mosaic is a community forum of local and global voices united by a shared mission. mosaic will serve as a catalyst to stimulate and encourage passionate discipleship among Canadian Baptists and their partners.
Thanks for Your Gift!
Far off the tourist trail, boys collect firewood to cook a meal – one dish, no meat, milk or dessert. Living in interior Rwanda, they’re ignored by most, except the church that’s here, working for change.
This past year, through our Hope-Full Gifts Catalogue, you gave over $220,000 to support a wide variety of needs around the world. Your #1 gift choice was a goat (providing families struggling in extreme poverty with a way to earn income, have better nutrition with milk and/ or meat, and even compost for more nutrient-rich soil). Other popular gift items included vaccinations and seeds and tools kits. Look for our new Christmas 2008 Catalogue coming this September for more great gift ideas. Besides the impact overseas, the catalogue has reached into communities here in Canada. On the back cover (Grassroots Hero) there’s one of many letters we’ve received from churches and individuals who have started to use the catalogue in some very creative ways.
mosaic is published four times a year by Canadian Baptist Ministries. Copies are distributed free of charge. Bulk quantities available by request.
Contact us at: 7185 Millcreek Drive Mississauga, ON L5N 5R4
Tel: 905.821.3533
mosaic@cbmin.org www.cbmin.org
Managing Editor: Jennifer Lau
Editor: Laurena Zondo
5 c ontents
Page 10
ethically speaking
Page 4
Weighing in on the global food crisis
feature
Page 6
Tourist or Traveller
The Journey of Global Discipleship
Going on a Mission Trip: Is it right for you?
special insert
Page 11
2007 Year in Review
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, together we make an impact around the world.
Page 15
Signs of Hope
Page 16
Hunger for Change
Page 19
Love Retains
Page 20 Life on the Highway
Page 22
The Way I See It
Page 24
Grassroots Hero: Thank you for your gift!
Mission of Canadian Baptist Ministries
Encouraging passionate discipleship for local and global mission.
Canadian Baptist Ministries is a federation of Conventions and Unions in witness and service.
On the cover
Photo credit: Laurena Zondo.
1 editor’s message
Why do you keep changing the layout of mosaic?
The old one was pretty good.
Have your voice heard… and win a mosaic reusable tote!
That’s the question we get from our boss Gary every time we do a redesign (or at least some tweaking of layout). It may be something our readers are asking as well. We think there’s actually a good reason behind this change, and we truly hope you like it.
At mosaic, we seek to tell stories in a way that helps Canadian Baptists think, pray and respond in a complex world. Just like in our own faith journeys, everything organically evolves and grows over time.
Our world changes constantly and so does the way we respond to it.
When we started mosaic over 5 years ago, CBM was predominantly a mission sending board. Over time, CBM has evolved into a mission agency. In response, mosaic has shifted its perspective and the issues on which it focuses. While we still share stories from our Global Field Staff, we also seek to provide a forum for voices from our international partners. We think our new layout helps us communicate all these stories just a little bit better.
You know we always want to hear from you, our faithful mosaic readers. Now we’re providing you with a little bit more incentive!
Send us a story or photo about how you or your church is reaching out in your community. The 10 best entries will receive a handy mosaic tote, made from recycled plastic. You might also see your submission featured in an upcoming issue.
Email your entries along with your name, phone number and mailing address to communications@ cbmin.org, subject line mosaic bag contest” or send it to us the old-fashioned way at: CBM, 7185 Millcreek Drive, Mississauga, ON L5N 5R4 ATTN: Communications Department.
Contest closes September 30, 2008. All submitted items will not be returned. Winners will be contacted by mail.
We hope you’re encouraged by this issue on Global Discipleship. Several stories feature people who have responded in unique ways to needs in their community. We hope you are similarly challenged to live out your faith in a local and global context.
Enjoy the stories and new design. We think we got it right – for now. Please keep your comments and suggestions coming. We love hearing from you and discovering the issues in which you and your church are engaged.
Weighing in on the global food crisis
This year’s high food and fuel prices will push over 1 billion people into famine or malnutrition. Current prices mean that the world’s poorest people have to spend a larger proportion of their income on food. As a result, families are forced to eat less and buy cheaper, less nutritious food.
Canada
traveller to
photo credit: Carla Nelson
The Journey of Global Discipleship
by Gary Nelson
traveller ouri s
t“ I was in rapt attention as the strange and eerie bug crawled out of the hole above my head...”
Not prone to appreciating bugs, my skin crawled for the rest of the night as I fitfully covered my head with the covers. I would have preferred the Hilton and much more comfortable surroundings. I should have been a tourist and not a traveller.
I have since come to realize that discipleship is a lot like that – a choice between being a tourist or a traveller. The decision implicates everything. We pack differently, our expectations vary and even what we expect in accommodations and comfort is affected by that one decision.
In Kenya, much of my time is spent in places where most tourists do not go. Occasionally, we have tea at the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi. This stately relic of the past has a wonderful terrace that overlooks the parking area where safari tours depart and return. Visitors alight from their vans and Land Cruisers, dressed in the khaki safari wear they purchased at the local mall before they left for the trip.
