In Ukraine, our team working at the Shelter Plus youth drop-in centre is celebrating 5 years of their soccer clubs. They currently have 7 teams practicing 3 times a week. Finding a place to practice in the winter months was a big challenge until they reached an agreement with a local college. The college gym is in poor condition but in exchange for the practice space, the soccer players put in hours to help with repairs. The soccer clubs attract young men from all walks of life who find a sense of belonging and community at Shelter Plus. This season a female team has emerged with many young girls having dreams of becoming professional soccer players.
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.
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In Columbia - "We carry many scars from the wars in Colombia. We are a group of women who have been granted a radio station in this violent region of the country [many husbands and sons kidnapped or killed by guerrilla armies]. God bless you for your programs – with God’s help we will heal!”
In Bolivia - "I feel God has my work cut out for me,” says Helen Funk who creates radio programs for Low German speaking women. “I met mothers so abused, they accept that their husbands and sons will abuse their daughters. I met a woman who has listened to my programs in secret for 5 years and just clung to me when I visited Bolivia."
In Morocco - "I started a special room in Pal Talk once a week for Moroccan women who have accepted Jesus Christ,” says Najat, our Arabic counsellor. “I did this after hearing how afraid women were to receive Christian materials, like Bibles, by mail. Now these believers sing together, are discipled and pray for courage.”
Will you help us meet these women's needs? You can donate here!
BUgirls on the road across Canada - “I’m not a religious person; I don’t go to church. But this event has got me thinking of God and myself differently,” a girl told intern Natalie Binder at a BUgirl evening in southern Ontario. She started to cry and said, “I’ve never been to anything like this before. I want to know God. I want to know how I can change my life around so that I can know Him.” In a longer conversation, Natalie explained to her, “You don’t have to change your life before you come to Jesus. You just say you need Him.” When asked if accepting Jesus was a decision she wanted to make, the girl said, Yes. Natalie says, “Now my heart longs to be one of the people alongside her to help her grow in faith but I entrust her to the youth pastor, that church in Ontario and ultimately to God. I just praise the Lord for allowing me to play one small part in the story of her life!”
In one town a number of fathers working in mines and mills had lost their jobs. Their daughters wanted to come but didn’t have the money. A women’s group sponsored 6 girls to come free of charge! In a Manitoba town a homeless girl living in a van really wanted to come. She was sponsored, so she could attend the evening. You can join in – donate now!
Retreat at 9000 feet in Peru! Quechua, Ashaninca and Spanish-speaking pastor couples met together at a pastors’ retreat in Ayacucho, Peru, in November. FLN’s Ernesto Pinto spoke at this retreat which was sponsored by the Forest Grove Community Church of Saskatoon, SK. Members from Forest Grove reported, “As they heard teaching about love and respect for each other, you could sense a ‘softening’ of spouses towards each other. There was affection and eye contact, not typical in some tribes. As couples headed home, some of them walking for 2-3 days, we felt the weekend had been extremely impacting on family relationships. All glory to God!”
100 MegaVoice audio players of radio programs and Scripture in the Fur language were shipped from FLN in November. In partnership with the Africa Inland Mission they will be distributed among the people of Darfur, Sudan. The MegaVoice players are solar-powered as well as dust-proof and waterproof and stand up to rough treatment.
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Arabic internet contacts - “I am afraid my husband will discover the Bible you sent me and he will be very angry - if not violent. Please pray.” To answer pleas like this one, our Arabic female counselor Najat, a former Muslim from Morocco, leads a support group of Moroccan women who are new believers. They regularly meet via the Internet to pray and sing together. Each month about 4500 visitors explore the Arabic website (statistic from report sent by web hosting company). Here are glimpses into their world: “Do you think redemption could be for me, too?” a Muslim man from Iraq asked on Bold Chat. After a long conversation with our Arabic team, he went on to pray to accept Jesus Christ.
“I found a Bible and read the whole New Testament in one week. I love the teachings of Jesus. Can you teach me to pray?” wrote a man from Yemen.
“I now belong to an underground church in my city. Thank you for asking about me,” wrote a man in a restrictive country.
