Category: Stay Connected

GCI congregations and national and regional offices host festivals and worship retreats at various times throughout the year—the fall season is particularly popular. Here are reports about three such events—held recently in the Philippines and Canada.

Philippines

GCI-Philippines held a festival in September at Teachers Camp in Baguio City. The theme was Spread His Love, Share Your Life. It was attended by more than 800 people. GenMin’s national coordinator Anthony Mullins and his wife Elizabeth were guest speakers. For a report, click here, and here is a video with comments from the Mullins:

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/uyYN8bFYJ1g

Canada

GCI’s churches in Saskatchewan held a worship retreat in September at a resort hotel on Lake Manitou. The lake, which has a very high mineral content, feeds several pools at the hotel which are warmed, providing what is considered to be healing properties. This is the second year this event has been held with members (pictured below) attending from Regina, Saskatoon, Yorkton and Battleford.

A week later, a two-day worship retreat was held near Edmonton, Canada. Members attended from Edmonton, Westlock and Evansburg. The retreat included worship services on both days, an evening session, and meals (one pictured below).

Hands for Christ Community Church, GCI’s congregation in Staten Island, New York, recently celebrated its 4th anniversary as a church. Lead Pastor and Church Planter Mary Bacheller commented:

Jesus planted this church and with his guidance and blessing we look forward to good years ahead. We are grateful to those God placed in our path to love, guide and support us: New Life in Christ Church (our “mother” church in Queens, New York), Pastor Al Barr, Pastor John Newsom, Jonathan Browne, Regional Pastor Randy Bloom, my ministry coach Becky Deuel and our denominational president, Joseph Tkach.

At our anniversary celebration worship service, we had 64 in attendance, not counting our family who connects with us by live-stream video in Texas, West Virginia, Las Vegas and North Carolina. We look forward to next year when we hit our five-year mark and begin to cast a vision for the five years following that. Many thanks and blessings to all of you who have supported us through your prayers, donations and encouragement. We ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers.

Here is a short video showing highlights of the anniversary celebration service:

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/ntnoD2gnucM.

This update is from Gabriel Ojih who pastors Pathway of Grace, GCI’s congregation in Mesquite, Texas (in the Dallas metro area).

Four of our senior-aged members are using part of their retirement time to benefit young people in their community by helping elementary school students who are challenged in reading (due to English being their second language and certain mental health issues).

Once a week for the past two school years, Leo Burnett, Dick Rutter, Mike Read and Jack Zvorak have been visiting the Larry G. Smith Elementary School, across the street from where our congregation meets. The time is spent reading one-on-one with individual students who need to improve their reading. The seniors patiently help with pronunciation and comprehension, encouraging and supporting them in their efforts to overcome their reading obstacles.

As Mike remarks, “It is also a wonderful opportunity to positively impact the lives of these young people—speaking love and encouragement into their lives.”

The school sees Pathway’s volunteers as an integral part of their Roaring Readers program. Recently, the program received a $1000 donation from the district’s chief internal auditor. The school requested a representative from Pathway to be on hand as they received the donation and Leo was happy to oblige.

This report on recent developments in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is from John McLean who serves as National Director and Mission Developer for GCI-Australia.

Australia looks after the pastoral care and development of GCI’s congregation at Mt. Wilhelm in the remote highlands of PNG. Mark Latham and Rod Dean (pastor of our congregation in Sydney, Australia) recently completed a trip there to assist with development of congregational leaders and to help out with local community development, including working with the many children in the community.

“The Child in the Midst” was the theme of the talks Mark and Rod presented at the “study center” set up at Mt. Wilhelm. Instead of the expected 18-22 children in attendance, there were 66! Mt. Wilhelm is a church with an exciting future. The young people there have ambitions to become doctors, nurses, primary and high school teachers, office managers, lawyers, business persons, even ministers.

Mark visited the local high school to give classes and offer words of encouragement to the 122 year-12 students. The lack of support these young people receive concerning their future is disheartening. This made the contrast with the opportunities at our study center more stark. Mark also visited the local technical college to see what opportunities were there for young people.

