Category: Stay Connected

GCI pastor and district pastoral leader Rick Shallenberger recently traveled to Africa on behalf of GCI president Joseph Tkach. Following is Rick’s report on his time in Zambia.

On December 30, 1991, the president of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, declared his country a Christian nation. Since that day, crime has dropped, people have become more concerned for others, and churches have grown. Our GCI congregations are no exception. Though our members have very little, they are actively sharing God’s love and life with those around them. As a result, our existing churches are growing and new ones are being planted.

I traveled in Zambia with Kalengule Kaoma, GCI’s mission developer for central Africa. He lives in Lusaka, Zambia with his wife, Nsama and their four children. Kalengule spends a lot of time traveling to many countries in central Africa, teaching and conducting training seminars for pastors and ministry leaders. Following is information about some of the key pastoral leaders we visited in Zambia.

Inyambo and Mutinta Nyumbu

Dr. Inyambo Nyumbu is national ministry director for GCI in Zambia. His wife is Dr. Mutinta Nyumbu. With Inyambo’s assistance, the GCI pastors and other ministers in Zambia are focused on building and otherwise supporting their churches. Given their poverty, they are constantly on the alert for ways to generate church income so that they can plant more churches. Businesses are started and profits are invested for the sole purpose of building the church.

Peter and Judith Chipempele

Peter and Judith built a home with bricks that Christ Fellowship Church purchased three years ago. Now they are collecting bricks to build a church to replace the tent they meet in. They have two children and care for two family “orphans” in their tiny home. Recently, they received a generous donation and are wisely investing about half of it to generate an income stream. They also plan to purchase bricks by the truckload and then sell some of them for a modest profit. It is important that African churches develop income streams because donations are very low due to deep poverty.

Peter asked if we could send him some theology textbooks and Bible reference books. He has a love of learning, but no means to pay for formal education. Kalengule said any books we send would be passed around among the pastors for all to use. We are now making arrangements to send books to them.

Kennedy and Zelipa Musopelo

Kennedy and Zelipa just started a GCI church in Lilanda and face many difficulties. Kennedy told me that it was quite an honor to be visited in his home by the African mission developer and a US representative. Our visit significantly raised Kennedy’s credibility in the eyes of his family and community. The Lilanda congregation is very poor and they are behind on their rent of $20 a month. We donated enough to catch them up and pay for the next few months as they pursue options for generating an income stream. Their church meets in a school building with15 classrooms. Each classroom is used by a different denomination – all holding church at the same time. Sometimes they try to outdo each other in their worship and preaching. When the 15 churches end their services, 15 more groups come in for the next service.

Kennedy and Zelipa are looking for a way to raise funds so they can buy some land and build a church that can grow. They are outgrowing the school classroom and need to find a place to establish a church home for current and new members. They also need to find a new home to rent or build so they can get out of the family home. Kennedy loves to learn and is beginning a new diploma program in theology.

Chris and Bibiana Kalaba

Chris and Bibiana and their five children live in Chawama. They are tenants in a small home attached to two other homes. Chris is seeking higher education and Bibiana is seeking her first education. She hopes to one day study law so she can help support the church with her future income.

The Chawama congregation is growing fast. The Sunday before our visit, they had 150 adults and many children in attendance. The children have class outside the main hall during the worship service. Due to our visit, they expect attendance to rise even more. Having their own building has been a real blessing, but they are quickly outgrowing it. They have plans to build a larger building with a wall around it for protection. Once a month they have “Bring a Brick” services. Members bring a brick to church, or they will go as a group and each purchase a brick to carry back to the church. These bricks are stored in one of the rooms of the church. When they have enough bricks, they will begin construction.

Again, many noticed our arrival and departure. You are constantly reminded of the value and significance of visiting the pastor in his church and in his home. It is quite an honor for them in the eyes of the community (and it is an even bigger honor for us!).

Jack and Kabwe Banda

We visited the Banda’s congregation in Chongwe, where I gave the sermon. The church meets in a school, which is owned by a church member. They serve a very poor community and are actively reaching out and growing. They have a large children’s ministry. They use a blended form of worship, mixing traditional hymns with African worship music. The service was energetic and inspiring.

Pastor Jack loves to learn and has a desire to attend Grace Communion Seminary to further his education and work toward a Master’s Degree. We aren’t sure how that will work because of limited Internet access, but we will look into ways to help Jack and others benefit from Grace Communion Seminary.

Grace Communion International is rapidly growing in Zambia. There are many challenges, but the pastors and wives are dedicated to meeting them. Their dedication to their pastoral calling and to the Great Commission is inspiring and humbling. Please join in prayer for our brothers and sisters there.

