Next weekend March 12-13 CFC has the privilege of hosting our annual Missions Weekend. Join us as we listen and learn from a great lineup of speakers this year and grow your Heart for the Harvest! (Please note the schedule at the end of the post)

Plenary Speaker:

Dr. Solomon Aryeetey
Founder and Director of Pioneers-Africa

Friday night Large Group: The Main Thing
Plenary 1: A Volcano, Begging to Explode
Plenary 2: Partnership with the Emerging African Enterprise
Sunday: What are YOU prepared to do?

I began medical school in 1972 and after seven long years, I graduated with the MD degree. Those seven years made such a radical change in my life. All I cared about was Jesus and His Gospel. As a trumpeter, singer, and songwriter, I was actively involved in a music and evangelistic ministry in Ghana both on campuses and in the rural areas. I knew the Lord had called me into full time ministry as a missionary.

It all started in the spring of 1986, when my lawyer wife, Letitia and myself (now a medical doctor) were about to fulfill our dreams of immigrating to the USA. God, however, had other plans. A Pioneers representative challenged us with the needs of the Fulani people in Mali, West Africa. Letitia and I knew that God was calling us to go. For seven years we lived in the desert among the nomadic people, learning the language and sharing the gospel from hut to hut and through a mobile medical clinic. During this time we faced many hardships, including being separated from our 6 children. Eventually, believers were disciplined and a church was started, which continues strong today.
In 1994 Letitia and I founded Pioneers-Africa to awaken and mobilize the Church in Africa to proclaim Christ to the unreached people groups. Today the mission has over 164 national African missionaries serving in places of the greatest need and least opportunity.

Seminar Speakers:

Dr. Michael Chupp
World Gospel Mission

Seminar: Come Walk with Me

My wife and I call Michigan home where we began my surgical practice in 1993 with Southwestern Medical Clinic in Berrien County. Our oldest two children, Steven and Melody, were born in St. Joseph, MI, during our three years of practice with this wonderful group of Christian doctors. In 1996 we moved to Kenya and Tenwek Hospital where I began my career as a missionary surgeon. We were accepted as career missionaries with World Gospel Mission in Marion, IN in 1995. For 12 years we have served with World Gospel Mission at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya. During that time I was the medical director for four years but have spent the vast majority of my time practicing general and orthopedic surgery as well as training young Kenyan medical professionals. Our youngest two daughters, Kayla and Ashley, were born at Tenwek Hospital.
Our current plans are to return to Tenwek Hospital in Kenya in July 2010 for a two year term. I plan on resuming leadership in the surgical department, especially in the area of orthopedic surgery, as well as teaching/training many Kenyan doctors undergoing internship and residency training at Tenwek. We currently reside in St. Joseph, Michigan with our four children. Mike is in his sixth year of practice with Southwestern Medical Clinic, Inc, since joining in 1993. Southwestern is a group of over 60 Christian physicians with a strong interest in domestic and international ministry in medical missions. Several partners in the practice, including Mike, are considered career missionary partners serving with various mission organizations around the world at this time.

Marcel Morneau
Pioneers

Seminar: Redefining Missions: It’s Not about Geography Anymore

Marcel grew on the Pacific Coast of Canada on a healthy diet of ice-hockey, Sunday school and board sports. In 1995 he met and married Christina, the most amazing girl on the planet, and presently have two terrific kids. In 1999 Marcel and Christina went to India to learn the Punjabi language by immersion to be able to return to Canada and work among the Punjabi speaking immigrants from India. They are at an area with nearly 15% Punjabi population and up to 30% in specific areas with no Punjabi believers and no gospel witness in the Punjabi language. The Punjabis are primarily of the Sikh faith.

Today you may find him doing any number of a variety of things; he is a lead pastor, a missionary, a conference speaker, and a settlement counselor. The message he brings is one that will challenge you to think outside of your missions box; missions is not about geography anymore - it is God calling you to do the impossible because He longs to do the amazing!

Nathan Montgomery
Salt and Light

Seminar: Always Being Missions Minded

Nathan is the Executive Director and one of the co-founders of Salt & Light. Nathan’s involvement with Salt & Light stemmed from a desire toward missions which ultimately led to God placing him in a mission field in his hometown. Nathan and his wife Jenny have four children: Ashton 13, Benjamin 9, Addy 6, and Lilly 4.

