Greetings from Beit Al Liqa’

30 05 2007

Dear Pastor Pedro, brothers and sisters in the congregation of Calvary Kendall church,

Greetings in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.

I pray this will find you well. The summer is here in Beit Jala “the sister town of Bethlehem” and with it more and more preparations are getting ready for the summer programs here at Beit Al Liqa’ and we here at Beit Al Liqa’ have been informed that a group of your congregation will be joining us in our second summer camp. That brought us great encouragement and support in many different ways as we have been praying for helpers and amazingly God answered our prayers and now He is sending your team to be with us. We really look forward to meeting you and working with you for the Glory of His Kingdom. We have met with brother Pedro who is working now in the Holy Land doing great job.

To update you with our upcoming programs, we will be having our first summer camp for the younger kids lasting for three weeks starting 18th of June, after that we will be having the second summer camp for older kids for another 3 weeks starting from the 9th of July, your team will be helping us through the first week of the second camp.  Our third camp will be mainly for teenagers, it will be from the end of July through the 3rd of August we are so excited about how God will be working in the hearts of those kids and teens who are going to be participating in those camps, so please pray with us that God will be using us as His instruments to reach His people with His love and compassion, as He has been doing through the ministry of Beit al liqa always. 

So, we will be in contact and we will be updating you with our latest news, and please if you have any questions or you need any information please don’t hesitate to ask, I will be more than happy to help you.

Blessings in His Holy name.

Love in Christ,

Andres Zorob on behalf of Rev. Johnny Shahwan director of Beit Al liqa’ and the team.





Update from John Bonner

23 05 2007

Update from John Bonner
 
Greetings from Galilee, Israel! We trust you are doing well!
 
First of all, allow me to express our gratitude for praying for Brian Brodersen’s time of ministry in Peru. It was a rich time of encouragement for all of the Peruvian pastors and churches.  This week, our team from Peru will meet us in Israel for our time of ministry in the Middle East .We are blessed that the Lord has opened the door for many of our Peruvian staff and students to obey the great commission and go to foreign lands to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
 
Please pray for us on a daily basis from now through June 15th. I am convinced that the battle is won through prayer and we are indebted to you if you would intercede. We’ll send you our updates from Israel.
 
Thank you, and Shalom!
 
John, Pilar, Michelle, Jason, and Joshua





Prayer Request

17 05 2007

Please pray for little Bobby, the son of one of our missionaries. He has an earache that awakens him in the night with great pain. Please pray that God would heal this quickly. Also pray that the visa will be renewed for this family. They will be going to apply in person for a renewal of their visa this Friday. Please pray that this is renewed!





Request for Prayer

17 05 2007

This report comes from a colleague who works in a closed country where security  is a must. Therefore no names or places will appear.

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 Ronny gave his heart to the Lord just a few months ago after he had been seeking fellowship with believers for a long while. We have seen him taking steps of faith and becoming a very solid believer and recently he was baptized. Just a few weeks ago after being attending a fellowship time in another city as he came back home he discovered that somehow one of his relatives found amongst his belongings some Christian materials. As a result of that his family has completely rejected him, they have shamed and isolated him from the rest of the family and in the village. People in his village have wondered about the reason for such a hard treatment from his family and rumours are starting to spread.

 

Please join us in prayer for this valiant young believer, that God will give him strength in the midst of this terrible situation. Also that God will provide work for him and that he will lift him up from this trial.

 

In these last couple of weeks we have seen increased persecution in the southern region, where there is an ongoing fight and between light and darkness. There have been radio programs openly speaking against Christianity and any type of Christian presence in that area, by all means the enemy battles against the children of light.

 

Please join us in prayer for the persecuted Church in the region, for strength that comes from the Lord.

Pray for wisdom for the believers, that they will be lead by the Spirit of God.

Pray against fear.

Pray for supernatural protection for the believers as well as for the workers.

 

Thank you for praying together with us.

God Bless you and use your prayers to bring light into the darkness and empowering of the Holy Spirit for his Church!

 

Andrew





Update from Calvary Chapel Rio

10 05 2007

Hello friends,

How are you doing? We are doing good praise God for that, last Sunday during service God really spoke to my heart, as I looked to the body worshiping, I saw that the Lord is doing his work and that He is building up his church here in Rio, this first year here in Rio has been a year of growth for me both spiritually and as a man, and of good and bad moments, but praise God for his joy that is our strength.
       
I would like to ask you to keep our church body in your prayers, when I look to the work here in Rio I feel like we are a little baby that is growing health and full of joy, but that needs the protection of the mom 24/7.
       
We are also very happy for the new couple that joined us here in the fellowship, with their little daughter, we were praying for a child to the children ministry for a long time. Slowly the Lord is adding to our body.
       
