| Global Weekly Summary |
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April
23, 2004 Global
News This Week
Historical
growth, impact in Middle East Led by NCM Coordinator, Rod Green, the event brought together Nazarene leaders from the Holy Land, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and, for the first time, Turkey. Egypt was also represented, with Eastern Mediterranean Field Director Lindell Browning attending. Reports of compassionate ministry projects were given, including news of child sponsorship programs serving hundreds of students at schools in Nazareth in the Holy Land, Damascus, Syria, Amman and Zarqa, Jordan, and Beirut, Lebanon. Reports were also given on NCM-initiated refugee services among the Kurds, and the ministry of the “Jesus of Nazareth” Church in the Old City of Damascus, which provides food and medical services to hundreds of Iraqi refugee families. NCM International has subsidized this program by contributing $50,000 (USA) over the last year. The committee also created seven additional projects. The three-day event included NCM training under the direction of Fletcher Tink, adjunct professor of urban and compassionate ministries at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, with continuing education credit being awarded to participants. Tink stated he “found the Arab community extraordinarily hospitable and the Middle Eastern Nazarenes zealous to make an impact for God in this part of the world.” A young people’s rally was held one evening at the Amman church, which is attended principally by local Jordanian Palestinians. Tink reports the Amman church now has several hundred in average attendances, and a pastor who is taking “extraordinary opportunities” to minister to Iraqis in several locations. According to Tink, there was a great spirit of optimism throughout the meetings brought about by a new openness within the various cultures to the presentation of Christ. Both Christians and Muslims are seeing the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, and DVD versions of the film are in broad circulation among the curious and searching masses of these countries. Also, at least seven new churches are in development in this field, the greatest growth spurt in Nazarene history in the Middle East.
Mozambique
floodwaters continue to rise Daniel Jones, coordinator for Nazarene Mission Aviation-Africa, traveled to the flooded area to assess damages. Jones and passenger Isaac Baloi reported that 18 Nazarene churches were affected by the floodwaters, with nearly 2000 Nazarene family members losing personal possessions, crops, or other necessities. Sadly, the infant daughter of a Nazarene pastor died of malaria indirectly resulted to the floods. Nazarene
Compassionate Ministries contributed nearly $15,000 (USA) for aid, which
was primarily used to purchase food. Youth
leadership training a focus in Senegal, Zimbabwe The theme for the seminar, which included times of worship, was “Ten Irrefutable Principles of Leadership from a Biblical Perspective.” This was based on John Maxwell’s book, The 21 Laws of Leadership, with the topics encouraging participants to reach for a new vision of leadership. “Training our youth in servant leadership is one way to teach them to be better servants in their churches, Christian influences in their environment, and good citizens in their country,” concluded Gomis. Another youth leadership training seminar was held following this at the Mbare Central Church of the Nazarene on the Zimbabwe East district, drawing nearly 60 participants. The
Zimbabwe East conference was organized by Edward Solomon Mikwamba, Central
Africa Field Nazarene Youth International (NYI) coordinator, and Prosper
Takapera, Zimbabwe East district NYI president.
South
Texas district celebrates first assembly Srader, reporting to General Superintendent Jerry D. Porter, said, “Things are coming together well for the first assembly of the South Texas district. We have had a good year, especially in light of all of the energy spent on the merger. This has probably brought some new energy into the district.” According to Srader’s
report, the district received 922 new Nazarenes and raised approximately
$1.2 million (USA) for world evangelism. Srader commented, “The
exciting thing is the 12 NewStart churches we will be reporting. Sam Flores
is doing an outstanding job with the NewStart initiative.” Texas-Oklahoma
Latin district elects new D.S. Palacios succeeds Joe Dimas,
who served as superintendent for 23 years. Before this assignment, Dimas
was a pastor in Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Dimas plans to pastor San
Antonio First Church of the Nazarene, as well as and perform evangelism
and revival services. Zink
to undergo major surgery Regional
Resources: Church
of the Nazarene Ministry Links On-Line
Pastor's Calendar:
NCN mistakenly identified the young girl “Gracie” in the story of the Madrid train explosions as a Nazarene. We have since learned that she is in fact the child of evangelical missionaries not affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene. We regret the error, but share her joy in her “miracle.”
