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Overview: Covenant Churches Active in Missions
CHICAGO, IL (September 2, 2001) - Local churches throughout the Evangelical Covenant Church have been reflecting the Covenant's mission-minded commitment in a variety of ways this summer.
Numerous congregations have sent individuals and/or teams to nearly every continent in the world. The following overview (organized by conference) was compiled using the more than 150 local church newsletters that are regularly sent to the Department of Communication each month.
If you would like your church's ministries included in our news reports, please add the department to your mailing list. Send newsletters by mail to Newsdesk, Department of Communication, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625, or by email to newsdesk@covchurch.org.
Central Conference
- Evangelical Covenant Church, Princeton, Illinois: During August 5-11, six students and three counselors traveled to Toronto, Ontario, for an urban mission trip.
- Evangelical Covenant Church, Lafayette, Indiana: In July, a youth group traveled to the Rosebud Reservation in Winner, South Dakota, to aid the Lakota Native Americans there. Harvest Covenant Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has developed an ongoing relationship with the Rosebud Reservation.
- Ravenswood Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois: A group of high school students and youth leaders went to Rosebud to provide ministry primarily with children in mid-August.
- First Covenant Church, Iron Mountain, Michigan: Eight junior high students helped Covenant Point Bible Camp get spruced up for summer ministry on a local mission trip called Project Serve.
- Naperville Evangelical Covenant Church, Naperville, Illinois: During July 22-28, a junior high contingent traveled to Hazel Green, Kentucky, to minister to underserved people in the Appalachian Mountain area.
East Coast Conference
- Trinity Covenant Church, Manchester, Connecticut: A youth mission team traveled to Florida on a mission trip while a number of individuals pursued other mission endeavors. Carol Olson served as a camp nurse at Camp Unalakleet in Alaska, Elsie Grover traveled to Mongolia for a week of service and Mark Shekleton served with Youth With A Mission in Mexico. In August, Katie Irish began a one-year mission project with Doulos Ministries in Colorado.
- Trinity Covenant Church, Lexington, Massachusetts: Two short-term missionaries, Amanda Massello and Heather Ruggiero, left June 20 for Leon, Nicaragua, to serve with Amigos de las Americas for eight weeks as public health volunteers. Projects included building stoves within
Nicaraguan homes with exit pipes, which will allow smoke to be more easily exhausted from homes, improving breathing conditions for residents. On the home mission front, a mission team worked at a Youth For Christ camp in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, June 30 through July 7 making repairs to ready the camp for summer ministries. A number of volunteers were involved in one-day ministry opportunities for the New England Seafarers Mission at the Black Falcon Pier in Boston.
Midwest Conference
- Brantford Covenant Church, Clyde, Kansas: Janice Lundquist served with TFC Connection, which helps groups pursue their own mission experiences in various places.
- Evangelical Covenant Church, Lindsborg, Kansas: A youth group traveled to Derramadero, Mexico, to run a children's program and facilitate a ministry to women, among other things. Construction projects include a roofing project on the annex of a local church and constructing a
bathroom at another church.
- Community Covenant, Shawnee Mission, Kansas: A total of 41 students and adult leaders traveled to Mexico August 4-11 for a mission trip in Saltillo.
- First Evangelical Covenant Church, Lincoln, Nebraska: About 45 people served on a mission trip in early August in Reynoso, Mexico, providing construction assistance for a local church and organizing a Vacation Bible School.
North Pacific Conference
- Trinity Covenant Church, Salem, Oregon: Glenn Koppang and Ann Martin traveled to Kosovo/Albania with three other health professionals July 9-31 to provide unique counseling services to children who have lost fathers, brothers or other male relatives taken from them by Serbian police. They also taught various counseling training techniques to professionals throughout Albania, hoping they will be able to lessen the post-war trauma of children in that country. Martin is a mental health counselor at Western Oregon University) and Koppang serves as a counselor with Marion County Mental Health. They work with Pelos International, based out of Portland, Oregon.
"We have traveled through several key Serbian sites that were bombed by precision NATO planes and several areas that were occupied by Serbs that were bombed in retaliation," wrote Koppang. "There is a lot of trauma work that is to be done. The rebuilding of Gjakova and other parts of Kosovo is amazing and heartbreaking. The level of trauma the children and parents also suffered is unbelievable.
