8 minute read
Focus On
In each their own way, our Canadian Church Planters are modeling a passionate heart of service in the eleven new church plants across our country.
For some of them, they have moved to Canada from another country with the primary purpose of being missionary church planters in our own backyards. For others, it has meant moving their families every 10-plus years as they hand over the work to others and venture out into another new community where they don’t know a soul.
It means studying and learning a new culture and language. Difficult choices are made along the way with regards to schooling for their children. It can mean finding a second job in their bi-vocational role, secondguessing their ministry efforts, always trying to keep their home neat and tidy as they host neighbours, and the list goes on. At the core of all of this exists a calling, a passion, a purpose, and a love for Jesus and the people that they serve.
Please continue to pray for our Canadian church planters. Consider joining them as in most cases they work alone and would love to have additional team members, whether in bivocational roles or even as tentmakers. And pray also for the people in the communities they are living and serving. These are people whom Jesus came to save!
“And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Rom. 10:14-15).
When thinking of bi-vocational church planters, I remember one who had a tremendous influence on my life, Arnaldo Gonzalez. In 1993 I had been sent to Chihuahua, Mexico, by EMC Missions to join other EMC missionaries doing church planting and youth ministry. Shortly upon my arrival I was introduced to another single young man my age, Church Planters: Passionate, Servant-Hearted Labourers
Arnaldo (Aldo) Gonzalez. Within weeks we became friends and over the course of my three years living there, Aldo and I spent countless hours together.
One of my favourite memories of Aldo was when we left the city one weekend and went to his home village of El Picacho to help run a quinceañra (a coming of age birthday party, which is a big deal in Mexican culture) for his 15-year-old niece.
All adorned in beautiful gowns, his niece and her dozen attendants walked down the dirt streets from her house to the small EMC-affiliated church. A program followed, prayers of blessing were said over the young woman, and then the meal began.
During the next several hours that I had the privilege of working beside Aldo, this faithful church planter displayed his servant-hearted character. By the time the evening was over and the property was mopped and cleaned, inside and out, we were exhausted, but so completely filled with satisfaction and joy for helping make the celebration so enjoyable.
Much too soon for a servant of God, Aldo passed away in December 2012 at only 43; and, adding to grief, his wife Rebecca passed away a short time later.
Together they had modeled what sacrificial church planting looks like. They had given themselves completely to the ministry, using up almost every moment of their personal time on evenings and weekends to bless the small Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life) Church.
While both working full-time jobs, they had made it a priority to make Kingdom building their focus. Bible study or message preparation, visitation, youth ministry, Sunday School lesson planning, preaching, teaching, serving and so much more flowed out of their passionate hearts. When I think of bi-vocational church planters, some of my thoughts go to them. And I am thankful. ISTOCK
Gerald D. Reimer Director of Church Planting
A Scooter, eh?
GERMANY I woke up on Jan. 4 and resolved to learn how to drive a scooter to work. I’m not sure if that counts as a New Year’s resolution. This report is probably already too late to be talking about New Year’s resolutions anyways. But I digress. The daughter of the family I live with loaned me her scooter and I spent the afternoon annoying the neighbours by buzzing around the block until I was comfortable enough to take it on the main roads. That night I drove it to Kandern and back, and have now officially become a guy that drives a scooter on occasion.
To commemorate this moment, I would like to share with you updates on my time here in Germany in the form of wisdom that I may or may not have gleaned from my locomotive experience.
A lot of life is spent traveling. Especially when your scooter maxes out at 40 km/hr. This ties into the update side of things in that I was in Sweden this year for Christmas. There’s a family in GEM that invites the single missionaries all over Europe to their house in Stockholm. It was a good time.
When life throws you curves, lean into them. For a number of months we were pushing ourselves. This was difficult, not only because this film is bigger than anything we’ve done before, but also because a worker had to be back in the U.S. raising more support for himself and his family. Because of that trip, other trips, and language school, a recent week was the first full week he and I have worked together since I was an intern back in 2018. All this to say, we’ve decided that instead of rushing something for this February, we’ll aim to film starting next September. (Summer wasn’t a good time for a number of reasons.) While this is a bit of a curve in our original plan, we’re still working hard and pushing to have most of the planning and preparation done by February. Much like you have to lean into a curve a little bit as you putter around on a scooter.
Don’t sneeze with the visor down. Not really an update attached to this one, but it’s just good life advice, applicable in a lot of helmet-wearing scenarios.
Sometimes new things are slow. The scooter, while not new, is newly loaned to me. And as I mentioned earlier, it’s not really autobahn material.
Similarly, we are trying to do something new here in Germany, and it sometimes feels like it’s taking a long time. There comes a point when that can be discouraging. But then I’ll get an email from someone excited about film and excited about God, and I remember that we’re blazing a trail here.
I don’t see us as simply trying to make a movie; I see us as explorers, looking for a new Northwest passage, finding a new way to give glory to God through the art of film. Not only though films, but our lives as well. May the generations that come after us be inspired by the paths we have followed, even if we could only follow them at 40 km/hr. Thanks for being a part of this. Pray for good contacts, creativity and sensitivity as we transform the script into a plan for filming; for good work habits together; and good discussions about future films. Alex Reimer (Prairie Grove) is an EMC Associate Missionary and a filmmaker who serves with Greater Europe Mission in Kandern, Germany. ‘SEDITIONS, CONFUSION TUMULT’ Why Reformation Europe Thought Anabaptism Would Destroy Society LAYTON BOYD FRIESEN Foreword by John D. Roth AND ‘SEDITIONS, CONFUSION AND TUMULT’ FRIESEN $10 plus shipping ISTOCK
Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and the Ends of the World
Are you interested in foreign missions? EMC Missions is currently recruiting for the following fields:
Minga Guazú, Paraguay Many of the national Parguayans in the neighbourhoods of Minga Guazú, a city near the border with Brazil, are unreached by the Gospel and do not have an active church. Many of these communities have a few believers who are often open to and desire a Bible study in their homes, which has proven to be an effective way to reach the community.
Church Planting Partners: We are looking for a missionary individual, couple or family to work as part of the Minga Guazú church planting team. This would not be to take a lot of responsibilities in the existing church plant, but to focus mostly on a new community church plant alongside the EMC church planting team and local believers.
Children and Youth Worker: We are looking for an individual, couple or family to focus on ministry to children and youth alongside the Minga Guazú church planting team. Children and young people are generally quicker to respond to the gospel and ministry to these groups have developed trust in the community that we serve in.
Guadalajara, Mexico Guadalajara, Mexico, is a wealthy city full of cathedrals and few churches in the western state of Jalisco. The ministry in Guadalajara is strategically located in an affluent area of
this progressive Mexican city of seven million people. Connections are easy to make, but spiritual conversations are more difficult.
Church Planting Partners: Our missionary team in Guadalajara invites more workers to expand their efforts into surrounding neighbourhoods. Ministry involvements among the professional demographic include sports and recreation, marriage and finance workshops, grade-school employment, evangelism and discipleship, prayer ministry and much more.
School Teacher: Lincoln School is a Christian school attended by the church planting team’s children and is a key avenue of outreach into the community. This school is open to having EMC missionaries as teachers. A teaching degree is required.
Expansion Initiatives
The Board of Missions has been having conversations and making decisions as we move forward exploring how we can be involved in both Muslim and First Nations ministries. If one these is an area you are interested in exploring with us, please contact Ken Zacharias.
For more information on any of these opportunities, please contact Ken Zacharias at kzacharias@emconference.ca or call the EMC national office at 204-326-6401.
