Back to the Start | Part Four | Pastor Ed Berk

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

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It's Mission Sunday.

We're excited to hear from Pastor Ed and uh some missionaries this morning.

And uh I just wanted to remind you if you have any kids, you can release them to uh or get them checked into the lobby.

And if you're in grades five to seven, wave at me.

If you're in grade five to seven, wave at me.

There's well, we got one.

So we're gonna we're gonna release the junior youth to the lobby.

Uh some of our leaders are gonna meet you there.

Um and for the rest of us, I'm just gonna uh we're just gonna invite Pastor Ed.

Let's just give him a hand as he comes up and uh is ready to share with us this morning.

Good morning, church.

How you doing?

Yeah, praise the Lord.

Pastor Brody gave me an opportunity to share a little bit about missions this Sunday.

And uh, you know, he's been doing a see uh this whole theme on going back to the start, right?

And uh so we're gonna go back to the start and look at the uh the greatest commission that Jesus has ever given us, right?

Right in the beginning when he's talking to his disciples.

And uh this journey this morning, I think, is gonna take us all over the world.

So it's kind of exciting.

You get to see where uh some of your missions dollars are going to work, right, around the globe.

And so I am absolutely stoked about uh this morning and just the stories and the stuff that's going on, right?

So um, you know, if we think about heaven for a minute, um heaven is the place where everything is as it could be, and everything is as it should be.

So everything that's created has a design, and in heaven, it's the original, it's the fulfillment, it's the completion.

Alright?

So on earth, not everything is as it could be, and not everything is as it should be, right?

And so uh hence we have Jesus Christ that came to bring heaven to earth, he came to advance his kingdom, he came to show us uh this incredible story.

And so 2,000 years ago, when we look at his walk with the disciples, um, it was actually amazing because uh he imparted uh this counterculture to them that absolutely revolutionized their life, they got to taste and see how good he is, how good the things of heaven are, right?

And without that revelation, it wouldn't have revolutionized their lives.

Come on, right?

So, 2,000 years later, today, we're the recipients of this great, great, fantastic story of how good things are in heaven and how good things can be in relationship to Jesus and how good things should be.

Come on, we're not we haven't arrived yet.

How many of you have arrived?

How many of you completed the journey?

No, right?

So we're in this process, right, of advancing his kingdom.

How many of you have been touched by the good news?

Come on.

How many of you have a story that's absolutely mind-boggling and fantastic because you've encountered Jesus Christ?

Isn't it exciting?

Has it changed you?

Come on, has it changed us?

Right?

So we're together, we're celebrating this actually this fantastic journey, this fantastic celebration of how good God is.

Right?

And so when we look at Jesus and his relationship with the disciples, he started to commission them.

And he said, he said to them, go into all the world and tell everybody the good news.

Like go, go tell everybody the good news.

And uh that's what I want us to celebrate this morning because oftentimes we're telling everybody the bad news, right?

Oh, gee, oh man, oh, you know, like, right?

But there's some good news.

And uh it's actually just fantastic, that good news, right?

He said, Go therefore and make followers of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right?

So it's the word is go, like, come on, go do this, go tell everybody, go do this thing because it's absolutely fantastic, right?

And furthermore, he says, Furthermore, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Sorry.

He he commissioned his people and said, I'm going to give you my Holy Spirit, and this thing, this good news story is gonna be so powerful.

I want you to take it to the ends of the earth so that everybody hears it, everybody sees it, everybody gets to experience how fantastic this actually is.

Right?

So here we are in Kelowna, in Kelowna Christian Center, and we're part of a global movement that's all over the earth.

And uh 2,000 years later, we're experiencing the goodness of the kingdom, and this church was founded on that very principle.

We are a missions church.

We are a church that wants everybody to know how good Jesus Christ is.

Come on, right?

That's what we want, and so in this church here, our scripture that has catapulted us into purpose has been Isaiah 61, 1 that says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

Would you say that?

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

Everybody say, Me.

Me, right?

Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of prison to those who are bound.

So this is our story, this is our mission, this is our DNA, this is what we want to do.

We want to see people touched by the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.

Are you with me?

Yeah?

Praise the Lord.

So last week Brody was talking, we're doing this series on uh back to the start, and last week Brody was talking about purpose, and he said, your real God-given purpose is not there to benefit you, but to use your gift to benefit or help someone else.

Right?

