The Year in Review: Maranatha 2004
“…for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh 1:9)
As we look back on 2004 as a Body, there are many reasons to be thankful. New churches were opened and consecrated, new pastors raised, new outreaches and seminars hosted, and new converts baptized. There were new households established (weddings) and new members of households (babies). We witnessed amazing, specific answers to prayer, as well as a gradual maturing of our churches and their members. The year 2004 will mostly be remembered, however, as the “Year of the Work Abroad.” We saw the biggest expansion of the Lord’s Work ever – at least outside Latin America – as great doors opened for us in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. These new fields are so numerous and so extensive, in fact, that we would be unable to keep up with them, if not for the Lord’s ongoing help and intervention.
MINISTRY CHANGES
It was a great blessing to see the Lord raise Peter Jo (soon to return to Korea), Hyungkun Lee, Cesario Sousa, and Sherwin Yoder as anointed pastors (a preparatory period preceding full ordination). Mike Kitchel and Taylor Vieira were confirmed and ordained to the ministry this year and took responsibility for some churches in their respective areas.
The Connecticut church was transferred to Pr. Ben Kennedy. The church in Chatham, New York was recently transferred to Pr. David Vieira, as Pr. Jeff Gilbert had recently moved to Iceland.
Another significant change was the Presbytery’s creation of a three-pastor North American Executive Commission (composed of the three ordained pastors in Canada) to serve as a liaison between the pastors in North America and the Presbytery in Brazil.
The Body needs more pastors (see Matthew 9: 37 - 38), so this is a clear answer to prayer. The raising of new pastors in a local church is a blessing not just for that church, but for the whole body.
Major Seminars & Outreaches
First Toronto Seminar: The first full seminar in Canada occurred at the end of April, and was a great blessing for the many who attended. About 250 people came to the seminar, including about 50 first-time attendees. First-timers included new members and visitors from the churches in Toronto, Ajax, Ottawa, Massachusetts, Newark, and Rochester. Some of the newer attendees hailed from Korea, Belarus, Burundi, Nigeria, Colombia, and other countries.
Wisconsin seminar (April): one of the sisters from Florida experienced a severe pain due to a kidney stone. Before the seminar, she had undergone a medical procedure to remove several other kidney stones, but this one could not be removed without surgery. Her doctor tied a special string around the remaining kidney stone, planning to remove it later with a surgery.
During the seminar, the kidney stone caused her a great deal of pain, and several pastors prayed for her. On Monday she went to the doctor and he could not find the stone -- it had disappeared! He found the string that he had used to tie the stone, and he did a CAT scan on her, but he found no trace of the kidney stone. The sister was then able to testify to him about the blessing she had received at the seminar, and about her God who heals.
Many others received deep blessings at the seminar. About fifteen people came for the first time, and many of them testified about the power of the revealed teachings. Quite a few others were there for the second or third time, and seemed to be growing in their commitment and understanding. The Lord's presence was deeply felt by all who attended.
Great Evangelism Meeting in Newark: (June 6). The meeting began with a period of praise and then a class on "Blow the Trumpet in Zion." Following an intermission for refreshments, there was another praise time, and then a class on "There Will Be No Loss of Life." About 180 Newark church members attended the meeting, as well as about 30 church members from Wallingford and Chatham who also came to help with the meeting. In addition, a total of 89 visitors came to the meeting. The visitors seemed to respond very well to the classes, and many asked for assistance or follow-up at the end of the meeting.
There was also a Great Evangelism in Boston in August, which brought new people to the churches there.
September Seminars in the Northeast (Sept. 10-12): Simultaneous seminars were held in Waterbury, CT, and Boston, MA, during the weekend of September 10-12. Each seminar had approximately 450-500 people in attendance. Both events were very successful, and many people received powerful blessings. This is the first time we have held simultaneous seminars in two locations in North America, which allowed us to reach more people with less travel burdens on those teaching the classes. Both seminars had classes emphasizing the tremendous growth of the Lord’s Work in Eastern Europe, highlighted with testimonies from the pastors who spent a month there this summer, giving seminars in many different cities. The Lord has opened doors for his message that we never imagined, in literally dozens of countries, and the reception of the revealed messages has been consistently enthusiastic – better than we had hoped for. We attribute this to the prayers of God’s servants. The other main emphasis of the seminars was the doctrine of the Body of Christ. The Lord has called us to give special attention to this topic at this juncture in our walk with him. There were classes on how the ministry is supposed to be integrated into the Body, how churches with a healthy understanding of the Body differ from isolated spiritual “movements” which can sometimes be unstable, and how the Holy Spirit’s work in the Last Days is inseparable from his work in the Body. ALSO, a smaller miniseminar in Newark preceded the events in Connecticut and Boston.
