February 2019
Dear Friends in Mission,
As you can see, we have gotten your income tax receipts out early this year. A sincere “thank-you” to everyone who has given to this work in North East India and Nepal in 2018! The past year saw two short-term teams go to Nepal – three people went with me for pastoral training in March, and nine people came with me in November to conduct simultaneous training retreats for pastors and for women in leadership. It was the first time that we had done specific retreats for women in Nepal, and similar to our experience in India over the past few years, these retreats were very well received. Approximately 50 people attended retreats in the first location, and 80-100 in the second location. The times of teaching and sharing were very much appreciated by the nationals, and they would like to see them continue. In March 2019, Far Corners Ministry will be sponsoring a retreat in India for pastors using national teachers, and we will be planning for a Canadian team to go to India in November 2019. Please let us know if you are interested in being part of that team.
While meeting for our AGM, our Board of Directors were excited to discuss the opportunities emerging to bring more comprehensive education to local pastors. We had previously mentioned that some pastors were involved in an ongoing part-time program leading to a Master of Arts in Christian Studies (MACS). Through the shared vision of local leaders, our regional coordinator, Shakti, has presented us with a new program that will allow many more leaders to have well-rounded training that will better equip them to serve in their local churches. This program is titled “Church Mobilization and Pastoral Training” or CMPT, and consists of five modules completed part-time over ten months. This program is already being done in some areas, and will be available to many more churches, pastors and leaders. In the next few months we will be putting together a program that will allow people to sponsor individuals taking this program.
We are partnering with a very experienced educator, who is doing this teaching, along with the MACS program. As this education is so key for the development of healthy, growing churches, Far Corners Ministry is committed to giving monthly financial support him, and he will work with our regional coordinator in these education programs. So, we are looking for donors who would like to be part of his support, which in total is $200.00 per month. We also have a new pastor that has been recommended for monthly support, and we would like to start giving to this need in March. The support for a new pastor would be $100 per month. Both of these needs could be covered by multiple people or churches giving partial amounts each month, so if this is something that you would like to support, please let us know. We are able to set up monthly debits from your bank account, if this is a convenient way for you to give.
Again, we thank you for both your prayer and financial support, as we always seek to use your donations in the very best way possible.
Yours in Christian Service,
Rev. Dr. Shant Manuel, Executive Director, Far Corners Ministry