WorldwideConnections

I’m delighted to announce that the Hoeksteen congregation in Kerk-Avezaath, the Netherlands, pastored by Hans de Moei, officially joined GCI on March 7, 2010. Hans and Denise de Moei left our fellowship many years ago and eventually raised up the Hoeksteen congregation on their own. In the last year, they contacted Holland National Leader Frans Danenberg about a possible reconciliation. That relationship grew and eventually led to the joyful events on March 7. Frans said that when Hans read aloud the welcome letter from GCI, the entire group was moved with joy.

There are now five GCI congregations in Holland.

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Philippines

Cebu City and Tagatay City Leadership Conferences

Pastors and pastoral team members from all over Visayas gathered in Cebu City February 16-19 for the Leadership Conference entitled “Participating in God’s Life and Mission.” Guest speakers were GCI Vice President Dr. J. Michael Feazell and GCI-Australia National Director John McLean. GCI Philippines’ National Director Eugene Guzon opened the conference with a message about GCI-Philippines’ vision and mission. Photos of the Cebu Conference are courtesy of Kai Baslao.

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National Director Guzon flew back to Manila in time to open the Leadership Conference in Tagaytay City and facilitate small group discussions among local church leaders. Dr. Randy Bloom of GCI-US Church Multiplication Ministries led sessions called “Transformissions” and “Church Multiplication.”

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In the afternoon of the second day, Dr. Feazell joined us, leading sessions on practical theology, church renewal and an extended Q&A period. Later in the afternoon, National Director Guzon and Dr. Rey Taniajura met the young leaders of GCI Philippines to convey the goal of the national office for more youth leaders to be equipped and trained for service to God and to listen to their ideas, needs and concerns.

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On the third day, Dr. Feazell answered remaining questions, and Pastor Rex dela Pena led the closing Communion service.

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Photos by Orly Osillos, Jocer Sabbaluca, and Bong Tinoyan.

Dr. Randy Bloom 

Combined Metro Manila worship service

Members from Metro Manila and surrounding provinces gathered February 21 at the Celebrity Sports Plaza for a wonderful time of worship, fellowship and learning. Members from as far away as Bicol and Mindoro also joined the service, having participated in the recently concluded Leadership Conference in Tagaytay City.

In addition to the uplifting worship led by the GCI Crossway Music Ministry, highlights of the service included updates and greetings from members in Australia given by GCI-Australia National Director John McLean, an audio-visual presentation of last year’s highlights, an encouraging message from our guest speaker, Dr. Randy Bloom of GCI-US Church Multiplication Ministries, and the ordination of three new elders, Pastor Andy Ducay (Manila South), Pastor Bernardo Cuizon (Oriental Mindoro), and ministerial trainee Aron Tolentino (Crossway). Photos by Jocer Cris Sabbaluca.

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Germany

Announcing the 2010 Autumn Festival in Germany September 10-17

Festival site: Lake Constance is a 538-square-kilometer basin between the Alps and the Jura mountains. Three countries share the lake: Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The mild climate around Lake Constance promotes the growth of lush, southern European vegetation and makes the region well suited to fruit and vine cultivation. The shores of Lake Constance are densely populated. The lake is surrounded by picturesque, historic towns and villages where visitors can see many buildings from the Middle Ages. Most of these are linked by boat. In summer, Lake Constance sparkles against the backdrop of the Alps, radiating a Mediterranean atmosphere with its many boats and their white and colored sails.

For a taste of the tropics, pay a visit to Mainau, the island of flowers. Alongside fascinating vegetation, the island is home to Germany’s largest butterfly house with viewing windows. A family-friendly beer garden by the lake stands next to a children’s village with cave-like dwellings, a wooden train and water play areas. On the lake’s northern shore, the Unteruhldingen museum and prehistoric village (built on stilts over the lake) adjoins a nature conservation area. Twenty pile-built houses take the visitor on a journey back to the Bronze Age (4000 to 850 B.C.). These life-size houses are the fruit of archaeological research. The largest island in Lake Constance is the monastic island of Reichenau. It bears extraordinary testament to the religious and cultural role played by the Benedictine abbey in medieval society. The abbey was the cradle of Western civilization and played a key role, renowned as it was for its teaching of book calligraphy and painting and its goldsmiths, in influencing European culture.

Festival venue: The superior Parkhotel St. Leonhard (4+ stars) is located high over Lake Constance. The Parkhotel has a fantastic panoramic view and it is surrounded by vineyards and a large park with wildlife. The town center Überlingen and Lake Constance are just 1 km away from the Parkhotel. The train station Überlingen Mitte is 2 km away.

Airports: Zurich (75 minutes), Stuttgart (75 minutes) or Friedrichshafen in Lake Constance.

Cost: (All amounts in Euros)

• Double room with half-board (per person): E551.
• Single room with half-board : E660
• Family room 3-4 adults 18 years of age and over half-board (per person): E540.
• Family room 2 adults plus 1 child (not over 12 years of age) half-board: Adults E578 and child E298.
• Family room 2 adults plus 1 child (between 13-17 years of age) half-board: Adults E578 and child E405.

