BAUMAN, PHIL & ANDREA (Canada, International roles with SIM) PRAISE: For a great week of rest and refreshment on vacation. For commitment of SIM’s people during a week of prayer and fasting as SIM prepares for this leadership transition. Fruitful conversations for Phil with leadership team members discussing their roles and insights they can offer. PRAY: That colleagues we are mentoring would be granted a visa for an upcoming trip. For good time in the US doing the detailed work of the handover from February 12-24. That God would be honoured in the February 24 commissioning service for Phil as International Director. For Andrea as she works with a team to plan and prepare for a global Flourishing People consultation to be held in Kenya in March. For wisdom for us both as we seek to be sensitive to God’s leading at this time of change and transition.
Raul & Jessenia Espinoza - Ecuador
Dear Family at WBC,
Greetings from the Espinozas and a Happy New Year to you! 2024 has begun and with it comes anticipation for what God has in store. However, we cannot forget all that He did in 2023- how He cared for us as a family and how He has been making His kingdom grow.
We are so grateful for you and your faithful partnership in our lives down here. We are able to live each month concentrating on the work set in front of us because of your monthly generosity. Thank you! We love what we do here and are so grateful we have the possibility to keep doing it, thanks to you.
We would like to reflect a little on this past year and how God has been working and in doing so, we hope you will feel encouraged by what has been happening in Guayaquil.
Spring of 2023 was filled with Canada connections. We were excited to host the Wallenstein team and accompany them for a week of camp at the beach. It was a pleasure to see “our” people from Canada create connections with our Ecuadorian friends. We traveled back to Canada with the team for Jessenia’s brother’s wedding. After refreshing quality time with our Canada family, we felt the pull to hurry back to Ecuador because big things were happening at the school.
2023 was the year to see all the theoretical work Raul and the school board did last year be put into practice at Hope of Bastion School. In May, we welcomed a new principal to the school. We clearly saw God’s hand in placing her in that position. She has shown an untiring, firm, and determined leadership as she directs the school into the future. Raul has been working alongside her, along with a team of people, to provide support and make decisions as difficulties arise.
A source of great joy and encouragement this year has been the youth group. Instead of catering our events to inviting new youth, we have focused them on the youth we have, seeking to foster a community of friendship and deepening relationship with Jesus. A core group has formed who show up regularly on Sunday mornings and help out with Sunday school. Praise God for youth who are making their walk with Jesus a habit in their lives!
Our “ministry” at home has also been fulfilling. The boys are growing happy and healthy and make us smile on a daily basis. Tiago is an intelligent, curious boy who stumps us with his well thought-out questions. Danilo challenges us with his strong will, but in general is one of funniest little boys we know. We are so thankful God has seen fit to bless us with these energetic boys.
The biggest challenge this year was the spike of violence in the country due to gang activity. We no longer walk around Bastion freely, and limit our time there mostly to the church and school which are near a main road. Now in the new year, the government has launched a “war” against the gangs which has caused even more violence around the country. Our hearts are full of sadness for the lives that have been lost and affected, but we hope that the government’s intervention will bring peace to the country.
Prayer requests:
Safety for our family and community.
Wisdom as we raise our sons.
Wisdom for how to carry out our ministry in the midst of the unrest around the country.
That the youth would grow in their walk with Christ and be encouraged.
For continued spiritual growth and interest at Hope of Bastion School.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support of the ministry here in Ecuador.
The Espinozas (Raul, Jessenia, Tiago and Danilo)
Charlotte Martin - Power to Change
Adventure Awaits
This past Monday we hosted 12 students for our Adventure Awaits Mission Trip Info Session. Students were asking great questions like:
"How can you make sure you're making long term, lasting impacts when there for such a short term?"
"How does the Vietnam trip compare to Desert Rain? What is the culture like for women in Vietnam in terms of what ministry activities are normally done to connect with friends?"
"How do you collaborate with other denominations and Christian fellowships on P2C mission trips?"
With under 2 weeks to go until the deadline for mission trip applications (Jan 31st) we hope to see a bump in applications for our May-June trips (Desert Rain, Nations Next Door Ottawa, PRAXIS Edmonton, Vietnam).
Our Honduras mission trip that is happening over reading week, February 17-25, is full (we had to cap the trip at 27 participants). The flights got booked last week, students are busy raising funds, and the team had their first online orientation on Monday.
