Mexican EGM participants give towards EGM’s growing ministry in Africa…

A few weeks ago, I preached in a local church in Ensenada, Mexico where EGM has been serving for years. I shared about my recent trip to the D.R. Congo in Africa where God is using EGM in the work He is doing there. God is stirring in the hearts of church leaders showing them the importance of spiritually investing in children. They know by doing this, God can use the Congolese children to bring healing and peace to their own country. After I finished preaching, the senior pastor, Ramon Ruiz, reiterated the importance of discipling children and reminded the congregation how God is using EGM to impact the lives of the children in their church. Pastor Ramon also said that he felt God was calling their congregation to join in the work God is doing in Africa. Despite the fact they had already collected the offering, Pastor Ramon encouraged the church members to give again and to give generously towards this work. The church members gave joyfully and generously as they praised God. We thank God for the generosity of the Mexican people and rejoice in the $260 that was collected which

will result in more Congolese boys and girls having the opportunity to learn of God’s transformational love!

Krysten Norkaitis

North America Hispanic Ministries Director

To find out more about Krysten and the ministry in Mexico visit:

http://www.egmworld.org/where-we-work/expanding-our-reach-mexico

To support EGM-Mexico or Krysten Norkaitis visit: 

http://www.egmworld.org/donate

EGM-Peru Reaches the Andes Mountains

In 2009, when EGM-Peru was just beginning to take root, one message was clear: These Peruvian leaders were not in this for their own benefit, but for the whole country.  They told us about the millions of people who lived outside the capital city in areas where it was difficult at times to receive a shipment of fruit in the market, let alone adequate training and materials for children’s ministry. 

“All of the resources are here in Lima,” they said.  “We are going to change that.”

EGM-Peru is not a branch of a U.S. mission, rather a mission of their own to their country.  In each board meeting, we have discussed when, how and where to pass on EGM’s message to more rural places – places where children’s workers literally sit with only a bible and a pencil, praying for guidance in ministering to the boys and girls of their church.

In August, two EGM-Peru leaders (with my family as joyful witnesses) traveled the twenty-hour ride to Abancay, Peru.  There, 41 children’s workers received the complete 16-hour EGM training on the Model Children’s Worker.  They came from 8 different denominations and traveled as far as 4 hours by bus to attend.  Among those were 5 people who want to volunteer at EGM-Peru, as EGM representatives in the region so that the churches will deepen their understanding and implementation of what they have learned.  One woman eagerly volunteered to begin translating the training materials into her native language of Quechua so villages even more remote could benefit from EGM’s work in the Abancay region.

We celebrate with EGM-Peru as we can already see that the Model Children’s Worker principles are transforming the Children’s Ministry in Abancay and children as a result are being transformed in Christ!




-Heather Chapman

 

We led a camp in Świętajno for young adults who are learning to teach children as assistants (ACE-assistants). This year, the camp had 26 young adults in attendance, many of which were involved in past camps. The camp theme was 'On the way to maturity'. Our target was leading youth to maturity in: 

Update on the Romania Website

As we look at the changes in the world these days, we have enough reasons to worry. We have many challenges to adapt to with technology, and especially to raise children in this digital world. The impact is even more severe in Romania as we feel churches and families were not prepared for this.

Our goal as a Ministry is to transform Children in Christ through His Church. Instead of focusing on the obstacles, we have to find a way to reach our goal. We prayed to be wise and see the open doors God has for us in this digital age. We remember that roman roads and the Latin language were the leverages used by the Church of the first century to share Christ’s message “to the ends of the world”.

Learning from this example, we started seeing that Internet, computers, Smartphones and IPad’s can be used as tools to help our Ministry expand. Technology can help us see transformation produced by Christ in children’s lives from Romania and from the Romanian communities spread throughout Western Europe. We started to connect the dots, we already had a Curriculum program based on biblical teaching, we had many people asking for materials, we had a poor distribution in Romania but we had a real explosion of the internet and unbelievable growth of the tablets and Smartphone market. We saw the DOOR – an Internet curriculum website, where every church and every Romanian can have access to all the quality curriculum materials produced by Romanian Teachers.

We stopped looking at the way technology was changing as a threat and considered it as an amazing opportunity. We can now see teachers on the street or in the buses traveling reading the bible lesson on their Smartphone, or we see them equipped as they watch the video training on the display of their laptop or their tab.

In the first two weeks of its launch, more than 250 teachers have subscribed to this platform. We expect next year, over 2,000 teachers to use this tremendous resource.

-Marian Zaharia

EGM US Representative - Hungary