All reservations will be made by the WKG German office through a travel agency.

More information about the hotel in English can be found under at: http://www.parkhotel-st-leonhard.de/3/startseite.html

There will be English translations at our worship services.

Anyone wishing to attend should contact WKG National Director Santiago Lange as soon as possible at wkg53bonn@aol.com

Prayer Requests and Updates 

 

Nsama & Kalengule Kaoma 

Please join us in praying for Nsama Kaoma, wife of African Mission Director Kalengule Kaoma. Kalengule reported that Nsama is suffering from symptoms of heart failure. He wrote: “Nsama began medication last night and doctors drained a lot of excess fluid. We are grateful to God about this, and she is feeling better than other mornings. The doctor thinks that this is a 50/50 situation with regard to recovery. We are trusting God for a miracle and his will to be done.”

Cards may be sent to:
PO Box 50117
Ridgeway
Lusaka
ZAMBIA

From Caribbean Mission Director Charles Fleming:

Thank you for your concern and support of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Helping me coordinate our efforts in Haiti are David Perry, Rick Shallenberger and John Halford. Some of you have committed to becoming a long-term partner with us in our efforts to make a difference in Haiti, so I thought it would be helpful to share with you some of our thinking at this time.

Short-term (continuing until some measure of security and stability are in place):

• Given the small size of our congregation in Haiti (19 persons), the GCI response will be to take care of our members. We have already sent in money to the church account in Haiti for Mr. Franklin to distribute to our members. We will continue to send in money as needed. This may include helping at least one member rebuild his home in the town of St. Marc.
• Last Friday Mr. Franklin informed me that he has a crew making temporary repairs to the church building and is working on erecting tents so the school can reopen, it is hoped, by the beginning of April.
• I am planning a trip in June with Jeff Snyder (GCI pastor in Savannah, Georgia, who is also a building contractor) and Cecil Pulley (GCI pastor in Bermuda who is also an architect) to, among other things, evaluate the condition of the buildings and to discuss long-term needs.

Medium-to long-term:

• Jeff Snyder’s son, Nathan, who was on an earlier mission trip to the Caribbean, is being assigned to work in Haiti as part of the US government’s effort to help with the rebuilding in Haiti. Join us in praying that his job enables him to connect us to people who can help us get the school up and running.
• Join us in praying for wisdom in how best to use our property to advance God’s purposes. One possible option we are considering is to help with the need for schools. Given the fact that some 85 percent of schools in the capital have been badly damaged, it would be nice if we could run our school at maximum enrollment. For that to happen, there would need to be five- to seven-year commitments to help pay operational costs. Congregations and/or individuals would start with a higher up-front commitment, which would be reduced each year until the five or seven years are up. Our goal would be to have the school self-sustaining based on local resources at the end of the five or seven year period.
• Join us in praying for more long-term partners of Haiti to help us with this effort (or some other ministry opportunity that God leads us to) and the ability to make it a truly self-sustaining Haitian institution when our period of providing outside help is over.

Your prayers and support are important. I know Mr. Franklin deeply appreciates all that you do.

News

Hector Barrero, GCI Mission Director for Chile, has forwarded a note from Thomas Keller, a GCI house church leader in Santiago, stating that the members in Santiago are all safe following the devastating 8.8 earthquake that struck the southern part of the country February 27. Thomas experienced some minor damage to his home and currently doesn’t have electricity or internet service at his residence, but otherwise is fine. We do not know of any specific member needs yet, but information is still limited at this time.

We have been able to send GCI Disaster Relief funds to Haiti to help the members there with emergency needs following the quake in that region. We have some additional funds that can still be sent as they are requested by Haitian Pastor Joseph Franklin.

The Disaster Relief Fund was established to help provide members in disaster areas with emergency needs such as food, water, medicine, clothing, temporary housing, home and/or church hall repairs, temporary local pastoral salary expenses and other emergency needs. Monies received into the Fund, but not immediately needed, remain in the Fund to be allocated for future disasters.

Since inception, money from this Fund have been used to help members recover from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, storms and flooding in Bangladesh, an earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands, typhoons in the Philippines and the recent earthquake in Haiti.

On behalf of all those who have been helped, let me express their sincere appreciation to the congregations and individuals who have generously provided these funds.

If your congregation would like to donate to the GCI Disaster Relief Fund, please send a check to Grace Communion International, indicating on the memo line that the donation is for the GCI Disaster Relief Fund. The donation should be sent to:

GCI Disaster Relief Fund
Grace Communion International
P.O Box 5005
Glendora, California 91740

Thank you for your prayers and financial contributions to help members of the GCI family who are suffering.

Typical Mozambique Church Building. 

South Africa

GCI South Africa National Director Tim Maguire, and Regional Pastor Caleb Makhela recently spent two weeks visiting dozens of congregations in Mozambique who want to affiliate with our denomination. Here are some excerpts from their report:

Caleb Makhela and I travelled through four of the central and northern provinces of the country and spoke in 44 churches. There are 13 churches in Mozambique we weren’t able to visit, and another eight in Malawi.

