ECHO 2/3/09

PR Highlights

• Notice: a lot of pregnancies
• A praise to highlight: Whitney Stire’s sight is preserved.
• Russian men: received visas, God has provided abundantly. These are hard to get.
• Matt & Rachel Floreen: please pray for their support levels as they share their vision with churches in the States

 

Alan Luciano (Philippines)

• John 4:35 – the fields are white for harvest!
• We took a trip to the Philippines for teaching
• Indeed there’s a harvest!
• We worked with TMS grads to conduct a weeklong hermeneutics seminar. Attended by 80 people. 50 men, 30 women.
  • There were a lot of Compassion Int’l people
  • Pastors, children’s ministry workers
  • And a few pastors from White Fields
  • We had Bible workshops
  • Also on the last day, we had separate mens/womens sessions.
• The Body of Christ in the Philippines is VERY hungry.
  • A lot of evangelical witness here BUT the depth of knowledge there is very shallow.
    • On par with an FoF class at GCC
  • There’s a real need & hunger for training here.
  • Pastors are very ill-equipped
  • The physical poverty here is a picture of the spiritual poverty
  • The Catholic church is very prevalent here
  • The pastors here are well-connected with each other. We train one pastor, and he refers us to 20 more! Opportunities abound.
  • Sean and Mark, two of our missionaries over there, are likely to overstretch themselves. So many opportunities!
  • There’s a huge need for more expo preaching. There’s really no local church in the Philippines that demonstrate expo preaching

 

The Future Faces of Missions – GCC Missionary Candidates (Kevin Edwards)

• There are many in the pipeline! Clearly we need to beg the Lord to provide support for these precious families.
• Welcome, UCLA. It’s our hope that God would really use many of you for the cause of missions.
• The people I’m about to present, not all of them will be sent. And some we’ll send aren’t here on this list
• Latin America
  • Mexico: 1
  • Brazil: 2
  • Argentina: 2
• Asia
  • Lebanon: 2. There’s big opportunities here, because it’s one of few Muslim countries that isn’t closed in the sense that a Muslim can become a Christian without it being a crime
  • China: we got 2 missionaries over there. 3 more coming!
  • Philippines: the national church there is good at spreading and planting, but definitely there’s a huge thirst for more solid teaching. 1 more coming!
• Africa
  • Malawi: 1
  • South Africa: 1
• Europe
  • Spain: 1
  • Germany: 2
  • Italy: 2
• And 6 more undecided.
• Money has never been a show-stopper for missionaries at GCC. We trust God to continue to provide that

 

STM Update

• Often a heart for missions begins with an STM
• Applications still open for a few weeks
• A great opp here!
• If you’re thinking about missions long term, an STM is a great start. You get to see missionaries in their native environment
• France, Czech Repub STMs still need team leaders. If you wanna lead, please come talk to the coordinator.
• Sign up on the web (gracechurch.org/stm) if you’re interested
• Please consider an STM at least once. You’ll not come back the same! Guaranteed.

 

John Snyder (Samara, Russia)

• IMO Samara is one of the great stories in modern missions
• SAMARA acrostic. What’s Samara all about?
• S – Spiritual leaders (2Cor 5:9)
  • 1998 – Victor Ragusov
  • Was a pastor for 20 years.
  • Came to a preacher’s conference a few years back, and therefore wanted to make many changes, because he wants to please God!
  • Made the pulpit in the center of the church
  • Made verse-by-verse exposition a priority
  • Sent a request to GCC: “come and help us!”
  • PRAY that you’ll serve with the kind of leader who’ll make serious changes if he realizes it Biblically.
• A – Answered prayers (Phil 4:4-7)
  • 1999 – short-term trip
  • Pastor Victor’s request was heard. GCC sent an STM
  • And I (John) was totally captured. Beware the STM
  • And since then, it’s been 8 of the most blessed years of my life!
  • A room jam-packed with men who were hungry to learn. Come and help us!
  • I came back to the States and I told my wife… apprehensive if my wife would agree to moving to Russia
  • I came back, and she was more than ready!
  • Praise the Lord, He richly provided
• M – Missions-minded churches (Phil 4:18)
  • 2000 – support raising
  • Golden piece of advice, if you want success in your ministry: find a church with a mindset for missions
  • A church with fervent fanatics for prayer! Beg them to pray for you! The Apostle Paul did it in all his epistles!
  • THAT’s the kind of church you want to be sent out by!
• A – Amazing Grace (2Tim 2:1-2)
  • Samara Preacher’s Institute!
  • 285+ grads! Faithful 2Tim 2:2 men!
• R – The Russian brethren (1Cor 16:20)
  • They are so precious
  • They are such an encouragement
  • They love us here at GCC, and pray for us as well
  • Be sure you go love the people you serve once you get there!
• A – All of you (Eph 6:18-20)
  • God has answered your prayers here! It’s been amazing!
  • People are getting saved, the workers are going out to the white harvest.
  • PLEASE keep praying!!!

 

GCC Missionary Conference – Israel 2008 (Brad Armstrong, Shannon’s dad!)

• Every 2 years, there’s a GCC Missionaries Conference. All the GCC missionaries worldwide gather together.
• Hard to come up with new superlatives for this trip. Just amazing
• Missionary fellowship
  • They all get to interact with each other and feed each others’ flames J Iron sharpening iron. Stories shared.
  • The Believers’ Foundation: they provide a lot of funding for our GCC missionaries.
  • The kids got a good time to play and have fun too
• Worship
  • Mike Mahoney got to lead us. It was totally wonderful
  • We got to experience really rich, full Body life
• Teaching
  • Mark Borisuk, Irv Busenitz and Rick Holland came and taught
  • Got to sit in the stadium where Paul almost converted Herod (Acts)
• Prayer
  • These missionaries are so fervent and strong in praying for us at GCC and for each other
  • Lots and lots of passionate and very encouraging prayer times.
  • A really special time
• Updates from GCC
  • They were SO encouraged to hear about Commitment To The Commission. A lot of them were having financial troubles lately.
• Ministry to Missionaries
  • ECHO meetings with missionary teams
  • ECHO elders – 1 on 1 meetings with missionaries. Encourage and keep up on them. How can we as GCC help you?
  • Financial meetings with Brian Milam
• Women’s Ministry
  • Really encouraging, since missionary wives can feel isolated sometimes
• Children’s Ministry
  • Very encouraging: the leaders of the time, the wife found out she had thyroid cancer right before the conference, but they still came because they really thought the children’s ministry mattered
• Biblical Understanding Enhanced
  • We got to see a lot of rich history
  • Where Jesus walked…
  • Where Peter preached in Acts…
  • Where some future events in Revelation speak of…
• The sun never sets on Grace Church missions overseas… J
  • It’s mind-boggling and so wonderful
• The next one will be back here at GCC!

 

Next month is Shepherd’s Conference.

We meet as a missionary family at the Dining Commons at the Master’s College for ECHO. Not here at GCC.

Missionaries and nationals from the countries