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Grace's PERSONAL NEWSLETTER UPDATE |
Archives - INDEX to Personal newsletters
Grace Wiebe, Surrey, BC
"Those who suffer He delivers IN their suffering; He speaks to them IN their affliction. He is WOOING YOU FROM THE JAWS OF DISTRESS TO A SPACIOUS PLACE FREE FROM RESTRICTION - to - the comfort of your table laden with choice food."
CONTENTS
Intro / Spiritual
Wilderness / Health / What
God is Doing Through Our Partnering Together / Thank
you!! / Sessions on the Use of Ethnic Worship
as A Vital Part of Church Planting / 5-Day Scripture
Song-writing Workshop for Local Ethnic Christian Musicians/Poets /
Seminar on Ethnomusicology & Church Planting at Missionsfest
Vancouver / Resource
Networking Fellowship for Local Multi-Ethnic Christian Musicians &
Artists / Chris Marsh - summer internship &
extended time up here this winter / Prayer Card - consider
asking Chris to do some caricatures for you! / Re-Connecting
With Indo-Canadian Pastor David Manuel! : ) / SEMINAR
on the use of CONTEXTUALIZED MUSIC in a Hindu Context / Multicultural
Worship & Arts Festival / Other Potential
Internships / Global Consultation on Music &
Missions / A Local Team of Staff Seems to be in the
Works - ie. Ghanian couple from the UK / Please
pray for more local PRAYER PARTNERS re music/arts/media / Music/Arts
Ministries Moving Here from Various Countries / Developing
Relationships With Local Arts/Ministry Leaders / Lower
Mainland Ethnic Ministries Network just starting / Canadian
House Church Resource Network & Fraser Valley House Church Network
/ DiscipleTheNations.org / Front.
is Now Ready To Move Forward With This as an Organization! / Some
More Personal Stuff / Faith Challenges / Next
Time... / THANK YOU!!
To my dear friends/beloved life-support system!!!
It
has been many months since I've updated you on what's been happening…I
have started many letters to you but before I have finished them so much
has happened that I have had to begin again, and again, and again…I think
I could have written about 10 books on what's been happening just since
summer! So even though this will probably once again not be a short letter
(so sorry! : ( ), just know it is a LOT shorter than I would LIKE to write
it!! : )
I'm
sorry it has been so long since I've updated you, but I want to thank
you so very, very much for your patience, all your on-going love, prayers,
friendship and support in various ways!! You guys are awesome blessings
of the Lord!!
How I would love to sit down face to face with all of you that I've not seen in awhile - or in a looong time - and get caught up on the details of your lives!! I know much has happened in your lives as well!! I'm so grateful for the ones of you that I have been able to see!! Thank you so much for coming out to see me, whether from here in town or from out of town/country! I have been so blessed to have so many guests, especially in the last few months!! WHAT A JOY!! Even though I've been so homebound, God has been giving me wonderful times with those that He's brought! Maybe next He'll bring YOU! : )
I
don't know how it's been for you, but for me and many others I am hearing
from, it seems that every year gets more difficult and full of faith challenges
in many ways - from what I know of many of your lives, this has also been
the case with you, AND YET it also seems that in the midst of that, each
year is also more encouraging than the year before in many ways, and it
seems God is indeed bringing us into deeper places in Him and in our level
of intimacy with Him than we had previously experienced! He is teaching
us many things as He is preparing us to remain firm and to see His incredible
power poured out in these coming days in the midst of upcoming turmoil
as the Bible predicts before His soon return! As I write this, the Iraqi
war has just begun…and I sense the Lord reminding me again, as so often
this past year, "REMEMBER THE SECRET…"
(more on that later).
May
He encourage, comfort and strengthen you to the depths of your being in
these days as we look ahead to the things He is wanting to continue to
do in and through us in the days/weeks/months to come as we seek to see
HIS KINGDOM COME and HIS WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!