These are the tourists. Their driving tours to the Masai Mara are designed to avoid the more obvious poverty stricken areas of the city, such as the Mathare Valley and Kibera, where almost 2 million people live in horrendous conditions. Tourists would be appalled, but most of them never see the Nairobi and Kenya we have come to know because they have been guided away from those sights. They leave Kenya thinking they have seen the country, but in truth, their experience was mediated. It was almost an illusion, a make-believe and controlled world shaped for them as a virtual reality.
Tourism, at its best, is always comfortable and convenient. A friend of
“ When Jesus introduced us to the idea of following Him it was more than a spiritual notion.”
mine told me that when he goes into the Hilton in a foreign country, he expects the hotel to be just like home. It is rumored that when Conrad Hilton opened his hotel in Istanbul, he made the comment that “Each of our hotels is a little bit of America.” After moments in a strange territory, tourists can return to the atmosphere that makes them feel safe and secure in its familiarity.
These tourists sign up for tours at group rates that allow the trip to be less costly to the individual. And the tourists get what they pay for. For a reasonable and minimal investment, they get a minimal experience where their stereotypes are confirmed and perhaps even heightened. They taste the other
world, but they never immerse themselves deeply enough to truly understand it. It is a pseudo-adventure of affirmed assumptions and realized expectations.
On the other hand, travelling brings a degree of discomfort, risk and personal investment to even make the trip possible. It risks health, personal comfort and pushes the traveller to think outside the lines of his or her stereotypes and assumptions. It immerses them in the colour and rhythms of the real places being visited. The gain for the traveller is an expanded world, an adventure of surprises and a deeper appreciation for the people encountered.
My fear is that many people treat faith and discipleship as tourists on a
spiritual tour. It is like a foreign country they have heard about and would like to be able to say they have visited. So, like any tourist hoping for a good experience, they choose the sights they want to see and even make some strange purchases to help create memories. They are, however, unlikely to get on the bus if they think the journey they are about to take will involve risk or inconvenience.
A tour might seem the best way to go on the journey of following Christ into the world. After all, it at least gives a taste of the journey to follow Jesus, but it does not risk traveller’s indigestion and inconvenience. You can keep all your prejudices, assumptions and rhythms without having to make drastic alterations to either the church or your individual faith. Your security and safety are still rooted in the familiar and there is little risk for deep change. There is also minimal impact.
When Jesus introduced us to the idea of following Him it was more than a spiritual notion. It was a call to live out those possibilities of life in Him with reckless abandon. When CBM talks about Global Discipleship this is what we mean. It is a call to be a traveller – one whose life is deeply changed and altered not just in the habits of church attendance and participation, but in all aspects of life. It is to do nothing less than what we expected of those we’ve sent overseas for hundreds of years. Dallas Willard says that disciples are those who, intending to become like Jesus from the inside out, rearrange their affairs to that end, under the guidance of the Word and the Spirit.
Longing for God and the Things of God
Christian spirituality is a holy longing for God that reveals itself not simply in cognitive understandings of God, nor even just in experiential encounters. It comes to its deepest fruition when it mirrors a passionate quest to see the things of God actualized in the world. For example, our motivation for justice is not simply because of ideology. It’s because we have experienced justice from God and therefore we can do nothing less for others.
photo credit: Canadian Foodgrains Bank
Discipleship is obedience emerging out of our encounter with God. It is a response to something that has happened to happen to us. Borderland spirituality shapes this experience further in the knowledge that God is already at work in the world around us. We are being flung out into the world only to join God in the work that is already taking place. When we encounter the living God, a radical reorientation occurs because of it. We move from tourism to a risky life as a traveller. Travelling with Jesus requires a radical attachment from simply a belief in Jesus to a practical living out of the things that Jesus believed in. This results in a whole new way of living in our world as we practice responsible kingdom living. True spirituality will always contain at its core the living out of the presence of Jesus who makes obedience possible.
Here are some characteristics that capture what it means to be a global disciple:
A global disciple understands that to know Jesus is to follow Him into the world.
A global disciple is never satisfied with where they are, but seeks to move deeper into their attachment to Jesus Christ, realizing that to do so will mean alterations of lifestyle and attitudes.
A global disciple is as equally concerned with the lostness of human kind as they are with the systemic evil of poverty and the marginalization of people and therefore is involved in evangelism and ministries of compassion and justice.
A global disciple realizes that as Westerners we are the privileged in respect to global economics and therefore alters their life accordingly.
A global disciple is willing to be inconvenienced, desiring to see the “other” more than themselves.
1 2 3 4 5
Global Discipleship is to walk in the way of Jesus, who Paul tells us “being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant...he humbled himself…” (Phil. 2: 6-8)
By the way, I found the bug in my suitcase when I got home…I should have been a tourist.
