VCC Involvement in World Missions

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This month I would like to update you regarding some of the ways Vineyard Columbus is involved in World Missions. As you may know, I recently visited India along with our Evangelism Pastor, Stephen Van Dop, and a Vineyard small group leader, Jim Vagnier, who has been significantly involved in grass roots missions activity here for quite some time.

I had the great privilege of dedicating both the training center and dormitory building that Vineyard Columbus helped to finance in Bangalore, India. The training center and dormitory are part of the work of Pastor A. Stephen, an Indian church planter, who oversees a network of about 200 churches throughout India. Pastor A.'s work, called Cornerstone Ministries, also evangelizes rural villages through the activity of ten gospel teams. A rural hospital, well drilling, and a training school for girls is also part of Pastor A.'s work.

After visiting some of Pastor A.'s local churches and watching his evangelists on my last visit, I recommended to Pastor A. that he start a training school so that his pastors and leaders might get more deeply rooted in the fundamental issues of the faith. India, like many countries, suffers from the problem of many converts, but few disciples. It seemed imperative to me that if the work in India was to be sustained for the long haul, we needed to produce hundreds and hundreds of biblically deep, theologically trained, Christian pastors.

Pastor A. took up the challenge and with Vineyard Columbus' help, he constructed an extraordinary training center. One major need remains: Pastor A. has no one on site who can adequately serve as the training center's director. He asked if we could send a Vineyard couple to Bangalore to oversee the training of his pastors and leaders. Obviously, Pastor A. is residing great trust in our church by his willingness to turn the training of all of his young men and women over to us.

What I've been asking God for, is a couple with very strong teaching and administrative gifts, who have a passion to see the gospel go forward around the world. The living quarters for this couple would be very similar to an American-style apartment. The couple would help to coordinate teaching visits by Vineyard pastors in the US as well as training times by A.'s more seasoned pastors. In addition, they would be asked to teach on a wide variety of Christian subjects that would be relevant to pastoral ministry, such as Bible, Christian doctrine, church history, Christian marriage, etc.

If you are aware of a couple who possesses a strong Christian marriage, great Christian character, significant gifts of teaching and administration, and who you believe might be interested in finding out more information about this opportunity, please give me their names so that I might follow up. You may write to me in care of my personal assistant, Shelley McWherter, at shelley@vcfcolumbus.org.

Steve, Jim and I also had the opportunity to do a pastors' and leaders' conference for 350 of Pastor A.'s workers, both male and female. God's presence was evident throughout the week. I believe that individuals were encouraged and the work in India was strengthened as a result of the training conference.

Our little team then went onto Central Asia to visit Andy and Kathy Saperstein and their family, who are leading a church planting team in Central Asia. Andy and Kathy and their children are healthy and well. Their team, in general, has very high morale and dearly love and respect Andy and Kathy as their leaders. Andy and Kathy's living situation is excellent. They have a wide network of Muslim friends and have now seen about a dozen Muslims come to a saving faith in Christ.

I was able to lead several days of team training for Andy's team. My overall impression is that this work in Central Asia is now entering the launch phase. The first two years of any missions work are primarily about language learning, house-hunting, basic survival issues, etc. But now, Andy is seeing a steady trickle of converts and with Andy's near fluency in the local language, he is able to carry on deep conversations with anyone whom God has appointed for salvation.

One highlight of our trip: Andy and Kathy hosted an Easter dinner for 18 of their Muslim friends and neighbors. Hospitality is a huge issue in Central Asia. Three large tables were laden down with food bearing traditional Central Asian dishes. The men and women who were gathered spent about 45 minutes dialoguing with us (through Andy's translation). We answered their questions about life in America and they answered our questions about life in Central Asia. We had an opportunity to speak at length about the power of Jesus Christ to heal and to save. We even told stories about physical healings that have taken place in our church. Our stories really piqued the interest of folks who never have the opportunity to see God at work in their lives.

Andy used the elements of the dinner to teach the story of the Passover, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion of Christ and Easter. It was obvious that Andy's neighbors and friends were moved by his presentation. After dinner, we had several requests by individuals to lay hands on them and pray that "Jesus would do something on their behalf." The evening was a profoundly moving experience.

In the next two months, Bill Christensen, our Executive Pastor, will be traveling to another city in Central Asia to visit a Vineyard couple, Tom and Deanna Parkhurst, who are also involved in church planting activity. In addition, two Vineyard Columbus teams will be traveling to Brazil. One will be a work team that will help to build a small church and a training center on the Amazon. A second team, led by Danny Meyer, will do conferencing and training for Brazilian believers as well as evangelism in some of the small villages along the Amazon.

In addition, Pastor Kerry Davis, who oversees our Middle School Ministry, is leading a team of middle schoolers, some of their parents, and middle school leaders to Mexico on June 9-16. They will be visiting a suburb of Juarez, Mexico where Vineyard kids and middle school leaders will have an opportunity to lead a kids' club and also to participate in evangelism activities for the purpose of potentially planting a church in that area. Jeff Augustine, our Teen Pastor, is leading a team of high school students, as well as youth leaders and parents, on another trip to Mexico where they will be ministering at an orphanage and also participating in evangelistic activities.

I would solicit your prayers for the following people and their work:

1. Pastor A. Stephen, his wife, Queenie, and their family for health and spiritual protection. Pray a director will be found for the training center in Bangalore. Pray also for the going forth of the gospel throughout India. Already, tens of thousands of people have come to Christ from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds through Pastor A.'s work and over 200 churches have been planted. Pray for a multiplication of that work.

2. Pray for Andy and Kathy Saperstein, their family, and their team. Andy suffers from a chronically bad back, as well as colitis. Kathy has diabetes. Pray that God would intervene and grant them health and spiritual protection. Pray for the unity of their team. Pray that God would grant them a wide-open door for the gospel and that a church planting movement would be raised up through their activity in Central Asia.

3. Pray for Pastor Bill Christensen's visit to Tom and Deanna Parkhurst in June. Pray that Bill would be a source of encouragement, wisdom and counsel to Tom and Deanna. Pray that Tom and Deanna's work would result in a church being planted among the Central Asians that they are ministering to.

4. Pray for the two teams traveling to Brazil in the next two months. Pray for the more than 30 Vineyard Columbus members who are traveling. Pray for their safety, their unity and their usefulness to the Lord in spreading the gospel and planting churches along the Amazon River.

5. Pray for Kerry, Jeff and the Middle School and High School Teams that will be participating in our two short-term missions to Mexico. Pray not only for their health and safety, but also that God might use this trip to set our kids on fire for Him. Pray that some of the kids might sense a life-time call from God to world missions beginning with this trip.

We have other missionaries around the world. In a future email I will tell you about them. If you are interested in possibly participating on a short-term missions team at some point in the future, or in getting more information about the Columbus Vineyard's missions activity around the world, please contact Karen Botkin, our Missions Coordinator here at the church.

The Columbus Vineyard is actively engaged in World Missions activity. We hope to multiply our activity many times over in the next five years. You may be a part of that. Thank you for your prayers. God bless you!

With much affection,
Rich