Other activities on the trip included resourcing the local ministry and teaching on such subjects as worship, computer skills, public speaking, the GenMin “Celebrate the Grip” curriculum, the way God has worked with women in very different circumstances, the importance of Shalom, using the image of “the little child in the midst,” and women’s and men’s ministry. The team also held counselling sessions to learn about the needs of the community.

On the way to and from Mt. Wilhelm the team purchased supplies for the congregation, the study center and an area orphanage. Rod stated, “We are very grateful for the on-going support for these trips that make such purchases possible.”

Mt. Wilhelm is an isolated and challenging destination, and the work done there over the years has been outstanding. A huge thank you goes to Mark and Rod for their dedication, commitment to and loving care for our brothers and sisters in PNG. Please continue to pray for our members there.

GCI’s congregation in La Huaca, Cajamarca, Peru, recently held its annual seminar. Mission Director Hector Barrero was the featured speaker, hosted by the congregation’s leader, Juan Carlos Florian, who is a prosperous farmer and a mayor in the region. Among seminar participants were 60 adults and 25 children. The focus of the seminar was a study of the book of Colossians. As seen in the pictures below, the atmosphere was one of great joy and celebration. The food was delicious and plentiful.

“When you take a child by the hand, you take a parent by the heart.” With this thought in mind, GCI Generations Ministries recently hosted a Children’s Ministry Training seminar in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fifteen children’s ministers attended from GCI congregations in the area.

The seminar was led by children’s ministry expert Becky Jarrett (standing in the picture above), who facilitated interactive discussions on these important topics:

• Clarifying the “win” in children’s ministry
• Partnering with parents
• Creating the environment
• Community outreach
• Partnering with volunteers
• Storytelling

According to GenMin National Coordinator, Anthony Mullins, “The feedback has been very good and we hope to provide this kind of high support to other GCI congregations in the future.”

GCI congregations in Denver, CO and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (Twin Cities) recently held spiritual formation retreats facilitated by Odyssey in Christ, a GCI affiliate ministry led by Dr. Larry Hinkle. Here are reports from each retreat:

Denver

The Denver North congregation participated in a retreat (Experiencing The Trinity) led by Larry Hinkle with assistance from two Denver pastoral couples: Bill and Donna Rae Wells and Mark and Joanne McCulley. According to Mark, “The Spirit of God was evident in our midst, helping us love one another more deeply and openly, and open ourselves to the grace and healing our Lord Jesus Christ brought us.” Another participant said, “This was a whole new beginning for me in my spiritual life. I can’t wait to see what’s next!” Another spoke of a much closer personal relationship with the Triune God after learning and practicing the spiritual exercises that are part of the retreat.

Twin Cities

Members from Twin Cities congregations met near Farmington, MN, for a retreat (A Deeper Walk) led by Larry Hinkle with assistance from Dr. Charles Fleming (GCI Caribbean Mission Developer) and his wife Carmen. Participants learned how our western world, including its theology (in large part due to the Enlightenment “age of reason”) has emphasized head knowledge and neglected matters of the heart. The retreat addressed this neglect by teaching spiritual disciplines practiced by the early church. These disciplines involve using our head knowledge to awaken our hearts to greater intuitive, creative, emotional, and imaginative awareness of the love of God for, with and in us. Neglect of either head or heart distorts and inhibits our relationship with God as well as with one another. As one of the retreat presenters noted, “Grace without truth is not grace. Truth without grace is cruel.”

GCI’s Baguio/La Trinidad congregation in the Philippines participated recently in a city-wide health fair. To learn more, click here.

Here from Mission Developer Rod Matthews are updates from various places in GCI’s Southeast Asia and South Pacific regions.