(In the past couple of years God seems to keep impressing on me to
continue my on-going search of the Scriptures for growing understanding
on the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM - some helpful links about this are
at: http://disciplethenations.org/GospeloftheKingdom.html
And
even as many of us are going through various stages of the extremely painful
SPIRITUAL WILDERNESSES in these days as God is preparing us to
be His Spotless Bride (and as He is in the midst of answering our prayers
to REFINE US), may you be strengthened and deeply encouraged through PSALM
91 and may God surround and protect all of you from the enemy's attempts
to discourage and bring fear in these days, and from his accusations and
condemnation which he seems to be insistent on heaping on God's children!
May His Word and His Presence bring constant comfort, wisdom, direction
and all you need in every situation, and may you indeed experience Him
as your STRENGTH in your weakness (what a relief that He works in and
through our WEAKNESSES!!, hey??!!) and His grace which is sufficient for
us in every situation. May you also be encouraged through Jer. 31:3,4…that
He has loved YOU with an EVERLASTING love; He has drawn YOU with lovingkindness.
HE…WILL…BUILD YOU UP AGAIN…and YOU…WILL BE REBUILT…"…again you will
take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful."!!
May
you experience CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY (what an INCREDIBLE
REALITY!!) and Christ's overcoming power in you as you seek first
His Kingdom and His righteousness. What a day to be alive! Though it is
getting increasingly darker in many ways, thankfully the Light is also
getting brighter! May our gaze be fixed on the LIGHT and on what He is
doing rather our seemingly natural propensity to focus on the increasing
darkness, which is sure to discourage us! Let's walk in the Truth and
stand firm in His promises even though our feelings rage against us with
the deceptions of the enemy. (For some helpful
resources to encourage you if you are in the midst of a spiritual wilderness:
I especially recommend that you get yourself a copy of Paul Weigel's excellent
book A JOURNEY IN THE WILDERNESS:
Becoming Fruitful in the Kingdom of God
I'm reminded of the passage in Job 36:15,16? which says, "Those who suffer He delivers IN their suffering; He speaks to them IN their affliction. He is WOOING YOU FROM THE JAWS OF DISTRESS TO A SPACIOUS PLACE FREE FROM RESTRICTION - to - the comfort of your table laden with choice food." Wow!!
============
To update you on my health…as most of you know (those of you on email
- I'm soo sorry I've not been able to get updates out to those of you
who are not on email for the past many months!!), this past year was full
of health challenges - including 3 major leg infections which had me on
the verge of flesh eating disease within a very short time, and needing
to get IV antibiotics at Emergency following that. Pretty scary stuff
but God's peace during these times was incredible as He reminded me to
"REMEMBER THE SECRET…"
Each
time after the antibiotics took care of the infections (PTL!!!! - thank
you soo much for your prayers, which I'm convinced is one of the major
reasons why I'm still alive!!!), it would then begin to attack my organs
and almost shut them down, as well as attack my bones/joints, which would
then weaken my health even more and cause extreme pain and major fatigue.
Then in order to start to recover I would need to go on a natural cleansing
process (from my wonderful Christian naturopath) so that I could get the
antibiotics out of my system in order to be able to begin to recover -
going through a cleanse means feeling even worse, for a time, before beginning
to feel better! (very similar to what happens in our lives to grow in
freedom in Christ!) So each time this process would take months.
The
last one, the worst leg infection, which came on so suddenly that within
an hour my whole leg turned quite purple and soon had rivers of puss pouring
out, was in Oct., and I'm still in the process of recovering from it!…
But
once again, as in all of these other faith challenging situations, God
revealed His love to me in amazing ways and gave me incredible peace in
the midst of it all as I started to praise/worship Him in the midst of
it as He would remind me to "REMEMBER
THE SECRET…" I think that praising and worshipping God
in the midst of the painful experiences and faith challenges we find ourselves
in, no matter what it looks like or how we FEEL, is one of the most significant
lessons I've been learning this past year - more than ever before, I see
the incredible ability God has given us to find rest and peace IN HIM
when we choose to worship Him for who HE IS in the midst of our worst
times, because HE never changes even though the circumstances around us
are horrific at times! Even in the Emergency room when I was in absolute
agony and the last time, wondering whether I would die before getting
into Emergency, as I worshipped Jesus - by His grace - and reminded Him
of His promises and thanked Him that they were true (as He reminded me
of them first) while I was in tears in the waiting room, I soon had that
incredible peace that passes understanding! and sensed His Presence and
KNEW He was going to keep me alive and get me through this again, and
He has…in fact, it seems the more this happens and the more faith challenges
there are to watch HIM OVERCOME, the more open doors of ministry He continues
to give me…but more about that later : ) …
Also,
He has provided for me in such incredible ways during these times! - through
all of your prayers, through your love and encouraging support in many
ways and very practical ways such as through family and friends and my
neighbourhood prayer partners who looked after me 24 hours a day for a
few days when I could hardly do a thing for myself! What love God shows
us! We had a great time together even in the midst of this! God is amazing!
