EFCC Conference 2010: Regenerate

Please plan to attend EFCC Conference 2010! This year our theme is Regenerate: Plant. Water. Grow.

We are really excited about this Conference. For starters it will be held in the picturesque Sun Peaks Resort. This gives opportunities for bike-riding, hiking, swimming or just enjoying the scenery.

We are planning some excellent plenary sessions and seminar topics. But we’re also leaving lots of time open for connecting and sharing with other leaders and members of the EFCC community.

We hope you will take advantage of what we’re offering at EFCC Conference 2010. We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!

**Registration will open in early March.**

Finally, you can download a high-quality print of this invite by clicking here. Share it with your church family. Everyone who attends will be blessed, and will be a blessing!

How Will they Hear if they Really Can’t Hear?

It’s safe to say that Michelle is a theatrical person. She loves the various ways we can use our bodies to communicate, and she is appreciated for her creative capacity. She has taught American Sign Language with music, choreographed, and led sign language -oriented evangelistic youth teams throughout Hungary (where she serves with her husband, Norm). This emphasis has taken on a whole new level of significance as she’s been invited into a community theatre for the Deaf.

This group is exploring their artistic aptitudes and performing their work in both the Deaf and hearing communities. Michelle says: “I think the residual effect of public performances is definitely a greater awareness of the Deaf community and their capabilities.” That is important because there is a natural “us-and-them” perception that exists between hearing and Deaf that needs to be dispelled. Deaf don’t want to be isolated — they want to be connected! This tension was explored in their adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, where they portrayed Romeo’s family as deaf and Juliet’s as hearing. These plays are performed for minimal ticket prices in small theatres open to the public.

It’s a little challenging for Michelle to determine her role in all of this – she feels a little out of her depth as a foreign hearing person in a Hungarian Deaf culture.  Hungarian sign is not the same as American Sign. But she feels it’s important to be where the community is, and she’s been given a whole-hearted welcome. Initially invited to join because of her gifts in signed music, Michelle has  been able to introduce Christian music to this group. One of the theatre members who is a sister-in-Christ, is eager to explore this creative outlet to share Christ with those who cannot hear. They work as a team to translate music from English into Hungarian and then, most importantly, into Hungarian Sign Language, with the help of the entire Theatre group.

What purpose does all of this serve?  Keeping in mind her goal is to perform music with a Christian message, let’s give Michelle the last word: “Bottom line: if you want  people to respond to music the way the writer intended, they have to hear it in their Heart Language.  For Deaf, this means,  let them see it, and let them feel it.”

Major Earthquake in Haiti (3rd Update)

(pic from EFCA’s Crisis Response blog)

**3rd Update: the EFCA, our American sister denomination, has deployed its Crisis Response team to Haiti. Their reports can be seen by clicking here — especially gripping in the light of yesterday’s powerful aftershock.

**2nd Update: Doon and Kelly’s blog has been updated with a recent e-mail to their daughter. You can see it by clicking here.**

**Update: We have received word through sources that have seen Doon and Kelly today. They are fine! That’s a big relief. Hopefully communication can be restored soon, and we’ll have something directly from them to post here. Please continue to pray for them, and the whole country.**

On Tuesday January 12th, a severe earthquake rocked the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It caused extensive damage and a breakdown of infrastructure systems throughout the city. At this point we have not had communication with our missionaries Doon and Kelly, though they are in an area that is not reported to have damage.

The EFCCM does not have the mechanisms in place nor are we located to initiate a crisis response to this situation. If your desire is to contribute to the immediate situation in Port-au-Prince we would suggest that you contribute to Samaritan’s Purse or World Relief Canada.

Pray for safety and quick restoration of communications for Doon, Kelly and their family. Pray for Karis their daughter who is Canada, and is eager to hear word from her parents. Pray too for the Haitian people that have been directly affected by this. There are many casualties, thousands injured and unknown numbers trapped in rubble. Pray that God would bring peace and provision to the masses who need it.

We will continue to update our blog as information becomes available.

New PulseTV Episode Up!

PulseTV is back with a new episode (this is the 4th one, if that kind of thing matters to you). Our two capable anchormen, Rich and Bill are back with compelling stories, one from Canada, and one from abroad. A name you may not have heard is Jeff — he’s a fourth year student at Trinity Western University, and is helping with a variety of our communication efforts. The process of shooting and editing this video was pretty much entirely left up to him. Thanks Jeff!

As always, this video is viewable on YouTube (above), and for downloading to your own computer (right-click on links below to save files):
Download the MP4 version (43.8MB)
Download the WMV version (25.4MB)

We hope that these stories are encouraging to you and the people around you as you share them. We’d love to hear how you’re using these in your social groups in the comments below.

Update from Mexico

Greg and Shelli recently posted some of what kept them busy during the Christmas season in Mexico. They were visited by a youth team, and not only were the events planned and put forward by the team a blessing to the community, they were able to distribute an assortment of materials translated into indigenous languages. (Did you know that there are more than 60 in Mexico?)

See the whole story by clicking here.

Youth Group Gets On Board World of Hope

When Maria started processing this particular donation for World of Hope, she felt compelled to alert us all to it. All of us at Home Office have all been touched by this, and hopefully you are too. A youth group has clearly followed its heart into contributing to global service, with careful selection of various projects. We are excited with them for what God is going to do through their money, and more importantly their passion.

