EFCA - The International Mission

EFCA ReachGlobal News

Updates for mission pastors and church leaders

In this issue

Europe News and Opportunities

In Europe we are forming new city teams for the following cities. We need U.S. local church partnerships and team members! Contacts may be made to the following city team leaders listed:

If your church is interested in short-term teams to Europe that might lead to partnerships, contact the following people about these areas, regions and cities in Europe:


Is your church interested in Muslim ministry?

ReachGlobal is partnering with the Crescent Project to help focus our efforts and better understand how to reach out to our Muslim friends and neighbors. If your church is interested in reaching out to Muslims, check out the Crescent Project website to sign up for their newsletter, access podcasts or just learn more information about their ministry.

There is also a 6-week Bible study for small groups available through the Crescent Project website which focuses on ministry to Muslims.


What is Debriefing?

Debriefing is an event hosted by EFCA ReachGlobal that allows RG personnel to come back to the states and “debrief” their experience overseas. Personnel meet with RG leaders to review and evaluate their overseas experience. It is also a time for them to network with other personnel and gain resources and encouragement through those interactions. Debriefings are held five times per year at that EFCA National Office and are required for all RG personnel to attend at least once every four years. If you have questions about Debriefings, you can email reachglobal@efca.org.



New accepted ReachGlobal candidates

Praise God for the following people who were accepted as ReachGlobal personnel during the March 2008 Readiness Event (REV)! Please pray for them as they begin raising prayer and financial support to serve for the purpose of multiplying healthy churches among all people:
  • Amber Crawford will serve for a fixed term (two years) in Africa.
  • Amy Puskas will serve long term in Hungary.
  • Brian and Eva Holsinger will serve a fixed term (two years) in Asia.
  • Marcus and Bum Fey will serve long term in Thailand.
  • Jonah and Amy Haddad will serve long term in France.
  • Rob and Jill Stoddard will serve long term in Japan.
  • Bjorn and Trisha Olsen will serve long term in Hungary.
To find out more about their ministries and how to support them, contact the ENGAGE team at (800) 745-2202 or engageteam@efca.org


TouchGlobal Crisis Response needs

It’s been over two years since Hurricane Katrina, and God continues to transform the lives of people in Southern Louisiana. However, 125,000 people are still living in FEMA trailers; 90,000 families are still waiting to hear if they will receive any rebuilding assistance from the state; thousands still dream of being able to move back into the homes they lost in August 2005. Amidst the despair, the EFCA continues to faithfully minister to the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of people, seeking to use the rebuilding of homes as a vehicle to relationships, to multiply healthy churches among all people. God continues to redeem lives. There are two areas in which EFCA TouchGlobal still needs your help to accomplish this goal:

1. EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response is looking for individuals/couples/families to serve as part of our New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina-based Crisis Response Team. Some of the positions are for immediate openings, and many are for the summer/fall 2008, and winter/spring 2009. We ask for a minimum term of three months, but prefer up to one year or longer. If you are interested in more information, please contact Mark Lewis at mark.lewis@efca.org or 985-893-0218. Specific positions include:
  • Administrative and Volunteer Team Assistants
  • Food Service Manager
  • Communication Assistant
  • Food Service Assistants
  • Construction Project Managers
  • Network Administrator/Web Manager
  • Construction Supervisors
  • Skilled and Semi Skilled Tradesmen
  • Follow-up (Relational) Ministry
  • Tool and Equipment Managers
  • Tool and Supply Assistants

2. Volunteer teams are needed to continue helping with the outreach ministry opportunities. Teams are needed for:

  • Building relationships through rebuilding homes;
  • Counseling/relational follow-up with the 4,000 families we have served;
  • Engaging in focused prayer walks for potential church planting opportunities.
Go to www.efca.org/katrina for more information or contact Mark Lewis (director of EFCA Crisis Response) at mark.lewis@efca.org, (985) 893-0218 (home), or (717) 439-3138 (cell).


ReachGlobal Africa

God is doing something very significant in Africa in 2008! EFCA ReachGlobal is coming alongside our African national partners from Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sudan as they seek to form an alliance of African Evangelical Free Churches called ReachGlobal Africa. The purpose of this alliance is to raise up, equip and send a generation of African indigenous church planting missionaries to reach Africa’s more than 260 million unreached people.

This idea was not one generated from America, but rather one that came out of the hearts of these African church leaders as they accepted the challenge for the African church to reach Africa with the gospel. Plans are being made to train hundreds of African church planting missionaries, to research locations for potential church planting locations, and to send multi-national African church planting teams to numerous countries like Togo, Niger, and Sudan in the next three years.

These African brothers have asked EFCA ReachGlobal leadership to come alongside them to help strategize, provide training and resource their dream of reaching Africa’s unreached. The EFCA has an unprecedented opportunity to come alongside its African brothers and sisters by providing financial resources to make this a reality. Gifts for this project can be sent to EFCA ReachGlobal, 901 East 78th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55420-1300. Make your check payable to EFCA ReachGlobal and include “ReachGlobal Africa Account #2200-5430” on the memo line.


