The Power of Forgiveness | June 2020

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
-Matthew 6:12

Dear friends,

Our work at the youth center in Africa gives us so many opportunities to walk alongside those God puts in our path. A group of girls who play sports together at the youth center began meeting with our teammate, Assay, to discuss topics relevant to their lives. During a discussion on forgiveness, Assay asked the girls if there was anyone who had hurt them, but that they hadn’t yet forgiven. Many of the girls shared stories, but one girl, Heyab, who was 15 and in grade 9, began crying instead.

After the other girls had gone, Heyab stayed behind to tell Assay about her father. When Hayeb was young, her parents separated and so she had grown up without knowing her father. When she realized he was remarried, with another family, she began to hate him. Her mother tried to convince Heyab to forgive her father, but Heyab couldn’t do it. She said to her mother, “You are beautiful and a good person. How could he do this to us?” Her father sent them money and gifts on the holidays, but Heyab wouldn’t accept them. Sometimes her father came to visit, but Heyab refused to see him. Heyab didn’t want to forgive her father.

As they sat and talked, Heyab asked Assay how she could forgive someone who did something like this. And so, Assay shared her own story – a very similar story to the one Heyab had lived. Heyab couldn’t believe it! She hadn’t expected Assay to understand. Assay told her that if she wasn’t ready to forgive her father – it was okay. But she encouraged Heyab to think about the many fathers who left their families, didn’t think of them at all, didn’t help them at all, even if they did have money – men who just wanted to live their own lives. And to think of God, who had forgiven her.

The next week when they got together, Heyab said, “Assay, forgiveness is so hard. Even though you encouraged me to think about forgiving, I still hate him. I don’t even want to think about forgiving him.” They talked a little more, but Heyab headed home again, without forgiving.

Every day, our team meets for prayer and Assay had been sharing Heyab’s struggles to forgive, and we had been praying for her. Over the next few weeks, Assay was starting to get excited, because she could see that God was beginning to open Heyab’s heart.

A week later, Heyab came to Assay again. “Assay, you were right! There are such worse stories – we are lucky to have his love and support even though he has another family. And how can God forgive me, if I don’t forgive my father? I don’t know if I’m ready to talk to him, but I’m ready to forgive him.”

Assay told her, “You need to forgive him from your heart. I’m sure that God will help you.”

The next time her father called her mom, she said hello from Heyab.  After that, Heyab talked to him on the phone, herself, several times. After their fourth conversation, she finally decided to see him. Going with her mom, she sat down with her father and said that she forgave him. There was reconciliation!

Now whenever her father calls, or visits, she talks with him. Before the last holiday, her father bought her a really beautiful dress, and, for the first time, she accepted it. She is getting to know her two younger half-sisters.

The power of forgiveness has transformed Heyab’s life and provides a good example for the other girls, too.  Heyab has learned that forgiveness from the heart, starts first with understanding the heart of God and his unmerited grace, mercy, and forgiveness through the power and shadow of the cross.

Written by an EPC WO Global Worker

Community Life

Ask Pastor John

Can you forgive someone who has not confessed their wrongdoing towards you? Listen to John Piper’s explanation on how forgiveness is a fruit of our union to Christ.

Strength to Love

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love,” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Read more of this sermon, “Loving Your Enemies”, in his book Strength to Love.

Understanding Muslims

There are many resources avaliable on our website that offer opportunities to learn more about God’s heart for our Muslim neighbors and dispel myths about Islam.

Sharing the Love of Christ in the Midst of a Pandemic | May 2020

Dear friends,

When World Outreach missionaries move to another country or integrate themselves into a community to share the Gospel, they know the work can often look different and require a bit of creativity. During a global pandemic, when many countries are issuing stay-at-home orders, that need for ingenuity is heightened. We want to share the way three missionary units are working creatively to demonstrate and proclaim the love of Christ in these unique circumstances. 

J & F
J and F live in one of the poorest states of a large country in South Asia. For a few months now, their country has been on a strict lockdown; this has made ministry very difficult as they are not allowed to leave their home. The impact on the virus has been felt by all, but most strongly by the poor. These underprivileged communities have struggled not only to feed and care for their families, but also to get home to their own villages after working in the city. J and F have a good friend who is part of one of these communities and knows the struggles these families are experiencing because of the virus and lockdown. Working together, J, F, and their good friend raised money and provided food for 50-60 of these families.

