Please send an email to WCOCNEWS@aol.com if you have any questions regarding the announcements.
New Address, Phone and Email: Tom and Sydney Caswell have moved into their new home at 190 Stafford Street in Charlton. Phone is 508-434-0253. Their email addresses are: tomcaswell@inbox.com and sydneycaswell@inbox.com.
Congratulations, It’s a boy: Tamara and John Cullin announce the birth of their son Ryan Joseph Cullen, born Sun. March 4, 2007. He is 8lb. 2 oz. and is 21 inches long.
Singles Dance: The Southern Connecticut Singles Ministry is hosting “OLD SKOOL 2 NEW SKOOL DANCE PARTY”. Saturday, March 17, 2007. 7pm-1am EST Fairfield Masonic Temple 131 Beach Rd. Fairfield, CT 06430. $10.00 per person in advance / $12.00 @ door. Send Check / Money Order Payable to Barbara Marlin172 Stonybrook Rd.Stratford, CT 06614(Please Include Your Name, Address, Contact Phone #)
Announcing the sixth annual Father and Son camping trip! August 10-12. Ages for the boys range from 6-12 on average, although older kids have a lot of fun as well. We usually stay Friday night into Sunday afternoon, weather permitting. On Sunday we have a communion service as well for the dads. I’ll be inviting folks from the Worcester and NH churches, as well as folks from the Northwest and North regions of the Boston church. We’ll be camping at the Greenfield State Park (same park and sites as last year). HYPERLINK: http://www.nhstateparks.org/ParksPages/Greenfield/GrnfldCmp.html. Please respond ASAP to Richard_Evans@comcast.net, as I’d like to get an idea of how many folks would be interested. Thanks, Rich.
Thank You from Hope Orphanage in India: Hi Michelle, Hope this mail finds you all in good health and spirit. Thank you very much for all the effort everyone made to send gifts to all the children in the Home. They were so excited to receive the gifts during New Year celebration. We would like to thank you very much for organizing this. We appreciate each and every one of you for making efforts to sending gifts to the children in the Home. This gesture of yours has definitely elated the spirit of all the children and the staff.
Thank you very much once again. Loving regards, Mrs. Malarvili Prabath, Director-Women and Children Program, HOPE foundation,
We are still accepting application letters from any member that would like to go and serve the church in Albania in 2007. Please forward your letters to Chris Efstathion.
Now is subscription renewal time for www.DisciplesToday.com . US member subscriptions help 2nd and 3rd world churches have free access. It is $40 per year.
Preteen Camp: Registration for Pre-Teen Camp, along with a deposit of $100 is due by April 7th. Camp is scheduled for August 14 - 19. The total cost is $320. Please see Jerry or Lori Maday with any questions and to pay.
Prayer Requests
Rachel Efstathion and Molly Prince were both accepted to Hope’s Youth Core in Jamaica. They need our prayers and support to raise funds to go.
IMS UPDATE
Dear Brothers & Sisters,
I recently received a letter from Shawn Wooten, outlining how things have gone over the past year, since he was selected as our Executive Director for IMS, and thought that I would summarize it for you here, for you to get a feel for what’s happening in Europe, good and bad. He acknowledges that “2006 was a year the European Churches faced challenges and trials, but (we) have grown in faith, which has resulted in a strengthening of character and joy. The Wooten family is personally grateful that we were hired in the beginning of the year to work full time for IMS.”
· For the last few years, Thierry Fender and Mirko Russo have organized the European Bible School (EBS). Last year there were 2 of these, the first in May, with Andy Fleming and Dave McAnulty teaching on church governance and building leadership in our churches. The second one, in October, focused on God’s character and prayer and was led by Mirko Russo and Fred Faller.
· There was a singles conference in the summer, hosted by the Eastern European churches, where over 200 disciples from 10 countries, including some from New England, spent 3 days studying the bible, praying, and fellowshipping and reviving their vision for Europe. Mike Fix, Lowell Hoover and Jimmy Allen were Keynote speakers and inspired the Christians to grow and persevere.
· One of the most challenging situations is in Warsaw, Poland, where Satan has been (temporarily) victorious. The Warsaw leadership group has accepted an Evangelical doctrine and has abandoned the teachings that the church was planted with. There is a small remnant in Warsaw who has held to their convictions and needs your prayers to remain faithful. Please also pray for the leadership group to get back to the correct biblical teaching of conversion and baptism.
· Shawn also wanted to express his appreciation for the warmth by which he and his family were greeted during their “barnstorming tour” through New England last summer. “The clear desire of our fellowship was to support missions, not only at a financial level, but at a relational level. I am inspired to see some of the partnerships that have developed over 2006, Granite State with Budapest, Worcester with Albania, Hartford with Bucharest and Groton with Zagreb, Croatia. These partnerships have connected the churches in a special way with much mutual spirituality.”
· In 2007, we (IMS) have identified 3 main goals:
1) To raise up Evangelists to work full time in churches that don’t have full time ministers. IMS has set a numerical goal of 7 new Evangelists and we have already hired Frank Glosklaus in Dusseldorf and Oleg Sirotkin from Kiev, who will be moving with his family to Zagreb.
2) Creation and strengthening of a functional, spiritual Operations team in Europe, which will oversee the work in Europe and focus on facilitating the financial and spiritual resources of the IMS. This team currently consists of Shawn Wooten, Valdur Koha, Christian Herbst, Mirko Russo, Thierry Fender and Peti Szabad.
3) To create “giving churches”. The vision is that every church that has been given to, will one day be able to give to other churches. As with Disciples—so it is with churches. There are already several churches in Europe that can help out with other congregations, and indeed the church in Zurich has recently made the decision to go from a “receiving church” to a “giving church”.
· We just recently finished our first Evangelist Training session in Budapest, with 17 church leaders attending from all over Europe (including our dear brother, Vangjel Kojku). “It was encouraging-and focused–and I really believe it will strengthen our full time ministers.” This is an excellent way to achieve goal #1 above.
Shawn finishes his letter with the following: “A special thanks to all of you, who have prayed and sacrificed and have loved God in such a way that has allowed Him to save souls all over the world! This year is going to be an exciting year for all of us, as we see new souls added, new churches planted, and the Good News being spread in many nations! Thank you for your sacrifice and your partnership in the Gospel!
For more information about IMS, feel free to look at our website (www.missionssociety.org) or see me.
Love in Christ, Eric Jette