Resurrected Hope for Sudanese refugees

Two years ago the EFCA started a Sudan Repatriation Project called “Resurrected Hope.” The purpose of the project was to help our Sudan sister denomination, the Evangelical Free Church of Sudan (EFCS), minister to the tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who have been flooding back to southern Sudan following the end of a 22-year civil war. Almost $400,000 contributed by EFCA churches for this project so far has been used to meet the needs of the first wave of refugees returning home. As a result of this project, a multitude of lives have been touched by the love of Jesus. Many people have come to faith in Christ and churches have been planted in southern Sudan.

According to a newly released report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), they are planning to step up the repatriation of Southern Sudanese refugees from Uganda in 2008. "We expect that up to 50,000 refugees will be repatriated this year," the high commissioner, Antonio Guterres, told reporters in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on March 6, 2008.

This is a crucial time! The EFC of Sudan continues to minister to refugees and plant churches, but they have asked for assistance to help with this newest flood of returning refugees. If you would like to help, please send your donation to EFCA ReachGlobal, 901 East 78th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55420-1300, and make your check payable to EFCA ReachGlobal. Include "Sudan Repatriation Fund" on the memo line.


Reminder: ReachGlobal personnel information on the web

Please remember to get the permission of ReachGlobal staff before posting information about them on your church Web site. As a means to protect them, their families and their ministry, please follow up with the ReachGlobal personnel your church supports to make sure they know what information your church has posted on the web concerning their family and ministry.

If you have questions about ReachGlobal's security policy in general or the specific policy regarding personnel and the web, please email reachglobal@efca.org with your questions.


Global Concert of Prayer

The ReachGlobal Global Concert of Prayer (GCOP) dates are specific days set aside for prayer warriors around the world to pray simultaneously for ReachGlobal ministry needs and ReachGlobal staff. The GCOP occurred on March 6 and will take place again on July 8 and November 6. If you would like a copy of the prayer requests used for the March GCOP, or if you would like to be placed on the mailing list to receive these requests for future GCOP days, please email reachglobal@efca.org.


Workshop at National Leadership Conference

At the EFCA National Leadership Conference this year, there will be two new workshops focusing on Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea. The following is preliminary information on these workshops. You will get more information as announcements are made regarding National Leadership Conference:

  1. Bangladesh - Imagine a country the size of Wisconsin, where 150 million people live, where 90% embrace Islam, but where the good news of Jesus Christ is being welcomed by more and more people, despite opposition and persecution. God has opened doors of opportunity for EFCA churches to partner with national believers to multiply healthy fellowships of believers in Bangladesh. At the 2008 National Leadership Conference, First EFC of Austin, TX and ReachGlobal will tell the story of how one church is partnering with a national church planting movement, and how by working together with national leaders and workers, EFCA churches and ReachGlobal can expand the work of the gospel. Sign up for the training seminar for Bangladesh when you register for the conference. Conference registration and sign ups will be coming soon!

  2. Papua New Guinea - The gospel has found a receptive home in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to the extent that church planting movements are being multiplied through the efforts of national leaders. Yet there is a need to assist church planting movements in PNG by training godly, skilled leaders. God has opened doors of opportunity for EFCA churches to partner with national believers to multiply healthy fellowships of believers in PNG. At the 2008 National Leadership Conference, Naperville (Illinois) EFC and ReachGlobal will tell the story of how one church is partnering with a national church planting movement, and how by working together with national leaders and workers, EFCA churches and ReachGlobal can expand the work of the gospel. Sign up for the training seminar for PNG when you register for the conference. Conference registration and sign ups will be coming soon!


Ministry Highlight: EFCA EQUIP

EFCA EQUIP is working hard to develop resources that will help you learn and be more effective in your ministry. One of the ways we do this is through providing interactive courses online at the EQUIP Web site (http://equip.efca.org/). The following is a list of upcoming courses for March through May:

Courses:

  • Intentional Living, March 31
  • Intentional Living, April 14
  • Coaching for Fruitfulness, April 28
  • Introduction to Teaching Online, May 26
  • Foundational Principles of Healthy Cross-cultural Ministry Partnerships, date to be announced

Book courses:

  • How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything, April 7
  • Getting Things Done, April 14
  • A Resilient Life, May 12

To register for any of these courses or for more information, please contact us at equip@efca.org.


Suggested Books on Global Missions

The following are books most often suggested as great resources on global missions by ReachGlobal Mission leaders.

    • Let the Nations be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions. Piper, John.
    • Church Planting Movements, Garrison, David.
    • Organic Church, Neil ColeThe New Global Mission:
    • The gospel from everywhere to everyone. Escobar, Samuel


Peru Earthquake Crisis Response - Teams Needed (Repeat)

In the wake of the Peru earthquakes, EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response has partnered with ADIEL (Evangelical Free Church of Peru) and ReachGlobal's Peru team to provide relief and recovery for the purpose of outreach, evangelism and church planting in Chincha, Peru. The ministry focus is to equip people, mobilize churches and transform communities. We are seeking teams who have a heart for service and compassion, and resources to help show the love of Christ to those in need.

The earthquake consisted of two separate 7.9 and 8.1 quakes, minutes apart. One of the affected provinces was the Ica province, where more than 200,000 people were impacted. In the city of Chincha, over 40,000 homes were either destroyed or seriously damaged. We invite you to come prepared with an openness to be used by God to help build His kingdom in Peru! For more information, go to http://www.touchglobal.org/

 


 

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