Ln & Ls
For Ln and Ls, COVID-19 has opened opportunities to minister and share God’s love through medical care, even though their middle eastern country instituted stay-at-home orders which initially seemed to end opportunities. Normally, they run a medical clinic which offers free care for refugees, but when refugees were no longer permitted to leave their homes, the clinic closed. As Ln and Ls prayed, God showed them a way they could continue to care for their refugee community and reach them with the Word. They set up a system to purchase needed medicines, and local Arab Christians (who have more liberty of movement) volunteered to deliver them to refugee homes following protocols to stop contagion. This system keeps refugees safe within their homes and provides these local believers with opportunities to share the Gospel when delivering medication. Ln told WO, “The Lord is reaching them, providing for their needs, all in the name of Jesus Christ.”

S & A
In the Detroit area, S and A live and minister to a community of over 100,000 Bangladeshi Muslims. Last summer, The World Outreach Summer Mission Jam brought high school students from several EPC churches to work under S and A’s direction and serve this Bangladeshi community. Last month, S informed World Outreach that the pandemic had brought about a severe need for food and face masks – especially for 300 families who had arrived in the States just prior to the pandemic. The EPC reacted quickly and sent emergency relief funds to S and A. At the same time, church sewing groups got to work making face masks. These donations allowed S and A to quickly organize food and mask distributions to the neediest families. When these Muslim families learned that the masks and food were from Christian churches (the same churches who had sent their kids to serve last year!) – there was a tremendous response of thankfulness. S says that many of his friends now have a whole new perspective on Christianity. 

So as the country re-opens, let us celebrate that the Gospel was never bound by restrictions or social-distancing. In fact, even now, the Gospel breaks down barriers and moves beyond limitations, all to the Glory of God. 

Community Life

EPConnection

Read the EPConnection articleabout local EPC church sewing groups answering the call for face masks in Michigan. 

SMJ: Replanted

Summer Jam events in Hamtramck and Sacramento have been cancelled in light of COVID-19. While we cannot gather together this summer, we’re challenging our churches to reach out in their own neighborhoods – and we’d like to help you in this outreach. Read our flyer for more information.

Revival in the Midst of a Pandemic

Read this article from Asia Harvest giving witness to God’s work in China and the stirring of a revival.

GROW-ing the Gospel | September 2019

Dear friends,

Amina* was desperate, alone, and vulnerable.  Sharing a tiny Beirut apartment with several other families and separated from a husband searching for work in Turkey, she needed a safe place to leave her child while she looked for work. Somehow, she found the GROW Center, a preschool designed for the children of the most desperate – single mothers, migrant domestic workers, and refugees.

The GROW Center employs local Christian women who boldly exhibit the love of Christ. The Center’s teachers use Bible stories, Christian songs, and prayer time to share Christ and His love. While students develop cognitively, socially, and spiritually, parents receive positive mentoring from a social worker and staff, and the whole family receives quality health care and training from a nurse. Since the Center is staffed by local Christian women (some of them Syrian refugees themselves), it’s also training women how to run a business in their own country.

When Amina arrived and told her story she was overjoyed to hear that yes, there was a spot for her daughter in the two-year-old class. And then the Coordinator asked to pray for Amina in the name of Jesus Christ – for a job, an apartment of her own, and a job for her husband in Beirut, so they could be a family again. Amina, a Muslim, felt the love of Christ as she listened intently to the prayer. Several months later, she came back into the Coordinator’s office, beaming, to share the good news: a job for her, a job for her husband, and an apartment for the family!  The power of answered prayer brought her husband to the Center later, where he too received prayer in Jesus’ name.

The GROW Center’s founder, Dr. Robert Hamd of EPC World Outreach, says Amina’s story shows how the Center’s early childhood development programs and adult mentoring programs make a huge gospel impact on the Syrian refugees, migrant workers, and underserved Lebanese communities of Beirut.
Our vision is to replicate GROW Centers in other underserved areas of Lebanon; we believe investing in early childhood development and adult mentoring makes good missional sense. If you would like to learn more about Philemon Project’s GROW Center ministry, check out www.thephilemonproject.org or email philemonproject@me.com.

*Amina’s name changed to protect identity
Written in coordination with Dr. Robert Hamd

Read past issues here.

Community Life

GROW Center Update

To learn more about the Philemon Project and their GROW Center ministry, read their summer update by clicking the button below!

Support the GROW Center

If Amina and Yurina’s story resonates with you, we’d encourage you to consider supporting the Philemon Project as they work to replicate the GROW Center and impact more families with the love of Christ. Click the button to give.

Pray for the Syrian Refugees of Lebanon

If you feel called to pray for the Syrian Refugees of Lebanon or are interested in learning more, take a look at our prayer card. We would be happy to send these to you to pass out to friends and church members, as well. Simple click the button to email us.