And continues to show how strong HE is in my weakness!!! (on many fronts!!!!)
Shortly
before Christmas I was very weak and in major pain because I still had
the antibiotics in my system cause the infection would keep re-opening
and so I hadn't gotten rid of the antibiotics nearly as soon as I'd hoped,
so I needed to spend about 3 weeks in bed, for the most part. As well,
sometime in the fall I broke another rib - this time seemingly for no
reason. So it's been interesting, to say the least : )…But in all of this,
God has shown me His love and grace and blessed me in soo many ways! And
has shown such love and kindness through so many of you that have been
around here or communicated with me during these times!
In
the past month or so I have begun to feel like my strength and health
is gradually being restored, and a couple weeks ago while one of our ethnomusicologist
missionaries from Turkey was here for a week, God, as He has done many
times in the past when He's wanted me involved in some special thing -
like speaking or traveling, etc. for a specific purpose, had given me
extra grace during that time so that, even though I wasn't feeling good,
I had the additional stamina needed to get me through that time…I just
experienced this again when G. was here, and the week following that I
could feel my health gradually getting back to the way it was just before
she arrived…but PTL He gave me the needed energy while she was here! Amazingly,
during that time, I was part of about 2-3 meetings a DAY, many of them
out! This is incredible since I rarely get out of the house otherwise…usually
a few hours a month in total!
Having
said this, I also want to add that I believe that God has been increasingly
impressing on my heart, since shortly before Christmas, that at the end
of this year He is about to do something MAJOR with my health!! - but
more about that later when I tell you about the 7-year cycles!! (if I
don't have space for that this time, I'll include it in my next update)...
: ) I feel this is another part of what He put on my heart after I nearly
died about 1 ½ years ago as I kept getting worse after my accident
of a few years ago, and when I felt He had extended my life. I felt He
had given me the option of going home to be with Him then, or staying
here longer, and as tempted as I was to get out of this body and be with
Him, I really felt He wanted me to stay here cause He still had work for
me to do, and after I told Him I thought I would stay, He immediately
led me to a passage of Scripture which was like it was my story…and where
He said He was extending my life!
Following
that He filled me with Scriptures about healing, for 6 weeks, which I
hadn't even realized were in the Bible, though I've studied about healing
for many years! I also felt like He was reminding me that whenever (or
almost whenever) we are trusting Him to fulfill His promises, we are tested
before we see them come to pass….I have sure found this over the years,
and felt like He was preparing me that it would not be easy to see the
healing come, but that if I would trust Him, He would be with me and teach
me many things through the process. And then all the leg infections began….and
kept on…and I feel like He taught me more about spiritual warfare, praise
and worship this past year than ever before! And though I never want to
go through that again, I would not want to trade those lessons learned
and His love/your love which I experienced in the midst of it!!
Also
through this, I have experienced to even deeper degrees the incredible
truth/reality of the fact that HE IS OUR STRENGTH IN OUR WEAKNESS!!!!!!
I can understand, more and more, why Paul 'gloried in his weakness'…and
how he experienced God's grace to be SUFFICIENT! And that God's power
is made perfect in our weakness… In fact I am increasingly experiencing
great RELIEF when I feel how weak I am in various aspects of life, because
then I know He can take over as I trust Him…wild how He does that!
I have to keep laughing over and over when I see that the sicker I've been, the more divine appts. and open doors of ministry God keeps bringing!! And you'll laugh even harder with me when I tell you about what He seems to be confirming and which is in the works these days, and which I think directly corresponds with what I've been sensing about why He wants to do some major changes in my health by the end of the year!! More about that later…
WHAT IS GOD DOING THROUGH OUR PARTNERING TOGETHER?
