May 6, 2009
Nine people were baptized recently in a hotel swimming pool in Daly City, California, a San Francisco suburb. The new believers were administered the sacrament by Rev. Richard Mirpuri, who pastors Word of Grace (Alliance) Church in Chicago, Illinois. Mirpuri was in the city-by-the-bay to witness an installation ceremony for Rev. Samuel Garcia. Garcia has been assigned the position of resident pastor for Word of Grace in South San Francisco.
”The water baptism took place at the pool of the Hampton Inn in Daly City,” said Mirpuri. The nine communicants included a family of five.
The Word of Grace church plant was led by lay leaders with assistance from Mirpuri, who would visit regularly. “But the lay leaders kept the ministry going and growing,” said Mipuri. “We’re very happy to have Pastor Samuel Garcia join the church as pastor.”
The church plant will celebrate its third anniversary in March.
Editor’s note: C&MA medical worker Peggy Drake knows well the stench of death. She and Jetty Stouten, who serves with CAMA in the Netherlands, initiated Project Life, a medical clinic and pharmacy providing affordable treatment to the ill and dying. Located in Bobo-Dioulasso, the project includes an AIDS-prevention outreach program to local youth.
Following are edited excerpts from a heart-rending story Peggy shared in her 2008 Christmas letter. She describes how serving a dying woman enveloped her unbelieving community in the aroma of Christ’s love.
She came into the clinic waiting room, her face etched in pain. The fearful look in her eyes asked, “What will they do to me here?”
She had no money. So our secretary forgave the small consultation fee we charge and seated her in the waiting room.
The Smell of Death
Because of the odor, it was not long before others in the room began to move away from the woman. When our African nurse, Elizabeth, admitted the patient, Genaba, she found that for two years, cancer had eaten away at this woman’s breast.
When I asked Genaba why she had not come to us sooner, she said that her husband had told her they had no money. I began to treat her gaping wound, knowing that nothing could be done to save her. We then covered the costs for her mastectomy, hospitalization, and postoperative care.
Prepared for Heaven
After the surgery, Genaba did well for about one month. When her health began to fail, she knew she was dying. But because of her love for the Lord-and knowing that her pain would soon be gone-she was ready to go to heaven!
The morning of her death I went to Genaba’s home, a small, mud-brick structure on the edge of town. Her two teenage children were there weeping; their father had died six months earlier, leaving them feeling abandoned.
Soon, Christians from the area began to arrive. They gathered at one side of the humble home, while followers of the area’s traditional religion assembled on the other. It was the Christians who initiated caring for the body and helping the children to bury their mother.
Witness to a Community
A few days after the burial, Sara, a well respected woman from one of the local churches, told us a story. She described how all the residents of Genaba’s community were talking about what they had seen: Christians, including our clinic workers, reaching out in love to care for this destitute mother. “Why?” they asked.
Sara explained that it was because of Jesus. He lived among us, and He wanted us to reach out in love to everyone-rich, poor, young, and old.
Thank You!
Later, a group of women from the community visited us at the clinic. Through song, they thanked us for caring for Genaba and her children.
My friend, I want to thank you! If you have given to our Alliance Great Commission Ministries, you, too, cared for Genaba. In doing so, you helped to spread the aroma of Christ’s love throughout her unbelieving community.
Yes, a little love goes a long way!
Learn More
Check out Peggy’s and Jetty’s Web site.
Download a video of Dr. David Thompson, among a number of Alliance workers, including Peggy and Jetty, giving hope to the AIDS-affected.
Recently, the college ministry at Princeton Alliance Church (PAC) in Princeton, New Jersey, held a benefit concert for the Tia Ana Orphanage in El Salvador, where short-term missions teams regularly assist the national church with ministry. “God is using college students from the United States to provide love, care, and justice in a Central American community of faith,” says Matt Peace, director for the C&MA’s Short-Term Missions Office. “Approximately 500 college students gathered for a night of praise and worship, raising more than $15,000 for the orphans.”
Tia Ana, who grew up in the streets of San Salvador, opened a home where destitute children receive love, food, clothing, and the knowledge of God. She wants the children to have what she didn’t as a child-the assurance of God’s love-and she relies on short-term teams to help meet spiritual and practical needs.
Not Just Chump Change
Matt Murphy, PAC pastor of young adults and coordinator of the event, was amazed at the outpouring of love by the concert-goers. “My heart broke when I saw young people giving. It wasn’t just chump change; some gave all the money they had,” says Murphy, who has received numerous daily requests for a repeat performance.
“This event raised a lot of money for Tia Ana,” Murphy says, “but it did so much more to instill a vision to live for what Jesus was all about-the least of these.”