Teens from New Hope Christian Fellowship (the GCI congregation in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles) served on January 20 at the Pasadena Bad Weather Shelter.

This outreach is coordinated by New Hope members Ron and Cora Grassmann (Ron served formerly as the landscaping manager at Ambassador College).

About 20 teens served about 150 homeless people at the shelter.

 

 

 

The following report is from Samuel Mercado, national youth ministry leader for GCI in Mexico.

On November 19-21, 2011 the first Mexican youth camp was held in Maxamitla, in the Tiger Mountains about 135 kilometers from Guadalajara. About 38 youth from six GCI congregations attended.

The camp’s goals were to unite GCI Mexico youth, help them identify their spiritual gifts (and learn how those gifts relate to the gifts of others), and help them understand how they can take an active role in their churches back home.

The camp theme was “The Master’s Touch,” which centered on part of the “Journey with the Master” curriculum provided by GCI Generations Ministries.

Camp activities included singing and icebreakers, an evening bonfire, a tour of the nearby town and a hike to a nearby waterfall.

Camp instruction, which focused on the camp theme, included viewing the video Dust, which explores our calling to be disciples of Jesus and showing that Jesus has confidence in our ability to finish the work he has entrusted to us. Instruction also included a spiritual gifts inventory to help campers determine their dominant gifts (some discovered gifts they did not know they had!). Campers also completed an assessment to determine their personal relationship styles, learning how one style relates to another. Campers also wrote down their definition of the plan of salvation, then shared it with others. Finally, they filled out surveys concerning the camp and their local church to give input for making improvements.

The cost to the campers was subsidized, in part, by the GCI congregations in Tabasco and Guadalajara. Without this assistance, many would not have been able to attend.

Overall, the camp was a great success – no campers wanted to leave at departure time! New friendships were formed (and will be continued on a newly launched Facebook page). Campers showed great interest in becoming actively involved in God’s work through GCI in Mexico.

On January 13, Joseph Tkach (GCI president) and Russell Duke (GCI vice president) were guests at a historic gathering of denominational leaders held in Los Angeles, CA at the central offices of the Foursquare Church.

Foursquare president Glenn Burris welcomed leaders of the denominations that have formed the Wesleyan Holiness Consortium (WHC). The WHC brings together the Pentecostal and Traditional streams of the Weslyan Holiness movement to cooperate in mission in the 21st century. Member denominations are Assemblies of God, Brethren in Christ, Church of God/Anderson, Evangelical Free, Foursquare, Free Methodist, Nazarene, Pentecostal Holiness, Salvation Army, United Methodist, United Pentecostal and Wesleyan.

Vinson Synan, renowned church historian at Regent University from the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, reported on the meeting with enthusiasm, “This is an historic day. The divisions of a hundred years ago were laid aside today in a wonderful spirit of unity.”

 

The following report is from Doug Johannsen

Snowblast 2012 was held January 14-16 at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Rochester, MN. Twenty-eight youth and 24 adults participated with an additional 22 members of the Rochester congregation present for the Sunday morning worship service. The mix of people included some from other denominations, one woman who can only speak Spanish and a ten-year-old Russian boy who was just adopted from an orphanage in Kiev by a couple in the Rochester, MN congregation.

The overall theme of the camp was “New” and this was reflected in interactive messages from Todd Fox, Tom Kennebeck, Troy Meisner and Jeff Skrove. A newly formed youth band (Alter’d) from the Champlin, MN congregation led worship on Sunday. An adult Christian Living session was conducted by district pastor Doug Johannsen for adult staff and other adults who remained after the Sunday worship service. Questions and insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Ethics formed the basis for this discussion.

In contrast to 2011 when 80-100 inches of snow fell in Minnesota, our concern this year was the absence of snow and unseasonably warm temperatures, which threatened to eliminate the main outdoor activity of snow tubing. The tubing hill ends at the edge of a small river and the river was not frozen. However, two or three days before the event the temperatures dropped and a couple of inches of snow fell. By Friday evening the thermometer had dipped to -2 degrees and by Saturday afternoon the river was covered with ice thick enough to be safe.

Other camp activities included board games, using a pottery wheel to make pottery, arts andcrafts, making peanut brittle and making paracord bracelets.

The GCI congregation in Barranquilla, Colombia has 45 members and an average attendance of 70. They meet in the recreation room of a local school. This location provides many opportunities for members to develop relationships with students at the school. As a result, they have a large children’s Sunday School.

In addition to their Sunday worship service, the congregation has a regular Wednesday evening meeting for prayer, worship and to equip members for service in the work of God. In this meeting new teachers are trained. They also hold monthly prayer and fasting vigils. The most recent one was on December 7 from 7:30pm to 2 am. Attendance was high and the results were refreshing. The congregation also provides discipleship classes, with several expressing interest in baptism.

