They lead an 85 member team of evangelists, doctors, nurses, teachers, pastors, professors, administrators. experts and apprentices. God has sent us all and together, by His grace, we are undoubtedly one of the greatest teams on earth!
With a few notable exceptions, Africa's economy has stagnated for 40 years. Poverty and disease are at crisis proportions and foster unbeleivable suffering! Thank God for ERDO and humanitarian aid!
However, all the humanitarian aid that the world sends is powerless against the unseen spiritual forces that are at work on the continent. AFRICA needs to be set free by the power of God!
Contact them directly at: schaloner@paoc.org.
Prayer Focus:
Pray that they will be able to capitalize on healthy relationships with national church leaders and provide innovtive leadership and mentorship programs within Africa.
Pray for a strong team spirit on the missionary team!
Pray that God will send them abundant resources and grace them with the wisdom to apply them strategically!
The Bantseevs are pastoring a church of approximately 1,000 people in Novokuznetsk, a city of 600,000 people. Their congregation ministers in prisons, orphanages, and to people with life controlling problems or addictions. Also, they organize various ministry and missionary teams to plant churches throughout Siberia and share the Gospel with professional groups such as doctors, athletes, government officials and police.
O COME LETT USS ADORE HIIM FOR HE ALONE IISS WORTTHY!!!!!! As this year comes to an end, our hearts are filled with praise for all that the Lord has done! We'd like to share with you a few praise reports for which we are so grateful to God.
1) Although the heat in our church has not been turned on, all three Sunday services are full. People continue to get saved, and we are planning to start a fourth service.
2) We're grateful to God that 84 new believers were baptized this year.
3) New church and rehab centers have started east, west, and south of Novokuznetsk.
4) The Russian channel on the internet has been launched. Sermons can now be watched on www.thestreamtv.com (To find, go to TV Channels, then Russian Channel)
5) Approximately 50% of the congregation is actively involved in various ministries. The church has adopted a goal for 2010 which is to multiply those who are serving.
None of this would be possible if it weren't for your continual prayer and financial support for this ministry.
We sincerely thank God for you! May God bless you this Christmas and throughout the New Year with the presence and leading of Christ in all that you do!
We love you dearly!
Ilya & Janet
Children's Birthdays: Brock ~ December 25, 1985; Lauren ~ December 6, 1988
Children's Birthdays: Sarah ~ November 29, 1988; David ~ October 12, 1991
Kauffeldt News - December 2009
Caring Enough! The Need for Transformation
It was just not what I had expected. We had just finished some Christmas shopping at one of the nicer shopping centers in Nairobi. As we drove home we came to the first intersection, a place where there is always someone looking for a handout - street children, the blind, or polio victims. When some change is provided there is often an appreciative smile and even a 'God bless you.' That day I noticed a young lady. She was very frail and sat in the wheelchair with her head down. She looked so desperate. I emptied the coin out of the ashtray and rolled down my window. It took her a while to stick out her hand, which she did without even looking up from the ground. There was no comment. No thank you. No acknowledgement. Just some coins placed into a calloused hand. She was so non-responsive. At first I felt offended, but soon I realized how pathetic a response that was. Did I give to make myself feel better? But I was still bothered. I went past the same intersection a couple of days later. She was still there, her expression hadn't changed. I began to understand what was bothering me. There was no one with her. Normally someone in her ocnditio nwould have a person with them, especially at a busy intersection like that. I realized that she must have been dumped there. Left to collect coins which likely would simply be taken from her at the end of the day by the person that placed her at the intersection. She was being used by a handler. No wonder she was so sad.
