Below is some information about past missions that St. Stephen’s members have been involved with.
There have been many more adventures than noted here but unfortuantly we got behind in updzating the website.
March 2008
Heather Doucet went to Uganda with Aids Orphans and Street Children
Summer 2007
Elizabeth Johnstone and Claire Latimer went to Malawi
Winter 2007 Heather Doucet and jill Stafiej went to Uganda with Aids Orphans and Street Children
September / October 2005
Cause Canada
CAUSE Canada is an international relief and development agency. They feel called to follow the example of Christ in speaking out on behalf of the poor. They pray that, through their identification with Jesus, their concern for justice and the practical demonstration of God’s love in meeting people’s physical needs, people will be drawn to Christ.
In January, St.Stephen’s partnered with CAUSE in their Women’s Integral Empowerment Program, in Guatemala. It seeks to empower impoverished women to take greater control of their lives and improve the well-being of their families through acquisition of literacy skills, basic financial training, reliable access to water, and accumulation of savings. This project has been recognized as the most effective and efficient non-profit development program in Guatemala. Currently there are 230 women meeting for weekly instruction in reading, writing and basic math. These women are encouraged to save small amounts of money, which is then matched by CAUSE when they have successfully completed the course. This money may be used for a home improvement project of the woman’s choice. CAUSE praises God for the women’s faithfulness in attending weekly classes, when they have such busy daily schedules. Please pray that these women can continue to juggle their daily responsibilities with class and study time. Pray especially for the women from San Juan (the poorest community in the region); some of these women have been erratic in their attendance and are having difficulty saving even the most meagre amounts of money. Our Guatemalan staff members need wisdom to deal with this problem. The graduates of the program always receive a Bible as a present upon graduation. Please pray that these graduates read their new Bibles and are drawn into deeper fellowship with Christ.
CAUSE is currently praising God for receiving funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for a new project, after CIDA threatened to revoke funding from many smaller non-governmental agencies (NGOs). Please pray that CIDA follows the recommendations of a recent external evaluation that encouraged continued funding for NGOs such as CAUSE.
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March / April 2005
Mission to Wemindji
by Bill Evans
In October 2004, I journeyed 1,500 kilometres north, to join the Wemindji Cree First Nation’s yearly Mission, with the Reverend Bruce Glencross, who represents a sister Parish in Montreal.
The priest in Wemindji, Chris Davis, is a busy man, especially with a Mission to prepare.
Last year, 17 people died in Wemindji, from cancer, heart disease and accidents. Death touched every family. Residential School abuse is also a current topic. There were first hand accounts in the civic centre for all to hear.
Our Missioners were Dale & Diane Lang, from Taber, Alberta. Their son Jason was shot dead in the Taber High School 4 years ago. Their message concerns losing a loved one and finding forgiveness and purpose in God thereafter.
I shared my testimony the first night. Nancy, a Cree elder, translated for me, as few people over 50 years of age speak English. The Elders read Moose Cree, including the new Eastern Cree New Testament. The Cree symbol system is unknown to most, a surprise to me.
About 75 people came the first night. More came every night. The last night, the community centre was packed.
Diane Lang spoke twice and gave an altar call. Cree people do not like to display themselves. Diane was escorted around the auditorium to pray for those who gave their lives to Christ. Perhaps 20% of the village is Christian.
The last night of the mission, the Elders came up for prayer. They gathered in a circle. I asked the AV operator about this. He said, “Sure, the elders have been prayed with before.” My friend Denise said “Not like this, they haven’t.”
There is a young Pentecostal named Henry. He is on fire for the Lord, the Gospel and the youth. Chris Davis asked him to play guitar and sing, His singing was anointed and he spoke with power and conviction. Henry is the tip of the Sword. The Band Council met after we prayed, deciding to allow Henry to hold Meetings in the Civic Centre, a miracle.