So in this act, we feel most satisfied and we find our greatest significance in pouring ourselves out and activating the unique God-given design that He has imparted into our heart, right?

To sow into other people.

Right?

What a what an incredible thing to wake up in the morning.

What an incredible thing to lay your head down at night, knowing that that when you are helping somebody, you are doing it because you are compelled by the love of God.

What a fantastic thing.

So today we're going to take a look at some of these things.

And and I want to invite Kevin and Laurel Penner to come on up here.

Come on, guys.

Yeah, let's give them a hand.

Good to see you.

Blessings.

Now, some of you know these guys, have have a seat.

Some of you know these this beautiful couple from Alberta, and uh some of you don't.

Uh they have been with us, they were actually teachers in Heritage Christian School in the late 90s, right?

Yeah.

And uh they felt a call at that time to uh move into mission, and uh they were they felt called to get into Bible translation, and uh so um yeah, so they went on this long journey with uh Wycliffe and uh started to learn.

And yeah, you want to tell us a little bit first?

Why don't you introduce us to your family?

Okay, so uh we have three kids, two of them were actually born here in Kelowna.

Kyle uh is 21 now, he's going to school at Trinity Western, and Gabrielle is 20, and she has been going to school at Ambrose University, but she's actually gonna come down to Mexico with us for a bit, and then Daniela is 16.

Awesome.

So uh Wycliffe, tell us a little bit about what what God's called you to do and what this is all about, and maybe a little bit about your history with uh where you're at today.

So um we're you know, we were just we're looking at the verse um about how God has called us, Jesus commissioned his disciples to share the good news and Brody's statement about um using um our own uh calling and purpose to to bless others.

Well, Laurel and Laurel and I um have different kinds of giftings than than many, and um we're you know, the um Ephesians and other scriptures talk about how the church is a body, and it says we're not all mouth, we're not all the nose, we're not all the eye, uh, well, we're not the mouth, um, we're the translators.

Um you know, we've had the the scriptures in English for over 600 years, and there are people in this world today that do not have the scriptures in their language, and the people that we work with, the Isti Utla Mistec, uh, well, this variety is only now coming into having scripture in their own language.

And um, we believe that because um language is so integral to who we are and how we view the world, um the very fact that we can speak language is because we are made in God's image.

And so this essential part of their identity is um something that when they re can realize that God speaks to them in their own language, um that can be a very significant thing.

And you know how many barriers there are to even coming to know Christ.

Um, and we don't want a language to be one of them.

You said something that sounded like tongues that was like ixalutya.

Which is Indian words, that's how they would describe their language.

Tell us a little bit about your journey to that location, like why there, and how'd you end up?

Uh well the um see the Lord was working in this area long before we got there, and if he hadn't, of course, we wouldn't have ended up there.

Um there was um so you can see on the map there that it's way down in the in the south there in Oaxaca, uh, very close to where other groups in this church minister and have ministered.

And um so in in uh it was 2001 we went to Mexico, we started studied Spanish, and then in 2003 we went into work with the Mistecs uh in Easter Uta.

However, way before that, um in the 80s, there was a man named Adolfo, and there should be a slide of him there.

Well, he was a Mistech man from a neighboring area, and he uh became burdened to go into Eastiutla and start to minister the gospel.

He was a Christian man who had worked on Bible translation in his own language.

And he started when he went in, he was met with complete rejection and death threats.

However, he kept going in periodically and eventually dedicated himself more or less full time to making trips in and out to minister the gospel there.

And he would often speak in his own dialect of Meesec to the people.

Mostly that's how he communicated with them.

Um how and around the same time there was a man named Dwayne Kirshner who had been ministering along the coast of Oaxaca for since the 70s, and they began to notice the Meestec people coming out of the hills uh into the market town, and they could tell because of their their they didn't understand Spanish very well, and they dressed in a distinctive dress.

And so they began to pray for these people.

And um along the way, um Adolfo, facing so much opposition, began to be discouraged.

And he he thought, well, maybe I should just shake the dust off my feet and go somewhere else.

However, along in this time period as well, Duane and a missionary doctor from the States um flew over the East de Utah area in a small plane.

Uh the this doctor was also a pilot.

And um it wasn't uh too long after that that Duane shows up at this uh Dwayne's uh sorry, Adolfo shows up at Dwayne's mission base, and um he shows them a map that he's made of the East de Utah area and the the towns that are there, and he tells him about a vision that he had.

