This is Ground Zero in Digital Missions

By day, they are engineers, mothers, marketers and entrepreneurs.
By night, they are digital missionaries.
It's a pleasure to serve with them. But I'll confess it's not always convenient to be on mission together. 

Last Thursday night, it was past midnight when our online meeting finally ended. I was exhausted.

Working past midnight to design an online experience for Singapore's Celebration of Hope.

I was on day 7 of solo parenting with Meredith gone on a trip. I barely had any energy left. But I knew it would be worth it to see people reached with the hope of the gospel.

Here's the back story. When we arrived in Singapore in January, we learned of the Celebration of Hope, a country-wide initiative to rally together the church to bring hope to the citizens of Singapore. It's an evangelistic rally at the national stadium, which holds 50,000 people, being held this weekend. Tickets are mostly sold out for all six events.

I told my Singaporean colleague Simon, "There must be an online component. Many won't or can't come to the physical rally, but they can watch online." The organizing committee hadn't been thinking about this and so Simon started working his networks to find a small, nimbe cohort of volunteer missionaries who would make an online livestream of the rallies happen. I told Simon I would do whatever it would take to support him and the Singaporean church leaders.

So there we were, past midnight, Thursday night, a band of volunteers, figuring out our strategy and building resources for the people that would watch the livestream and request follow-up.

As we closed our meeting last Thursday, we prayed that 100,000 people would tune-in to the rally events online and that 1,000 would reach out to chat with our team of responders. These are real people, that need to experience the real hope of Jesus. My sleep could get restored another day.

There are still many hurdles to overcome this week so pray with us that Singaporeans would hear a message of hope this weekend and that the digital engagement piece would work smoothly.

WBC Friends, we feel privileged to be sent by you to Singapore to lead the next generation of digital missions. Thank you for your partnership. We'll let you know how God answers your prayers.

P.S. There are some great video testimonials promoting the event. My favorite: Olivia's

Ready, Set, Launch

Wallenstein, what a difference two days can make. Last week I popped by the first session of Summer Missions Launch. Students from all across Canada participating in our five mission trips had just arrived that afternoon for their time of orientation and training (the team going to Vietnam is pictured above). That first evening I could feel a sense of nervousness and apprehension. Two days later however, when I attended the final session and commissioning time, I sensed excitement and enthusiasm. I could tell that the students were more comfortable with their teams and they were eager to fly out the next day. Below are some pictures of the different trips spending time in training, prayer, and worship. Over the next month, please pray with me that God would use these trips to help many people come to know Jesus. Pray that our Canadian students would come home changed as they see God at work.  

Summer Plans:

For the next four weeks, I am entering a season of focused ministry partnership development. During this time I am trusting God to provide $1000 of new monthly support. Please pray that God would provide for my needs as I meet with supporters and share about my ministry. If you are interested in increasingly your monthly support or would like to introduce me to others interested in learning about my ministry, please let me know - charlotte.martin@p2c.com, 226.791.6703.

Prayer Update:

Thanks for praying for my brother Trevor and his mental health journey over the last many weeks. On April 15th he was successfully discharged from the hospital. The road to full recovery is still long and it's unclear what his new normal will be. He's doing well though and has lots of great ongoing care/support. As they come to mind continue to pray for Trevor and his family, especially his wife Hannah as she cares for both my brother and their daughter, Amelia.

Having lunch with my sister and Trevor's family on the day he was released from the hospital.

Kenya Bound!

A good Monday morning to you all!

I am headed to Kenya on May 14th (next Tuesday) with Dave Ralph of Brantford. We are going for the purpose of strengthening the leadership of a network of 50-100 churches associated with Vision Ministries Kenya. They are rich in faith, limited in terms of other resources.

Many of you have followed me on these trips in the past and have prayed for me. That's what I'm asking for again. Would you pray:

1.  That all of the logistics and preparation that needs to be done this week, will get
done – and will get done well!

2.  That we will enjoy safe travels and the health.

3.  Three days of leadership training in Nairobi

4.  A Sunday, multi-church celebration – who knows what we may be asked to do that day!?

5.  One day for a prayer retreat

6. Two days with the VMK board and task force – this is a super important time. Pray for great wisdom for those days.

7. Three more days of leadership training in near Namanga, at the Tanzanian border (a different group, in the Maasai area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people  See the photo below. It’s a pretty rustic place. 

8. One day of visiting churches.

9. One day of multi-church celebration in Namanga area.

If any of you wish to contribute to the $5000 I require to make this trip – that would be a bonus! This amount will cover my travel and also a significant portion of the conference costs. There are a number of ways to give; PayPal, Credit Card, Canada Helps: easily accessed from our website; be sure to include designation under ‘description’ or ‘purpose’, Gord’s 2019 Kenya trip. http://vision-ministries.org/donate

I plan to send a few updates while in Kenya, so will be in touch!