“Wemindji is a hard place to leave for ever.” I felt in October that I would return. At Christmas, Winsome Davis asked if we could send a Missions Team to the Teens at Wemindji. (The teens all speak English.) Aboriginal Teens are lost, devastated by drugs and suicide. Who will go? I said, “Here am I Lord; send me.” Could the Lord send you as well?
see also: Wemindji Calls
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December 2004 / January 2005
CAUSE Canada
The Missions Support Team is delighted to re-introduce CAUSE CANADA to you:
CAUSE Canada was started in Montreal by Paul and Bev Carrick, around 1984. It is a Christian Humanitarian Organization, serving impoverished and suffering people primarily in Central America and West Africa.
Some people from St. Stephen’s went down to help CAUSE Canada build a medical clinic in Todos Santos in Guatemala in the mid-80’s, which continues to serve the people in this remote hill country to this day.
CAUSE Canada has done extensive work in West Africa, working to rehabilitate child soldiers and amputees in Sierra Leone, working in AIDS education and prevention, and helping women to set up small co-operative businesses. One such business manufactures and sells mosquito nets permeated with anti-malarial soap.
CAUSE Canada partners in some of these initiatives with the Federal agency CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency), often receiving matching grants. They are currently seeking funding to implement a very large Peacebuilding initiative for women in 300 villages in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. They do all this to the glory of God, and in His Name.
CAUSE Canada employs local staff in many of these countries, and also sends out young “interns” from Canada, who usually spend a year or more, often working in primitive and sometimes dangerous situations. They seek to serve the Lord in very practical ways as they try to meet some of the many basic needs of the people. One occupational therapist recently devised a contraption with which a one-armed tailor was able to thread his needles, and thus be able to support himself again.
Bev & Paul live in Canmore, Alberta but sometimes come to Montreal, so we hope to see them often and to receive updates about their plans and activities. We would like to uphold them in prayer, and to support them in whatever ways we can.
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October / November 2004
Church Project Visits in Bogotá and Medellin, Colombia.
This summer, I had the immense privilege of visiting and speaking with church leaders and visiting church projects in two major cities of Colombia, Bogotá (8 million) and Medellin (3 million).
Colombia’s agonizing civil war has crippled the nation over the past 30 years and resulted in over a million displaced people migrating to the cities, creating huge slums (called invasiones) and a heavy strain on Colombian society. Yet, these needs have created great spiritual thirst and opportunities for the Church. The evangelical minority there has grown to a significant 15% of the population and cristianos are respected in the population at large for their social involvement.
One such strategic social involvement is in education. Idalez Gonsalez, a soft-spoken, yet articulate, young wife and mother, who herself has not yet had the opportunity of finishing high school, dreamed for years of a ministry to children in her neighbourhood, an invasion perched precariously on a slope of Medellin. Since parents there are generally overworked and underpaid, their children, often hungry, are not only largely unsupervised but must often contribute to the family income as well, resulting in a 50% failure rate—even for young children.
With much prayer and help from Swiss Vineyard Christians, Idalez’ dream became reality and her team began to provide a daily warm meal, school help and the love of Jesus to 30 children. They persevered in spite of the crossfire between leftist and right-wing armed groups in which several people died. Then one day the shooting stopped. A few days later, a youth came to announce to Idalez that the Milicia Boliviarana (the leftists) had decided to pull out even though they were winning because “Nobody has ever done what you’re doing here and we want to give you peace to keep doing it.” That year all 30 of Idalez’ children passed their year and two received special bursaries from the school!
I also visited another such project in Bogotá by the home church of Jorge & Gail Atiencia, ministering to 250 children in several shifts. This church of 700 has a whole range of social programs in and out of its community.
