Fostering Community

My primary intention with this blog is to extend community, to give you a better understanding of what our goals are, and how we’re going about achieving them. To that end I want to pass along a link to the website of on EFCCM couple. We are very pleased to have Jake and Mark serving with us in Latin America.

They’ve been keeping up a blog, and have regularly added updates and pictures. Check it out by clicking here. Take a look at the story of the construction of the new church building they’re working on with a visiting team. I’ve been enjoying watching it rise up, almost right before my eyes!

I invite you to take a look at what they’re up to, and if you do, be sure to drop them a line to say “Hi!”.

Khmu New Life Centre

Larry in Thailand is working on a developing ministry facilities for the Khmu people. He has been working with some isolated rural villages near the border of Laos. Several people there have made decisions to follow Christ, and we are ready to support them by helping to provide them with a ministry centre — they have never had a church before!

Located on the crossroads between six local villages, the site is convenient for all, and we are hoping for this project to be a integral part of the growing ministry there. The necessary land has already been purchased and is available for building.

The vision of the centre is a place for regular weekly church meetings, as well as a place where focused camps can be conducted. Plans include two buildings. A meeting hall will be used for worship, teaching, retreats, camps, and community functions. It will have two washrooms connected to it. The other building will be a resthouse that will include two bedrooms, a kitchen and two washrooms.

Completion of this centre will cost about $13,400. That’s a pretty small cost to achieve all this! We will also need help with the construction effort. If this sounds like something you’d like to help with, please contact us and we will provide you with all the details you need to get involved!

Earnest Quest to Develop Some Interaction

I have a question that I hope will generate some comments:

What is the most confusing thing about the EFCCM?

I’m striving to keep the EFCCM looking simple and clean, and to make sure that all the ideas we present follow that directive. So, tell me where it’s not working for you. If you got questions, I wanna know!

New Members of the EFCCM Family! (Udpated w/ Pics!)

We are pleased to announce that two new families have joined us here at the EFCCM!

Doon and Kelly are headed to Haiti. Doon is in agriculture, in the field of crop production and soil management. He will be taking his skillset to a Christian university in the country, and teaching others improved farming techniques. They also envision getting involved in children’s ministry there, as one of the many opportunities available to them. They have four children; the three youngest are Haitian by birth adopted by Doon and Kelly.

Eddie and Bonita are planning to serve in Rwanda, living in its capital city, Kigali. They desire to serve in leadership development, working specifically in reconciliation in Rwanda. They also seek to equip women in business and economics. Eddie is Rwandan by birth, and is now a Canadian citizen. They have four children.

Pray for their plans and preparation as they make steps to serve overseas. Pray also that God would continue to affirm His call on their lives.

Just Sermons?

Relevance is Christianity’s new buzzword. I think the concerted focus is timely and important…and potentially dangerous! In an effort to make our faith look attractive to our larger culture, we are in dire danger of diluting it — of making hard truths softer so that they are more easily digestible. And yet at the same time, with all this talk of cultural relevance, most often we are limiting ourselves to structures and concepts that are highly church-centric. That totally defeats the purpose! This is an important reason why I love the EFCCM — we embrace these tensions, and are actively exploring ways to deal with both simultaneously, while trying to act in accordance with the variety of cultures we participate in.

According to Jesus, life’s greatest objective is to love God. The second greatest is to love people. We are exploring new ways to achieve both. Whether in community development among underprivileged people groups, or providing education in Christian leadership to the spiritually curious, we are each striving to be the hand of God extended. This needs action — words just aren’t enough!

My question is a direct challenge to you: are you doing a good job of showing God’s love to those around you? What are you doing each day to make your call evident? Would you like to explore ways of pushing yourself to do more? Feel free to talk to us about it: We want to help you change your world!

BuzZ Online Episode 5

Show Notes

The following was inspired by the podcast that Marina and I created, and fleshes out some things we talked about. If there’s anything that you feel compelled to add, feel free to make a comment below.

It’s a radical shift! Imagine a country going from strong state control to independence and free enterprise all in the span of one generation. Perhaps you remember the collapse of the “iron curtain”. (I do, but I was too young to understand the implications at the time.) It’s tough to explain the impact that has had on people trying to navigate their daily lives.

For one thing there is the illusion of choice. Expensive options are available, but the larger population is unable to afford them. Frustration is fed by the population’s expectation that the country would be instantly wealthier under the new system, but not everyone is feeling a benefit from it. (In fact, the people it benefits usually have the opposite mindset of those who benefited most by the previous system. And vice versa. Change is hard.)

North America has employed a capitalist system for longer than anyone alive can remember. (Realistically, longer than the three oldest people put together.) It makes sense that we have built up a cultural understanding to deal with it. For example, we generally see through the manipulation of advertising, and have a relatively strong understanding of personal finance and debt management (in theory at least, if not in practice…). However in a whole new frontier, these challenges are far more, uh, challenging.

Marina is Ukrainian and is working as one of the EFCCM’s Indigenous Personnel. This gives her a unique cultural perspective between the divide of Ukraine and North America, and how the changes in the country are affecting the church there. In the podcast she introduces the concept of “face”. In this instance it refers to “keeping up with the Joneses”, a cultural competitiveness that has become extreme as materialism takes root. That’s a factor that is exacerbated by easy access to credit and its crippling interest rates and inflation. Our hope is that we can introduce people to a relationship with Jesus Christ who satisfies people’s need to belong, and to be loved — certainly far better than possessions.

When you’re working from a place of spiritual security, all your motivations change. Fears subside and love abounds. The church community is a place where that grace and acceptance are taught. And when it’s at its best, experienced. Pray that we can Jesus’ beacon of hope to the jostling culture of Ukraine.