Gord Martin

Vision Ministries Canada

Kingston Prison Update

“For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

— Jeremiah 29:11

Mental health issues pose problems in varying degrees of intensity in our society.  We are all aware of this in the lives of people we live with day to day or perhaps even in ourselves.

We have come to know several men who - along with serving a prison sentence - have additional struggles and challenges with mental health.

One of these men is Ray*. He was sentenced to “Life 14”. This means that for the rest of his life he will be accountable to the Correctional Services of Canada.  At his 14th year in prison, he is eligible to apply for parole and return to living in our society with diminishing levels of supervision. But he will always be accountable to regulations of the National Parole Board of Canada.
 
In the fall of 2012 Ray began attending my group Bible study in one of the maximum security prisons. Along with the burden of committing a serious crime, it was also evident he had struggles with mental health. The gospel message was not new to him but it was at this time his sinfulness and the love of God for him came into sharp focus.  He opened his heart and life and received the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour.  This new and regenerating relationship has brought him out of hopelessness, despair, shame, guilt and self-loathing. It has given him inner peace and freedom and the anticipation of a hope-filled future.
 
As well, Ray knows the Lord has helped him in a practical way by giving him wisdom and strength to make careful diet choices and employ an exercise routine that has allowed him to reduce his level of medication and enable him to move forward and be an over comer.

Ray’s mental health issues are no longer dominant and destructive in his life and to the people around him.  He is remorseful of his actions that have caused such loss and deep, ongoing pain in the lives of his victims’ family and friends.

Pray for Ray as he continues his daily walk with the Lord Jesus.  He is expecting to transfer to minimum security in the near future where he can begin his reintegration into society.

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Pray for Ray*, Jeff*, Tom*, Normand*.  These are only a few of the men who struggle with varying degrees of mental health issues.  Corrections has both a medium and maximum security unit that is specific to the treatment of inmates with moderate and severe mental health issues. Often, unfortunately, the way of managing this is to heavily medicate them which causes lethargy, dullness and lack of motivation for life. *names have been changed

Pray for us as we seek to encourage, counsel, and support men with mental health issues.  We need God’s wisdom to know how to engage within these complex scenarios.

As well pray for each encounter we have with the men in Bible studies, chapel services and one on one visits that each presentation of the gospel would be clear and the Lord would enable us to faithfully disciple and encourage the many Christian inmates.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

— Romans 15:!3

Thank you for your prayers for us!  We would love to hear from you as well.

Blessings,

Robert and Susan

An Update on the Journey

Thank you so much for the emails, cards, support, well wishes, encouragement and prayers in the last month. We have felt the impact of your prayers tremendously. As Trevor has been in the hospital getting mental health help, it has been such a blessing to know that we have such a great team behind us.

Your support reminds me of the story in Exodus 17 where Joshua is fighting Amalek and Moses is on the hill top. Whenever Moses had his hands raised, Joshua would be winning, and whenever Moses' hands were lowered, Joshua would be losing. So Aaron and Hur, gave Moses a stone to sit on, then came alongside him and held up his hands until Joshua won the battle. Thank you for 'holding up our hands' during this time of battle. 

In the last month, Trevor has had ups and downs. He was doing well in the first week of March so the hospital allowed him to come home. But the discharge was unsuccessful and he quickly had to go back into the hospital for more help. It was difficult to see him regress back like that.  We were told at the beginning that this journey would be a marathon and not a sprint (right now it feels like an Ironman triathlon). We were also told that there would be ups and downs, but I don't think anything could have prepared us for what we've experienced. He is still in the hospital, but has passes to come home for 6 hours a day to transition him back to the stressors of daily life. We are working together with the medical staff to make this next discharge better. 

I (Hannah) also have my ups and downs. I've learned that I need to trust God for our future. It's so easy for me to live my life thinking that I have control of the future, but this has taught me to lean and trust God for my future. I have been reminding myself that God is not only powerful and sovereign, but also good and loving. Knowing those truths have helped me be grounded in trusting God through all the ups and downs. 

Please pray with us that: 

• We would continue to trust that God is sovereign, powerful and good through all the ups and downs

• We would have wisdom to know how to make this discharge from the hospital a better transition home

• Amelia would continue to do well through all the changes

Below are some pictures of Amelia. Even though it has been difficult to juggle taking care of Trevor and Amelia, she has been a bright light in our lives through these months. 

Thank you again so much for your prayers. 
“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and
his ears are attentive to their cry.”
(Psalm 34:15)