In April the whole family had the opportunity to go the CEF Regional Conference in Canada! Our region includes the U.S., Canada and the English speaking Caribbean countries. This was the first Regional Conference since 2012 so we were pretty excited to see everyone. There were over 120 people in attendance from 14 different countries! We were also VERY excited to have all three kids with us and even more excited that Sean’s mother offered to come and help us with the kids.

Family Time

This was the first time any of us had ever been to Canada so we went a few days early to do some sightseeing. We spent one day doing touristy things in Toronto. We went to the CN Tower that has a glass floor… everyone loved it except Sean! We ate lunch at the historic St. Lawrence Market, saw Casa Loma which is a beautiful and very big castle and then did Maddy and Riley-Grace’s favorite thing…. swim in the hotel pool haha!

The next day was all about Niagara Falls! First we visited a town called Niagara-On-The-Lake were we took a carriage ride through their historic, fully restored downtown. The girls LOVED it. And then we headed to Niagara Falls were we ate lunch, viewed the Falls and then went through tunnels BEHIND the Falls! It was such a wonderful experience. You couldn’t help but be in awe of God while mesmerized by Niagara Falls. If you are American, we highly suggest going across the border into Canada. The view is much better! Maddy and Riley-Grace said Niagara Falls was their favorite part of the trip! (These pictures below were where we ate lunch!)

The Conference

After our weekend of sightseeing it was time for the conference! Sean was helping to lead the conference so he was very busy for most of the week. Maddy and Riley-Grace were able to have their own classes during most of the main sessions so they made friends with some of the other kids. Between their new friends and their Mimi, they had lots of fun. By the end of the week Riley-Grace was tired and ready to be home but Maddy never wanted to leave! We were able to see so many friends we’ve had over the years and everyone really seemed to enjoy their time. I could go on and on but I think the pictures tell the story much better than I can.

(Above, the worship team for the week included people from across the region. St. Kitts was well represented!)

Kimberly Minors from The Bahamas leading a session

Dr. Melvin Bassett from Bermuda

In the center is Maggie (an Area Director like Sean) who lived in St. Kitts for a year before we moved there!

Mavis!! The Director of St. Kitts & Nevis!

The pictures below are a bunch of fun ice breaker games!

Above was Sean speaking after the ice breaker games about the importance of really getting to know each other.

The week was filled with general sessions and workshops all geared toward helping us grow personally as Christians and encouragement to continue reaching boys and girls across our region with the Gospel. What most people liked about this conference in particular was the ability to truly foster relationships with people we do not get to see on a regular basis. We are all different but we all share the same goal. Often times it can be hard to really “see” people and just hang out at a conference. So the conference leadership team made one of our evenings a “board game night” and it is was a lot of fun! The pictures below are from the game night!

There is still so much more to share but suffice it to say, the week was wonderful! We ended the conference with a powerful and moving night of prayer.

And just for fun… here are a few more pictures from the week!

We left with full hearts! Sean had to stay about 5 extra days for regional team meetings so we left him in Canada since Maddy had to get back to school. We were VERY grateful when he came home! And we are already thinking about the NEXT regional conference three years from now!

We feel so blessed to do what we do… to be missionaries to the Caribbean while living in the States. We get to serve alongside wonderful people!

And Canada was pretty cool too!

February 22-March 4 I (Sean) was in Belize for Good News Across Belize! “Good News Across ______” is a very large scale, biennial effort to revitalize and grow CEF ministry in underdeveloped areas of a large country in our region. Specifically, countries that have already had CEF ministry established for many years.

Ianthe James (Antigua) and Claudette Adams (St. Lucia)

The majority of the regional efforts for the past decade has been to open up the eleven countries that had no local CEF ministry established. Now the efforts are being spent to strengthen the existing countries that need some extra assistance to reach their maximum potential.

Kendra Baltzer, Marissa Brandsema and Winter Eggena (L-R, South Dakota)

Belize is a beautiful country and it was my first time visiting a non-island Caribbean country. There were a number of similarities but also a number of differences.

First the biggest difference was the exchange rate and cost of food. The Belize dollar has a two to one exchange rate to the US dollar, and in addition to that 70% of the local consumables are produced in Belize. This means the cost of groceries and restaurants were considerably low. You could feed 8-10 people for only $30-$40 USD going out to eat at a local restaurant. This is in comparison to a place like the Turks and Caicos Islands or Bermuda where everything is imported, to feed 8-10 people at a local restaurant in countries like those costs $160-$200 USD!

There were though many construction, architectural and cultural similarities to the rest of the English Caribbean. Which even though Belize is not an island, this of course stems from the past English colonialism and influence. Belize is also a part of CARICOM (The Caribbean Community).

Demographically, this is currently a very young nation, with 54% of the population being under the age of 24! Even though this is true everywhere in the world, it is vital that the children be reached with the Gospel by local churches in Belize because the future of their country is at stake.

Sadly Belize is also among the countries who occupy the top 10 list of most murders per capita in the world, recently in 2014 occupying the number 3 spot.

“But God!”

God was already at work in these four target areas of Belize long before a single CEF staff person arrived. There were and are faithful local churches and faithful followers of Christ seeking to transform their neighborhood, community and nation. As we arrived, we sought to see where God was already moving, and join up with the local believers to encourage them and lift them up in ministry.

Myself and around thirty fellow CEF staff from all over the region went to Belize to conduct teacher training and equip hundreds of local church volunteers to go into many public schools across four key areas of Belize. The overall goal of this endeavor was that as these local church volunteers reach the children, they catch the vision for reaching the local schools and they go on to teach weekly Good News Clubs.