===============
I'm very excited about sharing with you some of the things that God is
and has been doing the past year/months/weeks! I've not had a chance to
share much with you about this even in the emails I've sent out on occasion…and
there's not room to share much about these things with you now, but what
I'll do is link you to some more info on each section on my web site and
hopefully most of you can check that out if you have time. And if you
are not on email and want more info on any of these things, please let
me know and I'll try to get that to you as soon as I can or maybe I can
tell you more about it when we do get to meet!
None of this would be possible if it wasn't for God working through us together as a team as you have so faithfully been supporting me through your friendship, love, prayers and support in varied ways! I'm soo grateful for you and for what God is doing and so want to encourage you, too, with that as we are privileged to serve Him together in some of the things on His heart in these days! So THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! And I continue to THANK GOD FOR YOU!!! YOU are SUCH a blessing in my life!!!
As
you may recall, in Feb. 2002 Paul Neeley, one of my ethnomusicology missionary
co-workers from Texas, was here in Surrey doing some sessions on the
use of ethnic worship music as a vital part of church planting, as
well as did a 5-day Scripture Songwriting Workshop
for local ethnic Christian musicians - like what he and PBI Ethnomusicology
Prof Vernon Charter led a PBI summer team to do in W. Africa a few summers
ago and which I had the privilege of coordinating ( http://disciplethenations.org/MFProposals.html#SSW
http://disciplethenations.org/rield/index93.html#SSW
). He also co-led a SEMINAR on ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
& CHURCH PLANTING at MISSIONSFEST, etc. in the first phase of
the Great Commission Musicians & Artists Track that we're developing
with Missionsfest. We're also in the beginning stages of seeing that spread,
as the Lord leads, to other Missionsfests across the country/internationally
and seeing things move to the next phase here in Missionsfest in the coming
year or so as the Lord leads. http://disciplethenations.org/index60.html#MISSIONSFEST
http://disciplethenations.org/index60.html#Cassettes
Out of that Scripture Songwriting Workshop, the Resource Networking Fellowship for Local Multi-Ethnic Christian Musicians & Artists developed here in Surrey, since everyone that came wanted to continue to meet, and we have been meeting quite regularly since Feb. 2002. In the past months we feel God has given us a vision of what He is wanting us to do, (you can find this at the web site mentioned here: http://disciplethenations.org/rield/index93.html#Fellowship ) and so now we are in the process of beginning to invite other local ethnic Christian musicians & artists that we know. Our last meeting consisted of about half of the group being new, and it was an incredible time! The Presence of God was so strong and there was such a sense of unity in the Spirit and such a desire among all of us to work together in the future! I'm soo excited about what God is doing in this group and would deeply appreciate your prayers for all of us! Please let me know if there are any ethnic Christian musicians or artists that you know in this region, as I would love to meet them as well!
In
the spring of 2002 I spent a lot of time preparing CHRIS MARSH, a dear
Jesus-loving musician/artist from Kansas, to come up here for a 6-week
INTERNSHIP this past summer where he was working in conjunction with
me and a couple local Front. co-workers and working alongside a local
Egyptian pastor and his wife in two local Arabic Christian Fellowships
re music/arts aspects among local Arabic believers, as well as seeking
to find ways to reach out to local M. refugees through music and the arts.
After his internship, he/we/his church felt God leading him to come back
up here for another extended time and he is now nearly finished another
3 months here with us! He may be going to finish his degree next semester
so may not be here in the future…or at least not for a couple of years
or so, but there is a good possibility that even if he does go, he may
be back in the future, since we share much similar vision! He is and has
been such a blessing to all of us and is such a wonderful team player
and friend! I will be very sad to see him leave, in many ways, if God
confirms that he is to go to school at this point, but if this is what
God wants, then I know that is the best for him and for us and will be
happy that he is doing what God is leading him to do, and will trust that
God knows what He's doing in spite of how I feel. I am so grateful for
the time we have had together! He will be returning to Kansas on Apr 4,
no matter which way God leads him…I would love to see him stay here, but
that's up to the Lord.