Rev. Dr. Gary Nelson is the General Secretary of CBM. Editor’s note: Portions of this article are adapted from a new book entitled Borderland Churches: A Congregation’s Introduction to Missional Living authored by Gary Nelson and published by Chalice Press. The book will be coming out in December 2008
photo credit: Malcolm Card
Going on a Mission Trip:
Is it right for you?
by Carmin MacMillan, CBM’s Manager of Strategic Projects
It’s a growing phenomenon. Within the last five years, the number of participants on our short-term mission (STM) trips has more than doubled. Here are five things that will make a CBM STM experience distinct and meaningful for everyone involved:
1. See for yourself
Canadian churches desire more contact with the people and programs they support through prayer and donations. Whether it is watching Global Field Staff in action or seeing the impact made on communities through development programs, our participants are interested in first-hand knowledge.
2. Learn from international partners
CBM emphasizes the creation of multinational teams of Field Staff. This means
that our participants have the opportunity to learn from local church partners and see the place, context and culture through their eyes. It serves to deepen the experience. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to hiring additional staff in countries where STM is growing.
3. Every short-term project is unique
One of the major differences in the way CBM does short-term mission trips is in our approach. We work to make the STM program just one aspect of our partners’ ministry strategy, not a strategy in and of itself. So, when a team signs up to do a project in a specific place, they are taking part in a project that has been defined as a priority for the partner (we don’t just come up with a project for the sake of the STM team!).
4. Use your skills
Individuals in our Canadian Baptist churches want to use their gifts and talents overseas. While we emphasize going with a ‘learning’ attitude, there are some opportunities for professionals to use their experience in serving our partners. These projects can be quite diverse and more complicated to arrange, but generally very beneficial in the end. In the past year, we have sent teachers, pastors, medical practitioners and electricians – just to name a few!
5. Be well prepared
We are improving the methods through which we prepare our volunteers before they go. Meeting with people for an orientation in a location convenient to them, in addition to providing tools for spiritual preparation and working in a cross-cultural context, CBM goes ‘the extra mile’ when it comes to making sure volunteers are well prepared. This year, we look forward to launching our new STM training material, which features additional resources for leaders, as well as group activities to better assist in team building and learning.
Of special importance right now:
China (July 2009):
Groups needed to teach English at a summer camp.
Approx. $3,000 per person
Lebanon (Summer 2009):
Groups needed to facilitate children’s VBS camps.
Approx. $3,000 per person
Rwanda (Summer & Fall 2009):
Groups needed to complete school reconstruction projects
Approx. $3,600 per person
Do we think the short-term mission program will continue to grow? Absolutely. However, we see short-term mission as just one aspect of Global Discipleship. Our challenge for the future is to help those who have returned from an STM learn how the experience relates to their overall spiritual journey, and not see it as a ‘one-time event’. We want to serve God by helping create Global Disciples – not ‘mission-trip junkies’!
Check the CBM website or email stm@cbmin.org for a list of trips available. We have opportunities from two weeks up to two years. Please call us at 905.821.3533 if you have areas of specific interest.
Happy to Be in School in Rwanda: Through the generous donations of Canadian Baptists – and some sweat and hard work of CBM short-term teams this past year – these students are enjoying their new dorm, having a better quality of life while attending high school. Their school is one of 47 primary and secondary schools operated by the Association of Baptist Churches of Rwanda. They offer the chance of an education to those who would otherwise lack access, especially in poor, rural areas. But many of these schools remain in serious need of repairs and resources. Discover how you can make a real difference through a short-term mission trip!
Bringing people t o g e t h e r for integral mission
At CBM we believe in partnership –with the local church, denominational partners, international partners and every Canadian Baptist who seeks to respond to the needs of a broken world. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, together we make an impact around the world through word and deed.
Here are some highlights of how we served together in the past year:
Grassroots Leadership Development
Bringing Christ to live among the poor:
The recent rise in basic food prices around the world and the resulting riots in Asian, African and Latin American countries are a painful reminder that the spectre of hunger is a growing threat to the lives of the poor. The Sharing Way (TSW) launched Hunger for Change, a 3-year campaign intended to increase awareness and raise funds for programs related to food security. TSW also added two national team members. Ana Salomao Canga serves as Development Officer in Angola and Gender Specialist for Africa. Rev. Gato Munyamasoko is the Rwandan Development Ministries Leader and Reconciliation/Peacebuilding Specialist for Africa.
Building Christ-like people and relevant churches:
In the midst of social and ethnic strife, our global partners are finding culturally appropriate ways to train new leaders. Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut is joining hands with six other Arab –speaking seminaries to offer satellite transmission for the training of pastors and evangelists in the Middle East. The Bolivian Baptist Seminary in Cochabamba has designed its first-year, entry level program around spiritual formation and mission. The Rwandan Baptists have relocated their seminary into the capital city of Kigali in order to train urban lay leaders. Kalimantan Theological Seminary has established ten satellite theological schools throughout Indonesia. These satellite schools now provide seminary education to 150 students.
