the birth of a new church for the deaf: Hands for Christ Community Church!

The birth of this new church has been greatly helped by several people. First I want to mention the capable assistance given to me by Randy Bloom and Becky Deuel from GCI’s Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM). Also I have learned a great deal by attending Exponential conferences. I also want to give thanks for the love, support and prayers from our mother congregation, GCI’s New Life In Christ church in Queens, New York, led by its dedicated pastor, John Newsom and its ever-thoughtful elder, Jonathan Browne. I thank all these people from the bottom of my heart!

Note in the picture below the joy reflected in the smiles of those who attended this first service. Their generous offering reflected that joy and was an awesome tribute and praise to our Living God! I thank God for giving me the opportunity to lead a wonderful team in starting this new GCI church for the deaf in Staten Island.

This update is from district pastor Heber Ticas who is the senior pastor of Comunion De Gracia, the GCI Spanish-speaking congregation in Sun Valley, California. Heber has taken the lead role in planting a new congregation in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Our Lincoln Heights church plant continues to flourish as we approach our first-year anniversary in October. The Lord continues to amaze us as he opens channels for ministry. Attendance has settled at about 70 attendees. We are getting first- and second-time visitors almost every Sunday. I am encouraged that we have been able to retain and nurture a good number of these visitors. It has been a humbling and learning experience, and I thank the Lord for the awesome team that he has provided for us. Had they not obeyed the Lord’s calling, this would not have been possible.

We continue to do ministry through big-day events as we reach out to the surrounding community. We also focus on small-group ministries. Recently I redirected our evangelistic cell groups into missional small groups. The existing groups were gatherings where neighbors were invited to a Bible study. That approach served its purpose, which was to help gather folks leading up to launching the new church. But now our need is for small groups that more actively reach out to serve and thus connect with the community. And so we are currently piloting two missional small groups with a total attendance of 22 adults, many of whom are capable of leading a missional group of their own.

These missional small groups meet at a home once a month to nurture one another and then they reach out beyond the group: to the church, to the neighborhood and to the city. So far, this approach has worked well, with group members visiting area hospitals to pray for the sick and visiting people just starting to attend church. The groups are now planning projects to serve the city. Early next year we hope to multiply these two missional small groups into five.

So far this year we’ve had two baptism services (see the pictures below–click on them to enlarge). One service occurred at a nearby river where we baptized nine converts: six from our Sun Valley church and three from our new Lincoln Heights church plant.

The second baptism service occurred during a worship service at Lincoln Heights where five converts were baptized: three from Lincoln Heights and two from Sun Valley. Overall, we have baptized 14 new members this year. Lord willing, we will have more baptisms in early December.

This August, a team of seven Americans (pictured at right), including two high school students, two college students and three adults, went on a two-week mission trip to India to partner with the GCI church in the city of Hyderabad. The trip was sponsored by Great Commission Trips–a mission event ministry of GCI Generations Ministries.

The trip included several mission-focused activities including visits to three Christian orphanages where they gave the children donated clothes; presented programs with drama and singing; and helped the children make bracelets and animal balloons. Each of these activities incorporated the gospel message.

The mission team also spent five days at a local school, working with all of the classes from preschool through high school. Some team members led group games, while others taught a Values class that addressed such issues as standing up for what is right and acceptance of others. Others led a Cultural Exchange class that taught about both the U.S. and India. By the last day, the team had served all 750 students in the school, getting to know many of them personally.

The team also coordinated a Vacation Bible School for 50 children from the GCI church as well as the local village. The theme was “Shining God’s Light,” so all the messages, crafts, games and songs focused on that gospel message. In the photo below, children are being taught a worship dance. Throughout the two weeks, many adults in the community were served through a seminar for teachers, as well as a seminar on Trinitarian theology, both led by members of the mission team.

This update is from Eugene Guzon, GCI’s national director in the Philippines. He writes concerning the steps being taken in GCI Philippines following the death of Area Superintendent Captain Jessup Bahinting.

July and August have been quite a challenge as we recover from the shock and grief following the tragedy of the plane crash that took the life of GCI Advisory Council Member and Visayas Area Superintendent, Captain Jessup Bahinting.

Pastor Jessup was laid to rest on Monday, August 27 in Ginatilan, Cebu. The Bahinting family sends their deep appreciation for the support extended to them by members in the Philippines and overseas. Jessup’s wife, Margarita said, “We praise God for giving us a big family who continues to be a source of overwhelming support and encouragement during our time of loss.” I talked with her over the phone and she sounds well but exhausted from the series of meetings with the students and stockholders of Jessup’s flying school and in coping with the loss at the same time.

Pastor Terence Santibanez who is Assistant Area Superintendent of Western Visayas will now be serving as the Acting Area Superintendent for the whole of Visayas, assuming the role filled by Pastor Jessup. We thank and appreciate Pastor Terence for his willingness to assume broader responsibilities at this difficult time. He will be a great blessing to the churches in the Visayas in this new role.

Pastor Levi Yuson of Maramag church suffered a mild stroke while visiting Cebu for Pastor Jessup’s wake last week. He safely returned to Maramag after a few days of rest and is doing better. Let us pray for his full and speedy recovery.

Because of the growing need for ministers, we are committed to developing new and younger leaders to serve our churches. We are confident that God will continue to sustain us in our journey of faith. We thank our pastors, leaders and members for their continuing faith in God and love for our church family, as we serve with zeal and dedication in various ways.

CrossRoads Christian Fellowship (CCF), GCI’s congregation in Tipp City, Ohio, has for the last several years emphasized outreach to unchurched people living in the nearby community. As a result, many new relationships have begun, and the new friends have been invited to the congregation’s various discipleship gatherings, which include the Alpha program and classes using The Hope of Jesus, a small-group curriculum based in Trinitarian theology written by CCF’s pastor Jim Valekis. One of the wonderful results of these cultivating, planting and reaping activities was a special CCF service held last Sunday at which 12 people were baptized! Here are pictures:

Here is a comment about this service from Pastor Jim’s wife Becky Valekis, who coordinates CCF’s discipleship programs:

What a blessed and powerful day we had last Sunday! We are all still “glowing.” We baptized 12 people; some have been journeying with us for a few years and others are new to our fellowship. These baptisms are a result of much prayer and teaching over the last few months. Our next step is to help these people become “grounded in faith” – please pray for them.

Here is a letter to Pastor Jim from one of the women who was baptized:

What a wonderful day, Sunday! I just wanted to thank you again for yesterday’s baptisms, a day filled with such great joy that is difficult for me to express in words. What a great church service you provided for us in preparation for the baptisms. And to have so many attend and participate in the baptisms at the river was truly a unique and a very spiritual experience. You conducted everything in such an inspiring and spiritually moving way. Praise God for He, you and Becky made it happen! I thank Him for you two, for our little church, and for all the people He has put into our lives and continues to do so. I feel God’s grace is upon us all.

For disciplemaking tools, including those used by CCF, see GCI’s FaithTalk resource website at http://faithtalkgroups.blogspot.com/.