"We have not stopped since we left Portland," he continued. "God has given us clarity, purpose and the energy to do His work in four distinctly different locations, with four distinctly different people, and not skip a beat."
- Bellingham Covenant Church, Bellingham, Washington: Twenty-two people traveled to Mexico August 3 to serve the Mazahua Indians at a mission northwest of Mexico City. This is the first intergenerational mission trip for the church, according to the latest church newsletter. Construction projects, Vacation Bible School and an English as a second language (ESL) program were among the options for the team.
Suzanne Williams, a recent graduate of Western Washington University, will serve 10 months for University Christian Ministries in a campus ministry training internship. Two others who used to do youth ministry at Bellingham Covenant, Austin and Kate Collins, are continuing their work with Power House Wild, an outdoor/wilderness program connected with the Power House Youth Center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Austin had been injured in a construction accident, but has continued ministry in Colorado.
- Grace Community Covenant Church, Olympia, Washington: A mission team sponsored by Samaritans headed for Loma Linda, Mexico, August 6-14 to provide Vacation Bible School and youth ministry activities, along with building a bathroom for a local church. The team prepared by doing team-building exercises at a local Covenant camp.
- Pine Lake Covenant Church, Sammamish, Washington: A mission team traveled to Romania for a service project in July.
Northwest Conference
- Good Shepherd Covenant Church, Blaine, Minnesota: Nearly 30 people traveled to Reynoso, Mexico, August 3-12.
- Bethlehem Covenant Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Karna Sjoberg left August 5 for a short-term mission project in Cameroon. She will teach at Rain Forest International School in Yaounde, a school for grades 7-12 that serves families of missionaries.
- First Covenant Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota: A youth group traveled to Washington, D.C., in June to serve with Center for Student Missions in a variety of projects.
- Evangelical Covenant Church, North Mankato, Minnesota: A youth group from the church traveled in late July to Mexico.
- Rochester Covenant Church, Rochester, Minnesota: More than 150 children in two Mexico sites were ministered to by teens representing the church. A July trip to Saltillo included 41 students and leaders. A total of 32 teens also worked with 80 children at the church's local Vacation Bible School, drawing praise from VBS co-coordinator Suzy Olsen.
- Prairie Hills Covenant Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota: A youth group mission team traveled to Montana to minister on the Cheyenne Reservation, painting homes, running a youth program and learning about the Cheyenne people and their culture.
Pacific Southwest Conference
- Cornerstone Covenant Church, Turlock, California: A youth group traveled to Los Angeles for a mission project with Center for Student Mission in July. Youth pastor Dan Whitmarsh reported that youth participated in a variety of activities. They ministered to homeless drug addicts, visited a retirement home, ran an inner city Vacation Bible School in the Watts neighborhood four afternoons (partnering with World Impact), helped serve meals at a local mission, spent a morning at the World Vision warehouse helping on projects and participated in a prayer tour of Los Angeles. The latter experience was considered by many to be the most powerful of the many trip activities.
"We drove down Skid Row and saw hundreds of people sleeping in cardboard boxes, as well as
prostitutes looking for business," Whitmarsh reported. "We saw immigrant businesses struggling to survive. And we saw banks and wealthy businesses, as well as the Biltmore, with rooms from $299-$3,000 a night only four blocks away."
Whitmarsh was grateful for the experience his youth group had in southern California and said that some teens felt God calling them into deeper areas of ministry. He said all felt God challenging them to serve more fervently. "Only in the months and years ahead will we truly know what God was doing, but I can say even now that He worked in mighty ways during the week," Whitmarsh stated. "This team is not the same as when it left."
- Paradise Valley Community Church, Phoenix, Arizona: From July 20-25, some 24 high school students and eight adults traveled to Mexico as part of a mission project sponsored by Amor Ministries.
- Hope Center Covenant Church, Pleasant Hill, California: Three short-term missionaries - Brent Randall (Azerbaijan), Judy Russell (India) and Kristen Schuck (Honduras) - traveled to various countries throughout the world this summer.
- Rolling Hills Covenant Church, Rolling Hills Estates, California: Mission groups abounded at the church this summer, with groups ministering in Thailand, Brazil, Russia, Philippines, Japan, China, Kazakhstan and Tibet. Another mission team is headed for Egypt this month (September).
