News from the Fields’ – Ethnos 360 – August 2022

Look at this amazing team of

staff here at EBI !!!

We are so very blessed to be a part of an amazing team of staff here at Bible School…

We all love being a part of what the Lord does in the lives of all the students in their 2 years here…and beyond!!

We are 100 percent invested in their hearts and seeing them learn more about the Lord,

falling more in love with Him, and desiring to serve Him their whole life long.

Thank you for supporting Dave & I by praying and sharing with us financially so we can live

here among the students and be used by Him in these precious lives.

 

The new semester began on August 20th!!!!!!

It’s going to be an awesome year!!!
Dave Kim, Reece & Clark Field

 

Family News:
We had a beautiful family vacation in Michigan, and were so thankful to be together before Clark moves into the dorms here at Bible School in FOUR MORE DAYS! We are thrilled for him as we know how incredibly special these 2 years will be! Please pray for all 4 of us as we settle into new normals.

This weekend we will be at the campus doors, along with many others, welcoming the Freshmen and their families here with open arms! Please pray for the 120 Freshmen as some of them are leaving home for the first time. The energy and speed of life here at Bible School is high and fast-paced and they will be swallowed up with the excitement. Please pray for everyone as they find their new friends and settle in.

Please pray for Dave as this Sunday morning he will be giving the sermon at our church, and then that night he is one of the speakers for the semester kickoff  here at school!! Dave will be teaching Bible School classes two hours everyday until Christmas! He will also be taking a 3 credit Romans class in seminary during that same time:)

Please pray for me as I can’t seem to remember names quickly. I want to welcome people well, and I need a fast brain for names and good conversation with lots of new faces! I work in the mobilization department, and many of these new students are here because of a campus visit they came to last year. This is super exciting for our team to see the fruit of our labor and prayers!

Thank you so much for you prayers for our family!!! You are so appreciated!!!

 

Open Door Mission (Rochester, NY) – August 2022

Open Door Mission | 156 N. Plymouth AvenueRochester, NY 14608

 

August News & Updates

Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly e-newsletter that communicates Mission news,

updates, prayer requests, needs, events and success stories.

             

Thursday, September 29th  7:30-9:30 a.m.

Locust Hill Country Club,  Pittsford, N.Y.

Please join us as we celebrate our 70th year of service to the Rochester community. We are honored to have as our featured speaker Dr. Ben Carson – world-renowned neurosurgeon, longtime supporter of faith-based organizations, and former HUD Secretary. Attendees will also hear inspirational stories of hope from past program participants and an update from our CEO.

CLICK HERE to reserve your seat!

CLICK HERE to review sponsorship opportunities!

 

“Hope Lives” Radio Program

Tune in to hear the latest information effecting our communities homeless population and how Open Door Mission is addressing key issues.

CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast of the most recent program.

Business Sponsorship Opportunities Available!

Call Chris Scribani at (585) 325-3243 for more details.

 

Volunteer Service Opportunity     

     

We are presently looking for a group of individuals to volunteer at the Caring Center in our clothing room to help sort and organizing donations.

For view and sign up for other volunteer opportunities, please CLICK HERE!

If you have any questions, please email Shawn Baldwin for at sbaldwin@opendoormission.com

 

Open Door Mission Job Opportunities

  • Facilities Maintenance ~ Full Time, Driving Required
  • Facilities Assistant ~ Full Time, Driving Required
  • Case Manager – Addiction Recovery – Full Time
  • Awake Overnight Case Aid – Addiction Recovery – Part Time, 16-24 hours/week
  • Weekend Case Aid – Addiction Recovery – Part Time, 16-24 hours/week
  • Awake Overnight Case Aid – Women and Children’s Program – Part Time, 16-24 hours/week
  • Case Manager – Emergency Shelter – Full Time
  • Case Aid – Emergency Shelter – Part Time, 16-24 hours

For serious consideration of any posted job description, each applicant is required to complete an Application for Employment and General Questionnaire.

Click HERE to view more details of all these job descriptions!

 

Current Needs List

       

Going shopping this week? Please take a look at our current needs list and consider buying a few items from our Amazon    “WishList”.

If you’re shopping for yourself then please consider shopping at AmazonSmile.com where a percentage of your purchasing dollars go to support the Mission.