Sustainable Community Development
Pioneer Outreach
Being open to God and all He wants us to be:
The Short-Term Mission department facilitated the experiences of 475 people in 16 countries. Two new STEP (Serving, Training, Energizing Partnerships) countries, India and Indonesia, were launched. Several of our National Field Staff and International Partners visited Canada to speak in STEP churches across the country. Justice Initiatives has developed a new advocacy campaign called the Live It Out Challenge, which will be launched in August. It will help encourage Canadian Baptists to live simply, justly and faithfully in a world of disparity.
Nurturing friendship, trust and community in Christ:
We continue to make the appointment of National Field Staff a priority. Vasil Vasiliev (Czech Republic), Suraj Komaravalli (India) and Dr. Pothuraju Judson (India), joined CBM in the past year. Our national workers help us to more effectively reach local communities through their knowledge of culture and language. We appointed Pak Loh as Chinese Ministry Team Leader to help network Chinese congregations within Canada and Asia. Our Global Field Staff helped provide food relief and shelter to displaced families following postelection violence in Kenya.
Global Discipleship
Signs of Hope
by Coleen Steeves
There are an estimated 600,000 deaf people in Kenya. They are isolated and marginalized and often have major communication difficulties because of language barriers. Many have no formal education and as a result become some of the poorest of the poor.
At the age of 6, Boniface Muriithi became deaf as the result of an untreated chronic ear infection. Fortunately for Boniface, he was taken to a school for the deaf, where he was immersed in deaf culture and became fluent in sign language.
When he was 16 years old, he regained his hearing through the replacement of his inner eardrum. He went on to technical high school and even studied at the United World Mission in the U.S., where he received diplomas in deaf church planting and leadership development.
Boniface has remained committed to working with the deaf. For the past 18 years, he has worked in several African countries in different capacities, training and teaching deaf leadership development and micro-enterprise.
While he was attending Daystar University in Kenya he shared his dream
Boniface Muriithi, one of the founders and current manager of the ABC Deaf Community Training Centre.
of starting a deaf school with two friends, Titus Kiilu and Francis Muoki. The school would offer training in leadership development, fine arts and business in a Christian environment.
They received encouragement and support from Sam Mutisya, The Sharing Way’s Development Coordinator for Africa, and Bishop Ngala of the Africa Brotherhood Church (ABC), who had been praying for many years about reaching the deaf.
Today, Boniface is the Manager of the ABC Deaf Community Training Centre, which offers a two-year program for young people aged 15 and up. Students board at the school in Machakos. American Sign Language is their first language and English is their second. Other programs offered include Bible class, computer training, tailoring, agro-forestry, carpentry and HIV and AIDS-awareness training. Many have become effective peer educators.
Samuel is one such young leader. During our visit to his school, he presented a powerful and moving poem that he wrote, expressing thanks to God for his life. “I feel so happy when presenting HIV and AIDS awareness to people,” he expressed through his translator, Boniface. “I can teach both hearing and deaf about the causes and preventative measures of this deadly disease. Now I am not living a hopeless, but a hopeful life. Above all, thanks to my creator who has taken me this far.”
Boniface now dreams of establishing a deaf awareness program to educate the hearing community on the leadership capacities of the deaf and to see more churches planted for the deaf. One church already meets in the ABC church office and is attended by both the students and 20 deaf adults from the community.
The deaf in Kenya continue to face great stigma, notes Boniface. “A typical deaf person can actually feel closer to foreign deaf people than to their own hearing blood relatives. They do not function in the native language around them and consider themselves to be part
of a unique cultural-linguistic group. The majority (over 95%) marry another deaf person. Many will leave their biological ‘hearing’ family to join a deaf community.
To help reduce the isolation and stigma, the ABC Deaf Community Training Centre facilitates meetings with parents to better inform them about deaf culture and even teaches them a few signs so they can communicate with their children. An integrated worship program has also been organized with the local ABC church so that the hearing and the deaf can worship and fellowship together.
My heart has been deeply touched by the Kenyans that I met on my short-term mission trip. I realize there is much we can learn from each other. Communication barriers can be broken and bridges built as we work together in unity with the Spirit. I am so thankful to my Lord and Saviour for this lifechanging journey, and I am looking forward to where He will lead me next.
The ABC Deaf Community Training Centre is one of the unique projects supported by Guardians of Hope, an initiative of CBM and our international church partners. Guardians of Hope are confronting the stigma of HIV and AIDS, helping to care for those most affected by this pandemic, and providing a future through prevention and awareness efforts. Become a Guardian of Hope. Go online at www.cbmin.org
130%
From March 2007 to March 2008 the prices of the above commodities rose by the percentages indicated.
by Gordon King Director of The Sharing Way
Hunger. Real hunger that threatens lives. This is one of the most frightening realities of our time and place in history. I was in Kenya this past May for the first class of a new integral mission course being offered by CBM and Carey Theological College. Our group consisted of church-based development workers from Africa, Bolivia and India. They all spoke of the growing threat of hunger because of the dramatic spike in basic food prices.
The UN produced a list of the 22 most endangered countries. The countries named include Bolivia, Indonesia and Kenya. These countries are particularly vulnerable because they already suffer from chronic hunger and are dependent on imported food. These countries are places where Canadian Baptists have church partners who serve people that live in extreme poverty. Our commitment to partnership and the depth of our compassion will be tested in the coming months.