To Learn More
The Short-Term Missions Office conducts several trips each year, with permanent sites in strategic ministry locations. Find out how you can participate in a short-term missions trip
What You Can Do
Pray that God will bless PAC’s young people with increased faith and understanding of His plan for their lives. Also, pray that the Lord will continue to provide for Tia Ana’s compassionate ministry.
Donate Now to give to Alliance Great Commission Ministries.
“Chaplains tell me they sometimes feel separated from The Alliance,” says Robert Collins, retired lieutenant colonel (Army) and director for Alliance Military Chaplains Ministries.
Collins is the professional and spiritual mentor for Alliance military chaplains whose deployment takes them around the world, and to the frontlines of war. “They have no Alliance churches close to where they are stationed, or they live in an area of the world where there is no Alliance fellowship.”
Collins understands isolation, having experienced it while he was in the military; he is working to change the situation.
Alliance chaplains stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait have been telling the stories of God’s amazing work among troops for six years. Conversions and baptisms have taken place in historic places recorded in Genesis; Bible studies have sprung up throughout the many battalions.
One Chaplain’s Mission
In Kuwait, Alliance Chaplain and Army Captain Erik Gramling recently baptized several troops and attended the Lighthouse Church, where Alliance pastor Daniel Harstad is “on loan” from the Canadian C&MA. The church is part of the National Evangelical Church Compound in Kuwait City, where 10-20 thousand people from 73 multilingual congregations attend worship services each week.
“The Compound was founded in the early 1900s by an American medical couple who were invited by the ruling family of Kuwait,” says Gramling. “The ministry is robust; many come to Christ.”
Gramling also encouraged his German military congregation to give to the ministry of the Evangelical Alliance Church in Baghdad. In one Sunday offering they designated over $12,000.00 to the GCF for that project.
A Global Vision
“The vision is larger than Alliance Military Chaplain Ministries,” Collins continues. “I believe we bring our Alliance chaplain family closer to the true reality-we are Alliance-and we have a vision that is larger than are own ministries. It is a worldwide vision to take the whole gospel to the whole world!”
What you can do
Pray for Alliance military and institutional chaplains as they serve in difficult places.
Learn more
Read other stories from Alliance chaplains.
Donate now to support Alliance Great Commission Ministries.
By Michelle Davis, serving in Senegal
Editor’s note: Michelle and Brian Davis are busy with language study; they also serve once a month in a ministry center designed to share the good news with Senegal’s largest Unreached People Group, the Wolof. Excerpts follow from their recent newsletter in which Michelle describes a life-altering lesson she learned-from a slip of her finger.
We are very glad that several teachers of the majority religion here have agreed to let their young disciples come to the center monthly for a free meal and health checkup.
Last month, Brian and I had the opportunity to participate in this ministry. The boys recognized us from the previous time and greeted us with warm smiles and hand shakes.
HIV Scare
After Yacoba, the nurse at the center, and I had done two examinations, I scooped up the remaining items on the desk and felt a prick on my finger. It was from a lancet we had used for a hemoglobin test.
We decided it would be best to test the two boys for HIV. If either was positive, I would need to start prophylactic treatment as soon as possible. [If positive, the boys would have had access to free government HIV treatment that is available to Senegal residents.]
God Speaks
During the hours of waiting for the results, God spoke to me.
I had time to grapple with how life might be different for me and my family if I were HIV-positive. I came to a point of being okay with that reality, choosing to trust that God is always good and always in control. I had previously seen His glory, so I chose to trust once again that He would use this situation, whatever the outcome, for His glory.
A Lesson in Dependence
God also revealed to me my need to be dependent upon the people here in Senegal. As I sat waiting, I realized how much I needed the doctors, nurses, and lab technicians. I needed their knowledge, skill, and cooperation.
While we came to Senegal to share the good news of Jesus with the Wolof people, God also called us here to change us. It is the people here, as we grow in relationship with them and learn from them, who will change us and mold us more into the image of Christ.
As the hours passed, I realized God was using the hospital staff (who do not know Jesus) to draw me closer to Himself.
Finally, the time came, and the doctor told us all the HIV tests were negative. We are so thankful.
Learn More
Read more about our work in Senegal.
Pray!
Thank the Lord for protecting Michelle, and the two boys tested, from HIV. Petition Him urgently for the millions who are HIV-positive and in need of the hope of the gospel.
Pray also for Christ’s love to be actively demonstrated among the thousands of young boys in Senegal who are being taught the country’s majority religion. Pray for divine opportunities to share the good news with these lost youth.
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