03 Mar “We Need to Support Ourselves”

The church at Bo, in Sierra Leone

While attending Sierra Leone Conference, I didn’t sense a strong feeling of expectation in regard to support from North America. In fact, a number of younger pastors–some of the rising young leaders in the conference–came to me and said, “We need to be supporting ourselves. We appreciate everything the US and Canada have done in the past, but it’s time for us to take ownership of the ministry God has given us.”

The church in Bo just completed a new sanctuary that seats 400. It would be an impressive building in the United States. And they never asked the conference or the US for a penny. They built it themselves. They also run a school next door to the church, and it receives no outside funding that I know of.

encountered something similar in Nicaragua. A discussion began about how Central American churches could participate in mission giving. They said, “We’ve been on the receiving end for a long time. We’d like to do something that puts us on the giving side.”

They raised the idea of taking a missions offering and sending it to the United States. I told them about how the Canadians already participate with us in two offerings, Self Denial and Thank Offering.

They jumped all over that, thought it was fantastic. We need to work out the details of how we distribute the funds they send; they wouldn’t want us to send it back to them. But to send money to us, and then it goes somewhere else–that’s something we can do for them, as they seek to reach out to the world.

24 Feb Sierra Leone: Can You Top This?

In the States, UB churches send 3.5% of their income to the national office as a “partnership fee,” to help support the various ministries we do jointly. In Sierra Leone, they have a pledge drive.

They presented the conference budget and what they hoped to accomplish during the coming year. Then individual districts, churches, and members stood to announce their financial pledge for the coming year.

It was a fun time, with some playful taunting, egging each other on. “Our district is committing to half a million leones. What about you?” And it would be up to the next district to do as well or better. Likewise for churches. A number of people plunked down cash on the spot, some sizable chunks of money.

It was quite a lengthy exercise, probably three hours. I was encouraged by what I saw. They were putting their money behind Billy Simbo’s leadership.

23 Feb Sierra Leone: Conference Business

20 Feb Sierra Leone: First Impressions

My visit to Sierra Leone in December was my first trip to Africa (if I don’t count a short visit to Morocco when we lived in Spain). I started the day in Germany, and ended the day late at night in Mattru, far up-country. Here are my memories and impressions of that first day.

The Freetown airport lies on an island. After the plane landed, a tractor pulled up to the plane with a wagon to collect our luggage.Inside the terminal, I encountered a sea of people (which I’ve seen in other countries). Everybody wants to carry your bag. Some guys offered to fly us to the city via helicopter, but I’d heard too many stories about these helicopters. Instead, Billy Simbo and I headed to the car ferry (itself a 20-minute drive). We were jammed in like sardines, standing up the whole way. I didn’t see any lifejackets, and there were no safety drills. We did go to the First Class room, which included some air conditioning and guys selling pirated CDs and DVDs (including some nice Christian CDs).

Freetown featured crowded streets, a lot of commercial businesses, and much hustle and bustle. We found ourselves on Kissy Road stuck in parked traffic for a couple hours. You can do your shopping on Kissy Road while you’re stopped, because vendors come by with fresh eggs, bluejeans–anything you want. They carry everything on their heads. I saw one guy carrying a Honda generator on his head. That was the most impressive thing I saw in Sierra Leone.

Amidst the crowds, I carried my suitcase on my head, too. If you try pulling it behind you, you’ll never make it through the crowds. Plus, it’s more secure on your head. Of course, don’t keep anything valuable in your pockets, or you’ll never see it again.

Billy Simbo and I headed into the interior, taking dusty red dirt roads. It was a 250-km trip to Mattru. We arrived around midnight. With no air conditioning in the van, we kept the windows open the whole way. In the dark, we couldn’t see anything, except for an occasional big farm truck.

When we reached Mattru and opened the car doors, the vehicle light came on. Only then did we realize we were completely covered with red dust. Mattru has no electricity, and the guest house had no generator. We used palm oil lamps, and bathed from a bucket of water. It was a little interesting getting cleaned up for bed, but I was comfortable.