Here's how you can be praying for P2C mission trips:
Praise God for a higher than anticipated response to our Honduras mission trip.
For 20 more students to submit applications for our May-June trips.
For safety and lasting impact in Honduras trip. This trip partners with an organization that runs a bilingual English-Spanish Christian school, provides medical care to remote communities, and does community outreach to children and youth.
December Celebrations:
In December I celebrated a milestone birthday (don't tell anyone but I turned 40). I had little celebrations with various groups of people - family, P2C friends, high school friends, even while painting with my aunts. I got lots of notes and cards from many different people and feel thoroughly celebrated. I often approach birthdays reluctantly but this year I tried to be intentional about celebrating. I am grateful for all that I have been able to do and experience in my 40 years of life. I feel blessed by the supportive and encouraging community that surrounds me, and I'm grateful that I've been able to spend my days helping students find and follow Jesus.
Russ & Meredith Martin - Singapore
Ministry + Visual Arts + Team = Meredith accelerating the mission
With the kids are off to school, I quickly climb 25 flights of stairs, cool down, clean up and sit at my computer.
Supporting the Lausanne Movement as interim Creative Director, I provide direction for any visual outputs.
Popping open a series of tabs to connect with my team and task, I open the designs I’ve been working on and check for graphic design pieces that arrived overnight which await my review and approval. This morning it’s one design and three new requests.
In the body of Christ, the creatives among us are human expression specialists. Through music, movement, word choice and visual elements, the artist activates the audience’s awareness and intellect in multifaceted ways, communicating the transcendent truths through imagination and emotion. These realities become concrete in the intensely visual nature of the online world.
Here’s a look into some of the projects that have crossed my desk.
Lausanne Movement Rebrand
Taking designs from an agency my task was to get the new visual brand implemented across all touchpoints of our movement's experience online and in person.
This included resourcing 10+ on the ground regional events from Sydney to Addis that happened in 2023. I loved the challenge of communicating the ethos of the movement through colour and texture. This article shows my work in the background enabling a nice participant visual experience.
Fourth Lausanne Congress Branding
I am leading a team to create and implement the brand for the Fourth Lausanne Congress.
A current challenge is helping junior designers be aware of the complexities surrounding a global audience. Details such as no singular-language words in our designs, depicting ethnic diversity and being aware of cultural context beyond our own are important to an effective visual design that will engage 5,000 participants onsite at Seoul and thousands more around the globe.
Lausanne Global Analysis
See: Lasting holistic change for vulnerable communities
The creative direction I’ve provided for this missions periodical has a photojournalistic nature. I was thrilled to find a talented Norwegian photographer on Flickr who travels the world and offers her photos for use for non-profits under the creative commons license.
WBC Friends, thanks for being a part of bringing the gospel to new people, places and space through the unleashing of my creative gifts.
Meredith
Photos below: Saturday's Activities
1. Sports for the kids - gymnastics trial for Gwenyth
2. Ticket to Ride during the afternoon rain
3. Bubbles and skateboarding after dinner
Gord & Heather Martin - Vision Ministries
A big thank you to all of you for the financial gift recently contributed to VMC for our support.
As you may have noticed in spite of my official retirement I'm still doing a lot of work for vision Ministries Canada. In fact they have even put me back on payroll for Administrative purposes.
I've been heavily involved for the last 6 months with a church in Stratford. In fact it's what used to be known as Cornerstone. It was taken over by North Park Church in London which now has decided that they want this church to become an independent church plant. So I'm working with them to become independent.
Yesterday I spoke at the Persian Church in Toronto as well as to an Eritrean Church which meets at the old Danforth Gospel Hall. Both churches had quite good numbers and it was encouraging to be with them.
I often pray with people at the Persian Church. Yesterday a woman came to me all smiles, she said you prayed for me when you were here last time and I am very happy!
The Eritrean church was started from scratch by a man who is a real evangelist. It's been slow going but yesterday they would have had a group of 40 or 45 adults and children. These people have come from such a hard place! They were so interested when I went to visit Eritrean refugees last March. When the pastor wrote asking me to come he said, our people love you!
Thank you for your encouragement and support, we also love you!
Gord (and Heather) Martin