In This Issue

Holistic Ministry

The tenth guiding principle of the EFCA IM says: We are committed to the Biblical mandate of ministering to the whole person in the name of Christ. This includes ministries of compassion, development and education in addition to those of evangelism and church planting. A distinctive of the EFCA IM is that all ministries are integrated into the goal of multiplying healthy churches.

Think about this: There are currently 28 active world conflicts with millions of displaced people fleeing these conflicts. Migration has increased from 76 million immigrants in 1960 to 179 million immigrants in 2000.

Migration to the cities continues to grow. In 1985 there were only 9 cities in the world with more than 10 million inhabitants. By 2015 there will be more than 20 cities on this scale with a third over 20 million. India has 32 cities of 1 million or more. China has 160 cities of 1 million or more. In 1890 the number of natural disasters reported globally was under 10. In 2000 it was 450.

Income per person in the world’s 20 poorest countries rose over the last 40 years from $212 to $267. In contrast the richest 20 nations have seen their income per person triple from $11,417 to $32,339 in the same 40 years.

Some of the AIDS statistics for Africa by percentage of the population suffering from the disease:
Swaziland 38.8 percent
Botswana 37.3
Lesotho 28.9
Zimbabwe 24.6
South Africa 21.5
Namibia 21.3
Zambia 16.5
Malawi 14.2
CAR 13.5
Tanzania 8.8
Gabon 8.1
Cote d’Ivoire 7.0
Cameroon 6.9
Kenya 6.7

What is the common element in these numbers? What do migrants, those affected by world conflicts or natural disasters or diseases have in common? They are far more open to the gospel than those not affected by disruption of their social system? That is why the EFC of Sudan was planted by those fleeing a civil war and the EFC of Rwanda planted in refugee camps.

Why do we care as a mission? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:6-8.

When it comes to being holistic in our approach how are we doing as a mission?

By Executive Director

Sand Castles

The EFCA International Mission is committed to doing a better job at communicating with the local church, donors, missionaries, and prayer warriors about the on going work around the globe. In light of this commitment, the EFCA International Mission will begin sending out a newsletter with stories and pictures from the field (specific names and locations will not be given to protect the workers serving around the world). This newsletter will be called "Sand Castles" and will be sent out in the middle of every month to give updates (stories and pictures) of the various ministries going on around the world.

The first issue of Sand Castles will be sent out March 15, 2006. If you are interested in the work of the International Mission and would like to receive this monthly letter, please Click Here to sign up.

Sudan Opportunity

A Window of Opportunity in Sudan
God has given the EFCA an incredible opportunity to come alongside our sister denomination, the Evangelical Free Church of Sudan (EFCS). Due to a recent peace accord, a 20-year civil war has ended and millions of refugees will return home. EFCA Compassion Ministries has a goal to raise $3 million to assist in the resettlement of six Sudanese villages ($500,000 per village). Resettlement will be extremely challenging and difficult on the people of Sudan. Medical assistance, food, tools and training are just a few of the many urgent needs. The EFCA encourages individuals and churches to respond generously. In the next two updates, we will present stories and information on the needs in Sudan.

Sudan: Everything is Temporary
Video journalist, Dave Turner, recently visited Sudan and people of the EFCS. He shares their situation straight from the heart via email messages sent during his travels. Take a moment and read the beginning of this moving story…

Friends and family:

As many of you know, and probably many do not know, for the past couple decades there has been an ongoing civil war between Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan. Northern Sudan is much nearer to the Arab world, and its people are predominantly Islamic. The people of Southern Sudan are mainly of animistic or Christian faiths, and this led to many conflicts. Rebellion began from the South and genocide by the North. The civil war went on for years and years. Many people in the South had to flee Sudan as refugees living in camps just outside the Sudan border. Most have lived in refugee camps for 20+ years...some their entire life.

The camps are not designed to feel permanent. People are not able to own land or establish themselves. For if they were, the camps would start to feel like home. But the goal of the camps is for them to be temporary, so many of the things we daily take for granted - the simple ability to own land, and provide for yourself, rather than just getting food hand-outs - are not given to these people. Because the war between North and South has ended at long last, many of the people living in refugee camps in the countries surrounding Sudan will finally be able to move home.

To what home? In what condition? With what foundation? Our sisters and brothers of the EFCS are ready…waiting…anxious and hopeful…for their new beginning.

Watch in the next update for letter #2 from Dave as he shares the harshness of the journey and how these determined people will return to nothing. In March, your church will receive a DVD presentation of the story of EFCS refugees, their difficult journey home, and information on how your church can help by collecting a special Easter offering for this relief effort.

Tsunami Relief Update

Please join EFCA Compassion Ministries in thanking God for this great opportunity to show the love to Christ to deeply hurting people, for the tireless efforts of our Thailand team, for the many short term teams that have participated, and for the countless changed lives as a result of these ministries. I am very proud of our team in Thailand, Compassion ministries and all who have and are participating in these efforts. I am also proud of the wonderful compassion of the EFCA that provided over 1.6 million dollars for Tsunami relief. Tim

92 homes have been built, 51 on Bang Sak Village...those were dedicated on November 4, 2005.  40 homes out on Koh Khao Island Village are in the process of being completed. These are supposed to be done for the dedication scheduled for March 10th. The Deputy Prime Minister will be attending that event. We partnered with another group from Chiang Mai and the Thai fishermen in Bang Sak village to build 30 new boats and repair 20 more with fiber glass. They were all done by July. We also helped in several other villages with fishing nets and crab traps as well as supported 360+ orphans with a $10/month stay in school scholarship. We also built a fabulous playground right on the beach here in Bang Sak with Kids Around the World with Jim Rosene out of Rockford First Free. It is being used everyday and literally thousands on the weekends. It is a field of dreams, and a church planters dream come true (see picture). There is also a football field and volleyball court. The biggest project in the last year was building homes. The EFCA IM gave more than half of the total funds through EFCA Compassion Ministries.