Uh this he had a dream of a plane flying over East de Utah and calling out um that uh he should bring uh the good news that Jesus uh the Lord was coming soon.

And um so because of this vision, Dwayne or uh Adolfo had his vision renewed and he kept going and persevering in that, and finally one man, Primo, and uh there here it is in the slide there, he came to to uh shows up at Adolfo's house and he wanted to accept the Lord.

And so uh Primo did, and his wife and his his uh family, and that was uh, as we understand it, the birth of the church uh in that place.

Yeah, Primo uh he became good friends with you guys, right?

Well, yes.

So then when we showed up in in uh 2003, um, guess who it was that took us in?

It was Adolfo who took us in, and he took us to Primo's house, and Primo said, Yes, come and and translate the Bible with us.

And so we showed up.

There's a slide there of us, um, I think, of us uh going um with Adolfo.

There you can see uh us with Adolfo on the your right, I guess, and on the your left there is Primo.

Um that was when we got there and um for our we did an exploratory trip to to come out and make contact with them, and that was you can see our little Kyle there holding Primo's hand.

Now Lisa and I took a team in there, uh I don't remember what year that was in the long time ago.

50, 60 years ago, I don't know.

But it was like going back into a National Geographic magazine.

I think there was a couple of light bulbs in the area, and uh the road in was like a a disaster, right?

And it was just like walking back two thousand years in in history.

It was just yeah, the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen.

Wow.

And now you guys have a house there too, don't you?

Yep.

In fact, you guys came and put a you helped dig our outhouse.

That's right.

And uh put a sealer on the on the outside of it.

Awesome.

Okay, we're gonna we're gonna take a little journey with a video.

We'll just show you a little video of uh a little bit of their story, uh, and you can get a feel for the people that uh they minister to actually in this area.

The huge task of Bible translation would be impossible without partners like you.

Thank you for investing with us in bringing God's life-giving word to the East of Ulum East Tech.

How can they call whom they don't believe?

Who can believe if they have never been?

That's not their own language, and so it's like a hard tortilla, and it takes longer to eat.

Yeah, and um that's just what we want to provide for these people is uh a nice top tortilla for them to be able to eat and understand eat.

I will go wherever you send me.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Now, this is the region where some of the world's best tortillas come from, right?

But it's a real art to try and make them.

How many of you guys have a Bible?

Some of us?

How many of you have two?

How many of us have five or ten Bibles?

Right?

So Kevin and Laurel have gone to an area where they didn't even have a written language?

Is that a little bit of a well, yeah, they're there are a particular variety of mystic.

There are many varieties, and some of them do have uh even New Testaments translated.

Right.

And um, so you know, we we kind of don't make it up from scratch either.

We look at what's been done other places.

Right.

But this area, these people that you're ministering to didn't have any scripture.

No, no.

So you are actually on a project to give them the word of God in their native language.

How awesome is that?

How awesome is that to be able to sit and have the Bible in your own language.

Can you imagine us having a Greek Bible on our coffee table?

I wouldn't read it, right?

But to have the scripture, wow, so how's the translation going?

Where are you guys at?

Like I think the book of Jonah is that right, is that right?

Yes, so um the book of Jonah is published, that was the first bit that we published, and then um the Christmas story from Luke is also published.

Um but mostly the team has been working on drafting, and um we're super excited that they are almost getting close to finishing the New Testament in first draft.

So it's about 85% done.

And uh so our task when when we go back will be to um work on revision mostly.

They've also got about half of the Pentateuch drafted, and the first 11 chapters of Genesis have been through a revision process and been consultant checked.

So um that'll be the focus is getting that published as a separate booklet.

And because it's so important for them to know that God was the one that created created the earth, and uh they have a story in their history that um that Satan um that God didn't get it quite right, and Satan helped him, and in exchange he got half the people, and that's not what it says in the book of Genesis.

So we feel like it's really important to get that um bit of scripture published and into their hands so that they can know the truth.

Yeah, that's awesome.

One time uh an old gentleman came to my my place and he wanted to he wanted me to give him a ride to another town, and I suspected that he wanted to go see a shaman.

And so I was asked uh a witch doctor, yeah.

Yeah.

So um he uh you know I was talking to him about it and and um and I said, Well, you know, you need to he he that was indeed that he had um some sort of physical ailment, and I said, Well, you need to to trust God.

And uh he said to me, I'm not sure if he can help me.

And I said, Well, for sure he can.

You know, he he created the heavens and the earth and and and he he can do that.

