May 7, 2008

RMD Newsletter Update
Adriaan Overbeeke, 24.14 MM Coaching Network Team Leader

If April showers bring May flowers, then May is definitely the time to be anticipating the planning of Fall 2008 Great Commission events.  We have three CMA international workers who will be with us this fall. 

Jerry & Kim Rundstrom will be in the RMD from Sept 19-Oct 12.  We still have slots open for Kim to minister in your churches in the month of September. 

Dave Bill, from Congo, West Africa – will be in the RMD from Oct 3 thru the end of November.  Again, there are plenty of empty slots right now.  I want to have these folks well used in their time in the District.  Please email me (adriaan@codycma.org ) or call (307-587-3418) to get your church penciled in on their calendars.

Your responsibilities on this Freedom Tour will be to provide housing, food, and transportation between churches.  Love offerings or an honorarium are to be given to the international worker.  If you’ve already done your major push for the year, here’s a way to keep the Mission in front of your people year-round.  Don’t delay, as you may not get the speaker you are hoping for.

Also, at District Conference, you received a CD with powerpoint files featuring our RMD international  workers.  Please note the Word documents on the CD that outline guidelines for you in talking about & promoting people who work in creative access  countries.  That’s there for your help and their protection.  Thanks for making yourself familiar with the guidelines.  Where someone is in a CAC, we do not identify the specific country, but rather talk in terms of larger regions.  Your powerpoint files are designed accordingly.

Let’s continue to help our people step up to the Great Commission Sunday giving opportunity.  We are hoping for more than 90% of our churches to participate in GC Sunday this month of May.  Use it as a tool to encourage folks new to the Alliance to step up and join the giving team. 

By the way, celebrate with us as over $6800 was given to the RMD Vehicle Fund toward Sarah’s car needs and future RMD international worker needs!  Praise God for His generous provision!!

Your partner in the Gospel,
Adriaan – 24.14 MM Coaching Network Team Leader

Mike and Mary Smith Update
Mike and Mary Smith report that their daughter Charity is home from the hospital and on medication. The doctors did find a mass in the frontal lobe of her brain. Further testing is needed to fully diagnose her condition and prescribe effective therapies. She has an appointment with a neurologist for that purpose later this month. She did go to church this past Sunday. She is coming out of the worst part of the symptoms but is still limited in her ability to function. Pray for healing always, and for wisdom for all those involved as they make decisions for treatment.

Mike and Mary are effusive in their expressions of appreciation for the RMD family.  Let’s keep holding them up before the Lord,

Tim O


 

Congratulations to Robbie and Julianne Severson
Celebrating the birth of Micah  Robert Severson:
Their 7 lb 6 oz son was born 5:30 PM April 17^th 2008

 

The RMD 24.14 Network team (ie, Missions Mobilization) met this week to strategize how to inspire, educate & mobilize our people to get personally involved in completing the Great Commission.  We celebrated the great progress that has taken place in our partnership with the Mexican Alliance Church.  We worked through proposed new initiatives for other global partnerships and approved scholarship grants that will help more RMD people go on short term mission trips in the coming year. 

One of the highlights of our time together was a presentation by Anya & Alysa, two staff members from the Mountain Springs Bible Camp in southern Russia.  They helped us understand how the camp works, what it’s current challenges are, and the incredible spiritual fruit that is coming out of that ministry.  In the past 8 years, more than 10,000 people have gone through the camp and at least 3000 have put their faith in Christ.  Praise God!

We worked on identifying upcoming short term mission trips (see the latest on the RMD Website) and looked all the way into 2009, when the camp in Russia and perhaps the sports center in Guinea, West Africa will be wide open opportunities to join God in the global work of the Alliance.   The 24.14 team will be hosting several informational meetings at District Conference on the prospect of developing formal District partnerships with Guinea, the Philippines and Mongolia.  Stay tuned for details on those meetings. 

We will also be providing you with further multi-media resources and do some specific equipping in Great Commission ministry within the upcoming District Conference in just a few weeks.  Thanks for praying for our team, as we seek to serve the Lord by mobilizing His church to finish the Great Task.

District Vehicle Fund - Special Offering
Adriaan Overbeeke - District Missions Mobilizer 

Where would you & I be without wheels?  We count having a reliable vehicle as an essential need in this fast-moving world in which we live.  Most of us have at least one and often several vehicles. Now put yourself in the shoes of those we are sending to the ends of the earth to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have left everything behind so they can go to those final unreached people groups.  To reach them, they must be able to get around.

In most settings, walking is no longer the primary mode of transportation.  Public transportation can often be unreliable, dangerous or doesn’t even exist.  Each year, we receive prayer letters from our international workers, reminding us that they have an approved vehicle special in which they must raise tens of thousands of dollars to purchase one in-country.  It can often take several years or more to generate those funds.