AUSTIN & MIAMI SEMINARS & OUTREACHES (Dec. 4): Simultaneous seminars were held again on the weekend of December 4 in Austin and Miami. In Austin, the local church members from Austin attended, and were joined by 18 people from the nascent groups in the Houston area and five or six members from Dallas – plus about forty other people from around the country. In Miami, approximately 280 attended, including 40 first-timers.
There were also mini-seminars (usually one-day events taught by two or three pastors) in Ottawa, Sunnyvale, Wallingford, and a few other locations. A regional men’s meeting in Chatham in March proved to be a great blessing, as did a Youth Seminar in Newark in May and a Children’s Seminar in Chatham in April. Baptisms took place in Connecticut in August and October.
Brazil Trip: 68 people traveled from various countries to Brazil in early July to attend a seminar in the Maanaim outside of Vila Velha. The attendees included people from Ireland, Bolivia, Estonia, Canada, and the United States. Among the North American attendees were brethren from the churches in Chatham, NY; Wallingford, CT; the DC area; Wheaton, IL; Sunnyvale, CA; and Ottawa (Canada). Also, a pastor from a different denomination accepted an invitation to attend the seminar.
New Churches/Meeting places
One indicia of the growth of our Body of churches is the need for individual congregations to move to a larger space, and the start of new groups or meetings where we had none before.
In the Boston region, the nascent group in Hyannis this year began to hold public meetings in a hotel conference room. The church in Plymouth, somewhat further along on its journey, moved from hotel meetings to a rented place near the original Plymouth Rock. In Somerville, the church outgrew its original rented meeting place and moved to a new, more spacious location in September.
The church in Washington, D.C. this year began all-Spanish services on Tuesday evenings to accommodate the growing number of visitors from the Hispanic community in that area. Incidentally, the Washington church has been searching ardently for a new place to meet – with more space and visibility than their current location – and we should keep them in our prayers for this quest.
The church in Sarasota, Florida also moved into a public meeting place this year. The dedication service was held on July 31. Fifty-six people attended the dedication service, including and 10 first-time visitors. The visitors asked for prayer and they all received a blessing from the Lord.
The nascent group in Colorado Springs, CO held its first formal service in a home in October.
Atlanta, GA also saw the dedication of a new public meeting place for our church there. The group has grown in the last two or three years to about 30 regular attendees.
The Work Abroad
The church in Seoul, Korea had approximately six seminars this past year. The biggest boost for the church there, however, was the raising of two anointed pastors (brethren who helped start the group), one of whom is now living there (he was living in Canada at the time he was raised), and the other soon to be moving.
One pastor from the United States has the privilege of teaching a seminar in Warsaw, Poland along with the Portuguese pastor who is responsible for the group there. A subsequent Polish seminar in October saw pastors from several different established churches attend and receive a blessing, about 50 people in all at the seminar.
Also in October, two pastors from North America taught a seminar in Japan, commencing the responsibility of the pastors in North America for the four or five churches there. Approximately 100 members in Japan attended the event.
The first seminar in Central-Eastern Africa took place in Nairobi in July, with pastors from Congo, Burundi, Kenya, and Rwanda attending – all contacts initiated through the Maranatha website. These pastors have continued to correspond with us and request further instructions and assistance. All have said they are trying to implement the things they learned in their own churches as quickly as possible.
The group in the Dominican Republic continued to receive mini-seminars every other month. The group there continues to persevere and grow; the most recent miniseminar there had 25 in attendance, and is outgrowing their initial meeting place. A new sister was baptized there in September.
In March, the first miniseminar in Mexico City took place, strengthening the embryonic group there.
In July and August, the pastors from the Presbytery in Brazil taught seminars in Minsk, Kiev, Odessa, and Moscow, which proved to be a pivotal moment for the Work Abroad. In Minsk there were 600 pastors and 1,600 church workers gathered to receive the teaching. In Kiev, the seminar included about 100 pastors and 150 church workers. The event in Odessa had at least 80 pastors and 80 workers; in Moscow, about 50 pastors and 100 church workers. These pastors and workers represent various churches that have thousands of members in the aggregate; the response to the revealed Word was always enthusiastic. Each seminar also included contacts from previously unreached regions who expressed interest in hosting us there; including Israel.
A pastor from India will attend a seminar in Maanaim (Brazil) for the first time this coming February. This contact developed over the past year through the website.
