In Bolivia six Mennonite men imprisoned on charges of mass rape have been listening to Low German Scripture on Megavoice Players that Dan Klaue recorded. All six have prayed to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Four of the men were semi-illiterate and by following along in the printed Bible while listening to the recorded Scripture on MegaVoice, they taught themselves to read and write and now are doing Bible studies in prison.

 Dan Klaue,  FLN’s audio technician since 2000, has resigned effective July 31. He and his wife Ela are moving to BC for family reasons.

1000s of Spanish migrant workers come to Canada each year. Our Spanish Ministry, Encuentro is partnering with churches in BC’s Fraser Valley as they reach out to the Hispanic workers in their areas. This October Ernesto Pinto will be visiting the pastors of these churches, speaking at outreaches and providing FLN’s Spanish resources. We are exciting to see how God is going to use a foreign-focused ministry like Encuentro to assist Canadian churches to reach into their communities. Ernesto Pinto left Winnipeg in July to head to a variety of counties in Latin America where he will be speaking and doing radio interviews. His first stop is Mexico, then Honduras, and finally Dominican Republic.

Recently in Honduras, the caricaturist Dario Banegas interviewed FLN’s Spanish producer Ernesto Pinto on his TV program called "En Voz Alta" (Outloud). He also drew a caricature of Ernesto and had fun presenting it to him!

Olé! A trio from the Bible Institute of Rio Grande in Texas visited our FLN studios and treated the staff to a serenade of Spanish songs. Then Ernesto Pinto, FLN’s Spanish producer interviewed them for an Encuentro radio program to be aired soon. Each of them is from Mexico and one of the young men is from the province of Chiapas in Mexico where evangelical Christians suffer various forms of persecution.

Bert Loewen chosen for Order of Manitoba: Bert Loewen is one of this year’s recipients of Manitoba’s highest honour, the Order of Manitoba. As a college student back in 1947, he helped launch Family Life Network (then Gospel Light Hour) along with co-founders Henry Brucks and Henry Poetker. The honour to be bestowed on July 15 is for his vital role in the establishment of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for which he was its first executive director. The announcement was made on May 12 by Lieutenant-Governor Philip Lee. The Foodgrains Bank has provided 944,000 tonnes of food to nearly 70 countries over the years.

Janelle Hume came over from the Archives at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies to organize information on the history of Family Life Network. She is cheerfully wading through shelves and shelves of paper files and documents, undaunted by a roomful of ancient film reels of TV shows, 1000s of cassettes of radio programs and mountains of slides and photographs. We are extremely grateful to the Archival people for lending Janelle to us! Check out the MB Archives at   www.mbconf.ca/home/products_and_services/resources 

FLN's video production team along with TV and radio host, Ernesto Pinto, has been producing a TV program called ‘180 Grados’. “We expected about 10 stations at first but 97 have already asked and are waiting for the program!” reports videographer Grant Hoeppner. watch video to see what Dan says .... 

During a beach party event with the Beautiful Unique Girl www.bugirl.com program a monologue is performed which is a modern day version of the woman at the well story found in John 4. One of this years interns Natalie Binder creatively tells this story every night at events across North America.  Watch video

The BUgirl ministry continues strong at FLN under the new Leadership Team comprised of Natalie Morin, Sherryl Koop and Eric Boorman. Malynda Zacharias, who founded the BUgirl program, is on maternity leave until the end of January 2011 and Marshall Zacharias resigned in April. Alison Dyck, formerly with BUgirl, has decided to remain at home after her maternity leave to enjoy her daughter and do other work from her home base.

Ernesto Pinto recently returned from Guatemala where he spoke at an evangelistic outreach event where 8000 people attended. click here to watch video where Ernesto shares about this trip

Our video team is partnering with Christians Empowering Organizations to produce a video teaching series on living in Biblical community and learning how to fix it when it breaks. Dr. Alf Bell has been a chaplain and pastor for many years and brings a wealth of knowledge and practical advice on how reconciliation can work in the church.

Dorothy Siebert is moving to a new role out of province - After more than 11 years of writing for FLN and managing the print department, Dorothy Siebert is moving to a new role out of province. She and her husband Harold have accepted a position with the MARK Centre on Pender Island, BC. Since 2000, MARK Centre has provided a home base for training short-term mission teams of Mennonite Brethren Missions and Services International, as well as rest and refreshment for missionaries. The centre expanded to Pender Island in April of this year. The Sieberts will be resident volunteer hosts and Dorothy will also have time to work on her own writing projects. She says, “I have loved it here at FLN - working with creative, terrific people – it’s been just wonderful! I hope to stay in close touch.” You can see more about MARK Centre at www.markcentre.org

20 couples attended a family week-end away in Ukraine, led by the team working at the Shelter Plus youth drop-in center. With a 90% divorce rate in this region of Ukraine, the team has a desire to equip young married couples with Godly principles. Marina attended the retreat for the first time and sent a letter of thanks: “My family was on the brink of divorce, we were not very close to God. Before going to the family week-end we were fighting all the time. But now we learned how to calmly communicate and respect each other.”

When a Children's Festival was held in a region south of Moscow, a couple in the audience responded in an unexpected way. “We were so excited,” they said. “We wanted to start a follow-up club for the many kids who heard about Jesus for the first time.” “But we had a BIG problem: we couldn’t find a place to rent.” “We had to organize the club in our church - by far not the ideal place in Russia to which to invite non-Christian kids. But right from the start, children from non-Christian families came to our club. Now, months later, those kids even attend the Sunday school on a regular basis!” “After seeing the shining eyes of these kids, so eager, it’s impossible to stop doing this club, and we are carrying on. Pray for us.” The Children’s Festivals are based on a Russian TV puppet program that airs in various eastern European countries.

We have recently partnered with Operation Mobilization to record a new Afghan TV program in the Dari language. The programs include dialogues and short scenes from the JESUS film as a way of introducing people to the message of Jesus Christ. The JESUS film producers said this has not been done before and expressed excitement for the venture. 

In an online prayer room, a 21 year old new believer in Algeria asked for prayer, “My mother took my Bible away and hid it, thinking I will return to Islam.” Our Arabic team member encouraged him and led him to websites where he can hear Christian songs and read the Bible.

"When smoke gets in your eyes ..."  Did that pop song cross the mind of our executive director, Claude Pratte, on a recent trip to visit our partners in Ukraine and Russia? The smoke plume of the Icelandic volcano kept him grounded an extra week in Moscow. Thankfully he’s back now and his family is breathing easier. 

German radio producers Jacob and Helen Funk just returned from Bolivia where they led a team of teachers from North America in a 2 week Bible school. One team member writes: "Many of the students traveled long hours on what we North Americans would consider horrible roads... This was an opportunity [for them] to receive some solid Biblical teaching and we were also blessed to serve them a hot meal after a long journey." Click here to view photos