Sharing His Love Globally
God has been, is, and will continue to be at work globally! He is drawing people to Himself. People are finding healing, salvation, wholeness and freedom in Christ all around the world. FAC family, we have the privilege to join the work that God is doing by supporting missions, projects, partnerships, and International Workers globally.
Sometimes missions can feel far off and hard to connect with in our prayer life because we have not gone to these places or seen things firsthand. However, we hope the following updates will encourage you to pray in a fresh way, or maybe even for the first time, for Global Missions. Maybe you will feel compelled to financially support these people and projects through the Missions Fund. Or maybe God will stir something in your heart that will cause you to say, “Send me!”
VANESSA SISO – Short-Term Missions
Vanessa went on a Short-Term Missions trip to visit one of FAC’s global partners, Inca Link International. Inca Link has ministry sites in 7 different countries in Latin America. Their mission is to “Reach the 300 million youth of Latin America with Christ’s irresistible love. To complete this goal we seek to identify, connect, facilitate and mentor high-capacity youth leaders to multiply their impact in Latin America to reach the next generation.”
FAC has been building a relationship with Inca Link International, specifically with their Colombia ministry site. So, Vanessa wanted to invest in this partnership by serving in Bogotá, Colombia. Vanessa is originally from Venezuela which means Spanish was not an issue for her; she was able to step in right away to serve with the team in Colombia. Praise God!
She was able to use her own psychology training to train Inca Link staff, the local church, and ministry leaders of the Oasis program for children in an under-resourced community.
She provided training in the areas of recognizing trauma. Paul and Lineth (International Workers with Inca Link Colombia) said before Vanessa arrive, “The goal is to help us all identify past traumas in the youth and children we work with so that we can come alongside them as God works to bring healing to their lives.”
Vanessa met with several staff individually and provided training on how to handle difficult behaviours in the classroom at Oasis. She also taught parents on identifying their stress points as well as on recognizing stress in their children.
Vanessa truly was able to use the gift and talents that God has given her, as well as her life experiences to equip many people in Colombia. Our prayer is that these tools can be passed on to others and that more children will be able to have Oasis staff share Christ’s love in difficult times.
Vanessa was genuinely impacted by her time in Colombia and God worked her life too! Maybe that can be a future blog post on its own!
INCA LINK COLOMBIA – Global Partnership
Please pray for both of these couples as they provide a welcoming and safe place for children in need so they can experience the love of Jesus!
PAUL & LINETH OVERMOYER – Missionaries
LUCY & RICARDO LANCHEROS – Directors
BUZZ & MYRNA MAXEY – Alliance International Workers in Indonesia
Excerpt from their recent Prayer Letter: Would You Walk 4 Days Over the Jungle Trail for Sunday School Training?
The plan was to have a couple dozen Sunday School teachers from their remote villages come for training on how to teach the new Ngalik Sunday School curriculum. Three weeks before, we got the word out on the SSB radio of the planned training, with the requirements that a person had to be a Christian, love kids and could read.
A translator and friend, Pak Amos, partnered with Myrna and worked for 5-6 years translating, correcting, and testing the materials on each visit to Silimo. Then all the materials were printed, laminated and put into 25 sets. The chronological materials have many coloured pictures, a short bible story, memory verse, questions, and a summary.
On May 18, instead of the expected 20-25 people, about 140 men, women and children showed up, many of whom had walked 2 days over the trail to attend. We were pleased that the church contributed coffee, sugar, rice, and vegetables and some families had cooked and served the rice and drinks during the training.
It was a joy for Myrna to have Pak Amos translate for her into Ngalik and for Tolina (the Silimo kindergarten teacher who received Jesus in our home many years ago), to help her teach the materials. We had each of the 20 churches represented break into groups and over the course of the 5 hours, we had different ways of engaging the teachers in learning the first nine short stories of the set of 67. You could see the hunger for God’s Word and for learning Old Testament stories that they could in turn go back and teach to their children.
As the misty clouds settled down in the valley at the end of the day, the now-equipped Sunday School teachers headed back to their villages, with their laminated materials in their head nets. Some of them will have done a four-day round-trip trek to get here and back home. We had prayed about this day for about a year. And as Myrna and I headed home on the muddy trail with rain gently falling, our hearts were warmed.
Would you/we walk four days to receive Sunday School training? We trust God’s Word had not just been taught, but that it had penetrated hearts. May the message of our Creator God and His forgiving, loving character be well worth the four days walk over the rugged mountains and muddy trails.
Pray for the 140 people who came to this Sunday school training and that God may continue to give each one of them a passion to teach the gospel to their communities.
Pray for Buzz & Myrna to be encouraged and to not grow weary in their ministry. Pray for them as they come to Canada and speak at FAC on August 19/20 weekend! Pray for the Canadian church and FAC to have the same passion to share the Gospel with those around us!
SARAH & CRAIG – International Workers in Mongolia
You are invited to join us for a dessert night and open house to hear about what God is doing in Mongolia! Craig and Sarah have been serving overseas in marketplace and serving as English teachers in China and Mongolia for 25 years.
You will hear testimonies of how they have seen God at work in bringing hope, purpose, and fulfillment in Christ in Mongolia. When the iron curtain fell 30 years ago, there were virtually no believers in Mongolia, but God has been doing an amazing work amongst this people group, equipping them to be sent out to other places around the world.
Craig and Sarah will also share some of the stories of how they are able to partner with the Mongolian believers in reaching the lost and least in their own country and to the ends of the earth. Want to attend the Missions Update Dessert Night to hear from Craig and Sarah? Don’t forget to register!
“Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.” 2 Timothy 4:5
Written by Briana Southerland, Share Ministries Pastor
Did you know that Buzz and Myrna are supported monthly through the FAC Missions Fund? And starting on July 1, 2023, Inca Link will also be supported monthly by the FAC Missions Fund. Find out more about the ways to give! Interested in Short-Term Missions? Contact Pastor Briana Southerland.
