“I think we look like that on the outside, but I think we’re over-churched and under-saved, if you want to be honest about it. You know, West Michigan has a lot of wealth here, but there’s a spiritual poverty.”

A number of Christians from the area are joining forces with the Luis Palau Association to address the spiritual poverty as well as other needs within the nearby communities.

(Image courtesy of CityFest West Michigan)

Next September, the Luis Palau Association will be holding a two-day festival in West Michigan with Luis and his son, Andrew. Over those two days known as CityFest, the message of Jesus Christ will be shared. But leading up to the festival, the churches and organizations involved will spend time connecting with the community. This part is called CityServe.

Stowell says the partnership will help to drive “the Body of Christ in bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ into the hearts and lives of so many who are yet waiting to hear Him, and also to bring the love of Christ into the neighborhoods that are broken and in desperate need of help.”

A unified Church is an effective one

Right now, they’re working on gathering the local Christians together. So far, over 150 churches and organizations have joined the movement. Yesterday morning, a group met to pray for the region, and for unity among the churches as this project goes forward. Unity is a key ingredient to effective community outreach.

(Photo courtesy of Beth Stolicker)

“We’re all so busy in our little corners of the Kingdom, we forget that maybe if we got together and did something as one, it could be amazing,” Stowell says.

A united network of churches not only allows for collaboration, but it helps the Church maintain awareness as to what is going on in the communities around them. The festival is set for September 8 and 9. Up to that point, they will be establishing relationships, aiding existing mission work, and building towards sustainable Gospel growth.

“We’ll actually be working with inner city ministries and empowering them and working with them to accelerate their work with the homeless, with the poor, with neighborhood needs, with tutoring, with children at risk,” Stowell says.

A unified Church gone global

But this story isn’t just about one city or even one nation. This is about seeing the Gospel transform the globe, city by city. The Luis Palau Association holds several festivals like this with the goal to equip the Church to continue sustainable outreach that meets community needs, both spiritual and physical. The organization describes it as a Gospel-centered, Church-driven, disciple-led, city-focused movement.

But what is the advantage of this approach when it comes to systematic issues that cause poverty and at-risk situations?

“I think we have to remember that the social theory and tax dollars and politics can’t do what Jesus can do,” Stowell says. When the Church acts as the hands and feet of Jesus, doing His work, it opens up conversations about the Gospel.

“So, then we can move from the physical needs into the spiritual needs.”

To learn more about these festivals and the intentional outreach and unity that comes with them, click here. You can even check out this list of upcoming events to see if there’s one taking place in your area.

Praying for transformation in Michigan

(Photo courtesy of Beth Stolicker)

In the meantime, we can be praying for these festivals as they take place throughout the year.

For West Michigan, specifically, Stowell says, “I think we need to pray that the hosts of heaven hold back the power of the enemy so that we can have, not necessarily clear sailing (because there’s never clear sailing), but that we can have the momentum of God without interference in getting this done.”

Be praying for the Body of Christ to be unified as they work to reach local communities. Pray for many hearts to receive the Gospel as they experience the love of Jesus.

Are you in the West Michigan area? This is a Church-wide effort, and so if you’re a local Christian or church interested in getting involved, sign up here.

Vinton says they have a strategy in place that will not only take the Gospel in, but also plant churches. They’ve already seen that strategy bloom from their Curacao connections
that brought together a seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a ministry with a home base in the Congo,and the island of Curacao.

Let’s unravel that thread: GMI’s first and oldest mission field is in the Congo. They also have a seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. An engineering student in Curacao* named Carlos Brunk came to study at Grace Bible College and graduated in 1991.

To get the context of the complexity in this puzzle, we’ll take this even further back to the early 1950’s. At that time, missionaries Cliff and Betty Lee started the ministries in Curacao where a strong church was established and is today being carried on under the leadership of Pastor Michael Look.

With the retirement of the Lees in the 1990s, they needed a new pastor. Enter: a newly-trained Carlos Brunk, installed as the first national pastor of that church. Vinton says, “We withdrew our missionary force and turned that over to the national church.”

After nine years, Brunk felt God calling him to a different location. Vinton explains that the scenario was ideal for growth because “Curacao [was] part of the Netherlands kingdom. The people from Curacao can travel and can actually move to and get jobs in the Netherlands, so there are a few thousand of them over there.”

So, in 2001 “the pastor moved to the Netherlands to further his studies, and he started a church.” The Curacao church remains healthy and continues to partner with GMI, especially for Papiamento literature, the common language on the island.

