Gord Martin

Good morning to you all!

Our teachers are in place. Jean-Paul Tingityabo will be teaching with us. (Originally from Congo, now in Uganda) We have worked with him before. All our classes will be taught in English this time. No interpretation required for this group.

The curriculum is finished, the manuals have been printed.

Students have been recruited for training sessions in Nairobi

We have our tickets…looks like a grueling series of flights and waaaiiiting!

We don’t have our final e-visas yet. That’s important. I submitted my application successfully this morning, should take two days.

We have received over 20K so far. Enough to cover the costs of this training session but not enough for the annual VMK budget of $61,965

If you’d like to contribute, the options for doing so can be found at https://vision-ministries.org/donate/ At the Canada Helps button https://vision-ministries.org/donate/canadahelps/ You will see the following

1. VMC General Fund

2. Vision Ministries Kenya

2022 AFRICA Trip

There are three things I would like prayer for:

  1. My voice. I will be doing a lot of speaking. My voice hasn’t been the same since I strained it some years ago after doing a lot of speaking in Burundi

  2. Sleep. I am not a great sleeper. If I don’ sleep well, my voice is the first thing to be negatively affected.

  3. There are some last minute logistics to be worked out in Nairobi in terms of training location and facilities. Ishmael’s headache!

  4. Oh, one more thing! Those e-visas

 

Chris and I will be speaking with Ishmael this afternoon by zoom. We are getting excited!

 

Gord Martin with Chris Atkinson

My Phone number is 519-501-5933

Phil & Andrea Bauman

Thank you for your interest and prayers over the last couple weeks
Praise God:

  • for very productive, encouraging and unifying meetings for SIM's Executive Team (Phil is part of this team).

  • for the guidance and oversight of SIM's International Board of Governors who met last week.

  • that the Board approved and supported the Ministry Focus and Integrated Systems Implementation Plan that Phil was part of preparing.

  • that Andrea could come to Charlotte and join Phil last week so that she could also connect with colleagues.

  • that Cara has started her semester well, that Liam has started his new job and Kieran has also started the first course of his Masters of Divinity.

Please pray

  • For the opportunity to refresh after an intense few weeks. We did have a calm retreat day as you can see above.

  • For wisdom for Phil and his colleague Dave as they lead the Ministry Focus and Integrated Systems Implementation Plan approved by the board.

  • For a productive few weeks at home before a very busy travel season.

  • For Andrea as she takes over a large part of Helen's role while she is on sabbatical. Helen is SIM's International Personnel Director.

Gord Martin

Dear Friends of Gord Martin, Chris Atkinson and Doug Loveday,

Over the last eleven years, I  and others have committed to helping our brothers and sisters in Kenya become effective in church leadership and planting churches. This has led to the formation of Vision Ministries Kenya, which last year reached the milestone of 10 yrs of impact. For those of you who have helped make this possible, we are extremely grateful and excited to see what God has done in the past and look forward to how our involvement will take shape in the coming years.

We are headed for Kenya on October 5th! I know you've been hearing about me retiring, this is one last big trip to Kenya, it's an ambitious one!

We are planning to have a week of intensive training for 25 to 30 Kenyan church leaders in Nairobi from October 10th to 15th. We have planned 33 classes for that one week. See attachment

Chris Atkinson, Pastor at Pinewoods Chapel in Angus (wife Rowan) is in the process of taking over my role with Vision Ministries Kenya. He and I will be teaching the classes along with one, or hopefully two Kenyan teachers. Chris, Ishmael and I have been doing regular zoom calls since Easter. Doug Loveday is not going this time but will be eagerly listening for all the news!

The weekend prior to the intense week in Nairobi, we will be visiting and preaching in Nairobi churches and are planning to travel to the western side of Kenya to visit and preach in churches there on the second weekend. 

The idea of this intensive training  came about last October with the Vision Ministries Kenya board. We believed that we could improve our training if we could bring people together in one place for the entire week. That way there is no need for people to travel in the morning and find places to stay at night. The plan is that each of the participants will be staying at the same hotel in Nairobi for the whole week. In addition to that, each attendee will gather four to five other disciples from each region and will teach the content that they have learned in Nairobi after they return to  their respective regions. In the end we are training disciples that will make disciples in their own regions.

In preparation for this, we have written a 100-page participants manual that we will work through during the week in Nairobi. See the lesson plan below.  