Stark Realities of Christmas

The following is probably remarkably different than your experience of Christmas 2009. I was going to condense this story from Jean-Pierre and Virginia in the Republic of the Congo, but I’ve elected to post it almost exactly as I received it:

“Christmas day was special. After reading the Bible together with Jean-Pierre and letting him decorate the cake, I started preparing the vegetables in advance. Then the plan was to take goodies to our sick patients.

“What could we give to our patients on Christmas day? Bananas? No that is nothing special. Cake? That’s special but not too nourishing. Siko thought that sardines and kwanga = Manioc which is their ‘bread’ would be a good idea. So that was the plan. Jean-Pierre, Siko, Anna, the pediatrician’s wife and their three children and I went along (as if we were going carolling) to visit all the sick patients and distribute the hospital’s small Christmas ‘food basket’ to each.

“So in each ward Siko explained what we were doing then started singing ‘Yesu azali awa’ (Jesus is here) to which most of the patients heartily joined in. Then Jean-Pierre preached a short Christmas message telling of the great gift that God gave in the person of His only son. Then with the help of the 3 missionary children we distributed a big piece of their ‘manioc-bread’ along with a can of sardines, a small package of cookies, an envelope of powdered juice and a sucker. This we did in each of the 7 wards or small pavilions as we call them. There are from 5 to 8 beds in each of these little houses. For the moment the hospital is at its limit with about 45 patients. So Jean-Pierre preached 7 times Christmas morning, but in the last pavilion which is the emergency ward there are 5 rebel soldiers. Here, as he preached he explained how we are all sinners whether we lie, steal or kill and that God gave His only son to pay for our sins. He emphasized repentance and felt called to give an ‘alter call’. With each patient there is at least one or 2 members of the family who accompany him to prepare food and care for him, so there were at least 10 to 15 people in the small room (not counting us) where the Gospel was clearly given. Of the 5 wounded 4 lifted their hand, as well as 2 of the wives. But our attention was drawn to one man who cried, with heavy sobbing, probably weeping tears of repentance. Isn’t God wonderful to forgive us all our sins. There is more joy in heaven over one who repents than over 99 who are self-righteous.

“Tired, but happy, we went back to our house to finish preparing our Christmas dinner which was not sardines and manioc. We had a leg of goat- or lamb- whatever-  and even instant mashed potatoes which is a rare treat which we shared with our visiting doctors from Ecuador and Rachel.

“The next day we were sad to say goodbye to these visiting doctors: Eckehart & Klaudia, and Juan-Carlos whom God sent to us just at the right time when we needed an orthopedic surgeon to care for all the wounded patients, his wife who brought counselling to the traumatized and Juan-Carlos, the general practitioner, who gave a good helping hand to Dr. Harvey in his heavy task of doctor-director.

“Thank you for your prayers. We do hear gun shots once in a while from the other side of the river but do not feel as though we are in danger, even though in some of our wards we have wounded civilian patients even along side the rebel soldiers. The first few days the atmosphere was tense so please keep praying that nothing worse happens.”

New World of Hope Project (2 of 2)

For some kids in Bolivian’s children’s homes, choir is a breath of fresh air into their daily routine. Music allows them one more area to grow in and develop. Added to that, singing is something that anyone can do!

This is directly from Jackie:
“Many of the children that join us come with barriers to learning and development. With time and a focus on  relationship we hope to instil positive attitudes, confidence and skills that they can carry with them. We hope that the  participants will become young people who choose to follow the Lord, be active members in their churches and leaders  in their communities.”

The choir has performed for a few churches, and plans are underway to use the choir to increasingly engage with the external community. There are two options that we want to place in front of you to support this initiative.

1) Cantaremos Children’s Choir (Bolivia) #2-2376 Give a child from a home for abandoned children the opportunity to sing, play and make new friends for a year. $100 per year per child.

2) Cantaremos Children’s Choir (Bolivia) #2-2376 Give respite and encouragement to children in need by providing sheet music for an entire children’s choir. $40 per song

You can donate to this by clicking here.

Advent is a Shock to the Senses

Let me ask you a question. What is the most important part of Christmas? People talk about keeping the main thing the main thing, and then they talk about family, or church services or an ‘attitude of gratitude’. These things are important, but I submit that they’re not the most important.

Our missionaries face culture shock, homesickness and massive change. It becomes no more apparent than Christmas season where the seasons are flipped, their families are distant and they face the daily discomfort of the spiritual battle they’ve engaged. In hard times, it becomes much easier to keep the main thing central.

Please read this story from Sheri, serving with us in Mexico. While this isn’t a long story, it isn’t an easy read. However she draws an important parallel which is really meaningful to me. You can find her recent writing by clicking here.

Let me ask another question. What part of the good news that the angels proclaimed applies to all people? If you answer that well, I think you will find the main thing. May you hold to it strongly during Christmas, and throughout the year!

It’s Indeed a Small World After All

One of our missionaries in Bolivia referred me to this story of meeting strangers who weren’t really so strange. In a chance meeting at the recent ECHO (Education Concerns for Hunger Organization) conference in Florida, and through chance conversations, they discovered that they all had ties to the EFCCM in both Ukraine and central Africa.

Read the whole story by clicking here.

When we’re on the lookout, we find God orchestrates small moments to be such a blessing.

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