The goal was to reach as many people as possible considering the different communities living in the area and that most people can be reached through the English language. In 2009, they decided to launch an outreach to the community of the Papiamentu speakers.

The church in Almere was born. Vinton says, “With this church being established outside of Amsterdam, you have contacts with many, many people in parts of Europe that you have known, and that gives us an opportunity to work together and start moving out into other parts of the Netherlands as well as into Europe.”

Right now, the church is in a growth phase, with roughly 50 people. Most are people of Curacao, Aruba and St. Martin, but  some are from Surinam and a few are Dutch. The entire church supports the outreach to the Papiamentu-speaking folks.

Last year, the church decided to hold Sunday services in Papiamentu with translation in Dutch. As a result, one person commented to Vinton that “the Gospel came to us, in many cases, from Europe. Now as we visit Europe, we find out that they need the Gospel as much as we did; maybe the Lord is going to be using us to move into that part of Europe.”

Brunk also holds monthly leadership training with the focus on teaching, preaching and evangelism. There’s also hope that a Grace Bible School can begin in the region to help ready people to carry the message to the rest of the Netherlands and Europe.

So let’s go back to the original question Vinton was asked: “Why don’t you have any missionaries in Europe?” Vinton explains that their strategy is already in place. “We’re not going to place individual missionaries spread out into different parts of the world, but where we are already working, we’re going to work with the national church and move into the neighboring countries.”

Matthew 5:16 reads, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” The team’s joy is contagious. However, they need more hands. Those serving in the church are working full-time in the community, and the ministry is growing and requires more attention and care.

If you have more questions, click here.

Today, healing continues, but of a spiritual kind. Grace Ministries International sent Pastor
Carlos and Denise Brunk to take over outreach there after missionaries Cliff
and Betty Lee retired.

Carlos originally studied to be an engineer but felt called
to the ministry. He trained at Grace
Bible College and assumed the pastorate of Grace Bible Church in 1991.

The team began an intensive discipleship and training program
at the church. Carlos pastored the Grace church in Curacao for nine years, and
after training other men for the ministry he felt the Lord leading him to
establish other Grace churches in the Netherlands.

One young man who was led to believe on the Lord Jesus as
Savior (also an electrical engineer) became a serious student of the Word and eventually
became the pastor of the church when the Brunks left.

The indigenous work continues, although GMI no longer has a
missionary presence on the island. While
Dutch is the official language, the common language is Papiamento, so the team
continues to work with the national church especially in providing Papiamento
literature.

Together, they co-pastor a church in a community in Holland
where several thousand immigrants from Curacao live.

GMI’s Sam Vinton will spend three days with them at the end
of March on the way back from Congo.

Please pray for these believers as they are involved in a program
of reaching their community with the Gospel.

Back in the late nineties, several relief and development,
Christian non-governmental organizations were operating independent of one
another. Realizing they were all doing similar work and if they worked together
they could maximize their impact, they came together to form the Global Aid
Network, the relief and development arm of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Over a decade later, "Together in seven different
locations, we're able to geographically reach the world," said Duane Zook,
president of GAiN USA. These seven locations are in the U.S., Canada, Korea,
Australia, Holland, Germany and Austria.

At each branch, there are teams with an area of expertise.
For example, the Canada office has experts skilled in drilling deep water wells.
Germany has a strong logistic network, and in Australia, they have an extensive
medical team.

These specialties help teams be precise and great at what
they do, but that's not all. Zook said if one branch alone was trying to do the
work they do, they would only be able to impact 15 to 20 countries. However,
through their combined efforts, "We are working in about 50 different
nations, and it's not only to help provide relief, but we also are looking at
development. We provide food, of course; we provide clothing; we provide water,"
he said.

But providing for their physical needs is just the
beginning, as they value people's souls above all else: "People can be
well fed, they can have clothes on their back, they can have the right medicine;
but unless they have that personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ …
they will, number one, not experience the abundant life Christ wants them to
have here on earth. And number two, without that personal relationship, in
eternity they would be separated from God our loving Father," Zook said.

With Christ at the center of all their work, they realize
more than anything that all they do is only possible through Him. Therefore,
Zook asks for constant prayer for their ministry.

"The biggest prayer need would be the need for
volunteers to, number one, pray for the efforts, the churches, and believers in
these countries. Also, [pray for] volunteers to go to these countries to help work
alongside the nationals. And, of course, as we send aid in, pray that God would
unleash the finances necessary to come alongside and support the churches and
Campus Crusade on the ground," Zook said.

You can join this collaborative effort by clicking
here.