Agencies Share Mission Stories

Christian Reformed Home Missions (CRHM) and Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) have sent out to CRC congregations the first wave of resources, including a DVD with four videos and an eight-week devotional with meditations and prayer requests, as part of a joint Easter-season project.

The project is aimed to run from Easter, April 4, through Pentecost, May 23. Another group of resources will be sent out in mid April.

The two agencies have come together in partnership to provide these resources as a way to highlight, among other things, that they perform similar missions. CRHM has staff and partners involved in many ministries across North America, and CRWM has staff and partners doing ministry in more than 30 countries around world.

"Home Missions and World Missions share in the great mission of God. We are following God's call to communicate and live out the Gospel in communities in North America and around the world. Working together to communicate with churches about this shared mission during Easter / Pentecost is a great opportunity to illustrate how this mission is both global and local," says Ben VandeZande, interim director of CRHM.

The special campaign focuses on a shared theme: Reaching Your Community and the World with the Power of the Gospel. The theme is based on Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes ..."

The campaign also includes bulletin announcements to be used in church bulletins and newsletters, two posters, special bulletin covers and inserts, a children’s bulletin cover master, a feature article in the April Banner, requests for prayer and videos that share ministry stories.

"Our goal with this joint Home and World Missions project is to show how our partnership with churches and individuals through ministry shares and their prayer, care and financial support are making a difference in North America and around the world," says Lois Craven, Director of Advancement Operations for CRWM.

In the Power of the Gospel Campaign, CRHM includes information on ministries and prayer requests for:

• Fifty-three young people who recently came forward during an altar call at a youth event in Zuni CRC in Zuni, New Mexico. Prayer is asked for their spiritual development and for their families as well.
• City Grace Church in New York City, New York, is building a partnership with New York University students through a prayer and donuts station in the university student center. Prayer is asked to support this effort in hopes that it will lead to many opportunities for spiritual connection.
• Prisoners at Celebration Fellowship Prison Ministry in Ionia, Michigan, ask people pray that God give guidance, wisdom, and faith in trying circumstances, and for the prison church members to grow spiritually.
• Prayer is also asked for continual blessing on Discovery Church in Bowmanville, Ontario, to which more visitors and new regular attendees have been coming.
• Prayer is asked for Home Missions as it supports small group programs like Coffee Break in more than 900 North American congregations. The focus of these outreach ministries is to introduce Christ to those who might not yet know him.
• The ministry of The Tapestry in Richmond, British Columbia, has been richly blessed. Pray that God continues to work through this multicultural church to renew the community and transform lives.
• A member of On The House Church in Muskegon, Michigan, placed a written prayer request in the prayer box for her son and his faith. After an entire year of prayers, he came to a worship service. Pray that this is the start of a closer walk with God.

In material included in the Easter/Pentecost resources, CRWM also offers stories and prayer requests for:

• Rev. Gil Suh, a CRWM missionary Southeast Asia, who met weekly with Lim, a tough teenager and new believer, to disciple him. “His faith was genuine and sincere, but fragile. Then we lost contact. I anxiously wondered, 'Did I do my job?'" But then Suh reminded himself that God himself cares for his children, like Lim.
• Prayers are asked for Sierra Leone, where more and more people are becoming Christians every day through the efforts of Pastor Phiri and other leaders, along with the Holy Spirit.
• Steve and Sandra Brauning work with La Iglesia Cristiana Reformada de la Republica Dominicana (CRC of the Dominican Republic) to support the ministry of evangelistic and discipleship cell groups. People are asked to pray that small group members may be encouraged, challenged, and built up in their faith.
• Then there is the Nicaragua Christian Academy and its sister campus, NCA Nejapa, which offer students a Christian perspective on life and learning. Prayers are asked that these students may grow in their knowledge and understanding of God and His creation.
• The Pentecostal Union of the Northwest Region of Russia has begun over 50 churches in the last 18 years. Prayer is asked that partnership efforts with the Union will provide needed resources for furthering the spread of the Gospel in Russia.
• CRWM missionaries in Bangladesh proclaim the Gospel, and provide leadership training and laity training and education; building the capacity of churches and organizations to do ministry. Prayers are especially asked for the students at the College of Christian Theology Bangladesh as they disciple members of the church in which they serve.
• Prayers are asked for God to continue to work a new housing community in which Dalia, a recent convert, lives. Dalia became a Christian and started a house church in the housing development in Santa Cruz de Valle, Mexico.
• Larry and Ruth Spalink work in the metropolitan area of Tokyo, Japan. Since the first CRC missionaries began working in Japan nearly six decades ago, almost 50 churches have been established; most of them in the greater Tokyo area.  The focus of the mission is now shifting from pioneer outreach to a service of encouragement. As the focus of ministry switches, prayer is needed to support more pioneer outreach as the Japanese church grows and matures.

For more information and to download the devotional and view the videos, please visit: www.crcna.org/powerofthegospel. You can subscribe to receive a daily e-mail at the same site. If you would like more Home Missions bulletin inserts than those included in the packet, please call Faith Alive at 800-333-8300. To order more copies or change CRWM’s record of your needs, please call Marcea Holtop at 800-346-0075 (USA) or Liz Busuttil at 800-730-3490 (Canada.)