Due to the lack of communication about a specific time to meet, we often found that a congregation had been diligently waiting all day for us and were still waiting when we arrived in the late afternoon. The welcome we received in every church was unbelievable! These are men, women and even children who hunger and thirst and live for the Word. Most of them are subsistence farmers, who live from day to day, not always sure where their next meal will come from, but they are spiritually energized and praising God.

Regional Pastor Mariano on a bicycle. 

 

Every church we visited had built or were building a place of worship, from timber, home-baked bricks, mud and grass or reeds. The leaders and pastors seem deeply committed to serving God and his people. Public transport to the churches is nonexistent. Some churches only have paths leading to them, so it is not unusual for a pastor (one regional pastor is 68 years old) to walk or cycle 20 or 30 km to church.

Rain has been late this year, and maize, their main crop, looks set to fail or yield very little. Without crops, the people go hungry. Domingos, their national leader, serves full-time but receives no remuneration for it. When I asked him how he survives, he says sometimes he goes to bed hungry but he trusts God to provide.

Another need is that of Bibles. Most are able to read in their home language (for most, that is Senna) and/or Portuguese, but they don’t have access to a Bible. I have asked our South African churches to take up a collection so we can purchase five Bibles apiece for each of these congregations. Bibles are available for about 30 Rand in Mozambique.

Before we left, we met with Domingos and his regional leaders and they asked if our members would pray for the members in Mozambique, specifically about the following:

• The need for rain and good crops
• The need for some sort of transport for Domingos to allow him to travel to visit the churches. (The distance between Chimoio, where Domingos lives, and the furthest church is about 800km on very poor roads.)
• Their upcoming Easter conference in April. Many leaders may not be able to attend as they do not have the fare needed to get them there.

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Bogota, Columbia

Mission Director Hector Barrero and his wife, Paulina, began a new round of outreach marriage enrichment classes in our Bogota congregation in February. Twenty-six couples not associated with the church responded to their invitation and joined the four-month series of classes to improve their marriages. Last round 17 couples received certificates of completion. One of them is now helping teach the class.

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Estonia: Young Adult Summer Program 2010

This will be the fifth year that the church will hold a summer school in Kallaste, Estonia.

Dates: From Friday, July 30 through Sunday, August 8, 2010.

Place: The first two days will be sightseeing in the capital city, Tallinn. The rest of the time we will be in the small Estonian town of Kallaste on the shores of Lake Peipsi, the fourth largest lake in Europe. The town of Kallaste has a population of 1300, which mostly consists of Russian-speaking Estonians.

Please fill out the attached application form Estonia Summer Camp Staff Application and return it as soon as possible to:

Carl Fredrik Aas
Vevelstadåsen 25
1405 Langhus, Norway

Please apply as soon as possible. Applications must be received prior to March 20, 2010.

Estonia Young Adult Summer Programme 2010 For more information please contact our pastor for Scandinavia and Estonia, Carl F. Aas. – Telephone: 00 47 64 86 93 30 – Email: cfaas@online.no

News

It is a pleasure to finally announce our new Italian Website:

www.ccdg.it (www.chiesacristianadellagrazia.org) While some items still need to be fleshed out, our Italian brothers and sisters are already very excited about it.

Africa

Most Recent Church Plant:

Emmanuel Okai, the chairman of our ecclesiastical council in Ghana, sent a note about their new church plant. He wrote: Following initial contacts made from a group located at the Buduburam Refugee Camp, a church has started for the mainly Liberian refugees and other residents of the Buduburam community near Kasoa. A church hall has been leased for the next three years for the group, and plans are far advanced to purchase the property and its associated land for the church. Donations of chairs, food and clothing are being received from the various church areas for the use of the refugees, who now are faced with a serious dilemma. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is currently pulling out its activities there and has made a number of efforts to repatriate the refugees back home to their countries. Those who opt to stay will receive no more funding and will be on their own. They will therefore need a lot of support to integrate them into mainstream Ghanaian society. The group is very vibrant, energetic and fired up with the love of Christ. At the December Youth Camp, four of their youths who attended requested for and received baptism. Twenty-three of their adult group are also undergoing counseling for baptism. Another development that occurred is the adoption of the group by Mr. William Akoto and Mrs. Ernestina Akoto, who now regularly worship with them and take turns to bring sermons to them. They have also been instrumental in seeing the group established and have been donating various gifts, clothing and food to the group.

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Colombia

From Hector Barrero:

Hector and Paulina Barrero conducted a seminar on February 13-16 for our Barranquilla congregation on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Our congregation is pastored by Sonia Orozco and it was great to see that 70 people attended and there were three baptisms. We are happy to see that congregation growing. Attached are a few pictures including two of the seminar, and members of the same family baptized: grandmother, daughter and grandchild, as well as the Orozco family.

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You’re Included

Michael Feazell, Tony Murphy, Nathan Smith, and I traveled to Scotland for the Thomas F. Torrance Conference at St. Andrews University, and to interview some of the Trinitarian theologians. James Henderson, John and Phil Halford met us to assist in the interview set-up and taping. So far, we have interviews with Alan Torrance and Trevor Hart. We hope to complete 12 -15 interviews.

News