1.      Would you earnestly pray for us as we make last minute preparations for our time in Kenya?

2.      Would you consider contributing financially to the annual budget for Vision Ministries, Kenya? We hope to raise the annual VMC commitment of  $55,000 for VMK within the next two months for:

1.      Support for Ishmael who provides leadership for VMK, along with support staff.   $20,124

2.      Travel and administrative support                                                                                         2,350

3.      Office related costs including rent                                                                                         9.075

4.      Support for regional leaders                                                                                                   9,900

5.      Training (includes all costs for this trip)                                                                              20,016

        Total                                                                                                                                        $61,965

If we were able to raise this full amount now, it would be a great step forward. I know that many of you have supported this ministry in the past. Thank you so much!! We are encouraged with the progress that has been made in Kenya over these past 10 years.

Thanks be to God!

Gord Martin (519-501-5933 and Chris Atkinson (705-424-0382)

Phil & Andrea Bauman (SIM Missionaries)

Pausing for breath

Can you believe it's September already? We hope you've had a good summer. We have enjoyed our summer here in Canada, which has been a welcome quieter period for us. We especially enjoyed having a couple of weeks off at the beginning of August, including a week away at a cottage provided by friends. The first few months of 2022 were very busy and included a lot of travel so it has been nice to have a couple of months 'on the ground' with no travel.

Looking ahead

Being 'on the ground' ends quickly as we have a busy travel schedule ahead:

September - Phil has International Board meetings as well as Executive Team meetings in the USA. Andrea joins him for a week to meet with various people in the US and International offices, and to have handover from Helen, who Andrea works with, who is going on sabbatical.
October - We travel to 3 Middle East countries for Andrea to connect with her teams. We also expect to connect with our France team and the new leadership there.
November - Phil has an International Leadership Team retreat, then Andrea joins him for another Middle East country visit as well as a planning retreat in Kenya.

And those are just the travels! In between trips we'll be continuing to connect with people virtually. While we're away we still need to keep up with emails so prayers for stamina and good prioritisation of work will be much appreciated.

One major responsibility for Phil in the coming months is leading a team to implement integrated systems & data (finance, HR, ministry, etc.) within SIM. This is a huge initiative but one that SIM needs to equip us as an organisation to work together more effectively. 

Paula, Phil's assistant for the last couple years, who also works closely with Andrea, has announced she is moving on to a great new role in October, though sadly not with SIM. Paula's absence will be keenly felt so this adds to the prayer need for wisdom and prioritisation!

Faithful Witness

SIM's purpose is about making Christ known in communities where he is least known. Many of these communities feel like forgotten communities. Faithful Witness is an initiative of SIM to seek to prioritise getting people to engage in 'forgotten communities'. We are glad to get to be involved with some of these Faithful Witness teams that are serving in these communities. This initiative is at the heart of our purpose.
If you would like to know more about Faithful Witness you can Sign up to pray for the Faithful Witness Initiative

Family update

We remain thankful for the privilege of living close to our young adult children, in fact we currently have Liam and Cara living with us. We're grateful for recent answered prayers for Liam to find a job in his field. Here are some prayer requests for the coming months:  

  • Cara has moved in with us for her Sept-Dec academic semester. She will be looking for work for her upcoming 8 month co-op work placement.

  • Liam is starting a new job in September as a Sustainability Coordinator in London (Ontario) so he will be moving in the coming weeks.

  • Kieran and Mackenzie are still close by, enjoying their jobs and involved in their church. Kieran is also starting his first course of an online Masters of Divinity through Tyndale Seminary.

Prayer Corner

Praise God

  • for time at home this summer without travels

  • for some time off away from emails, screens and Zoom meetings

  • that we could go away to a cottage and enjoy the beauty of creation around us

  • for Liam's new job

  • for Paula and her faithful service to SIM

Pray 

  • for the Faithful Witness teams engaging 'forgotten communities'

  • for stamina, health and safety for us in travel

  • that Andrea will serve other personnel coordinators well so that SIM's workers are well cared for

  • for Andrea as she takes on some extra responsibilities during Helen's sabbatical

  • that Phil will have wisdom to engage well with entities as they plan ministries

  • for wisdom for Phil in leading the integrated systems and data integration team

  • for wisdom for Kieran as he begins his MDiv 

  • for Liam as he begins his new job and moves to London, ON

Thank you for journeying with us,
Andrea and Phil  

Trevor & Hannah - September 2022

MARTIN, TREVOR & HANNAH (Waterloo, ON; Power to Change) PRAISE: That our IT department fixed an issue that I (Trevor) had where my camera kept turning off during video calls! For safe travels on our trip to BC visiting with supporters and attending our national Staff Conference and that baby Avery was content with Hannah's parents while we were away. PRAY: For students starting or returning to campus this fall. For Christian communities to be welcoming to students who are interested in joining and getting involved. For our ministry to grow in helping more and more students to live on mission as ambassadors for Christ.