On June 7-8 in Bogotá, Colombia, about 50 GCI members, including several pastors from Latin America, gathered for an Odyssey in Christ (OIC) retreat called “Experiencing the Presence of God in Life and in Ministry” (see the pictures below). Participants were led by OIC director Larry Hinkle in various spiritual formation exercises. There was much joy expressed for this opportunity to know more deeply the Triune God and one another. As a result of the retreat, 12 Latin American leaders committed to meeting every two weeks for a course in Trinitarian theology led by Hector and Paulina Barrero. During the course, Larry Hinkle will provide teaching on spiritual formation.
As part of its outreach to the surrounding community, Christ Fellowship Church (a GCI congregation in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area) conducted on their property a three-day family festival followed by Westside Christian Camp—a week-long day camp serving 50 children. The congregation was assisted by young adults who came to Cincinnati from around the country. Led by Janet Morrison, these missionaries served under the banner of GC Trips, one of Generations Ministries’ multiple mission organizations.
Westside Christian Camp 2016 (campers and staff)
On Sunday following camp, Christ Fellowship Church hosted a worship celebration for campers and their parents. About 150 people attended (including 50 guests) and four were baptized. In reviewing these events, Anthony Mullins (GenMin national coordinator and camp participant) made this comment:
This was GenMin’s first attempt at this type of GCI church-camp partnership and I thought it was a smashing success! Now Christ Fellowship Church will continue the good work of discipling and serving their new members.
In the videos below, camp staffers share impressions of what they experienced while serving at Westside Christian Camp.
Dustin Lampe, lead pastor at Christ Fellowship Church, notes how he saw the Lord at work and the impact the day camp had on parents and children, along with hopeful expectation of baptisms and families joining the life of the congregation.
Halie Carley talks about how she saw the gospel working in the hearts of the young children during the camp week. Halie attends the GCI church in Helena, Montana where she has volunteered many summers at SEP Montana.
Chris Meade explains why he chose to invest two weeks of his busy summer on a GenMin mission trip and how it’s been to partner with a local GCI church to serve kids from their community.
Karl Reinagel, pastor of New Creation in Christ, GCI’s congregation in Ferguson, Missouri, was one of five pastors recently awarded the 2016 Faith Impact Award by the Nehemiah Program for their contributions in helping heal the wounds in the cities of Ferguson and Florrissant in the aftermath of the highly publicized shooting that occurred in 2014.
The prestigious award (pictured below) was given to pastors, police, firefighters, educators and bankers. The award presentation was made by Ferguson’s mayor, Ev. Vivian Duddley, who thanked the honorees for “making a real difference in the community.”
This article compiles reports from GCI mission developer Rod Matthews and others who participated in two GCI conferences held recently in Bogotá, Colombia.
History was made recently as, for the first time, congregational leaders and members from GCI churches throughout Central and South America gathered for the Latin American Conference in Bogotá, Colombia. In their honor, GCI Mission Developers (MDs) from around the world together with other GCI denominational leaders joined the conference prior to holding the annual Mission Developers Conference. According to MD Rod Matthews, “The two conferences reflected GCI’s unique world-girdling fellowship with its connectedness despite diverse cultures and languages.”
GCI President Joseph Tkach with congregational leaders
Latin American Conference
The tone of this conference was expressed well in its title, A Celebration of God’s Grace. It was marked by a spirit of joy among participants—many meeting for the first time. Though some participants did not speak Spanish, the beaming smiles, hugs and animated gestures powerfully conveyed what could not be expressed in words.
Hector Barrero
The conference was hosted by the Bogotá church, including its Pastor Hector Barrero (who also is an MD) and his wife Paulina. Assisting was the Barranquilla church, including its Pastor Sonia Orozco and her husband Luis.
Conference presentations were made by GCI President Joseph Tkach and his wife, Tammy; Superintendent of U.S. Ministers, Greg Williams; Grace Communion Seminary President, Gary Deddo; U.S. Church Administration and Development Assistant Director Charles Albrecht; U.S. Church Multiplications Ministries Coordinator, Heber Ticas; and GCI Board Member, Wendy Moore. Leaders of GCI churches in Colombia, Argentina, Honduras, Peru, El Salvador and Chile gave updates on how Christ is involving their churches in his ministry. MDs James Henderson (UK), Eugene Guzon (Philippines) and Kalengule Kaoma (Africa) shared their experiences, adding to a sense of closeness as a truly international denomination.
Latin American Conference participantsLeft: Celebrating God’s Grace; right: Greg Williams speaks while Felix Gaetan (Orlando church elder) translates
Members of the Barranquilla church led worship, and offered a beautiful sketch illustrating the Colombian culture through dancing and singing. Hector Barrero commented: “We worshiped together with the verve and expression for which our Latin brethren are renowned.” Joseph Tkach noted, “The worship was simply fabulous—the joy we experienced transcended any differences in language and culture.” The conference ended with a particularly emotional communion service led by Caribbean MD, Charles Fleming and his wife Carmen.
Mission Developers Conference
This annual conference of GCI’s MDs together with other denominational leaders followed the Latin American Conference and focused on pastoral development and education, including evaluating how GCI can better serve the needs of its ministers given their geographic, cultural and language diversity, along with a disparity of access to electronic communication. The MDs gave updates about their families to strengthen the bonds forged through many years of shared service. The group also discussed mission coordination and financing challenges, ordination management in remote areas, and other topics of shared concern.