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comment, report news, or for more information about NCN News, please contact
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First
Missionary in Residence at Nazarene Bible College The decision to host a Missionary in Residence is part of a larger plan to expose students to a variety of missions opportunities, including Work and Witness trips, holding an annual Cross-Cultural Orientation event, and encouraging a campus Missions in Action student fellowship. Further, this course of action is in response to an increasing number of NBC students with a call to missions service as well as in response to a trend within the denomination of persons responding later in life to God’s call to missions. NBC hopes these efforts will help better prepare prospective and future missionaries as they move through the denominational candidacy process. Chuck and Doris Gailey served as missionaries to Swaziland for 13 years. For more than 20 years since returning from the field, Chuck Gailey has been involved in missions education. In 1986, he became founding director of the School of World Mission and Evangelism at Nazarene Theological Seminary (NTS) in Kansas City, where he is now Emeritus Professor of missiology. A graduate of Eastern Nazarene College, where he taught prior to going to NTS, Gailey holds an M.A. degree from Boston University and the Ph.D. from the University of South Africa. More recently, Gailey has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Missiology. He continues to speak at retreats, conferences, and in college chapels. He also serves as a missions consultant for the World Mission department. His most recent book is Mission in the Third Millennium (2001) and he is currently writing a textbook on missiology for the Centennial Project under the auspices of Nazarene Publishing House. He has also written many articles for Holiness Today magazine. Any
persons desiring more information on this program are encouraged to contact
Dr. Tom Umbel at Nazarene Bible College, 1111 Academy Park Loop, Colorado
Springs, CO, 80910, (office: 719-884-5148). Litswele
brings African missions perspective to ENC McClung reported that “the students were particularly blessed by the opportunity to see and hear the venerable icon of African national leadership.” As
assistant to African Field Director Fred Huff, Litswele makes frequent
trips outside South Africa to preach and speak in a variety of Nazarene
settings. NASA
astronaut and NNU alumnus Rick Hieb speaks at MNU A native of Jamestown, North Dakota, Hieb was a 1977 graduate of Northwest Nazarene University. After earning a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1979, Hieb came directly to NASA to work in crew procedures development and crew activity planning. Hieb became an astronaut in July 1986. A veteran of three space flights, Hieb flew on STS-39 in 1991, STS-49 in 1992, and STS-65 in 1994. He has logged more than 750 hours in space, including over 17 hours of EVA (space walk). Additionally, Hieb served as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on May 7, 1992. During that mission, Hieb, along with astronaut Pierre Thuot, performed three space walks resulting in the capture and repair of the stranded Intelsat VI F3 communications satellite. The third space walk, which also included astronaut Tom Akers, was the first ever three-person space walk. This 8 hour and 29 minute space walk, the longest in history, broke a 20-year-old record that was held by Apollo 17 astronauts. As
the payload commander on the second flight of the International Microgravity
Laboratory (IML-2) on Space Shuttle Mission STS-65, Hieb was part of another
record-setting event as he and the crew set a new flight duration record
for the Space Shuttle program with a 15-day flight. NNU
Helping Professions Conference to focus on social needs Conference
speakers include Verna Carson, national director of Restore Behavioral
Health in Fallston, Maryland and Randy Newcomb, vice president for Organizational
Learning at California’s Omidyar Foundation. Newcomb will share
his views on the changing role of philanthropy within the social service
arena and the function of people of faith and compassion within the context
of a pluralistic society. Carlson works in the field of psychiatric nursing
and will be addressing the topic of professional self-care. Cost for the conference is $30. One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) will be available for those interested for an additional $45. For
more information, Click
Here. Olivet
student named Illinois Student Employee of the Year Each year, ONU supervisors nominate a student for the university’s award. Students are judged according to five criteria: reliability, uniqueness of contribution, quality of work, initiative, and professionalism. The
winning application is then submitted to the Midwest Association for Student
Employment Administration, which chooses a winner for the state of Illinois
based on the same criteria. In other Olivet news, 29 students from ONU were named to the 2003–04 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. They are part of an elite group of students from more than 1,900 institutions across the United States and in several foreign nations. University faculty and students elected the honorees. Selection was based on academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, leadership potential, and Christian witness. For
a list of ONU students honored, visit the following site: http://www.ncnnews.org/onu_4_23_04.html.
Africa
Nazarene University basketball team reaches first UCBL final ANU will play the Catholic
University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in the UCBL finals.
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