JOURNEY TO OUR WORLD

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Central currently has nine partnerships in Southeast Asia. Including:

Rescue of Child Soldiers in BURMA (www.divineinheritance.com)
Church planting, pastor training. teaching alternative agriculture methods (instead of poppy production) and caring for orphans characterize Central’s relationship with a people group in Thailand, Burma and China. A recent focus has added the rescue and aftercare of child soldiers. In the only place in the world where oppressed children are being offered freely to the care of a Christian agency, the resources to respond are crucial A miracle of God has motivated the Burmese military authorities to set aside their original demand that there be no teaching about Jesus Christ in the homes provided to the former, young soldiers.

Several Central families have “adopted” a child soldier and CPC children’s offering monies have provided food and clothing for them.

Transformational Living in CHINA Central is supporting staff of Overseas Missionary Fellowship, China Harvest and Ministry to Mainland China. These organizations are providing key services to people living without hope. Working with nationals, outreach efforts include designing and building homes adequate for a hostile climate, training medical personnel to offer strategic education and care for HIV/AIDS patients, providing supplies and support for churches, and generating underground schools of theology.

AFRICA

Central currently has fourteen partnerships on the continent of Africa.

HopeSprings, partnering in Malawi (www.hopesprings.org)
By giving birth to an HIV/AIDS ministry, HopeSprings, in 2007 Central connected to several partnerships in Malawi which focus on issues of the pandemic: Somebody Cares, providing holistic care in areas of extreme poverty; Partners in Hope Hospital, offering medical care, agricultural help and youth education; St. Gabriel’s Hospital where an HIV/AIDS wing is under construction.

Relationships are developing through regularly scheduled trips of people from Central to Africa and Malawians to Baltimore. Targeted skills for US travelers include medical expertise, pastor training, marriage counseling, construction experience. CPC children’s offering has also been used to cover the school tuition costs for a Malawian teen.

EUROPE

Central has four connections in Europe, including in Spain, Turkey, the Ukraine and the Netherlands.

The Shelter Community House, The Netherlands
Teri, daughter of a Central family, and Benjamin van Essen are staff at a Hostel in the red light district of Amsterdam. Their responsibilities involve all the hotel-type tasks, as they supervise workers, volunteers and interact with boarders from all over the world, most of whom are facing crisis circumstances in their lives. Both are led by the Spirit into transformational conversations that often happen over a year’s time, as guests come and go.

MIDDLE EAST

This is one of two Central supported ministry units focused on the the Middle Easat

SAT-7, Cairo, Egypt and Damascas, Lebanon (www.sat7usa.org)
On the air with three, full-time satellite channels, SAT-7 creates Christian television programming by and for the people of the Middle East and North Africa. When SAT-7 KIDS was launched, entire families, Christian and non-Christian, switched from radical, government-run stations to SAT-7, intrigued by the freedom, joy and love of Christian TV hosts. There is much positive viewer response and opportunity for clear presentation of the Good News of Jesus.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Wings of Hope, Haiti (www.heartswithhaiti.org) KC Bersch, daughter of a Central family, is a teacher and caretaker at a home/school for disabled, throw-away children in the mountains of Haiti. Love so strongly characterizes the care ministered here that Jesus becomes real. Even children who cannot speak exhibit behavior that is clearly praying! Regular trips are made to visit Wings, the travelers taking shoes, school supplies and toys.

Brazil
In Latin America Central has a sister church in SaoPaulo, Brazil and supports several nationals with SEPAL, a Brazilian branch of One Challenge International.

If you’d like to find out more about these and other Central Outreach efforts and how YOU might become involved…

CONTACT:
Phyllis and Pieter DeSmit, Outreach Coordinators
outreach@centralpc.org, 410/823-6145 ext. 223