Category: Stay Connected

With help from God, the Home Office, and jumping through many hoops, Hands for Christ Community Church in Staten Island, NY, is excited to get our license from Biblica (publishers of the NIV Bible) giving us permission to translate the Bible into American Sign Language (ASL).

Now we can start the inner works of producing the books of the bible bit by bit. Once the book is finished, we will upload it to our website for the Deaf Community to read and gain an understanding of what the Word has to say to them.

 

Some have asked “Who works at the Home Office?” The Home Office staff is comprised of both remote and on-site employees. Every Monday morning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time the Home Office employees gather via Zoom and in person.

The Home Office remote employees are Jeff Broadnax, Gary Deddo, Cara Garrity, Glenn Gordon, Mike Morrison, Anthony Mullins, Mike Rasmussen, Rick Shallenberger, Tim Sitterley and Russell Duke (part-time). Our Home Office onsite employees are Cheryl Corson, Evelyn Dailey, Reuel Enerio, Michelle Fleming, Georgia McKinnon, Lance McKinnon, Robert Meade, Bret Miller, Mat Morgan, Pam Morgan, Charlotte Rakestraw, Connie White, Greg Williams, Susan Williams, David Mckinnon (on-call) and Desiree McKinnon (on-call).

During our Monday morning meeting, we update one another about things that took place over the weekend and what will be happening in the coming week. We have a joke for the week (sometimes it doesn’t seem as funny to some as it does to others), but the most important thing we do is pray. We pray for the coming week, our GCI members, pastors, leaders, and world leaders.

During Covid-19 our on-site employees have had to work from home for several weeks, so our Zoom call has grown from 9 to 22 as our on-site Home Office employees join via Zoom.

In July, I decided we needed to have a fun contest. I had everyone take a picture of their office at home and send it to me. I asked everyone to be creative and not to put themselves in the photo. I then sent a pdf of the pictures to everyone to guess whose desk each picture was. We have some very creative people at the Home Office. Scattered throughout this article are some of those photos. Susan Williams won the contest (she only missed 2) and last place went to Rick Shallenberger (he missed 14).

The Home Office staff is here to serve you, whether we work in Charlotte or remotely. If you are ever in the Charlotte neighborhood look us up and we would love to give you a tour of the Home Office.

2 Corinthians 1:24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. (KJV)

 

Pam Morgan
Operations Coordinator (Home Office onsite)

It is with sadness that I share with you that our brother Al Nelson went to the loving arms of Jesus on Wednesday, July 29 after a brief but significant bout with cancer. He is no longer in pain. Al pastored our Chartered Fellowship Group in Montpelier, Vermont, from 1997 until his death.

Please keep his wife, Arlene, in your prayers as she navigates the next few days and all the details.

If you would like to send her a card, please do so at:

Mrs. Arlene Nelson
110 Camp Brook Rd
Bethel, VT 05032-9519

Dear GCI Family,

I am pleased to announce to you that our accreditation through the Distance Education Accreditation Commission (DEAC) has been renewed for the next five years.

Congratulations are due the GCS staff, Michael Morrison, Russell Duke, Lance McKinnon and Georgia McKinnon. Their diligent and persistent efforts over the span of more than a year did indeed pay off.
We all thank you for your encouragement, support and participation in Grace Communion Seminary.

We look forward to serving you together these next five years, and beyond.
Grace and peace in Jesus Christ,

Gary Deddo
President, Grace Communion Seminary

We are pleased to announce the engagement of our son Gatlin Williams to Erin Schaffer. All of our children and grandchildren were home for the weekend and we got to witness Gatlin surprising Erin with a lovely ring and that life-changing question, “Will you marry me?” She said yes and we are thrilled!

With joyful hearts,
Greg & Susan Williams

It is an honor to be able to ordain David Borum an Elder in Grace Communion International. He was ordained on July 5 at Grace Communion in Eugene, Oregon. David is a recent graduate of the Residency Program this past year.

He was commissioned as an Associate Pastor by our Regional Director, Tim Sitterley, and will serve on the Pastoral Team in Eugene. David has many talents that he shares and wherever God leads him he will be a blessing to those that he serves alongside.

Linda Sitterley
Pastor, Grace Communion Eugene

Grace Communion Cleveland is still finding ways to be the church during this time of shelter in place and Covid-19.

Being compliant with restrictions and for the safety of our congregation, our ministry team decided to make monthly monetary donations to local community food banks. We continue dropping off a meal and needed supplies once each month to a domestic violence shelter that houses about 30 women and children. We alternate between purchasing meals and cooking the main dishes.