The African guys are doing good and growing day by day, and is beautiful to see the fellowship and communion in the body.
        
Pray for Cleber a worship leader who is moving from São Vicente to help us here in Rio, we have been for over one year without a worship leader just singing alongside the piano, what has been simple but very powerful. Pray for the Lord to provide for his provision as he serves the Lord here.
        
Lilian is enjoying her time at college, and she fells called to teach little children how to read and right, pray for her for wisdom and for protection in this city.

Thank you all for remembering us…

Alexandre and Lilian Vaz
Calvary Chapel Rio





Pedro Arrives Safely in Bethlehem

4 05 2007

Here is Pedro’s latest update.

Finally Arrived!

Hey guys, I’m finally home in Bethlehem. I arrived safely yesterday after two long and grueling flights. My second flight was delayed, but once I got in the plane I was very happy to sit in my aisle seat, thank God that my joy doesn’t come from temporal things because it faded very quickly. Down the aisle came an old lady with a cane, a lady who tried to purchase an aisle seat but couldn’t. So I did what any christian guy would do, I gave up my seat so she could have an easier time sliding in and out of it. Even though it meant that I was stuck in the middle, the exact spot that I didn’t want to be in. Later on I found out that the lady goes to a Calvary Chapel in Washington state. Once I got to the airport, security was a breeze (YES!!!). I took the 2 hour bus ride from Tel Aviv Airport to Jerusalem. Then I waited for my ride to my new home. I just hung out last night in my new home, today I ate lunch with my new team members and then went for a little drive. Right now I’m about to have dinner at a friend’s house in neighboring Bet Jala. Then we’ll probaby go for a stroll and for some Kanafi…….. green is not your color.





April Newsletter from Gary and Marlene Cameron

3 05 2007

Dear Friends,

What the world needs from Christians, more than anything else, is first-hand wisdom concerning the nature of our existence in God.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that the world actually “groans” for such sons and daughters to be revealed (Rom. 8:19).  Our personal spiritual growth, then, is something that creation both needs and longs for, and we serve it best by becoming what most reveals the Lord’s work within us.

- Rob DesCotes, a pastor friend

The end of spring ‘07 is in view and graduations are on the horizon. We are full of gratitude to God, coupled with a grounded sense of His guiding us through three years of the planting phase at both FIU and UM. This is what students are saying: 

International student: “Each week I always leave our meetings with at least one verse of scripture or a message that I feel strongly that God is telling me… and I latch on to that.” – Linda 

UM Law student: “Christian Legal Society was my refuge, the place I could go to be with other believers and could let my guard down and not be afraid to openly profess my faith in the Lord. My weeks revolved around the CLS meetings, if I could just hold on until the weekly meeting I new that I would be able to recharge my spiritual batteries and make it through another week. In fact, I don’t think that I would have been able to make it through the semester without them.” – Darren
 
Graduating UM Law student: “With so many commitments and obligations to prioritize, it is imperative that Christian law students have a place to gather each week to refocus attention on what matters most—our relationship with Christ. During the long and sometimes tumultuous semesters of law school, it is all too easy to just slip into “automatic mode,” which includes attending classes, reading, studying, sleeping, and repeating.   You touched many hearts with your dedication and love for our group.  You changed the law school experience by adding God into the mix—we cannot thank you enough. I will miss you next year!” - John   

This semester we had the privilege of hosting faculty members and Christian attorneys from the community to speak to law students.  This brings tremendous encouragement and perspective to the students as they envision their future careers and what it means to bring it all under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This encourages us to begin plowing visionary ground for what the building phase might look like for South Florida campuses.

We had an excellent experience at URBANA leading the prayer team for the new conference OPEN FOR BUSINESS, and being part of a twelve-hour day of registration! We had twelve hundred delegates — not bad for a first-time around! The wider URBANA conference hosted 22,000 delegates. 

Seasoned and successful business professionals, who have conducted their businesses with strong Christian values, staffed the OPEN FOR BUSINESS conference. In their talks they encouraged business students to not separate their businesses from their faith, but to live out their faith through their work. 

As the first fruits of that conference, we just had the great joy of dedicating the new business of an alumnus of the FIU chapter. Earlier this month, with the help of the IVCF undergraduate chapter, Franco and Cecilia Arias committed their new business venture at FIU before a group of local business leaders and friends in the community. This was the first, we hope, of many business dedications for the glory of God from students in our chapters. 

We are praying and planning toward ministry expansion at the FIU Business School in the fall and also into the Miller Medical School at UM.  But the excitement of setting goals for the future is tempered as we assess the status of our funding.  

Thank you for your faithful support! 

In Christ’s service,

Gary and Marlene Cameron

If you feel led to support Gary and Marlene financially please email Gary at gcameron@gfmse.org.