The BBC recently provided statistics that illustrate the challenge of the poor merely to survive in a globalized world that experiences increasing levels of hunger.
Like most pressing issues, there is no single cause and no easy answer. However, the artificial manipulation of the price of “futures” of food commodities on international markets deserves the attention of economists who bring a sense of social justice to their work. There is something inherently evil in the work of those who inflate commodity prices in order to reap personal or institutional wealth while the poor are pushed to the edge.
Is it hopeless? No. A group of agricultural specialists believe that the greatest gains in crop production can come from the millions of families who intensively farm small holdings of land. The combination of sustainable agriculture techniques, availability of credit, and micro-irrigation projects can dramatically increase their production. The Sharing Way is committed to this challenge as part of our service to God and the poor.
: What are the primary causes of this spike in food prices?
Monique : There are a number of factors that converge into what has been called a perfect storm.
1 Climate change has created inconsistencies in temperatures and rainfall patterns. This has particularly affected tropical countries, but also major grain-exporting countries like Australia. Crop yields in many places have declined.
2 The high price of oil is dramatically affecting the cost of agricultural inputs like fertilizer. The cost to transport food from exporting to importing countries is similarly spiking prices.
3 The introduction of government subsidized bio-fuels has resulted in increases in certain types of crops for fuel production. Massive areas of agricultural land in developing countries are being converted to biofuel crops for export to Northern countries, diverting choice lands away from food to feed the world’s growing population.
Facing the Food Crisis: What lies ahead and how can we respond?
: How serious is the problem of food prices?
Monique : I would say that it is very serious. There have been violent demonstrations in developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Hungry people are desperate people. I would like to clarify one important point. The food crisis is not just about availability, but also about access: the main factor being the exponential rise in food prices. In many areas the poor cannot afford to eat even a diet of basic nutrition.
An
interview with Monique de Moor, The Sharing Way Program Coordinator.
4 The increased wealth of India and China’s expanding middle classes has led to a change in diets, notably in increased meat consumption. It takes an average of 10 units of plant protein to produce 1 unit of meat protein. Increased meat consumption in these two countries has diverted more grains into pork, chicken and beef production.
5 The world has reached 6.5 billion people. Ultimately it is becoming increasingly difficult to feed this level of population without changing the way we live.
: Is there hope?
Monique : There is a great deal of hope. In Africa I have seen unproductive land be turned into flourishing farms with water
Getting to market is an arduous, long task. After walking a few kilometres up and down steep hills with her load of bananas, she’ll catch a ride on the back of a large truck to get to a nearby village. After all her effort, she hopes to be able to sell all of her bananas and earn a couple of dollars. But will it be enough to buy some rice or beans today?
photo credit: Laurena Zondo
and agro-forestry techniques. However, the great hope for increased food production is not with the large mechanized farms of the Northern hemisphere nor in the green revolution farms of the Southern hemisphere.
The greatest gains in crop production will come from working with small land-holding farmers in developing countries. They have the potential to make dramatic gains in production using sustainable techniques, including organic soil enrichment, drought-resistant agriculture, rain water harvesting and micro-irrigation techniques, and soil conservation measures.
: Can Canadian Baptists play a role?
Monique : Definitely. The Sharing Way has sustainable agriculture programs in Bolivia, El Salvador, Kenya, Rwanda, Angola, India, and hopefully soon, Indonesia. These programs all work to boost the production of small producers through training, micro-credit, and water projects.
I think that I also need to add that we are concerned about growing hunger issues in East Africa. The Sharing Way will probably need to work with the Africa Brotherhood Church and the Somali program to provide food aid to the most vulnerable sectors of the population. We call this targeted food aid. We will work with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and take advantage of 4:1 matching funds from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
We have many programs in need of the continued support of Canadian Baptists. But there’s also another important way to become involved. In August, CBM is launching an initiative on justice and faith called Live It Out It’s about living out our faith in a world of disparity and complexity. It is about being faithful to God and a conscientious global citizen.
photo credit: Dennis Shierman
Love Retains
Humble beginnings. Huge legacy.
The story behind Rev. Andrew and Linda Wong and Toronto Chinese Baptist Church
by Amy Cheung
community and for God to bring a pastor to their small Chinese congregation. Andrew’s name was brought up.
After graduation, Linda worked with a pastor who founded Ambassadors for Christ (AFC), an organization which ministers to overseas Chinese students. He decided to open an office in Toronto and sent Linda to help establish it.
God’s answer to prayer. In the 1960’s, the pastor of Beverley Street Baptist Church for Russian/Finnish Christians near Toronto’s Chinatown had a growing burden for the Chinese in the neighbourhood. He started praying for an opportunity to reach out to these people.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a young mission-minded man, Andrew Wong, was sent to Malaysia as a missionary while his girlfriend Linda went to the U.S. to study. During Andrew’s time in Malaysia he established close contact with a Christian family at the church where he was serving. This family later emigrated to Toronto and started attending Beverly Street Baptist. Andrew eventually joined Linda in the U.S. for further studies.
