If you’d like to add CMF missionaries and projects to your prayer list but don’t know where or how to start, we have a suggestion for you: our recently updated and revamped prayer blog.

The online prayer blog replaces the monthly prayer calendar that was mailed to many of CMF’s friends and supporters. This blog will be updated about twice a month.

Click here to visit the prayer blog, in the Partner section of the site. An easy way to keep up to date with prayer items is to go to the prayer blog and look for the box labeled “subscribe.” Enter your email address and new prayer lists will be sent to your inbox whenever the blog is updated. These emails will be easy to print and place with your Bible or devotional materials.

Thanks for praying with us!

CMF is helping host the 2010 North American Christian Convention in Indianapolis this July. We are especially pleased to be one of the Platinum Sponsors for the President’s Reception. This year’s NACC President, Ben Cachiaras, is a long-time friend of CMF. Over the past couple of years, Ben has infused Mountain Christian Church (where he is Sr. Minister) with the vision of empowering the poor and bringing physical and spiritual transformation to those living in the slums of Nairobi through our Missions of Hope ministry. You are invited to join us for the President’s Reception at CMF’s booth (#407) on Tuesday, July 6, from 8:30-10:00 pm.

Mary Kamau, from our Missions of Hope ministry in Nairobi, Kenya, will be featured Wednesday evening. Dick Alexander, Sr. Minister of LifeSpring Christian Church, Cincinnati, OH, will interview Mary during the main session as he challenges us to being Jesus in word and deed—making a holistic global impact. After the main session, CMF will host a “meet and greet” time with Mary at our booth (#407).

We also invite you to attend the 3 mission workshops led by CMF personnel: Doug Priest (Executive Dir.), David Giles (Church Catalyst Director) and Phil Tatum (Globalscope Strategy Director).

We look forward to being challenged by the speakers and workshops that build on the theme: “Beyond: Following Jesus to a Place You’ve Never Been”. Hope to see you at the 2010 NACC!

For the third consecutive year, the En Vivo campus ministry in Salamanca, Spain, led a short-term student trip to Portugal to partner with Habitat for Humanity and build a home for a needy family.

CMF missionary Sophie Bentley, wife of Globalscope team leader Jesse Bentley, was able to go with the group for the first time and co-lead the team of student workers, and reports that it was “an unforgettable experience! We were blessed not only with the generosity of many people from the local church, students from the ministry, and many others who prayed for us and donated money for us to be able to go, but we were also blessed with an incredible group of students who took part in this adventure with us.”

Students who went on the trip agreed that it was an incredible adventure of “heat, sweat, exhaustion, teamwork, cement, bricks, prayer, helmets, solidarity, family, camaraderie and love.”

“We won’t lie to you and say that it was easy,” said one student, “but we can assure you that it was absolutely worth it. We are so happy to have been able to participate in this experience, because not only have we learned to build brick walls, but also we have learned to work as a team, to grow, to push ourselves and to try to demonstrate and share the love that we receive every day at En Vivo.”

The Eagles Community Center in Mexico City sponsored a street cleaning event for the residents of Eagles Avenue and Hawk Street on a recent Saturday to spread the word about their ministry in the community, reports CMF missionaries Steve and Kay Carpenter.

The Center is a ministry of CMF’s team in the working poor community known as Las AQuilas (The Eagles), and an outreach of the 2006 church plant there, Iglesia Cristiana las Aquilas. The Mexican leaders and missionaries provide education classes, a homework club, English and literary classes, seminars, conferences and more for the people in the community.

About 80 people turned out to sweep the streets and visit together, and then many of these neighbors attended a dinner where they could learn about the Eagles’ vision to help bring the community

together through service projects.

“We praise the Lord for this small beginning to what we hope and pray will have a large impact on the neighborhood in the future,” wrote Steve.

Over the past several years the CMF mission team in Abengourou, Ivory Coast, has been working with the indigenous, national Association of Christian Churches in Ivory Coast (called AECCI, in French) to shift the oversight of the church planting and leadership training programs among the Agni and Attie people groups from the missionaries to the Association. Andy and Stephanie Gable, members of the CMF team, have shared part of the story of this effort on their interesting blog. Some highlights of the story are below; you can read more at www.gablesinivorycoast.blogspot.com.

“The Association is made up the various church leaders from all 18 Christian churches. Since the beginning of the mission here the oversight of the church planting and leadership development was done by missionaries. For some time now, however, the various church leaders have done the bulk of the preaching and teaching among the Agni and Attie people groups while the mission organized most of the activities. This is the first year that the AECCI will officially take over oversight responsibilities for the work among the Agni and Attie peoples. It is a huge step in the life of the church here in Ivory Coast. Edoukou Jean-Claude, one of our most mature and respected pastors, has taken on this role of organizing the activities of the AECCI and encouraging the churches in the mission and vision of the Association.

“One of our major objectives has been to instill within the leadership of the AECCI a greater vision for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Ivory Coast and beyond. Their desire to see the church spread into new areas has continued to grow and plans were made to start in a neighboring region in a couple of years. They prayed regularly for God to help them move beyond the region of Abengourou (especially to the north and west in Ivory Coast). God clearly answered this prayer, but like He often does, in ways we did not expect.