A young man in Egypt prayed with a counselor, “Lord Jesus, today I ask you to come into my life... I have been living for myself and that is wrong.” After praying he said, “I want to give u my phone but I am soooo scared if my family know they will kill me. I am sooooo scared, u cant imagine.”
Najat responded, “I understand. I was Muslim, too.”
Mennonites in Bolivia are facing deep hurt, bitterness and grief in connection with the highly publicized case of mass rape during 2009,” say workers in the country of Bolivia. “So many lives have been affected. Please pray.” In October FLN’s German radio producers, Jacob and Helen Funk, went to Bolivia to preach and counsel. Helen ministered to women while Jacob preached to large groups. “I urged the men to take more responsibility for their wives and children,” reports Jacob.
“First your husband will beat you, then see if you still want to go meet the Funks,” was what her church bishop told the woman in a Bolivian colony,” reports Helen Funk. “The woman came anyway and followed me around all day.” Helen gave her a copy of her devotional cookbook, a booklet of new devotionals and a MegaVoice player - all in her Low German mother tongue.
A recent letter from a colony girl in Bolivia to Helen Funk reads, “Dear Taunte Helen, I first wrote you five years ago... I just turned 16, wow, I’m getting old. Here in Bolivia many things have happened but we are still not allowed to listen to radio or read any Christian material. We enjoy your children’s radio stories (in secret) and also the devotional cookbook you gave me. Alone in my room, I often page through it... it is so good.”
Erika Klassen of Abbotsford, BC, together with her husband John, wrote a set of devotionals for colony Mennonites. Besides the Bible, few printed materials are available in Low German. “These devotionals are just in time to be placed as resources in the new women’s shelter,” says Jacob Funk. “Now we can offer printed devotionals as well as our radio messages and Scripture on MegaVoice Players.”
40 volunteers help youth in Ukraine at Shelter-Plus. “In our society we do not have a concept of volunteerism, of giving your time for others. So it’s amazing to have up to 40 volunteers who help us at Shelter-Plus,” says Juliy Morozov, leader at this drop-in center for youth and children in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. Many of the volunteers are youth whose lives have been changed at Shelter-Plus, like Alex who says, “I got to know God here and saw an example of real Christian living. Now I want to help other people know God!”
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Ukrainian radio celebrates 15 years! "In our prison your programs are broadcast on loudspeakers and all 400 prisoners hear them,” writes a male prisoner, 33 years old, in Dnipropetrovs’k, Ukraine. Think a few decades back—Ukraine was without religious freedom. Today, not only can homes tune into Christian radio but even institutions are free to air our programs. For 15 years now our FLN radio team in Ukraine has produced and aired Christian programs. Starting with the one program, “The Bible Today”, over the years they have created diverse programs for couples, youth and adults in general. A listener recently wrote, “After hearing your program, I gave up my plans for divorce and turned to God instead.” An editor at a TV/radio station in the region of Khmelnitsky told our team, “You are making a huge impact - planting Christian values in Ukraine.” Alex Morozov, leader of the radio team says, “I went to meet the man who wrote to us from prison. My heart was moved. We are taking Christmas gifts and New Testaments to these prisoners.”
...watch video of congratulations ...
And now a happy note from Yemen - Our Arabic team recently dialogued online with a man in Yemen who said, "I found a Bible and read the whole New Testament in one week. I love the teachings of Jesus. Would you teach me to pray?" Each month about 4500 visitors around the world explore Arabic Internet resources provided by FLN.
Congratulations to FLN Board member, Paul H. Boge, on the launch of his latest book, The Urban Saint, the story of Harry Lehotsky, controversial Christian reformer of Winnipeg’s inner city. See more at www.theurbansaint.com
Thank you Bert Bell! After serving briefly in Church Relations at FLN, Bert (Robert) Bell has returned to Stewardship Ministries at the Winnipeg office of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. FLN is grateful for the doors that Bert opened, widening our ministry opportunities in Canada.
