Phil & Andrea - April 2022

BAUMAN, PHIL & ANDREA (Canada, International roles with SIM) PRAISE: For the upcoming opportunity to visit one of the teams Andrea works with. Phil will be facilitating several days of planning with them. That while enroute we can stop for the weekend to see Andrea's brother and family in the UK. That our International Leadership Team is able to meet together face-to-face at the end of April. For the wise counsel of friends and colleagues to help us process decisions that come our way. That we have had a productive few weeks before travel. PRAY: For wisdom for Phil as he facilitates the planning, that God would guide the process and that we would all be sensitive to the Holy spirit's leading. That our time together in person with our colleagues in leadership will be fruitful. That we will remain healthy and COVID free before and during our travels. (It would not be good for the facilitator to not be able to attend!) For uneventful travel. That we can be a testimony to the goodness of Jesus with all that we meet, including family. That Cara will find out the location of the specific clinic she will be working at so she can look for housing. That Liam will have success finding a full-time job. He finishes his degree this month!

Gord & Heather Martin - Vision Ministries

Good morning friends at Wallenstein,

Thank you again for the expression of support you have provided for me in my ministry at VMC this past month! It's appreciated a great deal.

Yesterday I spoke to the Persian church in Toronto. They have been affected by the pandemic like everyone else. Though they have been meeting in person since late December they have not as yet regained the momentum they had pre pandemic. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed my time with them, they love to hear the word of God and it's special for them to have somebody who is a native Canadian speak to them.

Last evening I met with an interim leadership group of a church that has been in turmoil and trouble. We had an excellent time together and I am hoping that they will be able to find their way out of the deep quagmire that they were in. I've been working with them off and on for at least a year and a half now. This coming week I will be at their annual business meeting to provide a report on some of the challenging pieces that we have been addressing.

On Friday evening I plan to be in Toronto for an evening with an Eritrean church. The man who planted this church now wants to go full time. This is quite a challenge for him and his wife. She is continuing to work and he says that if the church can provide half of his previous salary he thinks they will be OK. So on Friday evening we will be conducting a commissioning service for him. A number of other pastors from the Toronto area will be present to affirm and to participate in this evening.

God willing I will be speaking to a Chinese church next Sunday afternoon and then meeting with another Eritrean pastor who is facing a housing crunch. The cost of housing in Toronto is incredibly high.

We are continuing to have conversations on a regular basis with Ishmael of vision ministries Kenya. He is a going concern! He is making a trip to a tribal group in the north of Kenya that are quite remote and living in primitive circumstances. After he visited there for the first time he told me I had no idea there were people in my country still living like that!

I trust you are well and continuing to find joy in serving Jesus,

Gord Martin

Vision Ministries Canada

145 Lincoln Road, Waterloo, ON

519-501-5933 cell

www.vision-ministries.org

Russ & Meredith Martin

Responding With Prayer to the Crisis in Ukraine

The Ukrainian Needed Prayer. The Russian Volunteered.

Christianity Today recently wrote this article describing a tearful scene from an emergency prayer meeting convened by the Lausanne Movement, with which we serve.

Angela, a Ukrainian, described, "As I heard Alexey’s heartfelt prayer for me, my family, and my country Ukraine, I could not contain my tears. His pain was real. His words reminded me that I was part of a family not based on nationality, skin color, or status. Only Jesus. Out of all the people that God could have used to comfort me that day, He used a Russian brother to give me a glimpse of His heart."

Russ' team works behind the scenes, making sure that all the details are coordinated so that the right people can join meetings like this and the technology "just works" to connect people across geographic boundaries for global mission - and in this case, an essential moment of prayer.

WBC Friends, your faithful support enables moments of global collaboration like this. Thank you for your friendship and your partnership in leading the next generation of global missions.

Photos below:
A. Heath's 6 year old birthday gift from his grandparents - a Bible to match his siblings. He recently made a personal decision to follow Jesus!
B. Gwen loves thick, black soy sauce.
C. For Chinese New Year, Meredith made traditional, allergy-friendly treats - pineapple tarts.

Trevor & Hannah Martin

Sadie’s Story

Steph is one of our staff who I (Trevor) supervise and she ministers at the University of Calgary. This school year she’s been meeting regularly with a 4th year student leader named Neka for discipleship and they’ve also been trying to reach out to share Christ with Neka’s friends. Over the past few months, they've been getting to know and having great conversations with one of Neka’s friend’s named Sadie. A couple weeks ago, they met up with Sadie again. When they met, Sadie exclaimed this statement, "So I wanted to tell you guys, this past Sunday I declared my faith in Christ!"

Steph replied, "Oh that's so exciting! Tell us more, what did that look like?"After a few clarifying questions, it was a joyful time to celebrate Sadie giving her life to Christ! Sadie has been reading the Bible regularly, a chapter a day, and recently just finished Genesis. Sadie asked Steph, "I wanted to ask you guys, what now? What should I do next?" Sadie has a desire to grow in her new found faith, which is so encouraging. She talked about how God wants to continue to work in her and transform her. The girls talked about what it means to surrender to Christ daily. And they are going to keep meeting up and talking about some practical ways to grow in spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, prayer and church community….So we can be praying for Sadie, our new sister in Christ!

Family Update

As we told you in our last update, baby Avery was born at home on December 16, so she is approaching 3 months old! We’ve been blessed by meals, gifts and other acts of kindness. And we’ve been adjusting to life as a family of 4 along with it’s joys and frustration. Amelia has adjusted to the big sister overall well, but with times of emotion that she hasn’t been able to verbalize. Avery has been sleeping fairly well at night, but sometimes is a cat naper during the day so far. And she’s been crankier the past few days, but we haven’t figured out quite why. Trevor returned to work last week after a couple of months of parental leave and Hannah is on Maternity leave until probably around November. We are grateful for your support, love, care and prayers for our family.

A Scholarship Opportunity

The last couple of years our ministry has been ramping up a scholarship program to help encourage new post-secondary students to get connected into Christian community and continue growing in their faith as they transition to college/university.

This year there are 43 scholarships available, totalling up to $30,000. The largest scholarship available is $3000, which is open to any applicant going to a publicly funded post-secondary institution in Canada. There will be twelve $1000 scholarships and thirty $500 scholarships.

Please encourage any graduating high school students you know to consider applying. More details and the link to apply is at the button below.

Thank you for your support in helping students to discover Jesus!