“Our story reflects that of Paul in Acts 16 when he received the ‘Macedonian Call.’ Paul had a good vision and plan for his mission, but God’s vision was bigger and better. God clearly communicated His plan for Paul. Likewise, we had good vision and plan for expanding in Ivory Coast, but God had other ideas. At the end of last year our leaders received a call pleading with them to send someone to plant churches in the Béoumi region (literally, a phone call from a man named N’Guessan on his cell phone). At the same time, there were many other small things that developed and messages received (too numerous to mention here) that confirmed what we believed: God was calling the church to Béoumi.

“What’s exciting about the project is that it is not just about planting a church in a new town or region, or even that we are going to plant four new churches in the region, but it is the start of a new church planting movement in a new region of Ivory Coast. And this is not just any region, but in the center and heart of Ivory Coast. It sits as a gateway to the northern and western regions and will facilitate expanding again in the future.

“At the end of this year we will send two church planters to the Beoumi region and they will live and minister there in 2011, planting four new churches in four towns in the region. At the end of the projected four-year Béoumi Project it is expected that the new young church will have planted another new church in a neighboring village. Our model has three important keys: it’s simple, reproducible and affordable. We teach the power of multiplication and following the simple holistic gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Two hundred fifty medical students, young graduates of medical training institutions and experienced physicians attended the second All-Ukrainian Youth Conference of Christian Medics in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, in May. The event, organized by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine and the Union of Young Christians of Ukraine, focused on the urgent problems of modern medicine in the light of Christian ethics.

The conference has developed into an international event. Attendees included Christian medical professionals from all over the Ukraine, Russia, the United States, Canada, Germany, India, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Madagascar.

Speakers at the conference included Arthur and Marlice Friesen  (Friends of Mennonite Centre Ukraine, Canada), James Peipon (Ukraine Medical Outreach, U.S.), CMF missionary June Johnson, Manfred Weise (Christians Serve the Sick, Germany) and Alexander Doroshenko, president of the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine.

The conference aimed to discuss some of the medical profession’s most painful and ambiguous problems and find ways to address them through the prism of Christianity. Some of the conference sessions stressed the importance of Christian medical workers to be seen as kind, compassionate and loving, while others underlined the need to perform as highly skilled professionals. Discussions centered on the issues of the balance of spirituality and professionalism, common health problems in society (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, abortions, etc.), and medical ethics issues (cloning, vaccinations, alternative medicine). Workshops on various professional subjects gave the young students and recent graduates an opportunity to benefit from the experience of their senior colleagues and acquire professional contacts.

At the close of the conference, the delegates shared their positive impressions of the event, highlighting the opportunities for professional exchange, the remarkable spiritual atmosphere and the interesting programs.

Rostyslav Semikov, chairman of the organizing committee, summed up the conference: “It is a great pleasure that we could make a small contribution to bring glory to God, have an influence on the young people who surround us, to rally them and move together toward a common goal, to carry true spirituality, morality and health in our society.”

Diane Claussen of Olympia, Washington, is a Master Gardener, so she understands the crucial importance of clean water, especially in a country like Kenya, where a reliable supply can mean the difference between life and death for people in the remote villages. A friend of Gene and Melba Morden’s ministry in Turkana for many years, Diane knew about their ongoing project to drill wells to provide water for village gardens, so she recruited two fellow Master Gardeners to hold a plant sale fundraiser for a new well.

Diane and her fellow gardeners, Lynda Bauer and Karen Walters, began digging up their backyards and potting their perennials, herbs, and other quality plants last fall. By the time they finished, Diane was looking for space to “winter over” about 400 plants in her home. In early May she put stenciled signs announcing the sale around her neighborhood, emailed every plant lover she knows, and posted event notices on Craisglist and other social media.

As the sale day approached and Diane and her friends put all the plants out on Diane’s driveway, she admits that she got “a little panicky. I was thinking about the eight months of work, all the plants, and what I’d do if no one came! We were all praying that we would be bold about telling people about the farm projects, and that we would be good witnesses regardless of how receptive (or not) people were. So the morning of the sale I said to myself, ‘It is what it is.’ I’d done all I knew and I might as well have a good time with it.”

She needn’t have worried. People came, and people bought plants!

“We met so many nice people, so many Christians from the neighboring communities, and had blast! One lady bought more than $50 worth of plants, and when I told her about the project, she gave me $100 and said to put it in the fund. What an encouragement that was!”

The ladies’ goal was to raise $1,000 toward the cost of a well. When Diane counted the money at the end of the day she had $999. “So I said to God, ‘Where’s the other $1?’ It was obvious that He’d been in it the whole time, so why would we be short just $1?”

A recount confirmed the total: $999. “Then I remembered that I was saving a pot of Creeping Jenny for someone, and I called her and explained how close we were and told her I needed the $1. She was so excited to be the one to help us reach goal,” said Diane. “I’ve been on Cloud Nine all week, and we are already talking about next year.”