1 John 3:17-18 states: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” This is what Salt & Light is all about-Action. Through the services they meet physical needs, educate their clients to help them meet their own needs, and attempt to meet their most basic spiritual needs.

Missions Weekend Schedule for 2010
Friday Night –March 12th

Saturday –March 13th

Hi everyone, it's my pleasure to introduce to you the speakers for the CFC 2009 Missions Weekend! Check out the schedule at the end of this post and plan ahead so you can hear from all the great speakers that are coming to share their testimonies and experiences with us.

Tim
Pioneers

Growing up in Japan as the child of church planting missionaries, Tim looked forward to settling down in the US after high school and began planning for a career in architecture and construction while dreaming of fly fishing for trout for the rest of his life. God had other plans for Tim, however, and after reading “Through Gates of Splendor”, Elizabeth Elliot’s powerful story of the martyrdom of her husband and his four colleagues at the hands of the Auca in Ecuador, God called Tim to commit his life to cross-cultural missions.

In preparation for ministry, Tim enrolled at Columbia International University, where he met Kim. After their marriage in 1991, Tim spent three years teaching in the public school system in the US before moving to Central Asia where they learned the trade language and the language of the unreached people group to which God had called them.

God opened the door for Tim and Kim and their team to minister among an unreached people group of a remote oasis through an agricultural venture. The team prepared for this work with agricultural courses and on the job training. The venture provided employment for nationals as well as life-on-life opportunities for evangelism, discipleship and training. The project's agricultural products have been so successful that they command high prices several thousand miles away while God used the project staff to lead many into a relationship with Him and the establishment of a few fledgling churches.

SEMINAR: Business As Missions on Central Asia's Ancient Silk Road

Arloa Sutter
Breakthrough Urban Ministries

Arloa Sutter is the founder and visionary leader of Breakthrough Urban Ministries in Chicago. In 1992, Arloa opened an unused church meeting room and began to serve hot coffee and lunch to the homeless. She began to build relationships with those in need and focused the ministry on providing shelter, hot meals, counseling, and supportive services for homeless men.

In 2000, Breakthrough renovated a building in East Garfield Park on Chicago’s west side to expand their capacity to serve homeless women. Shortly after, a youth and family services program was added. In March, 2008, Breakthrough opened a second building in East Garfield Park. The new Breakthrough Ministry Center houses a shelter and service programs for homeless men and the headquarters for the ministry. Today, Breakthrough stands as a center of hope for community residents and families of Chicago’s west side.

Arloa is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Western Illinois University and received an MA in Urban Mission from Lincoln Christian Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from the Bakke Graduate University. She is on staff at the River City Community Church and serves on the board of the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund.

SEMINAR: Eat Your Vegetables, People Are Starving! - and more effective ways to engage
with the poor. Theological foundation for involvement with the poor. 6 practices that will move us into caring relationships with those Jesus called, “the least of these”.

Dr. Paul Chen
GoLiveServe

Dr. Paul Chen is the executive director of GLS. Paul founded GoLiveServe to provide long-term and short-term opportunities for professionals to serve in creative access countries. In 20 years, they have sent over a thousand students and professionals on various short-term service projects in several Asian developing countries.

In addition to supporting professionals in business, technology, education, heath service, etc. to serve long-term in Asia, GLS also sponsors faculty and student exchange, research, publications, conferences and scholarship programs for Asian universities.

Paul was educated in California and served on the clinical faculty of a leading medical school there for many years. During the early years of GLS, he was based in Asia for over 10 years, where he directed the field operation center of the organization. Currently Paul and his wife May serve together at GLS in California.

SEMINAR: Let Your Story Become A Part of God’s Story: Living With A Sense of History
* To reach the nations, why your education matters --
- Understand the 10/40 unreached peoples
- Learn from Paul & Jesus
- Learn from Matteo Ricci & William Carey
* How to prepare for serving overseas as a professional -- practical steps from current case studies

Fouad Masri

Fouad was born and raised in the war zone of Beirut, Lebanon. As a third generation pastor, he has a passion for sharing the love of Christ with an unreached people group and has spent most of his life doing that.

SEMINAR: What is God doing among an unreached people group in this country?

Schedule

See you all this weekend!