Back at Beverly Street Baptist, two other young Chinese families also started attending. Together the three families met regularly to pray for the Chinese
These two unrelated sources provided the impetus to help bring the newlyweds to Toronto. A prayer was answered and thus began the Toronto Chinese Baptist Church (TCBC) in 1968. The Chinese congregation continued to worship in the church basement for a few years until the Caucasian congregation moved to a different location.
In the early days, TCBC could not pay Andrew so he worked to support his family while also serving as Pastor. The Wongs and the three founding families worked tirelessly to reach out to the Chinese community. By the mid-1970’s church attendance had reached over 300 people.
Under Rev. Wong’s leadership, TCBC went on to plant four daughter churches – most of which have since planted granddaughter churches.
Discipleship modeled. There are numerous books and articles and seminars on discipleship, but Rev. Andrew and Linda Wong simply live it out. Their deep love for people and the church mirror Christ’s love – passionate, enduring, selfless, and yes, global. During the past several years, the Wongs have traveled on short-term mission trips to Central and South America, Europe and Asia,
Editor’s Note:
Chinese churches in Canada have seen phenomenal growth in the past 100 years. There are currently over 360 Chinese churches across the country, with the greatest concentration in the Greater Toronto Area, which has 135
In January 2008, Rev. Wong retired, passing the baton to Rev. Timothy Tam, but he still serves as an Elder at Toronto Chinese Baptist Church He and Linda continue with their mission trips. They were significant mentors to the author of this article, Amy Cheung and her husband Philip Yan. Amy and Philip are active members of one of TCBC’s daughter churches (Scarborough Chinese Baptist, one of the largest Canadian Baptist churches with over 1,500 members). They started their own design company, Genesys Creative, which has helped design several major projects for CBM, including the new look for mosaic!
to strengthen and encourage believers’ foundation in God’s Word. Wherever they serve, they make a conscious effort to develop and train people in their faith. Their kingdom mindset keeps them focused in ministry.
Both Andrew and Linda still have a genuine love and passion for ministering to people, be they old or young, local residents or visa students.
Forty years ago they made a bold move to accept the call to pastor a humble church. Forty years later they are still drawing people to the faith community at TCBC – and to similar faith communities around the world. What’s their secret?
Their simple yet profound words sum it up: “Love retains.”
This past February, Rev. Andrew and Linda Wong were presented with the William Carey Award at MissionExpoTO8 in recognition of their leadership in establishing Chinese Baptist churches across Toronto.
Life on the Highway
“I can never forget the night I left. To say goodbye to my mother. To everything.”
by Giselle Culver
Giselle is the newest member of the CBM Communications team. Welcome Giselle!
Itwasverydarkthatnight.Wehad to travel on two different buses.I lost trackoftime.Ithoughtitwouldnever end.Whenwefinallystopped,Isawa riveranda boat.Iwantedto run,but I didn’t.We were so crowded.The boat was verysmall.Andmanycrocodileswere waitingintheriver.Wehadtobequiet orbekilled.Thereweregunshots.
This was the beginning of Leyla’s journey on the refugee highway, a path travelled by millions of people every year in a desperate attempt to escape violence, terror and persecution. Often, they must put their lives in the hands of smugglers, face exploitation and abuse, and sometimes risk death stowing away in airless shipping containers or overcrowded, leaking boats. It is a journey that can take weeks, months, or even years. In 2007, more than 700,000 people fled their homeland and sought protection and safety – asylum – around the world; nearly 25,000 of those made refugee claims in Canada.
Matthew House is a small shelter in Toronto that seeks to be a place of welcome and hope at the end of the refugee highway. The vision for a caring, church-based reception home to meet the unique needs of refugee claimants grew
out of founder Anne Woolger-Bell’s work at a city-run refugee shelter. “I noticed that government-sponsored refugees were getting the Rolls-Royce treatment, but refugee claimants were like hitchhikers,” she says. While sponsored refugees received orientation and settlement assistance, including new clothes and furniture, refugee claimants – who had often fled the same country, for the same reasons – had hardly a pot to cook in or a mattress to sleep on. “It just broke my heart,” Anne says. She started sharing her vision with others and formed a board, and after a few pilot projects Matthew House opened in 1998. Since then, Matthew House has welcomed more than 700 refugee claimants from 75 nations, providing safe shelter, settlement assistance and and connections to the community for up to 12 people at a time. Unfortunately, lack of space has meant turning many refugee claimants away, so Anne seeks to encourage and assist other groups to develop ministries for refugees. In 2007, Anne was appointed as CBM’s Coordinator of National Refugee Ministries. Matthew House has served as a model for shelters in Cambridge, Hamilton, Fort Erie, Windsor and Vancouver.
