CMF Celebrates 60 Years — 174 Churches Planted in the Last Decade!

CMF celebrated her sixtieth anniversary at the recent Board of Directors and Annual Meeting in November. The celebration was held in Indianapolis at the Outlook Christian Church (formerly, Oaklandon Christian Church).

Preparation for the meeting included gathering relevant statistics about CMF’s growth since our 50th anniversary ten years ago. David Giles, Director of Church Catalyst Ministries, reported that in the last ten years CMF ministries planted 174 churches.

Naomi Kouns, Director of Globalscope, reported that in the last decade CMF has established international campus ministries in Mexico, Chile, Thailand, Spain, England, and Germany.

The Board of Directors gave thanks to God for His continuing blessing and provision as CMF seeks to transform lives and communities for Him around the world.

Dr. Bernie and Kelly Bledsoe, CMF missionaries in Abengourou, Ivory Coast, West Africa, shared an amazing success story from the micro-enterprise program run by the HIV community and support group supervised by the CMF team there. The groups recently set up a store where they sell eggs, and business is booming. Currently, they are selling about 15 cartons of eggs per week, which is 6,300 eggs! “They set up their store in a great location and are having a hard time keeping their stock of eggs, which is a good problem to have,” wrote Dr. Bledsoe.

In January, the team plans to build on this success by offering further micro-enterprise training to help the churches’ CHE programs develop funding from within their communities, which will support their projects now and in the future.

The Globalscope team based in the university town of Tübingen, Germany, was just getting off the ground with its first three team members last November, but this year the five-member team was only too happy to bring an American Thanksgiving to their new German friends. A total of 70 people turned out for a special celebration meal featuring turkey, green bean casseroles, mashed potatoes and all the fixin’s at the Unterwegs house, just off the main campus of the university.

Team member Tyler Crawford shared some details of the big event: “The Frisbee team was there. Our language partners were there. Students we have met at parties were there. Students we have met at the disco were there. Students who are friends and roommates of our friends and roommates were there, too. It was the beautiful coming together of all our months of collective efforts as a group to meet students and start making an impact in their lives with our love, and it was incredibly affirming to see all of our friends and family here in Tübingen in the same house, interacting with us and interacting with each other. You can practically see the fabric of our community being woven together right in front of you. There was food. There was music. There was a skit explaining the tradition of Thanksgiving and there was laughter — not a German tradition! At the end of the big meal we invited students to stand up and share what they were thankful for. It was a risk on our part; few, if any, students had ever stood up to share something personal with a large group. But before long, everyone was eager to have their chance to stand up and say their part. Students were still sharing what they were thankful for even after the meal!”

One of the things most often mentioned by the students as something for which they are thankful was the Unterwegs ministry. As Tyler explained, “Many students have a hard time placing us; no German labels will stick. We are a Christian group, but we are not a church, and we are not a campus ministry, which traditionally in Tübingen reaches out only to students who are already Christians. On the other hand, we are a place of excitement, activity and celebration, but we care more about the people rather than the party itself. We’re not a bar or a club — we don’t serve alcohol and people come anyway. But a few students are starting to better understand us.”

Martin, one of the Frisbee players who attended the gathering, stood up during the time of thanks to share his thoughts: “I’m thankful for the friends I’ve met here. I came to Tübingen, and I’ve found a place to plug in. It’s great that people are doing this kind of thing weekly, daily here at Unterwegs. I’m thankful for the community here.”

Tyler’s fellow team members Chris and Stef Coleman were especially pleased with the event because while they have had small, private conversations with some students about Jesus and Christianity, “Thanksgiving was the first time we prayed as a community. It was very powerful! This is what we came to Germany to do: build a community of students centered around Christ!”

Joe and Kim Cluff, (Nairobi, Kenya) received good news when Joe attended the annual General Meeting of the Community Christian Church in Kenya in late November. The area has been suffering with a drought for some time, and the CMF team members and the local churches have responded with several food relief projects. As a result of these outreaches, three new churches have been planted in the Kajiado district. Thanks to generous giving from their partners in the U.S., the team was also able to provide food relief to churches in the Nakuru district.

While there has been some rain in Kenya, the showers are still inconsistent throughout most of the country. The Cluffs ask for prayers for consistent rains, for the crops that have been planted in many parts of Kajiado and, most of all, for growth and maturity in the three new church plants.

Tim and Tammy Aho, members of CMF’s church-planting team in Great Britain, shared exciting news this week. The Ahos are taking a different approach to new church work by launching a “house church” called thethirdplace, that meets in a variety of venues. On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, they had a special gathering planned for a home, but it had to be moved at the last minute to a rented venue because 48 people showed up! As Tammy wrote, “The gathering sort of took on a life of its own … this was fabulous problem to have!”

A record-breaking crowd of more than 130 students attended the second annual Canvas Thanksgiving dinner, reports Globalscope-England team leader Robert Braden. Eight Canvas students also shared testimonies with the community about the things for which they are most thankful.

“We are so thankful for what God is doing here at Canvas,” Robert writes. Here are some highlights from the CMF team’s ministry to British college students during this fall term, which comes to a close in a couple weeks:

• An average of 60-70 students have been attending the Tuesday night Bible studies. Several students have even openly shared where they are in their journey with Christ – a big step for them.
• Plans are being made for the group’s first retreat in March, and also for a mission trip to Mexico to build homes for underprivileged families.
• Preparations are underway to begin a monthly Saturday night church service.
• Robert and teammate Nathan Jones have been leading a weekly small group to share their faith with a select group of students.

The LifeSpring Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, has adopted the Kosovo slum community in the Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya. Part of the partnership involves assisting the church and school located in the community with leadership training and a variety of projects, including Community Health Evangelism, HIV/AIDS and microfinance lending. Members of LifeSpring have taken several short-term trips to Kenya, and Dick Alexander, Senior Minister at LifeSpring, recently shared his thoughts about their most recent one. Here are some excerpts from his blog:

“I’m writing this on the way home from this month’s LifeSpring mission trip to the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. It’s hard to describe the Mathare slum. Eight hundred thousand people live in shacks made of corrugated steel with dirt floors. Lacking city services, there are no sewers, so the dirt paths between the shanties double as sewers. If I had enough space here I could describe the scene. I could never describe the smell. (more…)