Fifty years of fellowship — and a nude beach
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — A delegation from Churches of Christ…
Around the World: Flooding in Thailand, Sukkot celebrations in Israel and more quick takes
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Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ all over the globe. Got an idea for this column? Email Erik Tryggestad at [email protected].
Featured image (above): Residents of Ton Pao, Thailand, stand outside their flooded home.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
NEYBA — Political unrest and gang violence make mission work in Haiti uncertain these days, so a team from Alabama-based Liberté Ministries, which has worked with Churches of Christ in Haiti since 2010, traveled instead to the nation next door, the Dominican Republic. There, 13 U.S. church members helped complete buildings for churches in Neyba and Postrer Rio, which meet near growing communities of Haitian refugees. The team also built 40 pews for use in the buildings.
The trip “may be the beginning of a significant expansion in the Haitian ministry,” said Arvy Dupuy of Liberté Ministries. “Dominican churches in this area have invited us to help them establish new places of worship for Haitian and for bilingual congregations.”
Workers with Liberté Ministries worship with fellow Christians in the Dominican Republic.
ISRAEL
JERUSALEM — In the midst of rocket attacks and brutal conflicts on multiple fronts, a rooftop gathering in the Holy Land may not seem like a good idea.
But members of Netivyah, a ministry for Jewish followers of Jesus, didn’t let the war keep them from observing Sukkot, the Festival of Booths. The seven-day festival commemorates the Exodus, when the Israelites lived in tents. Netivyah members constructed a succah (a temporary hut) on top of the ministry’s building.
“My boys and I slept in the succah,” said office manager Daniel Stern, and “the congregation had 80 people for the evening celebration and 150 people on Saturday morning in the succah on the roof.”
Related: Fifty years of fellowship — and a nude beach
NEW ZEALAND
Rotorua — About 30 Christians from New Zealand, Australia and nations around the globe participated in the annual Men’s Challenge. Longtime Australian minister Stuart Penhall taught lessons “on how God uses broken, imperfect men to achieve his will,” said Johnathon Atchley, a member of the Otumoetai Church of Christ in Tauranga, New Zealand.
Geoff Fairest has organized the camp since 2008. “It’s a time when we can come together to share the blessings and struggles that God has allowed us to experience in the year just passed,” he said, “and to encourage one another to fight the good fight for the year ahead. We want God to change us so that we can go out into the world to help change others.”
“It’s a time when we can come together to share the blessings and struggles that God has allowed us to experience in the year just passed and to encourage one another to fight the good fight for the year ahead.”
SWITZERLAND
GENEVA — In this global hub of finance and diplomacy, a Church of Christ hosted a conference for about 40 church leaders from French-speaking congregations. Missionary Arlin Hendrix and his wife, Pamela, lived in Geneva for two years before moving to Lyon, France. They toured the church’s new, state-of-the-art facility. “We were flabbergasted,” Arlin Hendrix said, “when we saw one of their classrooms named after Pamela.”
The church’s attendance is about 50, and the new facility allows it to better serve refugees. The congregation rents part of its facility to other nonprofits, “which helps the church financially and makes the church more visible to the public,” Arlin Hendrix said. “What a blessing, immeasurably more than we could have asked or imagined!”
THAILAND
Ton Pao — Waist-high water flooded nearly every home in this town in northern Thailand after multiple rounds of record rainfall. Residents were unable to work as they waited for the floodwaters to recede. Members of the Chung Doi Church of Christ and the Urban Light ministry provided relief supplies. Church members replaced linoleum floors in five houses with funds from the Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.
Residents of Ton Pao, Thailand, stand outside their flooded home.
ZIMBABWE
GWERU — Five baptisms resulted from a recent campaign in the southern African community known as Nashville — not to be confused with that other Nashville in Middle Tennessee.
Ishmael Mutichu, minister for the Church of Christ at Nashville, joined fellow Zimbabwean evangelists Tapiwa Madamombe of Kwekwe, Tinashe Moyana of Zvishavane, Nashville missions minister Ovius Kufa and Tafadzwa Manjeya, a student minister from Bear Valley Bible Institute International. The ministers knocked on more than 50 doors in the community.
Zimbabwean ministers conduct a home Bible study.
“One of the most remarkable aspects of this campaign was the instrumental role played by our existing church membership,” Mutichu said. “Their established friendships and connections within the community proved invaluable in facilitating our outreach efforts. These relationships, built over time through genuine care and interaction, opened doors that might otherwise have remained closed to our evangelistic message.”