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As we look back on 2004 as a Body, there are many reasons to be thankful. New churches were opened and consecrated, new pastors raised, new outreaches and seminars hosted, and new converts baptized. There were new households established (weddings) and new members of households (babies). We witnessed amazing, specific answers to prayer, as well as a gradual maturing of our churches and their members. The year 2004 will mostly be remembered, however, as the “Year of the Work Abroad.” We saw the biggest expansion of the Lord’s Work ever – at least outside Latin America – as great doors opened for us in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. These new fields are so numerous and so extensive, in fact, that we would be unable to keep up with them, if not for the Lord’s ongoing help and intervention.
MINISTRY CHANGES
It was a great blessing to see the Lord raise Peter Jo (soon to return to Korea), Hyungkun Lee, Cesario Sousa, and Sherwin Yoder as anointed pastors (a preparatory period preceding full ordination). Mike Kitchel and Taylor Vieira were confirmed and ordained to the ministry this year and took responsibility for some churches in their respective areas.
The Connecticut church was transferred to Pr. Ben Kennedy. The church in Chatham, New York was recently transferred to Pr. David Vieira, as Pr. Jeff Gilbert had recently moved to Iceland.
Another significant change was the Presbytery’s creation of a three-pastor North American Executive Commission (composed of the three ordained pastors in Canada) to serve as a liaison between the pastors in North America and the Presbytery in Brazil.
The Body needs more pastors (see Matthew 9: 37 - 38), so this is a clear answer to prayer. The raising of new pastors in a local church is a blessing not just for that church, but for the whole body.
Major Seminars & Outreaches
First Toronto Seminar: The first full seminar in Canada occurred at the end of April, and was a great blessing for the many who attended. About 250 people came to the seminar, including about 50 first-time attendees. First-timers included new members and visitors from the churches in Toronto, Ajax, Ottawa, Massachusetts, Newark, and Rochester. Some of the newer attendees hailed from Korea, Belarus, Burundi, Nigeria, Colombia, and other countries.
Wisconsin seminar (April): one of the sisters from Florida experienced a severe pain due to a kidney stone. Before the seminar, she had undergone a medical procedure to remove several other kidney stones, but this one could not be removed without surgery. Her doctor tied a special string around the remaining kidney stone, planning to remove it later with a surgery.
During the seminar, the kidney stone caused her a great deal of pain, and several pastors prayed for her. On Monday she went to the doctor and he could not find the stone -- it had disappeared! He found the string that he had used to tie the stone, and he did a CAT scan on her, but he found no trace of the kidney stone. The sister was then able to testify to him about the blessing she had received at the seminar, and about her God who heals.
Many others received deep blessings at the seminar. About fifteen people came for the first time, and many of them testified about the power of the revealed teachings. Quite a few others were there for the second or third time, and seemed to be growing in their commitment and understanding. The Lord's presence was deeply felt by all who attended.
Great Evangelism Meeting in Newark: (June 6). The meeting began with a period of praise and then a class on "Blow the Trumpet in Zion." Following an intermission for refreshments, there was another praise time, and then a class on "There Will Be No Loss of Life." About 180 Newark church members attended the meeting, as well as about 30 church members from Wallingford and Chatham who also came to help with the meeting. In addition, a total of 89 visitors came to the meeting. The visitors seemed to respond very well to the classes, and many asked for assistance or follow-up at the end of the meeting.
There was also a Great Evangelism in Boston in August, which brought new people to the churches there.
September Seminars in the Northeast (Sept. 10-12): Simultaneous seminars were held in Waterbury, CT, and Boston, MA, during the weekend of September 10-12. Each seminar had approximately 450-500 people in attendance. Both events were very successful, and many people received powerful blessings. This is the first time we have held simultaneous seminars in two locations in North America, which allowed us to reach more people with less travel burdens on those teaching the classes. Both seminars had classes emphasizing the tremendous growth of the Lord’s Work in Eastern Europe, highlighted with testimonies from the pastors who spent a month there this summer, giving seminars in many different cities. The Lord has opened doors for his message that we never imagined, in literally dozens of countries, and the reception of the revealed messages has been consistently enthusiastic – better than we had hoped for. We attribute this to the prayers of God’s servants. The other main emphasis of the seminars was the doctrine of the Body of Christ. The Lord has called us to give special attention to this topic at this juncture in our walk with him. There were classes on how the ministry is supposed to be integrated into the Body, how churches with a healthy understanding of the Body differ from isolated spiritual “movements” which can sometimes be unstable, and how the Holy Spirit’s work in the Last Days is inseparable from his work in the Body. ALSO, a smaller miniseminar in Newark preceded the events in Connecticut and Boston.