By the way, I'm enclosing a copy of my PRAYER CARD. Please note that my co-worker Chris Marsh is the one who drew the caricature! If any of you wish to have him do any artwork of your families for Christmas pictures, for birthdays, or get engagement or grad announcements made by him, etc., please contact him at: chrismarsh@chrismarsharts.com
http://chrismarsharts.com He does awesome work!!
Also in summer, while Chris was here, I had the joy of reconnecting with my dear friend and mentor of many years ago, DAVID MANUEL!
Remember the dear Indo-Canadian pastor I used to work with among Sikhs in Abbotsford before I joined Front.? He always wanted to work with Ms, too, (and used to in India before moving here) and is a very accomplished singer, songwriter and musician in the Indian styles of music. He has recorded many of his songs and has over 100 INDIAN-STYLE WORSHIP SONGS that he is wanting to see recorded in the next while, Lord willing! He has also put together 50 evangelistic talks on THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS, especially for Ms, and which are in the process of being video-taped so they can be sent to Christian and radio TV stations across the globe to reach out to Ms in the Hindi and Urdu languages, etc.!
After
about 15 or more years of not working together, God has brought us together
again to work on various ministry projects together!! I'm soo thrilled
to be able to finally have the chance to also serve David after he has
been such a mentor to me! All these in between years have helped to lay
the foundations so that I CAN assist him, mostly by networking and helping
to promote and distribute the materials he's coming up with in order to
encourage Indian-background believers and to reach out to Ms - the two
main peoples on my heart and his! Hopefully through these networks his
songs will song be recorded & distributed as well. Years of developing
networks and partnerships are enabling me to have open doors to get these
materials where they need to go! Please pray that God would get them into
the right hands so they can potentially deeply impact those that God wants
to impact with these resources locally and internationally!
I
also had the joy of being able to work together with David and another
dear brother, Rob, (who Bob & I have been connected with for many
years through Front. and who has been on our board, etc., who is also
focused on reaching Indian-background people locally and in India), to
see David put together a very good SEMINAR on the use of CONTEXTUALIZED
MUSIC in a Hindu Context (basically about the use of ethnic music
in church planting among Hindus/Ms, etc.) - which he did last summer in
Burnaby as part of the Hindu Studies training for local folks interested
in reaching out to people of Indian background. The seminar is available
on audio and video tape; if you're interested in ordering info let me
know.
David is also a part of a small international team of us (including Chris and the Arabic pastor I mentioned earlier - who is also a wonderful singer/songwriter of Egyptian-style Arabic Christian songs!! - that is in the process of coordinating a MULTICULTURAL WORSHIP & ARTS FESTIVAL which we are thinking of holding in Surrey in the fall of this year, perhaps.
http://disciplethenations.org/MulticulturalFestival.html - see site for more info on our vision, etc. We had hoped to do it last year but felt God wanted us to postpone it, so we did. THANKFULLY we listened, because the weekend it was to take place was the weekend that I had my last major leg infection! God knew what He was doing! I have been learning so much, this past year, especially, that His delays are for GOOD reasons and that if we're willing to WAIT for HIS TIMING, we will see INCREDIBLE THINGS HAPPEN!! We're not entirely sure, yet, whether we will be doing this in Oct. or not, since there is also another request that has come to us to consider coordinating an E. INDIAN CHRISTIAN MUSIC CONCERT here in Surrey, which is being requested to be video-taped and used for the MIRACLE CHANNEL and in other settings which can reach out to the Indian population locally and in other settings nationally or overseas. So that is something we're currently praying about and talking with our potential local ministry partners about. Please pray for God's wisdom and timing on all of this and that we'll know which we should do…and when/how He wants it done…if we don't do the Multicultural Festival this year, we may do it in the spring. There are also a few other local ethnic Christian musicians who we're praying about inviting to be a part of this team.
OTHER POTENTIAL INTERNSHIPS: There are also several people from other provinces in Canada and other nations interested in potentially coming to do an internship with us next summer. This is something we're also praying about…With some of the things God has recently added to my plate for the coming year/s, we might need to hold off on that a year…but not sure yet…so need your prayers on this, too!