She has not been there lately. I thought of her at a breakfast meeting I was having with a church leader who was visiting from Canada. We were having a discussion about the fact that people are more interested in caring ministries than leadership training. I remembered the lady in the wheelchair and the small amount of money that hopefully would meet her immediate need. But the exploitation that she was experiencing, the lack of a social network, the victimization that results from poverty - these things will not ever be addressed by placing coins into calloused hands. What is needed is transformation - meaningful change to the underlying causes of the symptoms that we see every day. It is only the power of the gospel that can bring the needed change. This is what drives our commitment to training disciples who are godly agents of change. It's not that we shouldn't meet immediate needs. We must. However if we really care, we will also find ways to bring the needed transformation, and that involves godly leaders. This is the vision of PAC University - Training for Transformation. We are so thrilled to see the dramatic changes that our graduates are bringing to their communities, change that will last because of leaders that are committed. They realize that caring demands transformation.
Building Hope - The Village
Some amazing things are happening at Village of Hope - Kisumu. The clinic is staffed with a full-time nurse, and a visiting doctor, and we are able to serve not only the widows and orphans connected to VOH, but also the surrounding community with good care, and medical attention. One cluster of houses is finished and ready for children and families, and the school now has 2 permanent classrooms. These classrooms were built by visiting teams and replace the temoprary classrooms that we have been using up until now. In addition to all of this a feeding program is running seven days a week. Village of Hope Kenya is now officially registered by the government of Kenya. The school is just about to be registered and permission has been given by the authorities to move children into the homes.
The team from Cambridge was able to conduct sewing and tailoring sessions with the 65 widows using 4 brand new sewing machines that were purchased by Walkerton Pentecostal Church. What a blessing it was for the widows to sew quilts of their own and take them home at the end of the week. They also learned to make curtains and continue instruction even now with a local lady that has agreed to serve the community in this way.
The miraculous part of this story is how much the local community has come together to support and participate in helping the ministry of Village of Hope. There are schools that donate bus service to the students for field trips. There are businesses that donate school supplies and textbooks, and members of the community that even donate land. The mayor visits the village, and local organizations have asked John to come and share his vision and model for transformation. This truly is the transforming power of the gospel in action - a true community working together to help those less fortunate amongst them.
Through the Months:
September 2009
- Great start to the academic year - 10% increase in enrolment, a total of 384 students
- Kirk successfully defends his doctoral thesis at University of Toronto - Welcome Dr. Kauffeldt!
- Kirk undergoes knee surgery to repair some ligament damage and bone spurs.
- Mike & Sheila Middlebrook arrive to Kenya to take up Mike's appointment as Academic Dean at the Pentecostal Bible College in Nyang'ori.
October 2009
- Kirk travels to Dar Es Salam, Tanzania for meetings to start a Christian university there.
- Calvary Church, Cambridge sends a team to work at Village of Hope, Kisumu.
- Gary & Marina Cymbaluk (Waterloo) and Brad and Paula Sterling (Newmarket) visit.
November 2009
- Carl & Marion Verge arrive to teach the Ethics course in the MA Leadership program.
- Kirk travels to Mombasa for a seminar on IT solutions for universities; it was the largest gathering of Vice Chancellors in Kenya that has ever come together.
- Commission of Higher Educatioi nconducts a successful curriculum review and congratulates PAC for its quality.
- Kirk travels to Zimbabwe for some strategic planning meetings in Harare.
- PAC Trustees engage in a weekend strategic planning retreat.
- Paul & Lynn Kohls arrive at PAC for Paul's appointment as the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research.
December 2009
- Kaitlyn earns the MVP award for ladies varsity basketball, and finishes the first semester of her HS Senior year. She also received a letter of admission from the University of Waterloo into the faculty of applied health sciences.
- Devon completes his first semester of university study at Houghton College, NY and arrives in Kenya for Christmas.
Welcome to the online community of Cedarview Community Church, located in Newmarket, Ontario. Browse our site and visit us this week for a variety of programs and activities that proclaim the worth of Jesus Christ!
February 21, 2010 AM | Don Horban
All growth begins with seed being planted in our lives. If not God's Word, something will be sewn in our hearts. The reason people don’t devote enough energy to the seed of the Word is, like all...