 

What To Pray For

  1. Pray for the salvation and restoration of all those we serve with emergency shelter, food, clothes, addiction recovery, transitional housing, life skills and job readiness programs.
  2. Pray for peace and health to all of our staff and their families.
  3. Pray for the families that just came into the Coldwater House and for those who recently moved out into their own permanent housing.
  4. Pray for continued success for the men who recently graduated from our addiction recovery program and for those just entering the program.
  5. Pray for the future completion and opening of the Open Door Mission’s permanent housing apartment building this coming fall.
  6. Pray for the necessary resources to maintain our daily expenses.

 

 

 

 

 

Grace Covenant Ministries – August 2022

Prayer Warrior for August 2022

Where has summer gone? School is starting August 10 for Jackson County Schools. The pictures are some of the summer scenes.

We rejoice at all of the opportunities that we were blessed to a be a part of. The bottom left picture is something new we tried this summer. A group of ladies from a local nursing home joined us on the last day of dance camp. They enjoyed watching the campers give a presentation of some of the moves they learned during the week. Then there was a time that the campers and residents did crafts together and shared a meal. It was a highlight of the summer for the residents and the campers also enjoyed this special time.

We were blessed with some great work groups. One of the pastors commented on how his studentsappreciated the accommodations, the coordinated planning by our staff and that the students valued the fact that they were able to do “real work”. A recipient of their work stated “that she had never experienced such kindness before”.

Our summer intern, Natalie Carl, painted a beautiful mural (bottom right) on campus with the help of her friend and fellow student from Jackson County High School, Talynn Marcum. Now we continue to rejoice as we put the final plans together for our fall and winter programs. If you have a group that wants to be a part of volunteer group in 2023, please contact our office. We are blessed to have supporters like you who contribute your prayers, time, and finances to make our efforts possible. To God be the glory!!!

Jake Moss

(click on link to see photos)

News from Tom and Leslie Johnson – July 2022

News from Tom and Leslie Johnson

Leslie’s Update

Be sure to read to the bottom of this update to see some important family news for which we would appreciate your prayers.

Representing Refugees and Immigrants at the PCA General Assembly

In June, Tom and I went to our denomination’s national meetings. We are a part of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and in June every year, they hold the national meetings, called “General Assembly” (GA).

I now work part-time for the PCA’s Mission to North America (MNA) Refugee and Immigrant Ministry as the Cross-cultural Training Specialist. While at GA in that role, I worked with a colleague, Osman, representing the ministry at a booth at GA. In addition to staffing the booth, I joined 3 others to present a seminar called, “Using Cultural Sensitivity to Build the Body of Christ” which was well received.

Osman and I also hosted a luncheon on behalf of our ministry. The luncheon included a panel of four people talking about their churches’ experiences helping recent Afghan refugees. It was very interesting, and the audience was spell-bound listening to these four people and their stories. Lord willing, more people are motivated to support refugee and immigrant ministry in their communities.

Other duties included being support staff at a luncheon and a breakfast sponsored by MNA. And I attended an alumni breakfast sponsored by Covenant College. It was fun to meet new people as well as see old friends.

For Tom, however, it was a difficult week. The first day we were there, we had to do a lot of walking. From the parking structure to the hotel lobby to the exhibit hall and back, it was too much, and he developed a lot of pain. Unfortunately, it was bad enough that he was unable to go to more than one or two events each day. He watched most of the meetings of the delegates from our hotel room via live stream.

Since that trip, Tom has started more intense physical therapy (PT) to try to help reduce the pain. The current theory is that there is a damaged muscle near the hip that the replacement did not address. Overall, he is still MUCH better than before the hip replacement. However, please keep him in prayer that the PT team would have wisdom on the best way to help.

ACSI EU and Global

Please pray for the International ACSI EU Student Leadership Conference (SLC) in September 2022 to be honoring to the Lord and encouraging and helpful to the student leaders who are attending.

I also continue to work with ACSI Global in international Christian school accreditation. The conversations have started with the school assigned for me to visit next Spring. As of this writing, the dates have not been set yet, but I look forward to seeing how the Lord is working in yet another Christian international school.

It is an honor to use the training and experience the Lord has brought my way to help people grow in cultural sensitivity. May the Lord be glorified!

What’s Next?

Amid the normal activities of life, we are preparing as a family to move. Where? We don’t know yet.