The Great Commission Worship & Arts Center/Ethnic Worship & Arts Focus is also one of the sponsors of the upcoming GLOBAL CONSULTATION ON MUSIC & MISSIONS being held in fall in Dallas, TX, and which is headed up by Paul Neeley, one of my US co-workers. This is a first, as far as we know, and something we are very excited about, and something I'm HOPING and PRAYING that my health will enable me to get to by that time (end of Sept.)!!!! Its focus is to encourage missionaries/missions from around the world in these directions. I think it has potential to greatly impact the future of missions. It's being held at the Southwestern Baptist Seminary (I think that's the name of it). I've been talking with the Ethnomusicology Prof at PBI about us potentially working together to hold a similar event here in Canada at some point…we were initially thinking about having something similar in 2004, but feel that this needs to be postponed for probably another year considering all the other developments at PBI and here this coming year. So we'll see what God has in store…Please pray for this upcoming event if the Lord puts it on your heart. Thanks! And maybe some of you would like to go?!! J
A
LOCAL TEAM OF STAFF SEEMS TO BE IN THE WORKS!! Another very encouraging
thing in the process of developing, which I've been longing for and praying
for for many years, is a local team to work with me! So far there have
been volunteers who have been able to help on and off, and I've had some
of my international co-workers coming up here on occasion to help see
some things move forward, and Chris has been a huge blessing while he's
been here (and we'll see what God does in the future re Chris), but in
the past months it has been amazing to see how God seems to be putting
on the hearts of some musicians/artists with missions vision, a long-standing
sense that He wants them to move to Vancouver and will be further releasing
them here into their music/art ministries, etc.! Verrry interesting…!!!
The more we talk and pray, the better it gets!!
For
example, I'm currently in the process of discussing some potential staff
possibilities with a Ghanian couple from the UK (she's also a worship
leader and writes Ghanian-style worship songs, etc.), and a couple other
musicians/artists from the UK and other nations, who also are prayerfully
considering the possibility of coming here to work with me/us! (When I
say 'us', I mean with Chris, if he stays, and with Bob and Gary and other
local ministries that I'm partnering with). This Ghanian couple is prayerfully
considering the possibility of coming to visit to check things out in
the fall, perhaps, and possibly even moving here from the UK early in
2004 if the Lord confirms things to all of us! We would sure appreciate
your prayers about this as the Holy Spirit leads you!
Please also pray for more local PRAYER PARTNERS (in addition to you guys) whose hearts He's already stirring in that direction as I'm sensing God wants me to enlist a local team of prayer partners re this whole realm of music and the arts/media and the Great Commission…and especially for local Christian musicians/artists and worship/music/arts/media ministries. I feel that in the coming month or so I'm to send out a letter inviting folks I know to do so. Let me know if you know of anyone that you think may be interested. And let me know if you'd like to receive the occasional prayer/praise updates (via email). Thank you! http://disciplethenations.org/PrayerNetworkMA.html
In the past number of months I'm aware of, so far, about 5 or 6 music and/or arts/worship ministries that have moved here, and who are wanting to partner with what I'm doing on various levels! It's INCREDIBLE!! But all a part of what I've felt, for many years, that God was about to raise up!
Over the past years, I've spent a lot of time DELVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCAL WORSHIP/ARTS/MUSIC MINISTRY LEADERS, and local ethnic Christian musicians/artists and local ethnic ministry leaders, etc., because MINISTRY FLOWS OUT OF RELATIONSHIPS. It takes a lot of time and effort, but it is such a blessing when we become friends and share so much similar vision and want to work together because we know none of us can do it on our own, but TOGETHER we can compliment each other and see the gifts God has given us WORK TOGETHER so His Kingdom can be expanded! WHAT A JOY!!! This is one of my FAVOURITE parts of my 'job'!!! Although there has been a growing level of partnership in the past couple years especially, things are rapidly moving into a much deeper level of partnership with a growing number of local and international ministries! I'm sooo excited about this but will need to tell you more about it next time, I think, cause this is already taking waaay more space than I had hoped to take…
On another level, many of the relationships I've been developing with local Christian/ministry/church leaders or individuals has developed into the inception of the LOWER MAINLAND ETHNIC MINISTRIES NETWORK. I'm hoping to facilitate our first meeting of local leaders in April sometime, Lord willing. Please pray for this as we seek the Lord together as to what He has in mind and how He wants us to work together to see the ethnic peoples in our city/nation and beyond discipled and discipling others. I'm very encouraged by the level of interest in this by local leaders!
