Your
Weekly I-Mail Vol. 37 Oct 5, 2006
SPECIAL EDITION: OUTREACH IN
REVIEW
"For the love of Christ controls us,
having concluded this,
that one
died for all,
therefore all
died."
2 Corinthians 5:14
W
elcome to this Outreach Review Special Edition
of Your Weekly I-Mail. Much has been happening
in ICC since the last I-Mail! The Lord's challenge to ICC over the
summer and into the fall has been the challenge to become
more deliberate in reaching out to our international community. There is
a new wind of evangelistic outreach blowing in NYC. This wind is being
felt in ICC. Here are a number of signs of what God has
been doing:
* ICC pastors participated in the Jews
for Jesus Behold Your God during the month of July. Over 1.8
million tracts were distributed in NYC's five boroughs and surrounding counties.
This outreach saw over 500 people (including 241 Jews) give their lives to Jesus
as Messiah. Over 6,000 people expressed various levels of interest in follow-up
We have been given the responsibility to contact a sizable portion of the
follow-up for Queens. To The Jew First!
See <Click here: Australia Jews for Jesus: Behold Your God final
report
>
*The Dragon Boat Race, August 12-13. An outreach
to 50,000 participants of NYC's largest cultural event. This outreach was
initially developed from ICC three years ago with five people involved.
This year, the outreach grew to include 80 outreach workers from 7 Chinese
churches and three other area churches. Over 7,000 tracts written by Pastor Mark
Perri were distributed. Dragon Slayers
Arise!
* The weekly Acts 3:1 youth
outreach on Main Street. Acts 3:1 began this past June by two area high school
students. This completely God inspired prayer and evangelistic outreach now
yields 40-60 youth evangelizing downtown Flushing every Sunday at 3:00pm. The
youth come from over a dozen area churches (ICC included) and 4 local high
school ministries. Many on the streets are coming to faith in Christ for the
first time. Two new youth prayer watches through the Queens House of Prayer have
also begun as a result. GOD IS DOING AN AWESOME WORK THROUGH THE YOUTH OF
FLUSHING!!! Go
to www.Xanga.com/acts3_1
On
August 15, the U.S. Census Bureau announced its recent findings of the
significant increase in NYC's immigration population <Click here: Immigrants Swell Numbers Near New York - New York
Times >. The implications of these
changes for our social institutions, neighborhoods and the mission of the
church are profound. The Lord used this census data to speak to us
directly through 2 Chron. 2:17-18:
"Solomon numbered
all the aliens who {were} in the land of
Israel, following the
census which his father David had taken; and 153,600 were found. He appointed 70,000 of
them to carry loads and 80,000 to quarry {stones} in the mountains and 3,600
supervisors to make the people work."
The
message was clear. Despite the numerous abuses within the current wave of
illegal immigration, immigrants (both legal and illegal) are to be
welcomed as a significant part of "labor force" in establishing
God's house in NYC. Through this report of major demographic changes, the
Lord has begun instructing ICC to develop a deliberate corporate
culture of missions. This means that everything we do as a church, from worship
to fellowship to evangelism must take into account that 50-60% of our neighbors
do not speak English at home.
While the corporate implications of this are still being
prayerfully discussed by the elders, each ICC member is being
encouraged to develop the outlook and lifestyle of a missionary. Each member
needs to consider either supporting or getting directly involved in a
current ICC community ministry (or starting a new one) which addresses the
varied needs of our immigrant neighbors. Here are two very encouraging immediate
responses:
*The rebirth of the Murray Hill
Neighborhood After School Program. With ICC being situated
directly across the street from PS 22, developing an afterschool program
has been our prayer ever since we started meeting at Faith Hall. In
response to the burden of the Lord, Julie Lamont, Elba Smith, Lauren Lamont (Julie's daughter), and her friend from
college have stepped forward to restart an afterschool program. The
program will run on a daily basis between the hours of
3:00pm to 6:00pm. The cirriculum will
include homework tutoring, recreation, and bible instruction. The
MHN After School Program has been approved to start next week with a
capacity for up to 50 children. (Please pray for Julie who had broken her foot
just two weeks ago!)
An additional feature about the new MHN Afterschool
Program is that it will also address the special language needs of the parents
of these children. Free ESL sessions have already begun on Tuesday and Thursday
evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Dr. Herry and Debbie G. along with Elba
have been providing basic English instruction and assisting the parents of
elementary school children with understanding homework assignments as well
as any other school related communications. This initial group of
parents was referred to us by Debbie Leung through an ESL class she taught
at the YMCA last spring.
In both the daily afterschool program for
children and theTuesday/Thursday evening sessions for parents, the
bible will be introduced as a text book for learning English and introducing
students to the Lord Jesus.
*The International Friendship
Hour (IFH) on Saturday mornings between 11:00am to 1:00pm in Faith Hall. The IFH
is a new and developing project in response to the special needs of immigrants
who come weekly to our MHNA Food pantry. Last Saturday, informal instruction in
conversational English and cultural skills began with five participants. Other
areas of informal instruction will include citizenship lessons and basic
bible readings. One of the goals of the IFH is to assist the Food Pantry
in its partnership with NYC to provide weekly Food Stamp
screening. Currently, IFH volunteers will help with Food Pantry visitors
who only speak Spanish. The IFH will also seek to provide assistance
in other languages as speakers of other foreign language
volunteer.
This is just a brief but sufficient summary of signs
that the Lord is preparing ICC to respond missiologically to the immense
shifting of our cultural land- scape. Sound like a lot of new risky
stuff??? Let me conclude by reminding you of the theme of our recent Camp Deer
Park Retreat:
"If
You Want to Walk on Water,
You
Have to Get Out of the Boat!"
Pastor
Mark