Fort Erie is Canada’s largest port of entry for refugees seeking protection. When First Baptist Church – just a block away from the Peace Bridge border –became aware of the needs of the refugees in its congregation, they invited Anne to speak, and she challenged them to act. Matthew House Fort Erie opened in October 2000, run by Jim and Shirley McNair. Looking back, the McNairs can see how God led them to this work; when the boat people from Vietnam came to Canada, they took two boys into their home and raised them as sons. Now, Shirley manages the house, with the help of Rosemary Legge, while Jim works with refugees who have moved into the community. Almost 1,200 people have passed through the house, just a stone’s throw from First Baptist, where a framed “Certificate of Welcome and Blessing” hangs in the hallway in greeting.
photo credit: Paul Carline
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Today, the guests are from Congo, Zimbabwe and Haiti – each with a different story.
“Even when they’ve come here, it’s not like it’s all over,” says Shirley. “They are tormented by the things that have happened to them. It takes a tremendous lot of healing, and it takes time for that to happen.” Jim and Shirley seldom ask questions, waiting for stories to unfold –like the layers of an onion – as they build relationships based on trust, through time spent doing ordinary things together. This journey of healing happens in stages – relief at entering Canada is followed by the limitations of adjusting to Canadian life and the uncertainty of waiting for a hearing. “Until they have that hearing and are given Convention refugee status, the burden is there continuously,” says Shirley. With this burden lifted, they can move forward – but often with guilt and worry for family members left behind in dangerous situations.
For many guests, Matthew House has become like a second family. Jean d’Or came to Canada in May 2002, fleeing civil war in Burundi where his father was killed. “I didn’t know anybody in Canada, didn’t trust anybody. All my courage was gone,” he says. “But they loved me as their son. To have just lost your daddy and then to find someone like Jim…Matthew House is not only the house; it’s the people who keep the house. They loved me and that helped me to love others.”
As well as supporting refugee claimants through all the day-to-day challenges of life in a new country and culture, Jim and Shirley also seek to be advocates for refugee issues. They were involved with the development of the Peace Bridge Newcomer Centre, a precedent-setting partnership between several NGOs and the government to provide hospitality and orientation
August 2008 is the 10th anniversary of the opening of Matthew House, Toronto.
services at the border for newly arrived refugee claimants. Unfortunately, this Centre is unique in Canada. Most refugee claimants arrive with little (or unreliable) information or support, and no Federal program exists to bridge this gap. Without places like Matthew House to welcome refugee claimants, many become homeless.
The experience of homelessness – of living as a people on a journey – is central to the Christian identity. Christians are strangers called to welcome strangers, to
extend hospitality as a response of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us.
Matthew House is making an impact not only on refugees but on those who pitch in to help. It is a place where strangers become friends, where the journey can be shared, and where those who give receive. “It has been encouraging to see how this church has been transformed,” Jim says. “The church has received a far greater blessing than we’ve actually given.”
The refugee challenge in the 21st century is changing rapidly. People are forced to flee their homes for increasingly complicated and interlinked reasons.
Some 40 million people worldwide are already uprooted by violence and persecution, and it is likely that the future will see more people on the run as a growing number of push factors compound one another to create conditions for further forced displacement.
Today people do not just flee persecution and war but also injustice, exclusion, environmental pressures, competition for scarce resources and all the miserable human consequences of dysfunctional states.
Source: www.unhcr.org
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Make a donation today to support CBM’s refugee ministries. Sponsor a refugee as a church or become a volunteer in a local refugee ministry. Call us at 905.821.3533 for more information.
shirley and jean d’or
s e e i t The Way I
The most important contribution of STEP Canadian church partners is the fellowship.
the Nairobi team
Excerpts from a roundtable discussion with pastors of the African Christian Church & Schools in the Nairobi region about their experience in STEP (Serving, Training, Energizing Partnerships), a CBM global discipleship program. They sacrificed one of their rare days off to meet and talk with mosaic . We thank them for this opportunity. Here’s what they had to say about their STEP partner visits.
Who are the current Canadian STEP partners in Kenya?
u First Baptist Church – Truro, N.S.
u First Baptist Church – Vancouver, B.C.
u Kanata Baptist Church – Ontario
u New Life Community Church – Duncan, B.C.
u Women in Focus – (Baptist Women of Western Canada)
We meet together and can talk about our experiences. We compared and contrasted how we do children’s and youth ministries. At the couple’s seminar, which is a very sensitive issue in African culture, one Canadian couple shared their personal experiences. We were so very touched as we heard about how they continue with the married life, the ups and downs, all the obstacles they face and how they overcame them. We also face these challenges and sometimes we feel shy even to share. So when we see someone share their personal experience that opens our mind.
– Pastor Julius Kimani, Regional Minister
What people in the church and in the community have been saying is that…
When they saw that these people volunteered themselves to ministry, came from many kilometres away to boost and work for this ministry, it was a challenge to them, that they should volunteer, should commit themselves to Christianity… People were amazed, they came to see how these white brothers and sisters, some who were of golden age, could jump and dance with their children and play games with them. So they brought their children because they saw and enjoyed this.