And he said, Well, didn't Satan help him?

So he had this in his his worldview was that you know God was only one of the options.

And so, you know, it's really important for them to find the truth.

Um, yeah.

So yeah, so we started with Genesis.

And the first couple Genesis go, and so at the first or in the beginning, uh God made heaven and earth.

Uh da nya nyatuwi kuakajita.

So you know the form of the world was was had nothing, uh no form, and uh it's uh it appeared um you know it didn't have anything on it, and you know, just like we you know read in in our Bibles, but in a way that they can understand it.

So that is awesome.

Have you seen the impact of the scripture in the community?

Well, you know, the it's like anything, there's there's a a struggle, yeah, and and Satan doesn't want people to commit themselves to Christ.

And so we've seen discouraging things too, you know.

We've seen there have been quite a few people baptized, and then you see people going back on their commitments.

Um but you see they don't really have Bible that they can take home yet.

Yeah, you know, and um and to be honest, some of the older people will probably never learn to read their language.

So we have plans to um you can um turn your um your translation uh quite well, you can record it.

And so we want to do an audio version and you can link it just like you you see in in the apps that you use.

We can produce apps that that um link the the audio to the translation um so that they can have those on their phones, and there's devices that you can use to um even if they don't have um say internet access, you can create your own Wi-Fi network with this thing called one of them is called a Bible box, and you everybody can connect to your little um virtual network there and download the the scripture onto their phone.

You're kind of like a walking app, right?

Like when you go it can only be one place at a time though.

So uh and Pastor Miguel is there, and it's such a blessing for us to go there and and hear him using the scriptures in in the services.

Um like you, you know, like I was talking that story that I told in the video about the soft tortilla and the hard tortilla.

That's was I was sitting there and he was up talking in church, and this is what he said.

So I asked him about it afterwards.

And uh yeah, you can imagine how hard the tortilla would be if we were learning having to read the Bible in in for most of you, like Spanish or French or or or Greek, which was original, like that would be a little tough.

Um so even though they can do some market stuff in Spanish, you know, that's not that's not their hard language.

I heard uh Laurel say going back.

I heard you say something.

Tell us what what are you guys up to?

Well, um probably most of you know that we came back in 2006 when our youngest daughter Alyssa was born with severe brain damage.

And that's what brought us back to Canada from Mexico.

And she passed away in 2010.

But uh Kevin had begun further training a graduate study program, and so we felt like he should finish that.

That that's what the Lord had called him to do.

So just this last week, he completed the final uh exam, his oral defense of his PhD program, and so he is now actually Dr.

Kevin Penner.

Dr.

Kevin.

Awesome, congratulations.

But uh so that means that uh we are now making plans to get back to Mexico, and we actually have tickets booked for February 21st to fly down to uh Huatuco.

And uh because our daughter Daniela was born in Mexico, we have permanent resident visas already in hand, which means we don't have to do renewals every year and all that uh yucky stuff.

And um so yeah, we are super excited to be getting back there and just working um face to face with with our friends and colleagues on the translation.

Right.

Now you're gonna be living uh in the vicinity of Roca Blanca, right?

Roca Blanca is a Bible school in a small missions community that's about uh 25 minutes out of Puerto Escondido, right?

And uh then you'll be uh going back and forth to the village and having your translators from the village come and work with you at the station, right?

Awesome.

Awesome.

So um you want to stay in touch with Kevin and Laura.

There's nothing like having people from home, you know, encourage you, you know, and uh right.

And so uh they're gonna be in the foyer after.

Um they have a newsletter and we encourage you to sign up, uh stay informed, follow their journey, see what the Lord is doing, right?

So you can do that.

We also want to make sure that we're praying for them, right?

We want to be praying for our missionaries and uh let's lift them up in prayer as they go on this uh venture again back to Mexico and to uh bring a whole tribal group of people uh the scriptures.

Wow, praise the Lord.

That is fantastic.

Let's give them a hand.

So you're gonna be living there and uh you're that's gonna be home.

Well, we wanna um we're gonna be down initially for six months.

That works uh well with Alberta Health.

Um you don't have to apply for an extension, plus we want to get Danny back and put her in grade 12 with her class that she has been going through school with.

Um and uh yeah, and then as we get her into what she's doing, then we will we plan to spend more and more time down there for so for six months initially, and then come back, get her into grade 12 and back and back and forth a little bit.