Our son-in-law is leaving the military in October and is actively looking for a new job. Aimee is also actively looking for a counseling job. Once one of them has a firm job offer, they will move. And they want us to move with them, either to continue living with them for a while or to live nearby. At this point, then, we don’t know where, but we have a general idea of when. We hope to move before October 1 of this year.

Please be praying for the Lord to put us where we are to serve Him and others well.

Refugee update from Tom

Praise the Lord with us! We just learned that the refugee family from the Middle East, with whom we have been working for almost 2 1/2 years, received their Canadian ID number. This means that, in principle, they have been accepted as future residents of Canada, though it may take a few months for all the needed paperwork, and refugees always face terrible uncertainty. I recently saw the dad and mom on Zoom in a meeting with the Canadian woman who is the head of the organization coordinating their move. Their son was at a church camp. They began rejoicing once they understood what the new documents mean, but I cautioned them that I will feel a lot better when I see a picture of them coming out of a Canadian airport. A huge thanks to the many who helped in different ways! And please keep praying!

Praises:
We thank the Lord for:

  • Leslie’s opportunities to serve:
    • the PCA Mission to North America (MNA) as a cross-cultural training specialist in the Refugee and Immigrant Ministry;
    • another school by helping them through an ACSI accreditation process with the team visit happening next Spring.
  • Projects moved well without Tom doing a lot, allowing time for his hip to recover.
  • The Decalogue Project, an international book about the Ten Commandments, edited by Tom and William S. Barker, is on schedule for release at a conference this fall.
  • Volume 2 of Tom’s book series, Christian Ethics in Secular Cultures is beginning to gain a warm reception.
  • A request from Indonesian Muslims for Tom to do much more with them regarding religious freedom.
  • Very promising documents from the Canadian government for the Middle Eastern refugee family we have been assisting.

Prayers:

Please join us in praying for:

  • Wisdom for both of us as we continue to pray through the Lord’s callings:
    • For Leslie: more refugee work? More educational consultations? Taking on a job to help with finances? And of course, investing in grandchildren is not a question.
    • For Tom: what to research and write? How to work with Muslims and with the Vatican? What to delegate?
    • For both of us: when and where should we travel for ministry?
  • Protection from discouragement for the refugee family we have been helping. Even though there is progress, they still have to wait and work on documents.
  • The refugee family’s transition to a new culture and for all refugees who also are having transition challenges. They will need tremendous courage to face huge challenges in their up-coming transition.
  • For more churches to take on supporting refugees. We have done it in the past with the boat people and Vietnam refugees. Let’s do it again now with so many people who need help.
  • For all the refugees around the world, including those from Ukraine, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the list could go on. The latest estimate is that there are now over 100 million displaced people around the world!
  • Tom as he expects to go to Indonesia for several days of meetings at the beginning of November.
  • Please be praying for the Lord to put us where we are to serve Him and others well.

Thank you for your faithful prayer for us as well as your financial gifts that allow us to do the work He has called us to.

Recent Publications

  1. God Needs No Defense: Reimagining Muslim-Christian Relations in the 21st Century, edited by Thomas K. Johnson and C. Holland Taylor (a Muslim scholar), hard cover: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666744323/god-needs-no-defense/; free PDF: https://www.academia.edu/50075224/God_Needs_No_Defense_Reimagining_Muslim_Christian_Relations_in_the_21st_Century.
  2. Humanitarian Islam, Evangelical Christianity, and the Clash of Civilizations, paperback: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666704396/humanitarian-islam-evangelical-christianity-and-the-clash-of-civilizations/; free PDF: https://www.academia.edu/45458012/Humanitarian_Islam_Evangelical_Christianity_and_the_Clash_of_Civilizations.
  3. Christian Ethics in Secular Cultures: Volume 2: Culture, Hermeneutics, Natural Law, Islam, and Missions, paperback (temporarily out of stock): https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Thomas-K-Johnson/dp/3862692337/ref=sr_1_9?crid=160UQNHXL0FOZ&keywords=Thomas+K.+Johnson&qid=1652537978&sprefix=thomas+k.+johnson%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-9; free PDF: https://www.academia.edu/74013380/Christian_Ethics_in_Secular_Cultures_vol_2_Culture_Hermeneutics_Natural_Law_Islam_Missions.
  4. The Protester, the Dissident, and the Christian: Essays on Human Rights and Religion, with a foreword by C. Holland Taylor, paperback: https://wipfandstock.com/search-results/?contributor=Thomas%20K%20Johnson; free PDF: https://www.academia.edu/45375662/The_Protester_the_Dissident_and_the_Christian_Essays_on_Human_Rights_and_Religion.
  5. “Does the Word of God Change the World? From Martin Luther to the 69 Theses of Thomas Schirrmacher,” Evangelical Review of Theology, May 2022: https://www.academia.edu/78964674/Does_the_Word_of_God_Change_the_World_From_Martin_Luther_to_the_69_Theses_of_Thomas_Schirrmacher.
  6. “Religious communities as good neighbors in a post-secular global society,” December 2020 speech for a US State Department online conference for global religious leaders and diplomats, later published by the International Journal for Religious Freedomhttps://www.academia.edu/73268382/Religious_communities_as_good_neighbors_in_a_post_secular_global_society.