Right now, we have Sarah Rowley (Russia) trying to finish raising funds for a car.  Louisa Spagnolo (Thailand) is preparing to start a vehicle fund.  And the Mullinaxes (El Salvador) will be working toward one as they work on language study in Costa Rica in 2009.  There are more international worker candidates in the wings (Myers - Fall 2009 & Huneycutts (no date at this time)) who will soon be “driving” down this same road.

Therefore, DEXCOM has approved the establishment of a District Vehicle Fund.  We are asking each church in the RMD to receive a special once-a-year offering before District Conference to be designated toward this fund.  Sarah still has $3000 to raise for her car.  Any monies given above and beyond that amount will be held toward the next RMD international worker vehicle need.  Our hope is that this annual effort will help our “sent ones” to be able to get into a vehicle without the stress of trying to raise tens of thousands of dollars all on their own.

Please bring your special church Vehicle Fund offering to District Conference at the end of this month.  We will receive it during the worship service on Wednesday night.  Then together, we will celebrate all that the LORD has provided to express His love to our brothers & sisters in Christ.  Thanks for calling our people to generous, sacrificial giving as we seek to bless those who have given everything to follow God’s calling to the ends of the earth.  “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Your partner in the Gospel,
Adriaan Overbeeke - District Missions Mobilizer

March 17, 2008
from Adriaan Overbeeke, 24.14 Network Team Leader

It’s March, but May is coming.  Over the past several years, we in the Alliance have made May the month in which we give special emphasis to the task of finishing the Great Commission.  We’ve called it celebrating our “GC Sunday”  We want to invite more & more of our people to step up and join the team of Alliance people who are working together to reach the last of the unreached.  According to the latest e-newsletter from Colorado Springs, only 4 in 10 Alliance people actually give to the Great Commission Fund (GCF) consistently.  Our hope is that every church in the RMD will take up the challenge in May of asking their people to step up and join the GCF financial support team so that we can be channels of financial blessing to those who are doing the hard work of reaching the last of the unreached for the glory of God.  Our goal this year is 100% participation by our RMD churches in “GC Sunday.”  Do you have a strategy on how to approach this key event?

Speaking of May, there is something else coming to virtually every person within the RMD.  Beginning in May, the US Treasury will be mailing out economic stimulus checks to over 130 million Americans.  While the amount varies, most tax payers who fall below the $75,000 line (or $150,000 if married, filing jointly) will receive at least $300 per person, with an additional $300 per child.   Think of the potential.  What do you plan to ask your church people to do with this unexpected source of income?  There will be plenty of advertising aimed at our people, telling them to spend it on things that they really don’t need.  At the same time, we are hearing of Alliance workers being delayed in being sent to the missions field, of a $1 million gap in the GC budget driven by the weak American dollar vs a strong Euro, and of a dire need for support of the CAMA General Fund to ensure that relief projects to the world’s most needy, don’t have to be shut down or scaled back.  How would God have us use this unplanned income?

What if RMD Alliance pastors challenged each person in their church to apply the Kingdom first principle to those checks?  What if we reminded our people of the generosity of Jesus in becoming poor so that we might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9), and invite them to use this unexpected income as a way of expressing their love for Him.  What if RMD people starting in May were to tithe on that check from the IRS, and then apply those funds generously to the GCF or the CAMA General Fund?  What if they used some of those monies to give with excellence to the District Vehicle Fund that will provide transportation for our RMD missionaries once they get on the field?    What kind of eternal Kingdom impact could happen thru the RMD as we use these unexpected financial resources to meet genuine Kingdom needs?  I am waiting on the edge of my seat to see what God will do through His people.

May Christ be glorified in the church, and may our deep love for Him be shown in excellent giving (2 Corinthians 8:7-8) so that the last of the unreached might be gathered in to Christ’s eternal Kingdom!

Your partner in the Gospel,  Adriaan Overbeeke, RMD 24.14 Network Team Leader

“Jeff Kingery announced his resignation as pastor of the Ronan Alliance Church this past Sunday. He plans to conclude his ministry as pastor there as of May 31 of this year. He expressed it well in his letter of resignation to the congregation:

“For some time now, a former passion of mine, working with Law Enforcement, has resurfaced in my life.  In May of 2007, at the request of the Lake County Sheriff, I put together the Chaplain’s program, working with the entire staff of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.  It has been an amazing ministry!  I have enjoyed building relationship with the patrol deputies, spending time with them on the road, finding out what makes them tick.  I have worked alongside detectives and coroners.  I have worked through some tough times with detention staff.  I have also begun working with officers of several other Law Enforcement agencies. 