I missed Gail & Jorge, who were on a ministry tour during my trip (see update), but many spoke glowingly of them. One young Vineyard pastor in Medellin told me that, in his opinion, Jorge Atiencia is Latin America’s foremost theologian today!
by Cynthia Morris
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May / June 2004
The Passion Captivates Muslims
~ by Cynthia Morris ~
Many of us have seen “The Passion of the Christ” and we know the stir it has created during the last few months in North America. What we perhaps do not realize is the impact that this Hollywood portrayal of Christ’s passion has been having in regions of the world that have been traditionally closed to all Christian witness—and, remarkably so, in the Islamic world.
In the West, where many critics have been very hard on the movie, box office sales have been very strong. Similarly across the Middle East: in Qatar, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and other predominantly Muslim nations, Arab newspapers report the film’s “surprise box office success” (Christopher Lepage, “ ‘The Passion’ Captivates Muslim Moviegoers in the Middle East.” World Pulse, May 7, 2004).
Christian workers in these countries have been thrilled that the gospel story has come to tens of thousands who, until now, have never heard it —countries long closed to the Christian message. The Qur’an teaches that Jesus wasn’t actually crucified, but that someone else was in his place. Yet this movie graphically depicts that crucifixion, and the reasons that led Christ to the cross. There is no doubt in this film that it was Jesus who died.
For years, missionaries have been showing the Jesus film, but often only to a handful of people, and in the secret of private home settings. Missionaries in the United Arab Emirates call the opening “a miracle.” While they could be arrested for handing out or showing the Jesus film, The Passion of the Christ is being shown openly in the nation’s theatres. In Syria, it has been breaking movie-going records. Pirated versions are selling “like hotcakes” in Saudi Arabia, and are also available in Yemen, Oman and Afghanistan. In one multi-theatre complex in Qatar, other films were cancelled to have more showings of The Passion.
Ironically, the film’s purported anti-Semitism has attracted many Arabs angry with Jews. Because of this intense hatred, missionaries in the Middle East say the film “hit Muslim movie-goers powerfully with Christ’s message of love for his enemies.” Missionaries report many people being very moved by the film, requesting New Testaments in Arabic.
Even the film’s transcript is being printed and distributed by Muslims.
We do not know the full extent this film will have on the Middle East, but we see that God can surprise us by the even imperfect means he uses to spread his Word.
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March / April 2004
Reflections on Urbana 2003
One of the most important things emphasized at the Urbana 2003 conference was that we came to the conference not to learn what we could do for God and the Gospel, but rather to become attuned to what God was doing in the world, and to ask him where we fit in. This theme, of God’s Lordship and of God’s Kingdom, was developed throughout the entire five days (December 27 to 31, 2003). It was a very God-centered time; “Lord, where are you at work in the world? Where do I fit in?” became everyone’s prayer. In this context, vibrant worship and commitment to mission blended together beautifully.
This is a very scriptural thing; the worship experience of Christians is also an invitation to the rest of the world to worship the one true God with them. The palmist tells us to “Sing to the Lord a new song… Declare his glory among all the nations.” (Psalm 96:1-3)
After the conference, it was exciting to speak with some of the students from Quebec (about 15 students with GBUC participated, but many more people from Quebec came). The Lord was gracious, using the time to open hearts to the beauty of his Kingdom work in the world, transforming our fear of mission into a genuine desire to humbly serve the King in a transcultural context. He was also creative in the types of callings that emerged. For example, one of our female student leaders, presently a Masters biochemistry student, is now, with the help of a mission organization she met at Urbana, seeking opportunities to start her research career in Southeast Asia.
Another powerful experience was to meet Christians from outside this province with a burden for work in Quebec. I had an amazing encounter with a Franco-Manitoban woman who became a believer in the US, who now lives in Wisconsin. We were some of the first French-speaking believers she has ever met. She became very emotional when I prayed for her in French, the first time that she had ever heard anyone pray for her in her mother tongue. We made a point to stay in touch after Urbana and are looking forward to see what will come of this friendship.