My involvement with the CANADIAN HOUSE CHURCH RESOURCE NETWORK has also been VERY encouraging especially since the summer when we facilitated the first regional networkers consultation to seek the Lord together on what HE is raising up in Canada in this realm as we work together with local churches/denominations to compliment what is already being done but to reach the many unchurched in our cities/nation. It is amazing how God is causing house churches to increasingly spring up across the nation, unbeknownst to each other for the first while, it seems, until He connects them with us (or others) so we can encourage them and network them with others who share similar vision in their regions. Several denominations in Canada are also moving in these directions at various levels. It is interesting to watch what God is doing and to try to keep in step with Him in this! For more info and resources: http://disciplethenations.org/HCHome.html There is now also a Fraser Valley House Church Network, of which I'm a part, meeting here in Surrey about every 6 weeks.
CONTENTS
There are always lots of emails to respond to, as well,
from my DISCIPLE THE NATIONS web
site which is packed full of resources for folks interested or involved
in reaching the lost locally or overseas.
Another very encouraging thing is that although I've been serving Front. church planters (and many other missionaries of others missions to Ms) as individuals for many years re ethnic music/arts/media and church planting, etc. over the years, a few months ago I received an email from our International Director, stating that he feels that FRONT. IS NOW READY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS AS AN ORGANIZATION!!!!!! I'm soo excited! I've been praying for this for years! Our Int'l Director was here for Missionsfest and we were planning to meet to discuss my proposals to him about specifics to consider, but he was snowed in in the UK and so we were unable to meet, but in the coming months I will be presenting the various proposals to him and discussing them with him via email, so please pray that God would lead us as to which ones we should do and when, etc. Thank you!
SOME MORE PERSONAL STUFF: The past few months since Christmas have been very busy as I've begun to slowly recover from my last leg infection. It has been busy and with faith challenges but very encouraging as I've mentioned before, and I've not even had a chance to share much with you about the past few months yet!
CONTENTS
FAITH CHALLENGES: One of the painful things
that has happened, as some of you are already aware, is the death of my
remaining Grandma just before Christmas (Mom's Mom), the death of a dear
Aunt a couple weeks ago (Mom's sister) (which was followed by the death
of her step-sister the next day), and my Father's on-going struggle with
cancer (it doesn't appear he has long left to live so we need great wisdom
in how to deal with him in these days), in addition to a lot of other
major faith challenges my family has been facing. This follows 6 deaths
of other relatives and good friends of mine in the past 2 yrs. Or so,
including one of my dear long-time spiritual mentors. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH
FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS for my family, extended family and for me!! It is
because of your love and prayers and the Presence and grace of God and
the Truth of His Word that have enabled me/us to continue! And I have
personally been sooo greatly encouraged in the midst of all of this with
the REALITY that He IS my/our GOD OF HOPE and our GOD OF PEACE…His Name
is INDEED our STRONG & MIGHTY TOWER to which we can run and be safe!
In the midst of the tears, grief, questions, fears, His comfort, peace,
hope and encouragement has restored me again and again - and increasingly
in shorter and shorter times than it used to take to work through things
again, I believe it's as He reminds me/us to
REMEMBER THE SECRET that His Presence fills the situation more
quickly and takes it in hand and turns around what the enemy means for
evil, for GOOD!
Next time: Local Ethnic Christian Worship Recording Ministry Developments / Curriculum Developments - more formal partnerships developing with local Christian schools, etc. - Self-Directed Study/Online Distance Learning Course in the works / Developing local proto-types / EthnicLink.net / Gateway Creation Arts Centre - this is a major change which has just started!! - more in next update!! / 7 year cycles ending with miracles before moving into new seasons / Retreat, etc.
There is just sooo much to share with you, that I've only been able to get started this time! I'll try to update you again soon, but since it won't be as long, Lord willing, till my next newsletter, I hope to keep it much shorter!! ( : ) ) Thanks for bearing with me again this time, though!! I really appreciate it!
With much love, on-going prayers and deep appreciation for EVERYTHING,
Grace : )