Forthcoming: The Decalogue Project: Disciples from Six Continents Engage with God’s Ten Commandments, edited by Thomas K. Johnson and William S. Barker.

We appreciate you all and are thankful for the Lord’s work through you!

Hautle Prayer Points – June 2022

June 17, 2022

Dear praying friend,

Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Mark 16:15

Praise God for the young men and women willing to spend their summer to go and proclaim the Gospel to the boys and girls in Pennsylvania!
We leave tomorrow morning for CEF of PA CYIA training. It will be great to get together with the PA team, see the returning summer missionaries and meet new ones! We’re especially thankful for Amy and Christopher who will be serving with Schuylkill County this summer and are taking part in the training.
Pray as Brent gives the chapel message on Monday and that he will be a great help wherever needed. Pray for Amy and Christopher to be diligent in their studies and practicals.

PRAISES

  • Thousands of Hope for Ukraine backpacks filled with food, water and evangelistic materials have been distributed to Ukrainian boys and girls!
  • Many new items have been created for the Hope for Ukraine project, including prayer calendars and teaching materials.
  • Files for the 2022 Christmas Together campaign have been produced and distributed.
  • We are so grateful to have found someone to replace our broken door to the office. Please pray as it gets replaced in the near future.

REQUESTS

  • CEF of PA CYIA Training school, June 18-24. Pray for the scores of teens and young adults who will be taking part and then going out to preach the Gospel to boys and girls throughout the state this summer.
  • Continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine as they continue ministering to boys and girls in the midst of the war.
  • Pray for the Youth Challenge project that has re-started. Pray for great ideas in how to lay out the books as well as great ideas for the visuals.
  • Please continue to pray for several members of the European Multimedia team who are facing health difficulties.

Thank you! We greatly covet your prayers!

Brent, Jen, Amy and Christopher

 

Grace Covenant Ministries – May 2022

Prayer Warrior for May 2022

Dear Prayer Warrior:

We are now able to accept online donations (credit or debit cards).  Click the following line to access the donation link:  https://donorbox.org/grace-covenant-ministries  Thanks again for helping to make our ministry efforts possible.  Your prayer support is greatly appreciated.

Thomas Miracle                                                                                                                                             Jacob L. Moss

Manager of Campus Operations                                                                                                                Director of Development

Annville Institute/Grace Covenant Ministries                                                                                         Annville Institute/Grace Covenant Ministries

Office Phone 606-364-5151                                                                                                                       Cell Phone 712-360-5249

New from the Fields – May 2022

The Senior class spoke about what the Lord has taught them…

God is so good!

We truly want to thank you for supporting our family as we live and serve here among these students and this Senior class. We are so honored to be up close to watch the Lord in the lives of these students. The Seniors recently spoke of some of what the Lord taught them in their two years here. (photos below)

18 days until Graduation!

Please pray for our Seniors:

  • Some are already being sent by their church to start missionary training this Fall.
  • Some are returning to their sending church to build relationships before being sent by them to missionary training.
  • All of them know God’s heart for the world and are ready to continue to be His light to the world as He leads them to their next step.

God has done amazing work in their lives in two short years. It is absolutely incredible to watch their growth and to be a small part of their lives here at Bible school. If you know of anyone who would be interested in Bible School, send them our way. Click the blue button below for more information.

The Senior class raised funds for sending one of our staff couples to serve overseas. They asked Dave to recreate his timeline from one of his classes, and they put it on shirts to sell. That was super special!!

Thank you for partnering with us financially every single month so that we can have this amazing opportunity!

Thank you for praying, loving and supporting our family,
Dave, Kim, Reece & Clark Field