Keep praying for the many thousands of delegates who made sincere commitments to serve God in new ways at Urbana 2003. There will be many obstacles and temptations, but our God is powerful to glorify His name in their lives and to lead them further into His Kingdom work.
by Marc Debanné
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November /December 2003
Pray for the Persecuted Church…
On Sunday, November 16 2003, the congregation of St. Stephen’s Church participated in the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. While there is a certain excitement in the combined chorus of prayers, we need to continue to uphold those who suffer in our private prayers amid the routine of our days. They are a suffering part of the body of Christ and we are to suffer with them. Susan Bergman, in her book, “Martyrs” (HarperCollins, 1996), notes that the most vivid way to identify with these Christians, “is not to pretend [that they] possess extraordinary belief, but to remind ourselves of the plea that must have crossed the lips of so many martyrs faced with their own last breath: ‘Lord, help my unbelief.’” We are not so unlike our sisters or our brothers who suffer. They covet our prayers, just as we would their prayers, if circumstances were switched.
How then should we pray?
Confess personal and societal indifference, inaction and forgetfulness. Thank God for His faithfulness amid trial, and for His sovereignty over this world and the powers at work in it. Ask God to lay on your heart the person, people or country He would have you pray for.
Pray that, in the midst of everything, Christians would love & forgive their oppressors. Pray for the families of those who are imprisoned, that God would meet their needs. Pray that justice would prevail and those who are imprisoned would be released. Pray for the pastors and Christian leaders among these persecuted people.
Pray that God would speak to the persecutors through the courage and witness of believers.
Pray for organizations working on behalf of persecuted Christians.
Jesus taught that those that are persecuted because of righteousness are blessed for they follow in the steps of the prophets; theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps too, blessed are those who pray for the persecuted. Paul Marshall, author of “Their Blood Cries Out” (Word, 1997), suggests that if Western Christians would begin praying for Christians around the world who are persecuted, they would begin to have an awareness of, and compassion for, the disenfranchised of whatever faith or people group. May our prayers become as cups of cold water to the thirsty.
…And pray for me as I pray for you in our struggle to better be a part of the Body of Christ.
Sincerely,
Ruth Spyksma
To avoid generalization, check out The Voice of the Martyrs
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September /October 2003
“Compassion That Breaks Barriers”
Missions en Fête Montréal (MFM) is definitely one of the most significant events on the Christian calendar in the area. It brings Christians together in prayer, worship, and sharing of resources across denominational, organizational, generational and linguistic lines. This concrete expression of unity is no small feat, and the potential for blessings and cross-fertilizations are remarkable. The Missions Fest movement began in Vancouver in the early ’80s, where it now attracts thousands, and has spread across Canada, including 6 major cities. This is our 5th year in Montreal.
The goal of MFM is to help each church excel in its particular missions program and to open our eyes and celebrate what God is doing around the world. We can allow our perspective to get too narrow and it is truly refreshing to see how God is working in many different ways. Twenty-some churches and dozens of mission agencies participate, giving a panoramic view through exhibits and seminars. Special events for young people and children run concurrently.
The theme for MFM 2003 is “Compassion that Breaks Barriers”. There are two exceptional keynote speakers, a Québecois and an American, both of international renown: Rev. Claude Houde, the senior pastor of l’église Nouvelle Vie of Longueil (a church whose humanitarian programs minister to over 5,000 each month); and Dr. Tony Campolo, an inspiring speaker (with an amazing sense of humour), author of 28 books, and the founder of EAPA (Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education), which ministers in the Caribbean, Africa and North America and is an organization that works with children at risk and has helped establish schools and universities in several nations.
Unfortunately, MFM is running the same weekend as the Anglican synod, but if you have some free time that weekend, I very strongly encourage you to take in some of this remarkable gathering. For more complete information, please visit the MFM homepage.
Sept/October 2003
Cynthia Morris
Chairwoman of The Missions Support Team
St.Stephen’s Anglican Church, Westmount