Missionaries

As a Church we feel it is important not only to see God's kingdom being established in just our local area or even city, but also across the entire world. Part of the way we carry our Jesus' command to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) is by supporting various missionaries and missionary organisations.

In the past we have had a missionary couple we supported working with OMF International in Taiwan.

One of our church members, Gilian Wong (Gil for short), served God also with OMF International and was teaching at a school called Faith Academy (Faith) located on the outskirts of Manila in the Philippines. Faith is important for many missionary families as it provides western curriculum for their children and at an affordable price. It also mean that their parents can focus more time on their ministry without having to worry about home schooling their children.

We keep a strong link with OMF International and also support various missionary organisations. One is YWAM.

We are very interested in the work of their trianing and evangelistic work using their ketch, 'NEXT WAVE'.

News - 11 January 2009

Discipleship Training School is rocking out so much! They are constantly pouring out into the crew, into all these different churches, serving with their whole hearts. It's awesome and inspiring, and challenging to see. The Spain team leaves Monday and will be splitting into two groups. One group will be joining our friends the Elida V for awhile and the other will be going to Malaga . We are also saying good-bye to Greg Johnson who has been crew with us (borrowed from Elida V) for the last 6 weeks.

We have had many good times with all the birthdays on board. The last two days we've celebrated birthdays. The first was a Canadian's birthday complete with Canadian delicacies called Nanaimo bars and a meal called poutine (gravy, fries and cheese!) made by 4 Canadian girls from DTS and crew. It was topped off by making Jesse (the bday boy) 'walk the plank' into the cold Sicilian waters.
The second was for Ashley, she enjoyed breakfast 'in bed' (not really) and a dance party last night after Mario took the whole DTS for pizza!

Grace has been working hard on getting team photos together to give to the local churches and pastors so that they can remember us! As well as building bridges for us to work with them in the future.

Erik has been working non-stop like a mad man arranging meetings and events for the DTS. He loves every minute of it.
Mario, our local main contact, also bought the ship some painting supplies for doing worship art etc! What a blessing....
As well so many local churches and pastors have been bringing us by loads of food. Everything from milk to loads of frozen chickens, there is even a bakery who gives us their left-over bread at the end of the day!!

Some of DTS and crew will be going to Etna today to help out with evangelism for 2 days with a local church. Road trip! The DTS will be enjoying 2 days off at the beach house after that... this place that was donated for our use so they can team build, and regroup, rest, and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Gotta get back to the boat.
God bless!
if you have any questions or want more info please ask!
~Randi

To contact Next Wave directly you can email Randi at randibarry@gmail.com , look them up on Facebook or visit their webpage at www.marinereach.info

News - 21 January 2009

The crew has been getting chances to go to churches and speak and share testimonies! It's amazing. Ben, Fred, and our newcomer from Montana Shannon Mintz went to the church in Etna and got to give a call to missions and bless as well as be a blessing to the church there. The pastor got sick just before Sunday and Fred got a chance to bring the Sunday message! He spoke powerfully on the blessing of God as we step out in obedience.

Philip Wiles the British Missionary who is nearly single-handedly responsible for the Pentecostal church in Sicily came to the boat and spoke to the crew and DTS. He spoke on evangelism and how important it is to understand the connection between God the Father, and Jesus. Knowing who Jesus really is, our identity in Him, and the importance of going to people not just waiting for people to come to us. He confirmed that even though things might be hard, this is for sure where we are supposed to be and that God is going to do even more with and through us here. He wants to return to talk to us about stepping out in faith and committing ourselves fully to God.

We have also had churches come and worship with us on board and prophesy that some of us will be preachers, teachers, prophets, prophetesses, and that we must remain faithful in the little things so that God can trust us in the big things.

The washing machine is broken. HELP! Dear God please help us. For now hospitality laundry is being taken to a laundry mat and the crew and DTS are waiting for their chance.

The DTS just got to spend 2 days out at the beach house that was loaned to us for ministry and resting use. They did some cleaning up and some playing in the waves. God blessed them with good weather.

The DTS has now split and Greg Johnson has gone back to Elida V to meet up with half the Spain team.

Dustin and Kari Stauffer have also headed off to Rome for a week to join Kari's family and enjoy a rest from taking care of the boat and crew.

