2 3

NEW BIRTH IN A FUNERAL HOME

TRAINING POLICE IN COLOMBIA

WHEN RURAL, STATE ARE SYNONYMOUS

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORYBY RUTHIE EDGERLY OBERG

Christian H. Schoonmaker (1881-1919) served as a missionary in northern India for only nine years, but he and his family significantly influenced Indian Pentecostal missions.

Schoonmaker felt called to India, so he attended Alliance Bible School in Nyack, New York. In 1905, a Pentecostal revival impacted India. Schoonmaker arrived in the fall of 1907. On Christmas Eve, 1907, he was Baptized, speaking in tongues.

In 1909 Schoonover married missionary Violet Dunham, who had been serving in India since 1902. They had three children in India before World War I caused them to move to Toronto, where they pastored, and had two more children.

They transferred their ordination in 1917 to the AG and returned as missionaries to India, where Violet gave birth to their sixth child. In November of 1918, the Indian Assemblies of God formed, with Christian Schoonmaker its chairman. But just three months later, in February 1919, he died of smallpox.

Violet remained in India, ministering for another 32 years. Five of the Schoonovers’ children served as AG missionaries to India and the sixth served as a medical missionary doctor.

Read more about Schoonmaker’s report on landing in India on page 8 of the July 27, 1918, isssue of the Pentecostal Evangel online at s2.ag.org/july271918.

CONNECT WITH US ON FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS AND OUR WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER

VISIT NEWS.AG.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION.

NEWS FOR, ABOUT, AND FROM THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

Read the full versions of these stories on news.ag.org

RESCUING TRAFFICKING VICTIMS . . . THEN WHAT?

A COLLECTION OF THIS WEEK’S STORIES FROM NEWS.AG.ORG

4 5

Tess Franzen, a U.S. missionary associate with Intercultural Ministries, believes she’s been called by God to establish a reproducible ministry that moves trafficking victims from the “rescued” stage to the “happy, healthy, and whole” stage and beyond.

That’s why, after three meaningful years serving with U.S. missionary Mike Bartel and F.R.E.E. International, Franzen, with Bartel’s blessing, has begun a new ministry called Freedom’s Journey based in Rapid City, South Dakota.

For many people, the idea of rescuing people is romanticized. The knight-in-shining-armor/hero ideal where the victim is freed of his or her bonds and the villain vanquished is, for the most part, a fantasy.

“Someone caught up in sex or labor trafficking is trapped,” Franzen says. “Very few — as in single-digits few — successfully leave. However, all the survivors I know and worked with are pretty amazing and resilient people.”

Franzen, 55, explains that victims typically suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder and often have been so manipulated by their trafficker, that he or she is seen as their protector and the only one who truly cares for them.

“A friend of mine, who is a trafficking survivor, equates the experiences with being prisoners of war,” Franzen

says. “The violence, humiliation, torture, no control, and degradation — it’s physically and psychologically devastating.”

The problem, as Franzen sees it, for the women and men who are rescued from their traffickers — 40 percent who are women — it’s not like they can just go out, get a job, and start living a normal life.

“Some trafficking victims don’t even have an I.D.,” Franzen explains. “The world of a trafficking victim is so completely different from the world the rest of us live in that learning to function well outside of trafficking can be a long process.”

Freedom’s Journey is relationship based and Franzen’s focus is on helping survivors bridge the gap between slave and “normal” life. The motto for the ministry is Yesterday Doesn’t Get to Write Tomorrow’s Story.

Freedom’s Journey works to find survivors shelter, provide them meals, clothes, groceries, help with home or car repairs, enable job training,

2 7

T H E A B C s O F S A L V A T I O N

ACCEPT that you are a sinner, and God’s punishment for yoursin is death and separation from God forever.

BELIEVE that Jesus paid God’s price for your sin when He died on the cross.

CONFESS “Jesus, I believe You are who the Bible and historydeclares You are – the Son of God. I humble myself and surrender to You. Forgive me. Make me spiritually whole. Change my life. Amen.”

WHEN RURAL, STATE ARE SYNONYMOUSBY ROBERT E. MIMS

In rural Kansas, attendance at AG congregations scattered along long, dusty, and lonely back roads typically number in the dozens, rarely topping triple digits.