A Privileged Opportunity | August 2019

Dear friends,

S* has become one of my closest friends, a man who inspires me with his example of living missionally. I first met S and A, his wife, in August 2015, while preaching at Faith Church. I noticed this South Asian family enter the back of the sanctuary and made a point to seek them out after the service and learn about their story. Breakfast later that week began a journey of getting to know one another, becoming dear friends, and serving together in God’s mission.

S and A are Bangladeshi immigrants that model a missional lifestyle by reaching out in friendship, service, and with the gospel to the many Muslim immigrants around them in metro-Detroit. By the time I met them, S had already shared the gospel with hundreds of Muslims, led a handful from Yemen and Bangladesh to faith in Christ, and started Bible studies with new believers and interested Muslims.

When talking with S at breakfast in August 2015, he expressed that he was called by God to reach the Muslim immigrants where he lived and plant churches among them, but he didn’t want to do it independently; he wanted to be connected and accountable to the church. S had already served as a missionary with Wycliffe, planted two house churches in Bangladesh, and led many Muslims within metro-Detroit to faith in Christ. Was there a place for him in the EPC? I was committed to finding one.

S and A became members of Faith Church (EPC) and, under the oversight of our Session, were commissioned to start a movement of house churches among the Muslim peoples of Detroit. Faith Church and sister churches of our presbytery began working alongside S and A by teaching English, visiting in Muslim homes, helping with service projects, and sharing the gospel. We were blessed to work alongside S and A and graciously challenged by their missionary way of life. 

During this time, God burdened S with the plight of Rohingya refugees. He made several trips to Bangladesh to visit them in their squalid conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp. In the last few years, S has helped dozens of Muslims come to faith in Christ, baptized many new believers in Bangladesh, started three house churches in Bangladesh, one in Detroit, and plans to establish another in Windsor, Ontario (across the river from Detroit) before the end of 2019. Recognizing God’s calling, EPC World Outreach appointed S and A as missionaries, splitting their time between metro-Detroit and Bangladesh.

Is there a place for him in the EPC? Yes. Absolutely! But he doesn’t tick the traditional boxes. He’s an immigrant who hasn’t been to the traditional schools. He’s learning American and EPC culture and needs people to champion his ministry and open doors to churches for him. But S and A are some of the most faithful disciples of Jesus I have ever met. I pray EPC churches will see the gift God has given them in S and A, celebrate their ministry, and support it so that the gospel continues to “ring out through them” in Detroit, Windsor, and Bangladesh (1 Thess 1:8). It is a privileged opportunity to join with them in what God is doing here and around the world.

*Names removed for safety and security.

By Steven Sage, former Senior Pastor of Faith Church, Rochester Hills, Michigan

 

Community Life

Summer Mission Jam Reflection

In early July, students and youth leaders participated in EPC World Outreach’s first Summer Mission Jam. Watch this video and hear  from them as they reflect on the trip and how it impacted their thinking. For the safety and security of our global partners, this video is password secured. Click the button below to request the password.

Support Sh and An

If S and A’s story resonates with you and you would like to support them as they spread the Gospel in metro-Detroit and Bangladesh, click the button below.

Pray for the Rohingya in Bangladesh

The Rohingya are a stateless, unreached people group residing in three countries, including Bangladesh. If you feel called to pray for them, or are interested in learning more, take a look at our prayer card. We would be happy to send you several of these cards, to pass out to friends and church members, as well. Simply email us below.

Fruitful Work in Kazakhstan | July 2019

Dear friends,

Two EPC World Outreach church-planting teams began work in the former Soviet Union in the mid-1990s. One team planted Holy Trinity Church in southwestern Siberia. The other team planted a presbytery of churches in Kazakhstan – now known as the Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC). In March of this year these two church-planting streams converged in a wonderful way, and EPC World Outreach’s Ed and Nan McCallum were there to see it. 

For the past six years EPC World Outreach’s International Theological Education Network (ITEN) has partnered with Holy Trinity Church’s Reformed Bible School to train students to understand the whole story of the Bible, interpret it within its context, and apply it to seeking the lost. Just before Holy Trinity Church was received into the ERC, eighteen students from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan came to Holy Trinity for two intensive seminary classes – Theology 1 (taught by the director of Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary in Riga, Latvia), and Church Planting and Development (taught by Ed and Nan McCallum). This convergence of theology and church-planting was a wonderful picture of ITEN’s core mission – to train trainers who will equip their own people to live on mission for the Glory of God among the unreached. 

Holy Trinity and the other churches of the ERC are in many ways the children of EPC World Outreach. But they are adult children who dream of birthing their own children. ITEN has committed to partner with them in this “full-cycle church-planting”. Holy Trinity Church is working to launch an online classroom using Third Millenium’s Russian-language curriculum, and now has an experienced church-planter on staff focused on outreach to their neighbors with least access to the gospel. And the ERC churches in Kazakhstan are starting a network of house churches. This is reformed theology at its best – deep roots and strong, fruit-laden branches.

