Dear Friends:

 

This month I’d like to bring you up to date with where things are with two ministries at WPC that are pretty exciting:

 

THE STEPHENS MINISTRY PROGRAM

 

By vote of the Session, our church recently enrolled in the Stephens Ministry program, a Christian based, non-denominational, worldwide program which trains and organizes laypeople to do caring ministry within the church, in the name of Christ.  For some time now, one of my visions for WPC has been to provide consistent, one-on-one, confidential caregiving to people in the Body going through difficult times in their lives.  It is going to happen beginning in the fall of this year.  Two of our members, Mary Beth Goodell and Debbie Leonard, along with myself, will be attending an intensive training in St. Louis (Debbie and I the first week of April, Mary Beth in July), where we will be equipped to come back to the church and teach a 50 hour course in caregiving to selected individuals whom we believe to have the necessary spiritual gifts for this ministry.  Each of our trainees will be called Stephen Ministers, and will be commissioned in a worship service for this ministry at the completion of the 50 hour course.  Mary Beth, Debbie, and myself will be called the Stephen Ministry Leaders.  Then, when we Stephens Leaders become aware that individuals in the church going through difficult times desire and need sustained caregiving, we will match each individual with a Stephens Minister.  They will meet weekly for usually a period of several months, for about an hour each time.  The Stephen Minister is trained to care for people facing a wide variety of crises or life challenges, including people who are grieving, divorced, or separated, terminally ill, unemployed, hospitalized, homebound, lonely or discouraged, experiencing spiritual struggles, and more.  The Stephens Ministry program will not replace the current caregiving being done by our Deacons; the ministry of the Deacons will go on as usual.  Rather, the Stephens program will take the care of our membership to a deeper level, and should wonderfully enhance the overall health of the church.  In addition to their one-on-one ministry commitments to their care receivers, the Stephens Ministers will gather with Mary Beth, Debbie and myself twice a month for supervision and continuing education.  We will be keeping you posted and aware of what is happening as this new ministry develops.

 

 

OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CHURCH IN RWANDA (IPPC)

 

As you know, we sent a mission team to Rwanda last fall to explore the possibilities of a partnership with a start-up church in a genocide-devastated area called Bugesera.  While there and upon our return, both our team and the Session felt that this partnership was a go, and have sent a letter of support from the Session (which follows below).  This new congregation of perhaps 150 men, women, and children, is being called the International Presbyterian Pentecostal Church of Rwanda.  Whew!  Pastor Rukundo Celestin, the pastor of the congregation and a wonderful young man, came up with the name!  I really get a kick out of the “international” part!  Rukundo is not short on vision!  We’ll call it IPPC for short!!  Since our return this past October, I have been continuing to provide counsel and church policies and internal regulations (taken largely from our Presbyterian Book of Order) to Pastor Rukundo for getting the church organized and a form of government in place.  In addition, we have been sending money out of our mission committee funds (i.e., out of the 18 and a half % of your giving that goes to missions) for food, for land for a church building ($900) and for a new church building (in this case, it was $8000 from our Christmas Eve offering).  The new building is now under construction (the foundation work presently), and the structure, a basic mud-brick building with tin roof, will likely be completed before our next team goes over there in July.  It will seat 250 people.  How exciting it will be to be there when they dedicate their new building!  Now they will be able to gather for worship and for meetings, out of the sun and rain.  Their building will also give them credibility as a church with the people in Rwanda.  Our partnership with IPPC will be regularly evaluated, and will not last longer than a few years.  The idea and goal, from the PEACE plan model that Sally went for training in (at Saddleback Church in California), is to help them become established, and let them go as an independently functioning church which is ministering to their own community.  PEACE stands for Plant a church, Equip leaders in the church, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the people.  We will be seeking to come alongside IPPC in each of these ways while we are in partnership with them. 

 

So know you are part of a great adventure!  We will be keeping you posted as to how you can come aboard short of going there yourself, in providing help for the Rwandan people and for the IPPC.  Your missions team will be traveling to Rwanda July 18 for two weeks.  Members of the team include Sally and I, Curt and Dorothy Freeman, Jim Morton, Bonnie Mahan, Rebecca Whittemore, June Fontes (already there in Africa and joining us in Rwanda) and Hannah Quaranta, neice of Marcy Rea.

 

Know You’re Loved!

 

Pastor Jim