ONWARD Page 2 March 2004

REPORT ON DANISH YOUTH WORKERS IN LABRADOR

The Labrador Province is in dire need of youth ministry support, so through a joint agreement between the Danish and American mission boards, two Danish young men, Søren Krabbe and Christian Kjaer, began their six months of Christian service in Labrador in November of 2003.

Arriving in Goose Bay, Søren and Christian were oriented to Labrador by a missionary family with the Northern Evangelical Canadian Mission who are living in Goose Bay. They had served in Nain, Labrador for five years, helping the Moravians with their ministries. After Goose Bay, the young men arrived in Hopedale to meet with the Rev. Sam Propsom to plan their six months of missionary work.

Rev. Propsom, the Leadership developer for the Moravian Church in Newfoundland and Labrador, presented the overall philosophy of ministry in Labrador. The ultimate goal is to assist the Moravian Church in Labrador to be a self-sufficient, autonomous province of the Moravian Unity. Even though youth ministry is the focus of the youth workers’ time in Labrador, recruiting and training local people for youth ministry is also a major part of the work. The plan involved the youth workers traveling to all three coastal communities immediately, establishing themselves and then spending longer, quality time in each place doing ministry and building solid relationships.

Soren and Christian quickly grasped the cross-cultural aspects of ministry here and have an ability to adapt. They were instructed to hold youth services and work through the local schools supporting the teachers and students, but that the majority of their work was just being with the young people, building life-changing relationships. They followed instructions to the letter and were soon almost totally independent in their work, only asking time to report and brainstorm. These two young men are self-starters and mature, two very necessary elements for working in Labrador.

Because of the generosity from Moravians from around the world, many lives were touched for Jesus Christ through these two young Danish men. Your support made it possible for them to reach youth in very special ways that would not have been possible otherwise. We hope to expand the program for the fall of 2004 and over the next years, bringing in other quality youth workers for six-month visits, until we can recruit and train Labradorians to fill these roles.

We have seen many of the social problems that the Inuit people are struggling with in Labrador, e.g. small kids outside the bar waiting for their parents late at night. Almost every child or young person we met had their own story about abuse, drinking and other problems in their family. Because of all this there was a very big tendency to smoke, drink and do drugs from a very early age. We both felt that it was very important to show the young people that we were Christians with ideals and that you can still be cool if you don’t drink, smoke and do drugs.

The money that was given has helped the church with all the expenses on housing and traveling between the communities on the coast. We know that the whole Labrador province, especially the youth, appreciated the work they did on the coast. We appreciate greatly the money that you gave because youth ministry is very important on the coast. Without a strong youth program the church will not keep on living.

We want to say thank you to all who have supported the work in Labrador and for believing in this project. Your help was a great encouragement for us, our family, and the Moravian Church in Labrador.

Submitted by Br. Sam Propsom Edited by JHG

FRESH FROM THE PHILIPPINES

A friend from Texas, started a new Church a few years ago using the Ground of the Unity and the Covenant for Christian Unity. He now reports of new growth of these principles. He writes: I recently returned from Bukidnon Province, Mindanao, Philippines to visit a group of independent church-planters, who were seeking affiliation with our church. They have formed a ministry together, under the leadership of Alejandro Jamora, which is tentatively named “Mission Christian Community Church”. There are twelve pastors who represent some 600 members. During my visit, I learned first-hand of their commitment to church-planting, discipleship training and mission. I also heard and read inspiring testimonies that Jamora led two of the pastors to Christ after healing their incurable sicknesses.

They have adopted two booklets as the foundation for their official doctrine and ethics. These two books are essentially versions of the Moravian Ground of the Unity and The Covenant for Christian Living. The former, re-named Faith and Foundation, although extensively re-worked, still bears resemblance to-and some original wording of-The Moravian Ground of the Unity. It includes the Moravian Church address for procuring a copy of the Unity in case someone wants to compare the two booklets. The Covenant is largely unchanged. I also presented Jamora a copy of the initial issue of the Church History Magazine featuring Zinzendorf and the Moravians.

The Moravian legacy is influencing a zealous group of church-planting pastors in the Philippines, and in a sense they are building the foundation of their ministry upon it. I hope that this fact may encourage some of your readers.

Respectfully,

George Lee – North Austin Christian Church, Texas.

(I met Br. George over the internet, and Barbara and I had a chance to speak personally with him when we were in Texas a few years ago. It is thrilling to see his excitement with things we overlook!)