By Ed and Nan McCallum, ITEN Associate for Site and Program Management & ITEN Program Assistant

Community Life

More about the Kazakhstan Ministry

If you are interested in following the Kazakhstan ministry and learning how you can support our brothers and sisters in Christ through prayer, sign-up to receive Azim’s monthly email, as he and his family serve faithfully in this way. You can also watch this video to learn more about this ministry.

Give to the ERCK Project

If you feel called to support the development of the ERC in Kazakhstan as they continue to grow disciples, you can do so by clicking below.

Pray for the Tatar of Russia

The Tatar of Russia are an unreached people group in 11 countries, including Kazakhstan. To learn more about the Tatar, you can view our prayer card. If interested, we would be happy to send you several of these cards, to pass out to friends and church members. Simply email us below.

Musings from Syria | March 2019

Dear friends,

What would it take for you to stay in Syria over the past seven years?

I found myself silently asking that question…of myself…during a recent visit to Syria. I was there with the Outreach Foundation. A group that grew from Presbyterian roots and continues to partner with Reformed and Presbyterian ministries around the world.

Unknown to many, Syria was a mission field of the Presbyterians way back in the mid-1800s. As a result, a group of about 35 Presbyterian churches split between Lebanon and is there today. We were there to visit those churches in Syria, expressing solidarity and partnership from their US Presbyterian brothers and sisters.

Our group met in Beirut, drove straight to Damascus and immediately hopped a small plane to the far northeast of the country, a town called Qamishli. Arriving there, I learned that Qamishli is the “new town” version of Nisibis—an ancient center of theology and spirituality of the Church of the East. Though the Christian community is small there today, the roots of Christianity in Qamishli date to shortly after Pentecost.

Pastor Firas met us at the Qamishli airport, leading his American friends through a maze of Syrian onlookers, surprised no doubt to see so many American faces in a land that had so long been deprived of foreign visitors.

Pastor Firas caught my attention from the start. I suppose part of that was because he was a graduate of the seminary where I taught in Lebanon. Though he graduated before I arrived, I was still eager to see the fruit of that seminary. I discovered he and his wife were both from another town, closer to the capital, but had moved to this remote area because the church there needed a pastor. In fact, there were three churches in the area that needed a pastor and, yes, he served all three, driving the hour plus to the two other churches to offer preaching, sacraments, and pastoral care.

Pastor Firas Farah and his wife, Silva

He stayed through the war, raising his two sons in the midst of it all. His lovely wife served us and the people of her church with contagious joy. Pastor Firas with his quick humor, easy-going smile, and proven commitment to his people, had won their undying loyalty.

Though half of the congregation left Syria during the recent crisis, the rest carried on, anticipating that more would join in…that the church of Jesus would not die, but live and fulfill its mission in Syria. We hoped our visit might encourage that outlook of faith.

More than anything else, their mission has been staying.

Of course, “staying” does not qualify as “mission” in every place, but in northern Syria, in the aftermath of the bloody Syrian crisis at the hands of ISIS and other factions, staying is a step of courage, close to defiance. They rejected an easy escape route to hold forth the hope of the gospel in their homeland. “Staying” has been their mission and I hope others will “go” to join them.

“Mission.” I went to Syria looking for how the church was engaging in mission. As often happens to me when engaging with the Middle Eastern church, my categories were stretched and my vision enlarged. I think the church would say that all they did – the kid’s clubs, the school they operated (900+ kids with 95% of the student body being Muslim), the weekly cycle of meetings for prayer and Bible study – they would say all of it is their mission. The people of the Qamishli Presbyterian Church are constantly face-to-face with Muslims – Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, and others. They are their neighbors, colleagues, clients, and friends.

I’m glad those Presbyterians back in the 1800s had the foresight to plant churches in Syria. While the media portrays Syria as a post-war waste-land, I discovered abundant life there, like Easter flowers pushing through a crusty topsoil. There are communities ministering to their society, tempering evil, offering hope, preaching a gospel of reconciliation for all. Staying in Syria.

by Mike Kuhn, ITEN Specialist for Missional Theology and Practice

Community Life

Syrian Refugee Relief Fund

EPC has launched an emergency relief fund to help Syrian refugees with their physical and spiritual needs. To learn more about this fund, click here.

A Presbyterian Mandate

Discover how the history of Reformed missionaries in the Middle East provides both a platform and a clarion call to invite Muslims to follow Jesus.

Syria Trip Blog

Mike and the Outreach Foundation team have a lot more to say about their trip to Syria. You can access the team blog here to read more about their visit.