Thailand

In late June, Southeast Asia Senior Pastor, Wong Mein Kong, and his wife, Chew Yeng, traveled to Thailand to visit a man named Goro who leads our Karen congregation. Unable to gain permission to visit the refugee camp where the congregation is located, the group traveled to a village further north along the border with Myanmar, where several member families are living. There they conducted a Bible study with communion in the home of one of the members (pictured below). A few members who live in the camp were able to come to the house to join in the study.

The highlight of the trip to Thailand was the baptism of a young couple in a stream near the home mentioned above. These members are hoping to construct a small church building in their village since they cannot join the members in the camp. One encouraging development is that a member’s son is in seminary and will graduate at the end of the year. He is already helping Goro in his pastoral ministry.

India

On July 14, the Alwal Pastors Prayer Fellowship, of which our Secunderabad, India congregation is a member, conducted their monthly meeting in our church building (see the group picture below). The main message to the group was given by host, GCI Pastor Daniel Zachariah, on the subject of Pastoral Responsibility. He recounted some of the salient points that GCI had learned through our transformation and, utilizing a Trinitarian focus, challenged the pastors to ask “Who is the God that we preach?” and “Are we faithful to the scriptures and willing to be corrected?” The message was translated into the predominant local dialect by Praveen Kumar Chinta, Dan’s pastoral assistant.

Vanuatu

The drought affecting our congregation on the island of Malekula has continued for a year now, and we are needing to provide regular food assistance for the members to supplement their meager local supplies. Thanks to a donation from the GCI Disaster Relief Fund, we purchased a 6000 liter polymer water tank, which was installed in July on a new concrete base. However, there has been no rain to fill the tank, and no water is available in the local reservoir. Until rain comes, the members collect water in bottles and containers at a river two kilometers away.

The New Zealand churches have been providing food assistance for nearly a year, and we are grateful for a donation from the Australian Mission and Emergency Fund that will help us continue this assistance over the next three months until the next cyclone season begins. Hopefully then there will be normal monsoon rains that will replenish the reservoirs and tanks, and soak the ground for the annual crops. Thank you for continuing to pray for our beleaguered members in Vanuatu.

GCI-Canada hosted two youth camps this summer: SEP Silver Meadows and Camp Connections. Here are reports from each one.

SEP Silver Meadows

This camp was held near Edmonton, Alberta. The 64 campers from several Canadian provinces (and one from the U.S.) were served by 37 staff members (3 were GCI interns). God’s love and blessings were evident. Despite heavy rains in surrounding areas (a near wash-out at the nearby Calgary Stampede), the camp was blessed with beautiful weather after the first day.

The camp theme, Celebrating the Grip of God’s Love, was addressed in morning worship, chapels after breakfast, and evening worship. An afternoon reflection time used the “I am Second” video series, where famous individuals share testimonies about the grip God has on their lives. A spiritual highlight at camp was the baptism of two long-time campers in Lake Nakamum.

Camp activities included wall climbing, paintball and tubing—activities the campers would typically not have access to during the year. Camp concluded with a NoT-alent show where the campers were entertained with various talent acts. This was followed by a graduation ceremony where six senior campers were presented with Bibles and invited to come back as staff members next year.

Here is a video of the camp (teen session):

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/bUXzWYU-ao8.
For the pre-teen session, see the video at https://youtu.be/fUjTjjj5Ngg.

Camp Connections

This camp hosted 73 campers—21 more than last summer. The campers were welcomed into a loving, Christ-centered environment where they enjoyed a myriad of activities. Junior campers learned about the gifts of the Spirit while senior campers explored what it means to embark on a journey with Christ.

2016 was the inaugural year for Camp Connections’ Leadership in Training program. The young leaders not only learned, they served—contributing to the camp through a legacy project involving the finishing of canoe paddles that will be part of the camp’s equipment. The young leaders received separate messages and classes focused on helping them prepare for future leadership roles.

Among the campers were 19 refugees from various cultures and a young man from Restoring Hope Ministries, a street youth mission in Ottawa. As a result of fund raising support from various individuals and organizations (including the Peddling Kilometers program, which raised $17,000!), we were able to give financial assistance to all of our campers.