School is open. The leaves are changing. I love this time of year! Here are some of the highlights from events in World Impact’s East Region and prayer requests for the fall.
Chester, Pennsylvania, is one of the poorest and most dangerous communities in the state. We have a TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) site and men’s home ministry there. In addition to conducting classes in prisons and local churches, the site coordinator Dr. Rick Horne has developed a counseling course, How Change Happens. As a result of donations of funds, goods and help from volunteers, the Siafu Men’s Home ministry has begun the renovation of our three duplexes in Chester with the goal of establishing a Siafu Village to prepare men who are re-entering society to become ministry leaders. Part of their preparation includes completing the 16 TUMI Capstone modules. Pray for the renovations and that God will use the Siafu Village as a mighty instrument of preparing men for ministry leadership.
The Newark team recently hosted an Evangel School of Urban Church Planting with the view of planting churches in Connecticut, Queens, Brooklyn, Northern New Jersey, Newark and Kingston, Jamaica. One of the participants came from Bangladesh and shared his story of being persecuted as a Christian and pointed to scars on his body. He talked about how he lost his job and how his family was harassed before fleeing to America. He is now working with his pastor to reach the 100,000 Bengali people in the greater New York City metro area. We are planning for an Evangel School next fall in North Carolina. Pray for our church plants and the church plant school this month.
In August, we hosted a “Newark Night Out” in our school parking lot. A World Impact church planter, Desmond Wedderburn, served as a deejay for the evening and attracted a crowd for music, games, food and fun times, as well as evangelistic preaching and prayer times. We plan to host monthly outreach events similar to the night out.
Newark Christian School opened for its 34th year of ministry this September. Due to teacher retirements and the re-opening of the eighth grade, we anticipated needing five teachers. As an example of how God is providing for our school, with no public announcement of the need, all five teachers were in place by mid-August.
God is doing great things on the east coast. It is exciting to see the lives changed and communities transformed.