God has been ministering powerfully to the crew lately. We had a chance to go through and share testimonies and pray for each others' spiritual giftings. It was amazing to see how we all work together and bounce off of each other in ministry. As well learning what we are each gifted in helps a lot to figure out how to work as a team. Some of our strengths in ministry is the ability to build off of one another and our greatest weakness is steam-rolling each other out of excitement and missing what we each have to say. Your prayers for greater unity and for us to all walk forward together is greatly appreciated!

The food keeps on coming in. We are planning on having an international dinner night for all of the pastors who keep on blessing us with free food, bread, milk, cheese, and fellowship! We also had a young group of people (4 young people ages 16-22) bring us what they could, a great offering of brown sugar, potatoes, cookies, and milk. We loved hanging out with them over tea even though we couldn't really speak the same language. We got to ask them if they want to go into missions and they were really excited about it! Please pray for these guys as they so blessed us with their presence and offering.

Some of the crew is still in debt to the ministry and are trying to find time to itenerate for finances. Please pray for parteners to come alongside crew members and support them in prayer, finances, and their dreams with God.

The DTS is reading through the whole bible in 2 months! Crazyness. They are past Leviticus and Numbers now...

There are 2 people accepted for the DTS on board in September. We are putting their names on the wall in the sconsin and praying for them and getting words for them for when they come!

TChipping and painting is being run on the top deck by Oli Goode with assistance from our lovely Shannon Mintz.
Grace Pugh is working on putting together memory scrap books and photos for us to remember each port, the struggles and victories we had for the next time we come through.

Randi Barry is taking the longest she ever has at getting a newsletter out for January, but you just wait to see, the mid-January one is going to be the best yet!
Tamara Stoyanoff is going to be doing so much communications stuff as in March all of YWAM will be praying for the Next Wave! Please pray for her and the communications team to work together seamlessly and come up with amazing ideas of how to get the visuals out about the ministry here!

Erik Johannesson has been working so hard with all the pastors, being an amazing liason and learning all he can about leading DTS! We are all stoked to see where God will lead this young man in the future concerning DTS and leadership!
Daniel Jackson has stepped up well to the call of 1st mate. Not only with boat stuff but ministry wise he has been spearheading fighting for our call, calling the crew out on stuff, doing spiritual warfare, and igniting our passions for God.

Dustin and Kari Stauffer have been working so hard and doing so well with taking care of the boat and crew. Dustin is an amazing 2nd mate and cares and deals with everything that breaks, as well as creating new designs (like a new attachment for the tender).
Kari and Randi are probably the two on crew who are having the hardest time with wanting to stay, and Oli has been struggling with being here as well. Please lift these people in prayer that they would see the long term effect of their time here and God would reveal His purpose for them for this time.

OH and WE NEED INTERNET ON THE BOAT!
Please pray for us and help us in any way shape or form. it's necessary!!
Bless!
~Randi

To contact Next Wave directly you can email Randi at randibarry@gmail.com , look them up on Facebook or visit their webpage at www.marinereach.info

Dear Friends, I wanted to write to tell you how extremely important you are to Mercy Ships. Without your generous, committed support, our hospital ship could not function and thousands of people right now would be suffering. We are so grateful for your support, and for the dedication of our volunteer crew, especially the unsung heroes in the galley, engine room, bridge and elsewhere who all pay to serve onboard making your donations go further. Mercy Ships engineers are constantly working to ensure the Africa Mercy is always operational. These amazing, highly dedicated people provide food for the crew, electricity for the ship, support for surgical units and so much more. It’s one of the amazing things about Mercy Ships – the diversity of people, including you, who share our vision to bring hope and healing to those in the world’s poorest countries. It really takes all of us. No one is too small or unimportant. We’re all in this together! The Africa Mercy galley staff provide more than 1,200 meals for over 400 crew members every single day. As I write, the Africa Mercy is en route to Benin. In order to keep the medicine, the rebuilding, and the surgeries fully funded, I turn to dependable friends like you once again. A valuable gift of £15, £25, £50, or whatever you can afford today will make a huge difference to the Africa Mercy crew and the desperate people they serve. I realise the economic uncertainty is affecting everyone with higher prices, and an ever weakening pound, but it really is nothing compared to the human cost of suffering, sickness, and death that plagues the people of Benin. We have electricity, running water that is not polluted, and health care for our children and grandchildren. So we remain committed to the people of Benin and trust you will respond from the heart to help as we continue to serve the suffering poor. I look forward to hearing from you. As ever, Judy Polkinhorn (Mrs) Executive Director Mercy Ships UK

• OMF International - UK Website: www.uk.omf.org
• Faith Academy Website: www.faith.edu.ph