In Spring of 2019 I, Maryanne took a team of leaders from our church on a vision trip to a country in Central Asia for a week. Our purpose was to meet with the national church leaders there, to pray and discern together how God may be calling us to work in partnership as churches. At the same time others from our church were serving at the Matthew Training Center with Trever and Joan Godard and their team. While at MTC they met the Diaz family, who had felt an invitation from God to serve in this same Central Asian country we were in! Now 3 years later we have invited the Diaz family to visit us at FGCC. Have you ever noticed how God’s weaves His story throughout your life in ways that you never expected? I feel like that whenever I stop and think about the ways He has brought our global partnerships together and connected us to people and places in ways we didn’t imagine!
Here is some more of the story of God in our Global Partnerships:
*All of these partnerships are with global workers or national leaders that are with Multiply, our MB conference mission agency. We work with Multiply in sending and supporting healthy church partnerships globally.
Trever and Joan Godard were first sent out in 1986 to 2001 from Forest Grove as global workers to Colombia where they started MIJUCO, a life on life discipleship program that still continues today.
Einer and Girlesa Zuluaga were some of the first disciples of Godard’s program in Colombia, and while on a mission trip they both felt called to live among the Indigenous people of Panama where they have served since 2004. In 2005 FGCC began an intentional partnership with them and the Wounaan Church which we still enjoy today!
Trever and Joan began serving in Guadalajara Mexico in 2005 with a vision to start a discipleship and mission training centre for Latin America and beyond called the Matthew Training Center.
In 2017 the Diaz family met with Einer and Girlesa and heard about the great spiritual need in Central Asia. They began to pray about this need and were invited to be trained as mission interns at MTC in 2019 with the Godards. During this time they felt affirmed in their call to serve God in Central Asia and began to prepare in faith to go.
In Spring of 2019 a team from FGCC went to Central Asia on a vision and prayer trip to discern how we could partner with the churches in this country. At this time we learned about the Diaz family and began to connect with them and encourage them in their plans to go to serve the churches in Central Asia.
H, a national pastor from Central Asia with Dave came on a vision trip to FGCC in June 2019. They enjoyed meeting our staff, leadership teams and 3 Sites while getting to know the needs in our city and praying together about partnership.
In Fall of 2019 Maryanne joined the Diaz’ in Central Asia on a vision trip as they met the leaders and visited the churches exploring how they could serve there.
God has continued to open doors for us to partner with the churches in Central Asia and to connect with the Diaz family as they prepare to go! God is sending people from everywhere to everywhere. It is not just North American’s going to serve in other places; it is Colombian’s going to Central Asia, Wounaan from Panama going to Colombia and Nicaragua; and Brazilian’s going to Angola and Mexican’s going to Yemen! How amazing that we can share in this story of God sending us among the nations.
Next Steps Spring 2022
We have invited the Diaz family to come to Canada in mid May, so we can learn from one another and see how God is working around the world. Please pray for their visa re-application and preparation as they meet with their churches in Colombia and are sent out to Central Asia by their mission agency in partnership with us, MTC, and Multiply.
We are looking for hosts while B, C and their Son S (15 yrs) are here in Saskatoon, staying for 1-3 weeks at a time. They will be serving in the church during the week. It’s a great opportunity to get to know them and their culture in a special way. Contact Maryanne for more info.