Three teams worked in Philippines this summer, all on the Muslim island of Mindanao, doing village evangelism through the ministry of Sowers International. Two groups focused on general community development and a third focused on Muslim women in the village.
In Tibet, a team took a prayer walk through the city of Lhasa. In China, teaching English has been a vehicle for friendship evangelism opportunities. "Because of the numerous teams that have been sent, strong relationships have been built in the cities we work in, and people are truly being impacted for Christ," according to a report from the church Global Outreach office. Rolling Hills Covenant Church has also offered numerous ESL programs locally and has a team ministering to 35-50 children in a Mexican neighborhood monthly.
- Montecito Covenant Church, Santa Barbara, California: From August 4-10, a group of 59 people traveled to Rancho Agua Viva in Ensenada, Mexico, to help lead two Bible schools, construct a basketball court and offer outreach to the community. The "Montecito to Mexico" mission got a boost when a parishioner donated $3,500 for the cost of laying concrete for the
basketball court.
Mary Samuelson began her short-term mission project in Cameroon in August, teaching children of missionary families. Taylor Ludwick and 11 others from around the United States served in a medical mission this summer in Accra, Ghana. The dozen participated in AIDS ministry through Pioneers International. John Rodkey and Anne Anderson worked with an archaeological dig in Tell Zeitah, Israel, this summer, with Rodkey serving as a computer database specialist. Artifacts dating to King Hezekiah's reign have recently been discovered at the site.
At Lithuanian Christian College, Lynda Saylor, Arvid Brommers and Kalon Kelley have been teaching and providing administrative support. Saylor had a three-month internship while Brommers and Kelley spent a month there. Montecito Covenant Church pastor Curt Peterson visited the trio in Lithuania and explored an ongoing partnership with a local church there. The Kleipeda Church is interested in a sister church relationship
- Community Covenant, Santa Barbara, California: A mission team traveled to Mexico this summer and another is preparing to head to South Africa as an AIDS relief team this month (September). South Africa has 4.2 million AIDS sufferers, the most of any nation in the world, representing 20 percent of the population. Ten people will spend two weeks in the country ministering to churches and visiting relief organizations in order to establish long-term connections, reported pastor Dennis Wadley in the church's latest newsletter profiling the trip.
- Hillside Covenant Church, Walnut Creek, California: A nine-member team headed to the Amazon River in Peru for an August trip that included medical and educational projects. Medical personnel on the trip were expected to see 200-300 patients per day. Others were scheduled to run a Vacation Bible School for children and adults. A community health educator, pediatric nurse,
general nurse and a doctor of internal medicine were scheduled to be among those making the trip. The team traveled with Amazon Medical Missions.
- First Covenant Church, Sacramento, California: Mission teams headed all over the globe to spread the gospel, some to Covenant sites and others to sites where the church had made previous connections. In Azerbaijan, a team went to clean and repair an orphanage and use English language training as a means for evangelism. Another team went to Brazil to minister to street children in Sao Paulo. In China, a team helped transport Bibles from Hong Kong to Mainland China.
In Medellin, Colombia, a group took two weeks and visited eight Covenant churches to
participate in Semana de la Paz (Week of Peace). The group hosted a junior high camp for 70 students, helped two congregations with construction projects and did an evangelistic outreach for 2,000 kids in one area. A fifth team went to Cuba for its third annual trip and focused on street evangelism and transporting Bibles into the country.
In Chennai, India, more than 1,100 people attended a Bible school led by a First Covenant contingent and about 200 were led to Christ. In Malawi, a team went for its first foray into southeastern Africa, working at an orphanage sponsored by World Vision. The church funded a building project to house 25 more children at the site. A family mission team traveled to Roatan Island to assist Friend Ships with repairs on three vehicles and repaired buildings for workers there.
A team also traveled to Cluj, Romania, and aided an orphanage with Vacation Bible School programs and neighborhood ministry in a coordinated effort with a youth group from a Baptist church. At home, a group of women at First Covenant worked together to make and send more than 200 quilts with various mission teams this summer.
Southeast Conference
- Faith Covenant Church, St. Petersburg, Florida: A high school mission team traveled to Ecuador for a mission trip in late July.
For more information about Covenant mission projects and opportunities for participating in short-term mission projects, call Barbara Johnson at the Department of World Mission at 773-907-3324.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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