Um if I can just if you want to back up one slide there, if you have your phone and your techie and you want to scan this QR code, it will take you right to a sign-up.

Um so you can actually just sign right up, or you can see us in the back.

You'll have that at the back of your table also, right?

Yeah, we'll so there will be a sign-up sheet at the back too if you'd rather do it that way.

But fantastic.

Wow.

Can we can we just do this right now?

Can we just pray for this?

Or why don't you just come on up here and uh grab other mics and just leave us in prayer for Kevin and Laurel?

I know Kevin from uh and Laurel from school, and there were a few uh hikes we did together.

And I know there's one thing about this family is that they don't give up.

And there's something about the intensity of the nature of the the heart that it requires to actually go in and get a job done.

So I'm just gonna pray today that the Lord completes the work that He started in you and uh gives you the fortitude and the courage and the boldness and the support to be able to carry you through.

So, Father, we pray today, would you just extend your hands to them and just join with me in this prayer?

Father, I thank you for this couple.

We thank you, Lord, that they're on mission today to make a difference, Lord, with their gifts and their abilities.

Thank you, Lord, for all the study that's gone into preparation.

And we ask, Lord, for your uh your direction and your that their steps would be ordered by you, Father, that you would lead them into right relationships and right um places and into uh right networks, Lord, that would take them to be able to do the right and the right thing.

And so, Lord, today we ask for your presence to be upon them.

We ask for your wisdom to be on them.

We ask, Lord, that you would uh surround them by with your angels and Lord, uh the security of the hosts of heaven would be around them, Lord, on their journey.

We ask this today, Lord, believing that uh you desire all people to have uh a knowledge of the truth.

And so, Lord, we pray that today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm gonna have uh Kevin and Laurel stay up here so I'm not sitting here all by myself.

But uh, you know, interestingly enough, you know, the Lord has really put uh Mexico and particularly for some reason this area on the heart of KCC.

You know, uh Gord and Joanne, Gord, why don't you stand up for a minute?

Joanne, stand up for a minute, right?

Gord and Joanne look after our GCP class, and that's our grade 12 students.

Well, GCP is broader than that, thanks guys.

Um, but they're taking 20 students down to the same area in April, April 25th, April 23rd, 24th, somewhere near, uh down to uh Mexico.

They're gonna the kids are gonna be doing their education, their schooling there, they're gonna be exposed to cultural uh great food, um, cultural things, and they're also gonna be uh reaching out to to different community and people groups with the gospel, and we're just so excited.

So, when in actual fact, I'm gonna take a step backward.

When you give to KCC General Missions, you're actually supporting Kevin and Laurel.

When you give to KCC General Missions, you're actually supporting the GCP class and going into Mexico.

We just want you to know that, all right?

Good.

So, also in Mexico, what's really exciting is that we have uh Clint and Diane Eccles there right now.

And Diane pastors are Lake Country Church, and uh they've been part of this community since it's actually started, and they are currently looking after or down there ministering in Mexico and uh in Puerto Escondido, and we have three churches down there.

The Sicatella Church has Pastor Salvador and Teresa, and uh that church started with 20 people and now has 200 people, 30 children, and beautiful church in Mexico, and uh they have a lot of trials.

You can see the picture there, Teresa.

She's she struggles with her her neck being in uh in a seizure, right?

And so we want you to pray for for that church as a beautiful church, and God is doing some fantastic things in that area.

We also have a church that's 20 minutes out of Puerto Escondido, and it started with um it's in San Pedro, and Pastor Roberto and his family pastor that work, and that church started under a mango tree with about 15 people, and uh they were getting kicked around that little city and kicked off their property and stuff, and KCC got behind them and we bought them some land together, and uh that's a booming church now of 150 people, 40 kids that are uh in that church.

And uh, we want you to pray for the pastor.

He's got Parkinson's, his uh his uh family is helping him pastor that work.

Uh, but his keep, his medical keep is very expensive, and but these guys are just uh seeing the the Lord help and change uh families in these communities, and the churches are actually centers in the community which are actually thriving, so that's a beautiful thing.

We have another church in that area called uh in Pinatepa, and Pinatepa has uh Pastor Bismarck and Lupita, and they started in a house.

And I remember going there in the 90s, they had a little Bible study group and worship in a house, and they now they've bought property, and that church is over a hundred people in it, and 20 children coming out, and they're actually trying to build a facility to house 500 people in this area.

So these churches are actually just doing fantastic.