For the month of July, our local school district received a farm to family grant. Cars line up each Thursday to pick up a box or two for their family. We are using this time to help our families in the community and in our church who could use this gift of fresh produce. They are allowing us to take as many boxes as we need.

To God be the Glory! God never stops working and we are trying our best to pay attention to the movement of his Holy Spirit.

 

Pastor Tamar Gray
Grace Communion Cleveland

 

I recently asked for prayers concerning the community event being held at the GCI congregation in Atlanta where Charles Young serves as Lead Pastor. Pastor Young shared the following summary report for the free community COVID-19 testing held on their church’s property. They served around 300 neighbors! Now that’s making a difference in the one-square-mile around the church.

Thank you Pastor Young for your leadership!

Anthony Mullins

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The COVID-19 testing on our church campus went very well. We thank our great God for blessing Living Hope Fellowship with an amazing opportunity to serve our community! I don’t have the final count yet, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people came to our site to be tested for COVID-19.

I heard many “thank yous” for allowing our church to be used for this event. The weather forecast called for an 80% chance of rain. Three times during the event it looked as if the heavens would open up and we would get drenched. Praise God, it never rained. Councilman Reeves reached out to me to ask if the church could be used for this event. This event may lead to another exciting opportunity for Living Hope to serve our community.

Blessings,
Charles Young

Join us for Virtual GCIgnite—An event to connect young adults (18-30) in our denomination through a time of welcome and worship, and develop leadership through content and breakout sessions focused on spiritual formation and practice.

For more information and to register, click the images below for pdfs of the flyer and brochure. Be sure to share this with the young adults of your congregation!

Well, friends, Covid-19 has been rough. As people who are created to be in relationship, social-distancing has taken its toll on us all. As the shutdown happened, we were all thrown into figuring out a new way of doing church. When we realized that this would mean we could not move forward with our neighborhood camp, Camp Surrey, we were devasted. Then we realized that just like we figured out different ways of “doing church” through Facebook or Zoom, we needed to figure out different ways of “being the church” to our neighborhood as well. We saw the challenges in front of us, but we could not stand the thought of leaving all those neighborhood kiddos hanging. We had an incredible response from our neighborhood with our digital egg hunt, and we wanted to do the same thing for Camp Surrey. We knew the Holy Spirit was in control, but what we experienced this summer was far beyond our wildest expectations.

Our leadership team came together (we all live in the same neighborhood) and decided we would provide a new camp experience for our neighbors. We put our heads and hearts together and after lots of prayers, we came up with a “digital camp” that would allow us to serve all kinds of families in our neighborhood. We stuck with the theme we already had planned “Mission I’mpossible” and we got creative!

Each day, we had videos from different leaders from our church as well as “missions” (challenges) for our neighborhood to participate in. All five families from our leadership team set up “rendezvous points” in their front yards throughout our neighborhood loaded with bags with all the supplies campers would need for that day’s challenge. We continued to set up each day of the week with new supplies. We were able to see lots of familiar faces and meet many new neighbors who were eager to join in on the fun!

Camp Surrey currently caps our camp at 50 campers. This year, because of the digital layout, we were able to serve over 200 families in our neighborhood. My friends, this is the BEAUTY of neighborhood churches and camps! There is nothing more rewarding than serving kiddos and neighbors that you will continue to see and have relationships with throughout the year! We were able to sit in our front yards and see many of the campers from previous years, as well as connect with many new families that we didn’t know before!

We also decided that this year, this was something we wanted to do free of charge for our neighbors and community. People are tired, stressed, and lonely, and we wanted to do something to serve them with no strings attached. We started off the week with a “Random acts of kindness scavenger hunt” followed by “kite making,” “origami,” “making family flags,” and ended the week with a neighborhood Camp Surrey parade! The joy we saw on the faces of our friends and neighbors was incredible. The Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way.

Each evening throughout “camp,” our leadership team was able to come together in my backyard to debrief each day’s events. We shared meals, we shared our hearts, and it became an intimate gathering where we were able to go so much deeper in relationship with one another as a leadership team. It wasn’t the same as our traditional camp, but it was beautiful. We were still able to experience the late nights and early mornings that we all missed so much about camp!

The experience was a gift from God. It filled us with hope and was a wonderful reminder that he is sovereign. He can use all things for his good and we are blessed to be able to participate with him. We pray that God continues to open the eyes of our hearts to show us all the ways we can join him in ministry, even in the middle of a pandemic. He’s got this! Bring on the fun!

 

Ceeja Malmkar
Love Venue Coordinator, GC Surrey Hills