17 Feb Leadership Change in Honduras

Francisco Raudales, center, with the plaque I presented on behalf of Global Ministries.

Francisco Raudales and I pray over Juanita Chavez, as she begins her new role as superintendent of Honduras Conference.

In January, I was privileged to attend the Honduras National Conference. This was the going-away conference for Francisco Raudales, who had served as superintendent since January 1997.

There were many expressions of appreciation for his ministry over the years. I presented a plaque on behalf of Global Ministries.

Juanita Chavez was elected as the new superintendent. They didn’t announce the vote tally, but her selection definitely pleased the crowd, and people were supportive even if they personally didn’t vote for her.

I wasn’t able to stay for the closing service on Saturday night, but Francisco told her 2000 people attended. My last official act was to pray for Juanita Chavez.

Prior to the election, Juanita had been working on a strategic plan for the coming years. It wasn’t a plan with specific outcomes in terms of numbers, but outcomes in relation to healthy church development and healthy conference development. That was exciting to see. They were looking down the road–how do we get there? how do we know when we’ve developed healthy ministries?

It was something their governing council, the junta, put together, and they gave her the lead. It’ll be neat seeing her work through that in the coming years.

28 Jan Report from Haiti

After visiting our churches in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, I flew up to Miami to catch a plane to Haiti. I’m spending three days there, joining a team from our churches in Canada. I’ll return to the States on January 28.

The Canadian Team is doing a tremendous job in Haiti. The group of 11 from a number of UB churches have been doing construction at Delmas, quilting classes, children’s ministry, medical caravans, and leadership training.

Neil Cudney of Hespler, Ontario (second from the left), is orienting pastors to use “Train and Multiply” materials that have been printed in Creole.

22 Jan Readying a New Ministry in Macau

Jeff Kline, Macau

A few months ago as we were looking for new direction here in Macau, we felt that God gave us our answer. Though we had never stepped into the doors at TIS, we felt God was directing in this direction by putting two youth in our church that attend there.

From that moment on, God continued to place people from TIS into our lives; two Christian teachers and a Christian Vice Principal! Then we realized we knew four other Christian kids from TIS and started conversations with them about starting a new outreach ministry at their school. All of them seemed to be excited and ready to reach their friends.

That’s when Saturday nights with TIS kids began. So for the past 3 months we have invited kids into our home. We have anywhere from 3-15 kids a week. So Saturday nights are a time to hang-out, play sports, eat and talk.

That is the first part of our new ministry. The second part is an on-campus ministry we hope to start in the near future. We plan to visit the school once a week to hold a Club, a one-hour event where we play ice-breaker games, talk about a teen-relevant topic, and share what God thinks about that topic.

From these two ministries comes the third: small groups.

The fourth part of this ministry is big events held with the help of Living Stone Church. And since five is one more than four, the fifth part is student leadership where we get together on Thursday mornings early to pray for and talk about ways to better tell their friends about Christ.

Through these five ministries to TIS kids, we hope to introduce them to a loving God who desires to have a personal relationship with them, connect them with other Christians in Macau, bring them into a local church, and show them just how good and life-changing a life with Jesus is!

Please pray for us as we start-up this new ministry. Please pray for the staff and administration at TIS. Please pray for the students at TIS.

20 Jan Report from Costa Rica

12 Jan Juanita Chavez to Lead Honduras Conference

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

We have a new Superintendent in Honduras. Juanita Chavez was elected on January 9 during the annual conference. It was a privilege for me to kneel with her at the altar and pray for God’s blessing as she assumes this responsibility.

During the conference a strategic plan was presented and approved that focuses on a number of significant outcomes and indications of church health. Juanita Chavez had a major part in the formation of the plan as a member of the leadership team and so it will be exciting to see her implement it in the coming years.

The conference is very excited to be named host for the 2010 General Conference and some very gifted people have already made themselves available to assist in the planning and preparation.

05 Jan Guiding Values of Global Ministries

Have you seen the “Guiding Values of Global Ministries“? They are the result of a lot of thought by the Global Ministries Leadership Team. Give it a read. It’ll help you better understand the role, focus, and philosophy or Global Ministries.