Connect Update

Connect is a new division of the EFCA IM and exists to further the international mission work of our local churches in conjunction with the International Mission. There are five defined functions of Connect:

  1. Networking and Consulting
  2. Training as it relates to short-term missions, local churches and partnerships
  3. Resource Development
  4. Logistical Execution
  5. System Management and Utilization.
The Connect staff consists of our Church Mission Consultants and our Short-term Ministry teams.

A big part of what we will offer for services will be short-term mission opportunities. We want our stateside churches to be more closely aligned with what our mission is doing and we know that the support for our mission will increase accordingly. Our goal is to be very responsive to our local churches and to have them look at the EFCA IM first for their short-term ministry needs.

Networking and Consulting will continue to be a focus for Connect. We want to serve our local churches and meet their needs for mission development and deployment. We are excited about strengthening the relationship we have with our partner churches and developing new partnership opportunities.

We have excellent trainers already within Connect and a wealth of training material available to our churches. Our goal is to multiply our trainers and provide the best in training expertise to our local churches.

When a church has a desire to expand their short-term mission opportunities, our Resource Development area will be there to help. Resource Development is charged with the creation or acquisition of material available to our churches that will fit their needs.

Logistical Execution will be the area that will tie everything together. We see this as an integral part of any short-term mission experience. These are the experts in knowing what, when, where, and how to make things happen efficiently.

The purpose of System Management and Utilization will be to develop financial models for implementation, communication, information technology, and marketing of our services.

Connect is a new paradigm for our Church Mission Consultants and our Short-term Ministry teams, and as such we will be going through a transition phase. We are excited about these changes and look forward to serving our fields and our local churches.

Leadership Conference Update

Please join the EFCA International Mission for breakfast on Thursday, June 29, 2006 from 7:00am - 8:15am. The cost is $16.00 per ticket. You will have the opportunity to sign up for this event on the EFCA Leadership Conference website soon. For more details on the logistics of the Leadership Conference, please go to the Leadership Conference Website.

The EFCA International Mission will be hosting four summits (the Africa Summit has just been added to the schedule) that will take place in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 in conjunction with the EFCA Leadership Conference.

  • Africa Summit - facilitated by Kevin Kompelien. 12:00pm - 5:00pm (this summit will begin with a joint lunch with participants from other IM summits)
  • India Summit - facilitated by Sam and Sharon Mall. 12:00pm - 5:00pm (this summit will begin with a joint lunch with participants from the other IM summits)
  • Indonesia Summit - facilitated by Bala Balasingham. 12:00pm - 5:00pm (this summit will begin with a joint lunch with participants from the other IM summits)
  • IM and the Local Church (Mission Pastors) Summit - facilitated by Gary Hunter and the Executive Director. 9:00am - 12:00pm (this summit will end with a joint lunch with participants from the other IM Summits)

Watch for further details on how to sign up for these summits.

If you have any questions regarding the summits or the breakfast, please contact Cathy Allen at callen@efca.org or call 1 800-745-2202 ext. 453.

2006-2007 EFCA IM Prayer Calendar

The EFCA IM Prayer Calendar is a compilation of missionary pictures and ministry locations. The calendar is created to help you pray for three to five missionaries each day. This is one way to get to know EFCA IM missionaries, but more importantly, it provides the prayer support that these missionaries need in their day-to-day ministries. To order your calendar, please Click Here.

For questions regarding the prayer calendar, please contact callen@efca.org.

Philippine Mud Slide

The Leyte mudslide that buried a village in the Philippines has impacted the EFCA IM in the region with loss and opportunity.  A graduate of the EFC Bible College in Cebu (the Evangelical Theological College of the Philippines) was pastoring the church there and died in the mudslide along with his sister, mother, and seven-month old son.  His wife and oldest child are still alive.  Another ETCP graduate lost his entire family except for one sister.  One of our EFC pastors lost two sisters who were teachers in the school that was buried.  His family, although they lived in another area have been evacuated. 

An elementary school full of teachers and more than 200 children were buried as well. The town's population on record is about 1400. However, estimates are that there may be as many as 2000+ victims. Please pray for the families affected by this tragedy. Please also PRAY FERVENTLY for the rescue efforts that are still under way. There is still the possibility of finding some survivors trapped in air pockets within buried structures. There are reports of seismic-sensitive gear detecting sounds (like tapping) from under the mud (which regrettably has been as much as 100 feet deep in some parts), and some have reported getting text messages from trapped loved ones within a day after the mudslide.

Praise God for all of the additional support He has provided for the rescue, including U.S. troops. But today being the 4th day, it is a race against time, so please remember Leyte in your prayers.

For more information about this disaster, please Click Here.

EFCA Compassion Ministries

Long-term volunteer opportunities are available!

Compassion Ministries is seeking individuals and couples motivated to show the love of Christ to those in need. Join the Crisis Response Ministry team serving in Southern Louisiana. We are asking for at least a 2 month minimum commitment, but there are also opportunities for 6-12 months or longer. There are a variety of positions available. For more information on these amazing service opportunities, go to the Compassion Website.