“There are 145 Assemblies of God churches in Kansas, and 75 percent of them are rural,” says Steve McBrien, the recently appointed Kansas Ministry Network rural ministry consultant.

Small-town pastors — many of whom hold second jobs to make ends meet — often cannot afford traveling to out-of-state rural ministry conferences.

“My vision is that we go into those rural churches to do the training on such things as community outreach, church finances, and how to make your church more appealing to the lost,” says McBrien, who also is pastor of the Oswego Assembly of God.

These teams are comprised of McBrien and other regional AG ministers. The training is aimed not just at pastors, but deacons, teachers, and volunteers as well. Customarily, teams gather for Friday night and all-day

Saturday training sessions.“The schools are the hub of the

town,” McBrien says. “The church tries to help some with the financial burden. That can be anything from stocking head-lice treatment kits for the school nurse to special teacher-appreciation programs.”

In such a setting, a church blessing can be something as simple as keeping the schools supplied with facial tissues, especially important during cold and flu seasons.

Even in a small town, a list of ministry opportunities can be lengthy: nursing home services, jail visitation, volunteering for city clean-up campaigns, sponsoring food pantries, financial management classes, substance abuse counseling, summer youth camps, to name a few.

RESCUING TRAFFICKING VICTIMS . . . THEN WHAT?BY DAN VAN VEEN

6 7

Beginning services in a funeral home appeared to be the only option Pastor J. Aaron DeLong and his team could find in 2013 in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

“Spaces that had been vacant for years were refused to us because we were a church,” DeLong says. “The city’s schools said no as well. We even tried for an old Hooters restaurant building — but they bulldozed it rather than leasing it to a church.”

Then he remembered meeting a young woman who worked for a local, mortuary. The chapel would hold around 70 people — a suitable size. The owners explained they wouldn’t charge any rent, not even to cover for utilities.

A streamlined list began to form in DeLong’s mind: Sunday morning worship; small groups to build a sense of community; a set of four classes to

orient people and prepare them to serve; and finally some kind of action group to touch practical human needs. On Mother’s Day 2013, Simple Church held its first regular Sunday service. As word spread around the city, some people felt understandably queasy about worshipping in a funeral home. Others couldn’t get past memories of a deceased loved one lying in the facility.

But enough people felt comfortable about the setting to necessitate a second service due to growing attendance. Along with some help from the Ohio Church Multiplication Network and the C4 Church Planting Network, the congregation moved in September 2014 to a larger Main Street warehouse space. A renovation that followed has allowed Simple Church to keep growing.

54

NEW BIRTH IN A FUNERAL HOMEBY DEAN MERRILL

AGWM missionary and church planter Paul Clark and his wife, Mechthild, planted Free Christian Church in the idyllic Austrian city of Bregenz in 2016, having already planted six congregations in Germany.

Free Christian serves around 50 members, a blend of various ages and nationalities. Nearby Lake Constance shares its shoreline with Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, allowing the church to attract people from all three nations.

The church’s name is unique in the European landscape.

“In Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, people are usually registered at birth either with the Catholic or the Lutheran church, based on the traditional affiliation of their families,” Paul explains. “When they get jobs, automatically a church tax is deducted from their paychecks. There is no choice involved, and usually no connection. It is cultural tradition, nothing more. So, the concept of a free church — joined of one’s own free will and financially supported by one’s own free will — is very new and can be hard to grasp.”

The Clarks and their congregation reach actively into their community, participating recently in the Bregenz City Festival to connect with families. On July 7, they conducted a baptism at Lake Constance.

Starting in the fall, freshman and sophomore students at Southeastern University (SEU) in Lakeland, Florida, who are planning to pursue a health professions career will be given a chance to secure a seat at the nation’s largest medical school. The College of Natural and Health Sciences at SEU is partnering with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) to guarantee the acceptance of 15 SEU students yearly into their medical, pharmacy, and dental schools. Five students can be admitted to each of the three schools on a yearly basis.

A committee in the science department at SEU will identify high achievers who are freshmen or sophomores for consideration in the program. Students will then be interviewed by the committee before they are offered the chance to apply. The students will then go through the application process of LECOM. Those who are admitted will be guaranteed a spot at the school, even before taking the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test).

