Eastern Mennonite Missions

New Chief Operations Officer brings wealth of experience to Eastern Mennonite Missions

SALUNGA, Pa. - Planning for the future, whether it is mapping out a theology course for Vietnamese pastors or thinking about how Eastern Mennonite Missions should approach the future, is part of Gerry Keener’s unique set of gifts and interests.

Keener began as Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Eastern Mennonite Missions on January 4, 2010. In this new role at EMM, which is fifty percent time, Keener will focus on the ways administration can best help ministry to happen.

International mission training: Asians plan to move out in mission

“The World Missions Institute was an incredible time of seeing God move among us,” said the EMM co-director for the WMI and area representative for Indonesia. “God’s flow in the sessions was evident. Teachers came and went, sharing teachings without knowing what others had said, but what they said flowed so well with what had gone before. Truly God was reinforcing his messages and truths.”

From rousing early morning gymnastics together, to late night prayer sessions for unreached peoples, 64 Indonesians, Chinese, and North Americans trained for missions together in an Indonesian World Missions Institute (WMI), November 9-21, 2009.

PIPKA, the mission agency of GKMI Mennonites in Indonesia, together with Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM), collaborated to plan a two week intensive missions course held at the Samadi Maranatha Retreat Center, in the mountainous town of Berastagi in northern Sumatra.

The Chinese participants in the WMI were members of the “Back to Jerusalem” missionary arm of the unregistered churches of China. The North Americans were members of a Youth Evangelism Service (YES) team that is spending eight months studying and serving in Java.

Eleven speakers from five different countries taught 47 sessions on topics such as biblical foundations for missions, history of missions, the gospel and world religions, cross-cultural communication, and spiritual formation.

Many found a teaching on “Intimacy with God: hearing the mission heart of God,” by a long-term EMM worker in the country, to be a highlight. During a time of listening prayer that followed the session, many testified that they felt God calling them to serve in places like Indonesia, India, Pakistan, or Tibet.

One woman said that her church is so small she wondered what she could do. But God spoke to her heart and said, “I can do great things with those who are willing.”

After the WMI ended, planners noted that the success of the event will only be fully realized when some of the participants are sent out as missionaries. As in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest field.”

Eastern Mennonite Missions responds to Haiti disaster

SALUNGA, Pa. – Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) has released an initial $15,000 to aid relief efforts in Haiti. “EMM has not had workers in Haiti since 1991, but with the incredible needs as a result of the recent earthquake, EMM is committed to getting involved,” said Richard Showalter, president of EMM.

In partnership with Lancaster General Hospital, YWAM, and other donors, EMM is helping to sponsor a team of 18 local medical personnel going to Haiti from January 26 to 30.

Business as mission: cashew processing plant opens

CATEL, Guinea-Bissau – A smokestack, highly unusual in this rural West African village, belched thick grey clouds of smoke out over the landscape. Had the industrial revolution arrived in Catel?

To Beryl Forrester, a worker with Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM), the smoke, pouring from a new processing plant for locally grown cashews, smells of dignity and self-sufficiency.

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