AUSTIN & MIAMI SEMINARS & OUTREACHES (Dec. 4): Simultaneous seminars were held again on the weekend of December 4 in Austin and Miami. In Austin, the local church members from Austin attended, and were joined by 18 people from the nascent groups in the Houston area and five or six members from Dallas – plus about forty other people from around the country. In Miami, approximately 280 attended, including 40 first-timers.
There were also mini-seminars (usually one-day events taught by two or three pastors) in Ottawa, Sunnyvale, Wallingford, and a few other locations. A regional men’s meeting in Chatham in March proved to be a great blessing, as did a Youth Seminar in Newark in May and a Children’s Seminar in Chatham in April. Baptisms took place in Connecticut in August and October.
Brazil Trip: 68 people traveled from various countries to Brazil in early July to attend a seminar in the Maanaim outside of Vila Velha. The attendees included people from Ireland, Bolivia, Estonia, Canada, and the United States. Among the North American attendees were brethren from the churches in Chatham, NY; Wallingford, CT; the DC area; Wheaton, IL; Sunnyvale, CA; and Ottawa (Canada). Also, a pastor from a different denomination accepted an invitation to attend the seminar.
New Churches/Meeting places
One indicia of the growth of our Body of churches is the need for individual congregations to move to a larger space, and the start of new groups or meetings where we had none before.
In the Boston region, the nascent group in Hyannis this year began to hold public meetings in a hotel conference room. The church in Plymouth, somewhat further along on its journey, moved from hotel meetings to a rented place near the original Plymouth Rock. In Somerville, the church outgrew its original rented meeting place and moved to a new, more spacious location in September.
The church in Washington, D.C. this year began all-Spanish services on Tuesday evenings to accommodate the growing number of visitors from the Hispanic community in that area. Incidentally, the Washington church has been searching ardently for a new place to meet – with more space and visibility than their current location – and we should keep them in our prayers for this quest.
The church in Sarasota, Florida also moved into a public meeting place this year. The dedication service was held on July 31. Fifty-six people attended the dedication service, including and 10 first-time visitors. The visitors asked for prayer and they all received a blessing from the Lord.
The nascent group in Colorado Springs, CO held its first formal service in a home in October.
Atlanta, GA also saw the dedication of a new public meeting place for our church there. The group has grown in the last two or three years to about 30 regular attendees.
The Work Abroad
The church in Seoul, Korea had approximately six seminars this past year. The biggest boost for the church there, however, was the raising of two anointed pastors (brethren who helped start the group), one of whom is now living there (he was living in Canada at the time he was raised), and the other soon to be moving.
One pastor from the United States has the privilege of teaching a seminar in Warsaw, Poland along with the Portuguese pastor who is responsible for the group there. A subsequent Polish seminar in October saw pastors from several different established churches attend and receive a blessing, about 50 people in all at the seminar.
Also in October, two pastors from North America taught a seminar in Japan, commencing the responsibility of the pastors in North America for the four or five churches there. Approximately 100 members in Japan attended the event.
The first seminar in Central-Eastern Africa took place in Nairobi in July, with pastors from Congo, Burundi, Kenya, and Rwanda attending – all contacts initiated through the Maranatha website. These pastors have continued to correspond with us and request further instructions and assistance. All have said they are trying to implement the things they learned in their own churches as quickly as possible.
The group in the Dominican Republic continued to receive mini-seminars every other month. The group there continues to persevere and grow; the most recent miniseminar there had 25 in attendance, and is outgrowing their initial meeting place. A new sister was baptized there in September.
In March, the first miniseminar in Mexico City took place, strengthening the embryonic group there.
In July and August, the pastors from the Presbytery in Brazil taught seminars in Minsk, Kiev, Odessa, and Moscow, which proved to be a pivotal moment for the Work Abroad. In Minsk there were 600 pastors and 1,600 church workers gathered to receive the teaching. In Kiev, the seminar included about 100 pastors and 150 church workers. The event in Odessa had at least 80 pastors and 80 workers; in Moscow, about 50 pastors and 100 church workers. These pastors and workers represent various churches that have thousands of members in the aggregate; the response to the revealed Word was always enthusiastic. Each seminar also included contacts from previously unreached regions who expressed interest in hosting us there; including Israel.
A pastor from India will attend a seminar in Maanaim (Brazil) for the first time this coming February. This contact developed over the past year through the website.
Read full post...
