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 is now open!

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!

Church Planting Bootcamp

You’re invited! Trinity Western Seminary is hosting a Church Planting Bootcamp.

You can see more details from the official brochure by clicking here.

To download the registration form, click here.

This promises to be a dynamic event to put more arrows in your creative quiver, and help you understand and develop your God-given calling to begin new faith communities.

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.

A Canadian Christmas in Bolivia

Jake and Mary in Bolivia sent in an update about their Christmas. They hosted 40 people around their dinner table on Christmas day, and for many of their guests, this was their first turkey dinner. They also led a Christmas program out in the colonies as well.

They recently visited with Mennonites who had invited them to their homes. What’s starting there is amazing: about 20 adults and 30 children are part of a regular Bible study. One community in particular is already asking about having church there on Sundays. Hopefully this area will see some more workers there in 2010.

At Casa Mariposa (the women and children’s shelter), they are starting to tile the kitchen and great room. Progress seems to have slowed, as finish work is time-consuming, but they’re still confident that they can open in late March.

They’ve also expressed excitement over the papaya project connected to the shelter. They have sold some already, and are now looking for a better price for the produce which will be used to offset some of the daily costs of running the centre.

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.”

Another Kickoff

“You won’t die!” the serpent hissed.  “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it.  You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

Well, another Christmas is gone, the presents and decorations filed away.  And it is a new year.  I love this time of year – a time of resolutions, new beginnings – an annual “do-over”.

Speaking of new beginnings, I am back reading in Genesis again.  You really can’t get more “beginnings” than Genesis and reading it is always a painful reminder of the reason I need a yearly “do-over” – I come from a long line of wayward sinners. And apparently you don’t have to go too far into a year before you need a new beginning – it seems like Adam and Eve are barely into this new adventure together and they are lured out of sync with their Creator.

This New Year is a bit of a special one – not only do we kick off a new year, but a new decade.  I am tempted to dream about what my life – and my family – and the EFCC family – will look like by 2020. And if I listen to all the self help coaches out there, I should be busy not only visualizing the future, but creating it.  There is likely some truth in this approach, but I am painfully aware that a bit of this attitude is what sunk Eve.  The serpent got her to ignore the agenda of God because she had the chance to see…to understand…to be like God – all knowing, powerful and in control.  So this year I am trying to hold my plans a little more loosely – with a bit more humility.  It’s not that making plans is wrong – it’s just that I know that Eve’s temptation is mine. I want to know, to understand, to control, to be like God.  These are the attributes of God that interest me the most anyway.  Being longsuffering, forgiving, loving, holy – well, these are attributes of God too, but somehow I’m not as tempted to be like those attributes of God.  No, I like the ones that can make me significant, successful and independent.  But independence sends me my own way and leads to shame, and shame leads to hiding from God, and that leads to excuses, blaming, broken relationships…and ultimately, death.

All in all, I’m excited about 2010 – and this decade.  I have a sense that God is going to do some amazing stuff in the EFCC and this world this decade.  But I’m OK with not having complete clarity and control of how it will all play out.  God’s spirit will move, we will attempt to follow, and He will build His Church and Kingdom.  It is an honour to follow and fellowship with my Creator – by faith, not by sight.

Trusting you are looking forward with hope,

Bill