Um, that's not the only thing, something that was really moving.

I was talking to Clint and Diane through email this last week, and something that's really moving is that one of the ministries that we're involved in that in Puerto Escondido is that we help people that have terminal cancer.

And I don't know if you know this, but uh their ministry, there's 16 children that probably will not be here next year.

And they have, you know how we have here Make a Wish Foundation?

Well, they get they get to make a wish, and Clint and Diane are are with the church helping them, and their wish, these 16 kids, their wish was that they could see the ocean.

They'd never seen the ocean before, and so Clint and Diane and the church took them down to the ocean.

You can see them here blindfolded, standing in front of the ocean, and they're gonna go get to see the ocean for the first time, and then they minister to them, they pray for them.

And you know, when Clint was writing me and he sent me some pictures, he said to me, he he put a scripture uh in his in his email to me.

And this is what the scripture said it was found in Proverbs 31, verse 8 and 9.

Proverbs 31:8

It says, But you are to be a king who speaks up on behalf of the disenfranchised and pleads for the legal rights of the defenseless and those who are dying.

Be a righteous king, judging on behalf of the poor and interceding for those uh those most in need.

Right?

KCC, we're a righteous king.

You know, through through the advancement of the gospel in the world, we're interceding for those that need help, and we're just so blessed to actually be a part of that, right?

So uh that's wonderful.

So also um Andrew and Daphne, Andrew looks after our missions in Israel, and uh, I think they're not here this morning.

You can see the big hold out over here where they normally sit.

I think they're up skiing or something.

I don't know what they're doing on church.

They should be in church on Sunday, but just kidding, right?

But with modern technology, we're gonna look at a video because Andrew's gonna give us a little report on what's going on in Israel.

Hi there, KCC.

Apologies for not being with you this morning, but I have the pleasure of being able to share with you for the next few minutes through this short video.

I want you to know that I so appreciate KCC's Heart for Israel and the Jewish people.

As you're aware, the three main ministries we support there are involved in the support of persecuted congregations, compassionate outreach, and evangelism.

This morning I want to share with you some recent testimonies passed on to me by one of our partners in Israel.

Raquel Natan is the evangelist that KCC supports.

Raquel tells the story of her and her husband being invited by a strictly Jewish Orthodox family she is friends with to spend the Feast of Tabernacles with them on their kibbutz.

Raquel writes, for 25 hours during the feast, we weren't allowed any technology on the kibbutz.

It was so peaceful.

There were many other people as well as our friends, and they wanted to know about our faith.

So for three hours we shared how we know that Yeshua is the Messiah.

I asked them who they think the Messiah could be.

Who are they waiting for?

How will they know him when he comes?

Don't they know that he must be born in Bethlehem?

I read to them from Micah, Genesis, Daniel, Psalms, and other places in the Hebrew Bible that reveal Yeshua as their Messiah.

They were so receptive to what I shared.

So please remember them in your prayers.

Raquel continues.

We talked about sin, and I shared the verse, Deuteronomy 22.21, which says, If someone has committed a crime worthy of death, then is executed and hung on a tree.

I explained that Yeshua hung on a tree to atone for our sins.

When she heard this, the lady asked, What can I do?

I asked her if she wanted to pray and if she is willing to accept Yeshua.

So she prayed with me, praise God.

Please continue to remember her and her family in your own prayers.

Elsewhere, your generosity continues to support numerous important initiatives in Jerusalem, Haifa, Ashdod, and elsewhere, including persecuted pastors, youth conferences, soup kitchens, food and clothing distribution, and the welfare of some of the remaining Holocaust dividers.

So a big thank you from me to you on behalf of them.

God sees a generous heart.

And please remember to support our partners in Israel, you have to designate your donations specifically to Israel.

Bless you guys.

Andrew and Daphne are actually going over there in uh May, so they're gonna go visit again, which they do quite often.

They're gonna go visit those ministries.

So we're gonna just fly from Jerusalem over down to Kenya.

And we know that Larry and Francine are in Kenya, right?

And we have a whole bunch of kids over there, 25, 30 kids, that uh we support along with uh medical teams, and there's actually a doctor's team there right now from Kelowna that are visiting them.

They just came out of the bush uh far out back on a medical outreach, and uh so I've been in touch with Larry.

But uh he's going to he did up a little video of one of our kids that we rescued.

Her name is her name is Peppy, and Peppy is 14 years old, and we took her off the street.

