August 9th Sermon - The Peaks of Acts 13:14-52

August 2nd 2015 - 1st Missionary Journey

Prezi Sunday January 25th 2015

Bishop Atsango's Visit to Niagara Falls and Glengate Alliance Church

Bishop Julius Atsango from Eldoret Kenya visited Niagara Falls and Glengate Alliance Church from October 27th to November 11th 2013. Here is the facebook page of his ministry:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cornerstone-Assembly-Eldoret/275423635846470

Here are some pictures and descriptions of just some of his activities while amongst us...

With Elder David and elder Ray, Bishop Julius tours Galcom International in Hamilton. 

Bishop Juluis being interviewed at Galcom for their program Impact Radio. 

Pastor Jacob Birch and the Missionary Trip Measles Outbreak

I have blogged elsewhere in this space on my suspicions and reservations about short term mission trips or Christian-poverty-tourism as they are sometimes derisively called.

To be clear i have led 3 mission trips myself (1 Japan, 2 to Mississippi) and have helped raise over $200,000 for others from my churches taking STMs to places as varied as Peru, Mexico, Cambodia and OujeBougamou, QC.

This article about a measles outbreak in Texas linked to a mission trip should give all of us leading or part of supporting STMs pause to rethink and redouble our efforts to use "best practices" when taking inexperienced North Americans overseas.


"The outbreak has been traced back to an adult, who travelled on a multi-nation mission trip through Eagle Mountain International Church. His trip included stops in Japan, China, France and Germany. Eagle Mountain Church is part of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, head-quartered in Northwest Tarrant County. The church also has offices in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe."

Pastor Jacob Birch and Short Term Mission Trips

I have led 3 short term trips (1 Japan and 2 to Mississippi) and raised many thousands of dollars for individuals and groups of all ages to go on STMs from the various churches i have been apart of. There are many positive attributes to STMs and most of them are found by following these 10 Things You Need to Know Before You Go on a Short Term Mission Trip. Add Pastor Jake's 11th... give 10% of your total short term missions trip budget to a long term missionary through something like the Global Advance Fund of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. Read, understand and Obey.

Update - August 30th 2013

I just received a short term missions prayer letter from a congregant that has probably gone on 20+ STMs through our church, denomination and many other missions. They shall remain nameless. But i read their letter over and something bothered me. So i read it again. And again. Then it hit me. 

Using the power of Google I search for the terms "God", "Jesus Christ", "Jesus", "Lord". "Mission" and "Holy Spirit". Here were the results:

God - 0 found

Jesus Christ - 0 found

Jesus - 0 found

Lord - 1 found (noting that someone they met had accepted the "lord" some years beforehand) 

Holy Spirit - 0 found

Mission - 5 found (all either used in the word missionary, describing someone they met or in the title of a group they were working with) 

I,Me,We,Us - 22 times