– Pastor John Mbau
One of the greatest challenges we face is that…
The large population of the city dwellers are young, between ages of 18-30, who really need employment, most of them have not gone through high school. Yet even in the slums, they have to pay money to live there, they have to buy water, everything is money and they are unemployed. This presents a challenge, they are involved in crimes trying to make ends meet. When they come to church, it’s not just telling them don’t do it again, it’s helping them find something else to do… presenting solutions which can help get them off the streets. The problem of
Pictured left to right are: (standing) Pastor Peter Waitheka, Pastor Faith Wairera, Pastor John Ng’ang’a, Pastor Henry Kamau, Pastor Julius Kimani (Regional Minister); (seated) Pastor John Mbau, Pastor Samuel Kinyanjui, Pastor John Kiarie, and Mr. Henry Mwangi (Development Coordinator)
post-election violence was more aggravated by the unemployment than by the politics of the day, and this is an ongoing problem. With the Canadian team we can partner in providing the gospel with some skills training.
– Pastor John Kiarie
Another challenge is the high food prices…
Basic commodities are very high and that is affecting church members and we as pastors, too. Everything is increased and we are suffering… We pray that God will help our economy to grow and we come out of the level that we are in, not only in Nairobi, but our country at large.
– Pastor Samuel Kinyanjui
As a woman in ministry…
Sometimes I feel alone. I can see that some of the times they [the other Nairobi pastors] want to share on their own, some of the debates they are having, it’s pertaining to men and not to women – that is the time that I feel alone, but I take heart because I know that in some minutes to come I am going to chip in. Security is also a big issue. Most people in urban churches are available at night, so they expect their pastor to be there, and therefore I go, though I have a problem of travelling at night, it is not safe for women to be out and I lack a vehicle. Sometimes I’m waiting for hours and hours and at last I get my way home.
– Pastor Faith Wairera
The church requires leadership…
Leadership is not just directing people which way to go, it is deeper than that. We need leadership in churches that transforms situations, not conforms… A leader must go and serve, go and live in the people’s situation. If we don’t train our leaders well, chances are that we will fail. So, empower leaders through training.
– Pastor John Ng’ang’a
A Montage of STEP Kenya
How do you translate STEP into Swahili? For one Kenyan pastor, STEP means “stepping together – we don’t see a mountain that is insurmountable.”
Healthy living: CBM’s Guardians of Hope helped start a health clinic in the Kalyambeu area of Kenya. First Baptist Church in Vancouver recently signed a STEP agreement with the Africa Brotherhood Church to continue the development of the Guardians of Hope ministry in this region, helping those most impacted by HIV and AIDS
t A sweet taste of God’s love: Making new friends and reaching out to the Somali community in Kenya is what CBM field staff Erica Kenny (pictured far right) is really passionate about. She and husband Aaron are part of a team that helps facilitate a STEP partnership with this ministry.
Hmmm…After viewing a video of the work of New Life Community Church in Duncan, B.C. with First Nations people in their area, Kenyan pastors were struck by how the same issues of land-grabbing, injustice in school systems and compensation linked the First Nations with the issues of Kenyans. Pastor Mark Buchanan also mentioned how the ministry context of the Nairobi pastors had several parallels with the reality of their First Nations neighbours.
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CBM Field Staff Andy DesRoches
Andy helps to facilitate STEP partnerships with our partner, African Christian Church & Schools.
By the way...
This past May, New Life Community Church has renewed their commitment for another three years. And welcome aboard to the newest STEP partner in Kenya – Kanata Baptist Church. Thank you to all our STEP churches, for partnering with us around the world.
CBM offers Canadian churches the opportunity to partner with churches in Bolivia, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Kenya or Rwanda through STEP. For more information, email STEP@cbmin.org.
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Dear CBM, I wanted to write this letter as a way of encouraging you with respect to the Hope-Full Gift Catalogue. Over the past few years Sharon (my wife) and I have used the catalogue personally within our extended family. As Pastor, I also encouraged others in our congregation to do the same. Gradually it caught on. At our suggestion the members have stopped giving us material gifts at Christmas, and now use CBM’s Gift Catalogue almost exclusively. My Christmas “bonus” is now a donation to The Sharing Way. I told them we have too much stuff already, and that’s evident by the state of our garage! This year our congregation took it a step further…to focus our giving in one direction to try to impact lives long term – beyond the Christmas season. We put together two ideas. The first idea was to only promote the Gift Catalogue. Other programs would be set aside, and all the money that might be spent on other (certainly good) similar programs would go toward The Sharing Way. This would also include money that might be spent on sending greeting cards within the congregation. Just print a greeting in the bulletin and give the money saved. Secondly, as a congregation we chose to focus our attention on one main area of need. As Sharon had been to Kenya during the summer of 2007 and had witnessed the ministry of Guardians of Hope, we chose to highlight that ministry…During December we promoted the use of the catalogue for regular gift giving, and also, instead of dividing our giving among several programs, we would give through the church for Guardians of Hope. As a result, people contributed many gifts from the Catalogue and gave over $3,700 specifically for Guardians of Hope. Thanks for giving us meaningful opportunities to partner with our brothers and sisters around the world. At least for us, it seems to be capturing a place in our hearts.
God’s best to you, Rev. Vernon Vickruck Senior Pastor, Middle Sackville Baptist Church New Brunswick