“Participation in this program will allow us to recruit, retain, and advance high achievers in the sciences at SEU,” said Megan Wagner, assistant professor of biology at SEU.

For more information on the partnership, see s2.ag.org/seulecom or email Wagner at mmwagner@seu.edu.

AUSTRIAN CHURCH PLANT FLOURISHESBY KRISTEL ORTIZ

SEU PARTNERS WITH MEDICAL SCHOOLBY PRISCILLA BURR

8 936

get them I.D.s, find transportation for and help with relocation, secure legal assistance if needed, and sometimes they just provide a listening ear to allow survivors the opportunity to vent in confidence — all as part of their journey to freedom.

Currently Franzen is working to raise funds to get Freedom’s Journey on solid financial footing, with establishing a safe house for survivors being the next step.

Although Franzen understands the heart of people who want to be a part of ending human trafficking, she advises never to try to personally free a person from a trafficker or to attempt to intervene in any way.

“Freeing someone is a job for trained authorities,” she explains. “Well-intentioned people, in their attempts to help, could end up getting hurt themselves or getting a victim severely beaten by his or her trafficker.”

Franzen wants to help people rethink how they see people who are living in the margins — the trauma they’ve experienced and what that kind of abuse could do to anyone.

“We can get psychological and psychiatric help for survivors, but I know, as a believer, that without Christ, it will not result in a very best tomorrow story,” Franzen observes. “Christ alone can minister to a heart wounded that badly.”

TRAINING POLICE IN COLOMBIABY JOHN W. KENNEDY

Paul R. Robinson spent 17 years in the police field, including a decade as an adjunct police academy instructor in Independence, Missouri.

But a 2001 missions trip convinced Robinson and his wife, Kristi, a corporate secretary, that they should be part of something more consequential. Since 2007, they have lived in Bogotá, Colombia, as AG world missionaries.

With his background, the National Police of Colombia agreed to allow Robinson to teach conversational English at its language school. He has instructed hundreds of Colombian officers in the past 11 years in classes that average 20 attendees. For lessons taught two or three times a week over three months, Robinson uses a bilingual Bible.

“I never had to make apologies for sharing the gospel,” says Robinson.

Colombia police face a plethora of problems, including attempted bribery from corrupt elements, murderous

threats from drug dealers, a low level of respect from the public at large, deficient wages, and a lack of empowerment to carry out their duties.

In 2009, the Robinsons founded Heroes of Justice in an effort to better address the spiritual needs of law enforcement personnel. The Robinsons teach together, training officers in ethics, leadership, survival mentality, and a biblical perspective on the role of police officer as protector. The Robinsons also host teams that cover everything from basic first aid to advanced tactical training.

“We always talk about Christ and spiritual principles when training,” says Kristi. The Robinsons serve as spiritual advisers to church leaders at an Assemblies of God church in Bogotá, El Poder de Su Amor (the Power of His Love).

In addition to being fluent in Spanish, Robinson has credibility with police officers because he is physically fit — and Latino himself.

After the stock market crash in 1929, the U.S. government over the next decade ordered the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants and their descendants. As unemployment soared during the Great Depression, the bureaucratic course of action dictated that the dwindling number of jobs should be reserved for longstanding U.S. citizens rather than “stolen” by foreigners.

AG minister Teresa Ruelas, who turned 90 in June, is a survivor of the Mexican repatriation. Her entire family were all expelled to Mexico when the U.S.-born Teresa was just 4 years old.

At 18, Teresa came back to the U.S. with help from her uncle Antonio

Muela, an AG minister. Teresa figured returning to the U.S. would be the only path to economic survival.

“I came to work in the fields, pick fruits, cut them, and pack them,” recalls Ruelas, who is retired and lives in Visalia, California.

In 1946, she accepted Christ. She went on to marry Ignacio “Johnny” Ruelas, and they ministered throughout California. Teresa graduated from LABI College and for decades served as a Hispanic AG women’s leader, Girls Ministries leader, and craft coordinator for Vacation Bible Schools. She and her husband established prison ministries and opened multiple Sunday Schools in churches before his death.

MINISTERING DESPITE REPATRIATIONBY JAVIER TÉLLEZ