The Barranquilla congregation held its first Christmas feast on December 17. They visited 27 homes near their place of meeting to invite families to come to the feast – 23 families accepted and about 50 neighbors attended with their children.

During the feast the children gave a presentation about Jesus’ birth. A group of girls then presented a dance. Refreshments were plentiful and delicious. There was a very festive atmosphere – demonstrating that Christmas is a celebration of great joy.

A message was given titled, “Christmas and Salvation.” There was also a brief workshop concerning the meaning of Christmas, which was very well received. The feast also provided the opportunity to celebrate the birthdays of two girl guests. Several visiting neighbors gave positive comments about the event and some who did not attend the event have expressed their desire to do so next time.

The videos below are interviews with GCI senior pastors Jim Valekis (Tipp City, OH) and Roger Abels (Fort Wayne, IN). Each pastor discusses what his congregation is doing to connect with the unchurched community nearby where their church gathers for worship.

http://youtu.be/HBhi4sl2T64

http://youtu.be/izkIGz0JuBM

Videos like these, showing GCI congregations on journey with Jesus, can be viewed at It Looks Like This at http://gci-usa.blogspot.com/.

This report is from Pedro Rufian in Spain.

GCI members in Madrid are thanking God for the opportunity to participate, along with most of the Evangelical churches in Spain, in “My Hope” – three television programs that presented the gospel for the first time on two nationwide TV stations in Spain. We hope these programs provide a means for many Spaniards to hear and respond to God’s call to come to Jesus Christ and accept and receive his love and grace.

We have received several phone calls from people who watched the programs because they had known about them through one of the 5000 brochures we distributed in the neighborhood where our congregation meets. The brochures offered a free subscription to our GCI magazine Verdad y Vida. In Villamanta, a small village of around 1500 inhabitants where I live, we distributed 500 brochures. We received a call from a family asking for a subscription to the magazine. We will follow up with a personal visit.

Two GCI members, Kayla Shallenberger from Cincinnati, OH, and Carrie Smith from Pittsburgh, PA, are presently teaching at the Worldwide Church of God school in Blantyre, Malawi. Kayla was teaching her class about the real meaning of Christmas and she asked the children what they would give Jesus for Christmas. The children turned in their answers and Kayla was so moved, she asked the children to share their answers on camera. This video is the result.

This report is from Living Christian Fellowship member Paul Hailey.

Living Faith Christian Fellowship, the GCI congregation in Portland, OR, has about 30 members. We meet adjacent to King City, a senior (55 and older) community with about 1600 residents. Since most of our members are of this age group, it made sense to us to make King City our primary focus for outreach.

With guidance from Pastor Dee Bulante, we began sponsoring events at the King City club house with the goals of serving the community and making our presence known. In December 2010 we held a Community Christmas Celebration. In the summer of 2011 we sponsored a seminar on overcoming grief. Then this last December, we held our second Community Christmas Celebration.

We paid to advertise the event to all 1400 homes in King City. We hired a professional three-piece band to play Christmas music, invited the local King City Music Club to sing carols, asked a local singer to lead in a sing-along, and invited a King City resident who previously performed with notables such as Danny Kaye and Red Skelton to sing a solo.

The one and a half hour program went smoothly. About 90 people attended. Pastor Dee Bulante served as emcee, introducing the performers and giving a short message focusing on the love of God expressed through the person of Jesus Christ—love not just for Christians, but for all people. He commented:

We share time with family and loved ones because God has shared time with us through Jesus…. We exchange gifts to one another because God has given us the ultimate gift of Jesus…. We sing songs of warmth and merriment because of the peace and joy that wells up in our souls, expressing thanks to the baby born who is our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Several “amens” were heard from the audience as he spoke, and some appeared to be on the verge of tears as they were reminded of God’s love.

We feel the event was a smashing success. Some attendees asked where we meet for church, and a few took copies of Odyssey magazine. Many gave comments expressing their gratitude:

You outdid yourselves this year…. Everything looks so beautiful…. Thank you for the delicious food…. We had a wonderful time…. I came primarily for the Christmas music, but was pleasantly surprised with the food served and the whole program. I appreciated the message as well. It gave me a different perspective about Christmas…. I really am glad I came today for the whole program, the food and the people. Nice pastor, didn’t talk too long, but got the message out.

We have learned how a small congregation can reach out to the community. It takes prayer and hard work, but it is worth the effort. We plan to hold two King City outreach events in 2012 – possibly a seminar on aging gracefully and definitely another Community Christmas Celebration.