Her mom was a serious alcoholic, and so she ended up on the street at six years old, this little girl.

And so Francine and Larry uh with Gideon, they rescued her, took her off the street.

They've put her into one of our family homes.

So she is with nine other kids in this home and has been with us for eight years.

We're gonna take a look at one of her days uh just in her life.

You're gonna be a movie star today.

So that was that was like one girl.

Like we've we've taken kids from the just the dev most devastating parts of life, and uh, you know, Heritage Christian Online School helps with education and the sponsorship, and your giving is helping.

So what a what a beautiful thing.

You know, we are running out of time, but there's just so many things that KCC Missions is doing.

Uh Carl and Kathy are are they here this morning?

Uh Carl and Kathy are going to uh Switzerland for three weeks and and then on to Spain.

Bibles, we've been donating to, we've been giving to Gideon's International, which has been having huge impact in handing Bibles out, right?

The Thompson family, like Matt Thompson, is in Thailand.

He's he's handing out Bibles in Thailand to people, which is just absolutely fantastic.

Brian Thompson is down in Haiti.

And Susanna Ferguson, Susanna Ferguson is one of our volunteers here.

She's part of our community.

She went down to Chico, California, and she was in a YWAM program there.

And uh she started working with people that were caught up in the fires back in the fall and uh just ministering to them life impacting time.

And currently, Susanna is over in Africa, in uh I believe Uganda and uh and uh Congo and ministry, and she'll be home at the end of February.

So we've been able to help her a little bit.

So we just wanted to keep you a little bit apprised of what's going on.

There's Houses of Mercy out here in the foyer, there's people handing out Bibles to high schools here in the city, right?

And so just absolutely fantastic.

So uh there is a newsletter that we want you to pick up, and I just do want I want to go through a little slide here on finances for a moment.

Our total missions budget this year has been$238,000, which is absolutely amazing for our community here, right?

152,000 of that is raised by the missionaries themselves.

So you've heard like Andrew say this morning, you can designate to Israel.

Andrew spearheads the fundraising for Israel, Larry and Francine do for the for Kenya, and so there's all kinds of fundraisers that are always going on.

But here out of our out of this group here, we try to raise about 90, 85,$90,000 a year.

Um last year our budget was over$100,000 that we tried to raise, and we didn't reach that budget.

We missed it by a significant amount over$15,000,$20,000.

So we actually had to reduce uh coming into our fiscal year this year.

And so we reduced it to$86,000, and so we're halfway through our financial year, and we're actually not on track, we're down below$15,000 short of accomplishing some of the things that that help our missionaries actually stay on the field doing what they do.

And if I was to break this down into a real practical way, if 150 people were giving$50 a month, we would have over$90,000.

So some of us can't give$50, some of us that's just too big of a stretch.

God knows that.

Some of us can give$100, some of us can do more.

And so I just want to lay this out so that you have a good report, a healthy report of where we're at.

We believe that God, you know, when Jesus walked on the earth, he asked for somebody's donkey, he sat in somebody's boat, he he he he advanced the kingdom on borrowed things.

Right?

I'm not asking money so that KCC missions look good.

I'm asking for money because it's actually saving and impacting the lives of people around the world.

So I sit here unashamedly saying, please ask the Lord how you can participate.

Get borrow your friend's checkbook.

Like, right?

Like, just ask the Lord, Lord, what would you have me do?

See, we have people in the house here that are actually so sacrificial.

We don't want to say, hey, give more, because there's some of you that are giving, but our community is changing, and some of you are not aware of the heart and the value of this church.

And so we want to invite you in and say, hey, come along with us on this incredible journey.

Watch what God does through the Penners, watch what God does in Africa, watch what God does through these missionaries, because we believe that the kingdom of God is the most precious thing for mankind in the world today.

Amen.

So that's that's what we wanted to leave you with.

So please keep our missionaries in prayer.

Pray for them, write them, get on their newsletters, and uh stay informed.

Amen?

Hallelujah.

Father, we just thank you so much that uh your message brings so much freedom, so much liberty, so much life change, so much healing.

Uh it brings just the wealth of the kingdom of heaven to mankind on earth.

And we believe that it's the most valuable thing that we could ever uh partake in, dispense, and be part of.

We believe that uh your love for humanity is endless, knows no boundary, and wants to cover the earth.

And we thank you for that in the name of Jesus.

So move upon our hearts to participate in advancing what your uh what what the passion of your heart is, that man would be saved.