Marlene Stoll (Washington State)

The four target areas were the Orangewalk, Belmopan, Belize City and San Ignacio areas.

There were two parts, first teacher training and then direct ministry to children. I was the team leader for the San Ignacio/Santa Elena area.

God used this awesome team I served to reach 1,484 children that week in 19 demonstration Good News Clubs, train 34 people from 13 churches, and equip 22 local churches and schools with a full set of Good News Club curriculum!

Additionally, in over 12 years of serving full time in ministry with CEF I have heard about someone in a training class making a profession of faith but have never seen it first hand. On Saturday morning February 24th, in a class on how to teach the Gospel to kids, a local primary school teacher was convicted by the Holy Spirit, realized she had never personally believed in Jesus herself and she was counseled as she trusted in Jesus as her Savior! Praise the Lord!

Ron Wiebe, Canada

In total across the four target areas, in one week 10,064 children were reached across 4 target districts in 136 demonstration Good News Clubs with 258 people attending the teacher trainings.

For those of y’all who pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, our team stayed with awesome Lemus family (Above)! Arita is the Belize national coordinator for Samaritans Purse and Pastor Ed is one of the four main Caribbean regional coordinators for Samaritans Purse. Such a blessing to get to stay with them!

What are the results now? There are now fourteen Good News Clubs in the San Ignacio area and over 114 new Good News Clubs started in Belize!

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
 (Psalm 145:3)

November 2-8 I (Sean) had the privilege of coming alongside the already thriving national CEF ministry in Haiti to support and encourage the full-time workers, volunteers and national board.

CEF Haiti celebrates 35 years of ministry February 19, 2018 and God has poured out His hand of blessing upon them over those 35 years. In spite of tremendous, at times unspeakable challenges for the country of Haiti, in spite of great obstacles for the CEF ministry locally, the local leaders are resilient, faithful and they deeply trust the Lord.

There is a thriving ministry there, with nine full-time staff at the national office in Port-au-Prince and multiple local offices in more distant parts of the country. CEF Haiti has the largest Instructor of Teachers team in the Caribbean, and the local churches, volunteers and staff of CEF Haiti reach over 3,000 children every single week in school-based CEF ministry!

Pictures of the CEF Haiti national office

Some of the CEF literature, notice some in Creole!

A familiar site, the CEF Culture Points, adhered to globally.

National Director Jacky Gilles’ office

Preparing to teach the Teaching Little Kids course,
credentialing even more local instructors!

This trip had quite a number of objectives to it, and I was very thankful to be in Haiti with a long-time friend of many years, Benjamin Richey. Ben is a fellow Moody Bible Institute grad and I have known him for 7-8 years now. We first met when Ben was an assistant pastor at Heritage Baptist Church – Prattville, Alabama. It has been awesome to get to know the Richey’s over the years as we have stayed connected with our HBC friends. He moved out to California a couple years ago to be the pastor of FBC Kernville. We don’t hardly ever travel out to the West Coast, so I praise the Lord for opening the door for Ben to join me on my CEF time in Haiti and bring new great friends of mine, Rick and Julie Phillips, along to see firsthand the awesome things God has been doing through the local leadership of CEF Haiti.

Rick, Julie, Ben & Sean

Ben had a chance to preach at a CEF-partnering local church!

Rick & Julie were fantastic to get to know, and here they are guest-teaching
together at a CEF Haiti Christmas Party Club!

Thankful for the Church globally and all the ways that God connects us all together. One of those other ways that God connects us all together is how within CEF, two CEF-trained workers from entirely different cultures, backgrounds and teaching styles can meet for the first time, and teach together seamlessly! I had the chance to join in on a Christmas Party Club and teach alongside one of the full-time CEF workers, Nadège. We met for the first time at the Christmas Party Club, and she was assisting me with leading the CEF songs in Creole. The club went wonderfully, and there was no ‘dead time’ in the club sorting out details or song motions or anything. 

As shared from the first picture, a primary objective was to assist CEF Haiti with their first large scale Children’s Workers conference, a promotional/training one-day event for local church children’s volunteers. Praise the Lord that over 220 people came out to this first ever event, and CEF Haiti did a fantastic job putting it all together!

Additionally, the pastor of the host church asked me to share the Word of God on Sunday morning! A humbling honor any time there is an opportunity.

It was also a privilege to meet and encourage the CEF Haiti national board! These volunteer leaders are the true leaders of the national ministry and God is using their efforts greatly for the Kingdom.

As always, we try as often as possible to partner with The Gospel Coalition-International Outreach and bring along their freely provided books. This time we were able to bring cases of Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a Healthy Church as gifts for local pastors, elders and lay leaders!

A special blessing during the trip, and only CEF people will probably fully appreciate this (aside from the huge fact that God also used these folks to translate the very first Bible in Creole, which to say is a huge deal is an understatement), but we met and spent time with Mother Wallace of the CEF Ti-Fam missionary story! An amazing woman of God who has spent decades in genuine Christian Community Development in Haiti.

Jacky Gilles has been a friend of mine for many years in CEF, Jacky is the CEF national director, and he was a great host during our time there. God is using Jacky to grow the ministry there in Haiti, will you pray for him and his wife Myrlande?

To God be the Glory, Great things HE has done!

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P.S.

When you hear about Haiti in the news, or see pictures of Haiti, remember that though there is unimaginable poverty in parts of the country, government challenges in its history and having had profound national disasters that they are still rebuilding from…..Haiti is a beautiful island nation with caring people who love the Lord deeply. Never forget to look for the beauty and positive aspects about this great country when the temptation in our sensationalized, media story-driven culture is to look at the pain.