Mission Developers and other denominational leaders meetMDs Eugene Guzon (Philippines) and Gary Moore (Canada)MD Kalengule Kaoma (Africa) and his wife Nsama receive from Joseph Tkach watches recognizing 25 years of employed ministry
Following the MD Conference, the MDs and others (most of whom were in Colombia for the first time) enjoyed a day-long trip to Mount Monserrat with its historic church and magnificent views of the city (see below), and the underground salt cathedral of Zipaquira where vast caverns of a former salt mine have been turned into an inspiring and unique memorial to the life of Christ.
The May 11 issue of GCI Weekly Update told the story of Nova and Joseline Musafiri, refugees from Kenya who with GCI assistance now make their home in Canada. We’re delighted to note that the Musafiri family recently welcomed to Canada Joseline’s three sisters and one brother. Like Nova and Joseline, these refugees were members of the GCI congregation in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. We are blessed to now welcome them to our congregation in Ottawa, Canada.
L to R: Ndambwe (Joseline’s 14 year old brother), Dorcas, Rachael (Nova’s child with cap), Joseline, IOM staff member who accompanied the group, Esthella, Jessica (Nova’s child), Martha
GCI has helped several other refugees resettle in Canada in recent years. Here are some of them:
Upper left: Myint Ong (second from left), arrived in Canada two years ago and has been accepted to attend Carleton University to study engineering. Myint is from Myanmar. Upper right: the two women (Rosina and Aliane Cyuzuzo) fled the Congo about two years ago. Lower picture: The Kidane family (with their helpers) who fled to Canada last year from the Sudan.L to R: Baraka, Wendo, Julius and Leah Nashale. These four siblings came to Ottawa about a month ago after six years in the Kakuma camp. The picture is taken in front of the GCI church building in Ottawa. Their mother and three of their (younger) siblings will arrive in a couple of weeks.
GCI relief funds and congregations from various nations have been helping provide food to 100+ GCI congregations in Mozambique suffering from hunger due to ongoing drought. Manuel Vasco, National Secretary of GCI-Mozambique recently submitted a report on the relief efforts. Below are excerpts.
I set out on motorcycle to distribute drought support to our Mozambique congregations in the center of the country. At the beginning of the trip I hit a concrete bridge. I thank God I was not badly injured, though after spending the night camping out (see pictures below), my leg was badly swollen and I had to postpone the trip to obtain medical treatment.
When the trip resumed, I encountered very bad roads and given the dangerous political situation, I was only able to spend a short time with each congregation distributing aid at 19 centers where members came to receive support (see pictures of some of them below).
Because of the drought, many of our members have lost their crops and hunger is commonplace. They are now focused on their crops of corn and sweet potatoes (see pictures below), to supplement their diet of bananas, water lilies, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers and other fruits. At all the relief centers, I heard people lamenting the fact that their crops may fail if rain does not come. Please pray it will.
During the aid delivery process, the people expressed their deep thanks, saying they thought they were going to die, but now have food to eat and seeds to plant more crops. GCI’s churches in Mozambique thank their brothers and sisters around the world for their support through giving and prayer.
Kalengule Kaoma, one of GCI’s mission developers in Africa, reports on recent developments in the African nations of Togo and Tanzania.
Developments in Togo
In February, members of GCI’s Lome congregation in Togo planted a church in the town of Kpodzi Apéyémé about 35 miles from Lome. The congregation is named Porte Divine (Divine Gate). Its attendance averages about 90 people, including Agbagnons Kossi, the senior chief who oversees seven villages in the area.
Another project of the Lome congregation is the Social Medical Center, a health center in the Lome area that provides medical services to women and young children. It’s part of GCI Togo’s contribution to national development. To be ready for its opening in September 2016, the facility’s pharmacy, laboratory, treatment and doctors’ consultation rooms need to be completed and fundraising is underway.
L to R: Social Medical Center; treatment room at the Center; church plant attendees.
While visiting Lome, Kalengule participated in the baptism of six new members held at the Lome Worship Center.
L to R: Baptism ceremony; newly baptized members; praise team at the Sunday service.
Developments in Tanzania
Kalengule has been in contact since 2009 with representatives of 20 Sabbatarian churches in Tanzania with a combined attendance of about 800 people. Over the intervening years, these congregations have experienced a grace-awakening similar to ours. As a result, they recently decided to affiliate with us, taking on the GCI name.
L to R: Leaders of the Tanzanian churches now affiliated with us; one of those congregations.
In 2010 we began a relationship with ten other Sabbatarian congregations in Tanzania. They have a combined attendance of about 260 people. These congregations also have chosen to affiliate with us, joining hands in preaching the gospel in southwest Kenya and the Mara region of Tanzania. Here are some of their leaders:
This report is from Charles Fleming, mission developer for the Caribbean.
My wife Carmen and I recently were in Martinique to teach the ACCM Spiritual Formation course (intensive format) to a class of 40 GCI members from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and the Bahamas (the group is pictured below). We had held ACCM’s Christian Leadership course with many from this group in 2014, and its Jesus and Gospels course in 2015. In addition to taking the courses, a few were credentialed to teach ACCM courses with the goal of making them available to any members who are interested.
We were especially encouraged by the fact that a number of the sessions in the recent gathering were led by individuals credentialed as teachers. In our travels over the past few years, my wife Carmen and I have been focusing on inviting folks to try different spiritual formation exercises as a way of opening ourselves up to God so he can transform us. We certainly cannot transform ourselves but we can position ourselves before God so he can do what only he can do.
I encourage our leaders and other members to take ACCM online courses—you’ll find them at http://www.ambascol.org/. These courses can be completed entirely online, though ACCM classroom intensives are offered in various locations from time to time. ACCM will be holding an intensive for the Foundations of the Faith course as an add-on to the GCI International Conference coming to Orlando, Florida, in July 2017. Watch future announcements here in GCI Weekly Update for additional information.
