04 Jul Summer Ministries in Nicaragua

Jeff Dice, who is in Nicaragua with his family helping with work teams, sent a note on July 2 about the group of 25 teens and adult sponsors from College Park UB (Huntington, Ind.), who had been in Nicaragua since June 20.

“The group from College Park just left. They did a great job of connecting with the community around Sergio Canda’s church. The kids were great. They did a 4-day VBS style camp which was constantly fighting the weather. They kept a great attitude and we accomplished everything we had hoped we would.”

He added these notes about upcoming ministries in Nicaragua.

“We are starting a two-week English camp in Masaya on Monday with two sessions each day. Projects are going well. April [Dice] has been asked to present a women’s conference July 28. The subject she’s been asked to address is abuse in the home. Pastor Juan estimates that more than 50% of the women who attend church by themselves are being abused at home. This will be a challenge for April.

“I will begin traveling around to all the churches this week to start the process of assembling a Nicaragua church/pastor directory.”

03 Jul The Changing World of Missions

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

There is good news regarding the “good news.”

The latest edition of Operation World reported that evangelicals numbered 84.5 million (2.8% of the world’s population) in 1960, but in 2000 they were 420 million (6.9%). Evangelical Christianity is the world’s fastest growing major religion even in areas traditionally closed to missionaries.

In the Islamic world, North Africans have been turning to Christ in the last decade–perhaps explaining at least in part the desire for reform throughout the region. Middle East Media reports surging interest in Christian literature, while in Indonesia the church is estimated to have grown by 20 million since organized attacks against Christians began in 1998.

Latin America’s evangelicals now number 60 million people, two-thirds of whom are Pentecostals. Responding not only to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised within their own borders, they have been carrying the gospel overseas to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

In the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Alliance for Saturation Church Planting and the CoMission, a cooperative effort of 35 denominations and agencies, reports 2500 new church plants in four years, including 767 in the Ukraine alone. Ukrainians are now sending workers to 11 unreached areas, including Kazakhstan.

In Asia, the church in China has gone from 30 million in 1949 when the communists took power to more than 100 million today. In India there is a vibrant and brave missionary movement of 200 Indian agencies and several thousand missionaries reaching out to their own tribal peoples, and also to Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, and the disputed Cashmere Region.

Africa is the most Christian continent in all the world today. In Kenya, nearly 50% of the people claim to be evangelicals. Nigeria is sending missionaries throughout the world, but particularly to Arab North Africa.

The world as we know it has been turned upside down. Once the Global North was predominantly Christian. Today, it is the Global South. Nearly 80% of all evangelicals live in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and they are more engaged in mission than ever before. North America is being rivaled by South Korea, Brazil, China, India, and Nigeria as the leading sender of missionaries.

This doesn’t mean we are being relieved of our duties, nor are we unnecessary in the task of global evangelism. What it does indicate is that our role is changing from leaders to participants, and that the way missions is being done will continue to change significantly.

01 Jul Poland Team

A team of 15 persons are currently in Poland, helping to conduct an English Camp for teens in Kutno, Poland. They are working with Global Ministries endorsed staff Arek and Donna Delik. Donna sent a note on June 29 saying, “We are in the middle of English camp, and we are very thankful for the team from United Brethren church, who have given themselves 100% to the teenagers in the camp and show a lot of love to them. Some of the team members even sacrificed their spare time for ‘ice-cream’ to help Arek do the flooring in the new church building. We are really blessed by them.”

Donna reports that work is coming along well on the church building. After three months of demolition and cleaning up on the building they purchased last fall, construction began in earnest in April. “The roof construction is in its final stage of completion. Now the building looks quite different from the original one–taller, more spacious and functioning. Nonetheless, it is still far from finished. The metamorphosis has just begun.”

The team from the United States participated in the second service held in the unfinished building.

” It was another beautiful day. We enjoyed having the roof above our heads protecting us from the strong sun. We hope that we won’t be worshipping in this building only every few months. We are praying that we could have our normal service in this building permanently very soon. We are aiming to get the worship hall ready by the end of this year; however that means we have to finish all the basic construction and facilities like electricity, heating, bathroom, etc., first. We really need god to help us accomplish the impossible.”

You can download the Deliks’ June 2011 PDF newsletter, which includes many photos of the construction work and other information.