On Mission Together: September – October 2018

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.”

Psalm 107:1-3

We praise God and give thanks for how He has provided and worked in the lives of many across Canada and around the world. Celebrate with us in this season of thanksgiving over all the joys and praises from our workers and churches.

Thank you for making this possible through your giving to the Global Advance Fund.

Asian Spice

One of the many joys of the “T*” fellowship is that they get to do life together, learning from each other how to walk with Christ through both the sorrows and joys in life. Years ago, God began using two “T” believers, Tenzing* and Dolma*, to reach their people in the high mountains. In 2015, a massive earthquake left thousands of people dead and thousands more homeless. The homes of believers in the “T” mountain village were crumbled. Tenzing and Dolma immediately responded by organizing food, blankets, and clothing to be taken up. The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (C&MA) raised and donated funds to rebuild houses in these remote villages in the months following the earthquake. These projects were spearheaded by a small Christian village, supporting and serving other nearby villages. In spite of this devastating disaster, the number of believers in this remote mountain region has now grown to over 100 as a result of the love of Jesus that they have experienced! They experienced the power of the Holy Spirit through the hands of His people.

Praise God for His healing touch among the “T” community. Praise Him for the number of believers coming to know Christ in this remote mountain region.

Pray for strength and endurance for the few believers amongst this “T” community so that they can be salt and light to their people, living out the love of Jesus under very difficult circumstances.

Sea to Sea

There are seven First Nations communities within an hour of Battleford, Saskatchewan with zero evangelical presence on their reserves. Addictions, family breakdowns, racial barriers, suicide, and crime are all characteristics of this region. The suicide rate for First Nations youth is more than four times higher than non-First Nations youth.

Territorial Drive Alliance Church (TDAC) has recently hired First Nations leader Tyrone Bird to engage in ministry among the First Nations reserves in North Battleford. TDAC began to have compassion and engage in ministry with the First Nations reserves around their church a few years ago. The church quickly realized that in order to reach their surrounding communities for Christ, they needed to partner and work side-by-side with First Nations leaders in deep relationships. These relationships began with First Nations leaders and later trickled down to their friends through birthday parties, being part of weddings, funerals, Christmas events, and the list goes on. The church came alongside them and simply started doing life together. As Pastor Tyrone Bird says, “TDAC has been radically loving us and recklessly supporting our ministry.”

Hiring a pastor to work outside and not within the four walls of the church is something new, something daring. As Tyrone leaves his full-time job as a heavy equipment operator, he and his wife will be walking side-by-side with TDAC to become a Missionary Pastor to plant churches outside their community.

Praise God for this exciting partnership aimed at reaching and bringing even more First Nations peoples to Christ.

Pray for God’s powerful anointing and protection upon Pastor Tyrone and his wife, Ginger, as they minister to the First Nations communities. Pray that the Lord will break down the walls of darkness and resistance and open the door for transformation on the First Nations reserves around North Battleford.

Caribbean Sun

In an age of detachment between generations, international workers Rich and Elisa Brown thank God for the different generations in their ministry. They often hear about how difficult, immature, and entitled the millennial generation is but for Rich and Elisa, they celebrate them. People from all different generations have heard God’s call to His mission and responded. Whether that’s a baby boomer, a millennial, or a generation z, they contributed to Rich and Elisa’s launch and running of Inca Link, which exists to reach the 300 million youth in Latin America. In the last five years, they have reached 20,000 people for Christ through their staff of multigenerational servants and exposed the Gospel to over 1.5 million youth on this continent. Praise God. The 1.5 million is only 0.5% of the 300 million and they are still leaning heavily on all generations to continue to partner with them to do the ministry God has called them to do.

Praise the Lord for the many youths in Latin America that have experienced the love of God and are responding to Him.

Praise God for the diversity and the different generations that have invested their love and support for missions through Inca Link.

Desert Sand

God has given Rachel*, international worker, amazing opportunities in the past year to walk alongside individuals in her community. Rachel had the chance to accompany her pregnant friend to her prenatal appointment. During their three-hour wait together, they had great conversations and her friend mentioned she wanted her baby’s personality to be just like Rachel’s. Rachel told her friend that she is who she is because she has Jesus in her. As the doctor was performing the ultrasound, Rachel got to share the beautiful way in which God is forming her friend’s baby. It was an incredible moment.

A few months ago, Rachel’s friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Rachel had the pleasure to walk with this family through the entire pregnancy and even had the chance to be with them at the hospital during the birth. It was a special and rare moment of vulnerability when her friend’s mom teared up in Rachel’s arms as her daughter went into surgery for a C-section. Rachel had the opportunity to hold baby Jenna at the hospital and pray over her at that moment for protection and revelation of Jesus Christ.

Praise God for the opportunities that Rachel has had to share the love of Christ in North Africa. Praise Him for the work He is doing through Rachel.

Pray for this little baby to grow up knowing the true love of Christ. Pray for this family as they continue to wonder and be curious about the marvelous love of God.

Silk Road

Yemen currently has one of the world’s largest epidemics of cholera. Malnutrition and infant mortality are becoming normal in this region. Dan* and Darrah*, international workers in Silk Road, thank God for brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to be a witness in Yemen in the midst of these difficult circumstances. Praise Him for bringing many Yemenis to Himself.

A Background Muslim Believers (BMB) couple in a rural area, who has been sharing a home with two other households that are not believers, recently received assistance to finish building a small home. All of the labour and primary material required to build the home were donated by local villagers in gratitude to this BMB couple for the humanitarian and development projects they have facilitated in the village. With this new private home, the wife has a safe-house to disciple new believers and share more openly with other women of peace she has identified in the village.

The C&MA partners with another non-profit organization to provide food assistance to BMB in Yemen. One BMB family was able to offer their food baskets to their extended family and other members of their community. These baskets gave them a new perspective about BMB. When this BMB family first came to Christ, relationships with their families were broken, all communications were cut off. They really wanted to rebuild these relationships, but how? God used the church’s food relief as a means to begin mending the relationships with their other family members. It opened a bridge of communication for them. The family members of this BMB family thought they had joined a community without morals that didn’t know God or have respect for anything. Now they have discovered instead this BMB family has entered a world of love, peace, and giving.

Praise God for His provisions for BMB families and using them to bring many Yemenis to Himself. Pray for more opportunities to connect families and communities to Jesus.

Pray that cholera would not spread, that medicines to help those suffering will become available, and that people suffering from it will get well.

This year, we are adding Yemeni and Egyptian Arabs to the Jaffray Project. Visit www.cmacan.org/jaffray to learn more.

* Pseudonyms for people and/or people groups in an environment often hostile to the Gospel.