Really, what it comes down to, I have become the cops Pastor.  This has all been on a volunteer, part time basis to which your leadership here at RAC has been very supportive of.  They have given me the freedom to spend as much time as needed as an extension of the ministry of Ronan Alliance Church to which I have been very grateful.  But, it has become increasingly evident that this Chaplain ministry can be and has become much more than part time.  As I have spent time with the leadership of several law enforcement agencies here in Lake County, I have found there to be a huge need for pastoral leadership within the law enforcement community. 

Thus he has decided to minister full time as chaplain of the Lake County Sheriff’s Chaplain. He plans to continue to hold his credentials as an Official Worker of the C&MA in the Rocky Mountain District and live in their present home in Ronan.

Let us join with him in prayer as he launches into this great opportunity and join the Ronan Alliance Church as they search for their next pastor.

Tim Owen

Dave Olson is a researcher who tracks church attendance. He has shown that currently only 17.7% of Americans are in any historic Christian church on an average weekend, down from 20.4% in 1990, and 18.7% in 2000. Church planting is the way to begin reversing this trend. Thanks for your prayer support helping us to make a difference in the Rocky Mountain District.

Missoula Downtown is Approved!!!

This month we are going to depart from our normal format and highlight a recently approved church plant. On February 27th the District Executive Committee approved the creative church plant strategy in Missoula, MT under the names: Zootown Brew and Downtown Alliance church. Zootown is the nickname for Missoula – just emphasize the middle syllable.

Scott & Jenny Klaudt are giving leadership to this launch. They have a lot going on and could use your faithful prayer support. Scott is finishing up his Masters Degree from Crown College Online. Jenny is working full time as an Esthetician and is about 3 months pregnant. Missoula Alliance Church (MAC) is their church home. MAC is supporting this effort financially, and by giving up some members to help gather a launch and volunteer team.

We shared with you last month that this effort requires outside funding of $150,000. This is a big ongoing request for this effort. Let me explain the plan. We will be renting a downtown store front location that was formerly a gallery. We need to do some renovations to this store and set it up as a coffee shop. There is a lot of equipment needed for a full service coffee shop and all of that equipment needs to be purchased and some of it built into the building.

Our hope is to open Zootown Brew on June first. This is contingent upon generous donors stepping up to help out. If you are interested in helping, you can send your checks to the Rocky Mountain District 2545 St. John’s Ave. Billings, MT 59102 labeled “Downtown Alliance”. Any donations will go 100% to this effort and are tax deductable, but don’t feel obligated. We are mostly counting on you for prayer!

After the coffee shop has been open for about six months, we will officially launch Downtown Alliance church in the same facility. By this time we hope to have a regular coffee crowd the workers know by name and can invite to come back to their favorite coffee shop for church on Sunday morning. Additionally, the shop will host bands on Friday and Saturday evenings when the college crowd is downtown. We hope to have a business meeting room for businesses to use during the week. There are a lot of ideas for making community connections.

This strategy is based on a model being used by the Muncie Alliance Church and their coffee ministry Alliance World Coffees. Since launching a coffee shop is new for us (and somewhat scary I might add) we would appreciate your prayer support. We have seen the strategy work well in connecting with a significant number of unchurched people.

We are asking God to confirm this launch strategy by inspiring His people to give to support this project. There have been many signs along the way that He seems to be directing this effort. Thanks for praying for His confirming direction.

Blessings, Gary & Kim Burdick

P.S. God did raise up 9 students for the Crown course – thanks for praying!!!

Julia Constance Clarke (5lbs 13oz, 19 inches)   Micah Justin Clarke (5lbs 12oz, 18.5 inches)
Born on January 25, 2008

We (Pastor Ryan & Katybeth) wish to thank all of you who have prayed for us, encouraged us, given us gifts, given us meals, thought about us, or loved on Julia & Micah.  Thank you!

Here is an update on the twins.  Both Julia and Micah are home from their 11 day stay at the hospital.  They are both growing and gaining weight.  Micah is still on a tiny bit of oxygen.  Both babies are still working on calming down to eat and eating enough.  Pray for Katybeth and I to adjust to the lack of sleep we are experiencing.

Pastor Ryan Clarke
Cheyenne Alliance Church
Children's Ministries
 

Richard and Jen Mullinax have received some news about their future with the Alliance mission.  They ask for your prayers. International Ministries has included them on the list of missionaries to have their deployment delayed by six months.  They now plan to leave Chester in January 2009.

They see this as a good news and somewhat bad news development. It is disappointing because they would like to be on their way to the field! It is good news in that it gives another six months for their newest son Arrow to grow and be ready for mom and dad to be in language school while he is in daycare. The delay also gives them more time to minister in Chester and prepare that church for their departure.

They do not yet know which country they will be sent to. They have been given two options: One is in Central America and the other is in Africa. Please be praying that they will have God’s wisdom as they reach the point of discerning God’s will for their future assignment.

They plan to go to Pre Field Orientation in June of this year.

Let’s support them in prayer for wisdom, patience and perseverance.

Tim Owen