COMMUNICATING WITH OUR ALLIANCE FAMILY - Dave Hearn, President

THE CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE IN CANADA30 Carrier Drive Suite 100 Toronto ON M9W 5T7 Tel: 416.674.7878 Fax: 416.674.0808

The Global Advance Fund finances global missions, covering the costs of sending workers overseas—salaries, benefits and the costs associated with ministry in various countries—and some is designated to strengthen

The Canadian Ministries Fund supports ministry in Canada. Most (70%) is used for district ministries such as church planting and leadership development. 15% is used to support ministry in Quebec and

www.cmacan.org

District Ministry

Multicultural Ministry Ambrose University and IBVIE

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Income Faith Goal Surplus(Difference)

Year-to-Date (YTD) $12,227,000 $13,353,000 ($1,126,000)November 2014 $ 1,014,000 $ 1,329,000 ($ 315,000)

District Income (YTD: Nov. 2014)

Budget (YTD: Nov. 2014)

Surplus (Difference)

Cdn. Pacific $ 285,911 $ 288,750 ($ 2,839)Western Cdn. $ 278,642 $ 277,000 $ 1,642Cdn. Midwest $ 215,052 $ 215,750 ($ 698)Central Cdn. $ 175,596 $ 200,000 ($24,404)Eastern Cdn. $ 174,596 $ 200,000 ($25,404)St. Lawrence $ 41,406 $ 45,835 ($ 4,429)

Global Ministries

National Ministries Ambrose University and IBVIE

Global Advance Fund

the sending base, to train International Workers and to fund administrative needs, including the National Ministry Centre.

Mission-Focused Offering 2014: THANK YOU for participating in the special Mission-Focused Offering for the Global Advance Fund

this fall! We are on mission together, and your sacrifice is valued.

Canadian Ministries Fund

national multicultural ministries. The balance is used to support the leadership training ministries of Ambrose University and Institut Biblique VIE.

NOTE: These figures are as of each district’s fiscal year-end.

Nearness versus Intimacy

I have been wrestling with God lately; perhaps you can relate. My heart longs for a deeper intimacy with him, but my need for control seems to get in the way. I was recently reminded of the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32. Jacob was a schemer; he tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright and his blessing. In fear of his brother’s revenge, Jacob fled to the land of his Uncle Laban. Under the care of his uncle, Jacob received a taste of his own medicine. Laban trapped Jacob into working for 14 years in order to marry Rachel, the love of his life. Jacob decided to flee from Laban and, once again, used deceit to escape; however, he was caught this time.

God intervened and a treaty was signed between Jacob and Laban. Now Jacob was faced with a tough situation. He could not go back to his father-in-law’s land; the only choice was to go to the land of Esau. Jacob heard that his brother was coming to greet him with 400 fighting men.

Terrified, Jacob immediately turned to God in prayer, then schemed a plan to pacify his brother so that he and his family would be spared. He sent gifts at specific intervals to appease his brother’s anger, but his troubles were not over. As Jacob settled down for a good night’s sleep, a man appeared out of nowhere and began a wrestling match with him. We read: “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak” (Genesis 32:24). God was in the process of drawing Jacob into intimacy, but the journey was going to be painful.

In my own journey of wrestling with God, I sense God speaking into my soul with these words:

David, my son, there is a vast difference between nearness and intimacy. Nearness is closeness without giving up control. Intimacy is immersion into my presence where you have no control. You want the benefits of intimacy without the cost. Intimacy with me always requires death, a complete letting go of everything you think you can control.

January 2015

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International Stories

“God loves to use the humble and the poor as His chosen instruments of highest service”

— A.B. Simpson

You are very quick to release your weaknesses and failures, places where you already realize you have no control, but what about your strengths, your image, your gifts, the places where you shine, the places where external affirmation feeds your need for acceptance and approval? You hold onto these tightly because your identity and self-worth are tied so closely to them. You fear letting go of these things because you have trained your heart to rely on them. The consequence is closeness without intimacy, and your soul becomes smaller when it needs to be enlarged. Here is my invitation to release your strengths, your image, your gifts and every other part of your life that feeds your security. I will not remove them. I will infuse them with the fullness of my life. They are mine by design and creation, but I will not force them from you. Give them to me and enter into a place of complete surrender. You will feel so vulnerable, so absolutely undone and completely out of control, but don’t live another moment settling for nearness when you can have intimacy. Come to me. Fall into my arms. Move out of the shadows and into the fullness of my life. Do not be afraid. I’ve got you.

Jacob wrestled with God and, in the end, moved from nearness to intimacy, from a schemer to a prince. He hung on until the blessing of God was released. God touched him in the place of his strength and made him walk with a limp for the rest of his life as a constant sign that God alone is enough. Hebrews records: “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21).

In every day of leadership, I battle insecurity, the inner fear that I am not enough. It’s my limp, the place where I am constantly reminded that only God is enough. It is a gift that drives me from nearness to intimacy. You are entering into a new year of opportunities, challenges and unknowns. Could it be that the inner wrestling of your soul is God calling you to move from nearness to intimacy? I plead with you, “Don’t live another moment settling for nearness when you can have intimacy!” Do not be afraid. He’s got you!

In the late 1970s, Danny and Vera came to Canada from their homeland of Yugoslavia. Danny was a certified watchmaker and Vera was a dental technician. They settled in Stoney Creek, Ontario, opened a watch business and began attending Stoney Creek Alliance Church.

During a missions conference, they heard about God’s work around the world and felt him calling them to fulfill the Great Commission as International Workers. In 1986, they entrusted their business to a manager and returned to Yugoslavia as missionaries.

Since then, Danny and Vera have been serving refugees and people impoverished by the civil war that lasted for years. They started the church in their home, which grew and moved to a facility that seats over 300. Several daughter churches were planted in different cities. Danny and Vera also minister to the terminally ill through hospice care and invest in young men through the rehab centre.

Zlata is one of those people to whom they minister in hospice care. Zlata was diagnosed with throat cancer at the beginning of 2014. The disease spread quickly, and she is very weak; all she asks Danny and Vera to do when they visit is to pray and read the Bible to her.

She knows that she has very short time left, but, praise God, she knows where she is going! Danny and Vera are amazed at God’s work in the lives of the people they encounter. We can all do our part, but he is the One who opens the eyes of the blind and melts the stony heart.

There are so many stories of changed lives and of lives in the process of being changed. As dark as most of them are, Jesus’ light shines through and dispels the dark shadows of despair.

Danny and Vera KuranjiZlata’s Hope in Serbia

“And this makes the exercise of strong faith a very simple and blessed possibility. Jesus does not say to us, “Have great faith yourselves.”

But He does say to us, “Have the faith of God.” That is better” — A.B. Simpson

Dave HearnPresident