Ukraine celebrates Christmas in January! Our team at the youth drop-in center, Shelter-Plus in
At FLN's Team Celebration on November 18, guests and board members joined in to welcome partner ministries from Ukraine and Russia. Nicole Duerksen led the meeting on behalf of Ernesto Pinto who traveled, with Grant, to Peru this day. Our visitors from Russia reported on their TV children's puppet programs while our Ukraine visitors reported about the Shelter-Plus youth centre in Krivoy Rog and their radio programs produced to combat the high divorce rate in Ukraine. Jacob & Helen Funk had just returned from speaking and counseling in Bolivia & Paraguay. In the midst of the scandal on a Mennonite colony that involved the rape of more than 60 women, Jacob challenged men to take greater responsibility for their wives and children.
In Ayacucho, Peru, November 20-22, Ernesto Pinto spoke at a pastors' retreat sponsored by the Forest Grove Church of Saskatoon, SK. Couples from three different language groups met together and prayed together: Quechua, Ashanica and Spanish-speaking pastors from Lima, Ayacucho and Cusco. "As they heard teaching about love and respect for each other, you could sense a 'softening' of spouses towards each other," said one report. Each couple's photo was taken and mounted on a card. As they picked up their photos they beamed with joy - some had not before had a picture of themselves.
German radio producers Jacob and Helen Funk were in Bolivia and Paraguay from October 16 - November 2.There were 3 destinations: 1) the Bolivian Old Colony Mennonites, 2) the East Paraguayan Old Colony Mennonites and 3) the radio stations in the Paraguayan Chaco - Filadelfia and Loma Plata. Videographer Grant Hoeppner joined the Funks in Paraguay on October 22. A collection of devotionals in Low German have just been completed by Erika and John Klassen of Abbotsford, BC and were taken to Bolivia to be placed in the new Women's Shelter near Santa Cruz.
NEW BUgirl CD - A fabulous gift idea for someone you love!
The new 2009 BUgirl compilation CD is available through our online BUgirl store for just 10$! Listen to samples on the site. Purchase a copy for yourself or a friend, and have them delivered to your door!!
Giovanni Romero visited our Winnipeg studios from New York. He has his own radio station and is partnering with Ernesto Pinto, FLN's Spanish producer, on several fronts. Giovanni works as a court recorder. He's saddened by seeing the many young people that come through the courts promising to be good kids, to never be in court again, but then they show up a few weeks later. He thinks they need a vision larger than themselves... they need God. And so he felt called to start an internet radio program called "Generacion Fuerte" (Strong Generation), targeting young Hispanics with the vision of giving them a goal in life. Rising from his childhood of poverty he feels that God has given him a purpose greater than just waiting around for the rapture!
The Youth Shelter-Plus ministry in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine has naturally grown as youth marry and start families. They’ve added a couples’ ministry. After a retreat in April of 22 couples, one couple responded, “As a young family we had no answers to our problems. We often argued and were thinking of divorce. Thanks to your seminar, our eyes have been opened. We can’t express our thanks, because you deserve more than thanks. Our emotions overwhelm us.”
Message from Claude Pratte, Executive Director - Media reaches where others cannot! I get so excited about our wonderful team on the frontiers of opportunity, doing what God has gifted them to do. Creativity is the warp and woof of FLN. We’re not spin doctors. We tell Jesus’ story and then tell other people’s stories of how they encounter God. We see life transformation in our viewers and listeners! Since we aren’t always ‘on the ground’ we work to connect them to a local group so they can grow. Talking about ‘on the ground’ ... while on a flight, I conversed with a man seated next to me from Leduc, Alberta. I gave him our FLN brochure and as he flipped through it he stopped at the BUgirl page. “One of my daughters attended one of these evenings,” he said.
How neat an experience to have at 40,000 feet in the air! I am grateful to be here at FLN, partnering with other ministries, humbled to watch how God is blessing us. Thank you for joining us both ‘in the air’ and ‘on the ground!’
Ernesto Pinto, together with Al Enns from North Kildonan MB Church and Pastor Delbert Enns from Eastview Community Church just arrived back in Winnipeg from San Pedro Sula in Honduras where they held the Central American Pastoral couples retreat. Pastors and their wives came from
