Personalia

Greg Schmidt has resigned as youth pastor at Hyde Creek Community Church in Port Coquitlam, B.C., effective July 31, after six years of service. He and his wife Monica, daughter Talia, 3, and son Ryan, 11 months, will move to Fresno, CA, where Greg will begin studies toward an M.A. in church ministries at MB Biblical Seminary this fall. He has a B.R.E. from Briercrest Bible College, and previously served as a junior high intern at Willingdon Church in Burnaby, B.C. for one year and one summer.

Yiu Tong Chan will become senior pastor of Vancouver Chinese MB Church, beginning Aug. 1. He originally planted the church (as Killarney Park Chinese MB Church) in 1989, but in 1990 moved to Abbotsford, B.C. to plant Abbotsford Chinese Christian Church, where he has now served for six years. He previously served as a senior pastor in Hong Kong for eight years before coming to Canada to study at Regent College in Vancouver. He and his wife Elaine have two daughters, Dorothy, 12, and Gloria, 10.

David Franco finished his ministry as pastor of the Mennonite Brethren church in Charlesbourg, Que. in April. He has served in the Quebec MB Conference since 1970 and in the Charlesborug congregation since its founding in 1982. Franco moved to Blainville, Que. in June. His future plans are uncertain. The Charlesbourg church remains without a pastor and will be served by visiting speakers. (Charlesbourg is a suburb of Quebec City, while most of the other MB churches in the province are near Montreal.)

Debby Martin-Koop is leaving Quebec in July after serving for nine years as the first Mennonite Central Committee representative in Quebec. She and her husband Robert will move to Switzerland, where they will be in charge of personnel, material aid and office administration for MCC Europe. They have four children, aged 6-14.

The Board of Faith and Life of the General (North American) MB Conference was at Institut biblique Laval in Montreal April 23-28 to hold board meetings and also to meet local pastors and become familiar with the Quebec MB Conference.

Paul Ong, a "counsellor" in Abbotsford, B.C., has fled to Singapore. Over the past two or three years, Ong had offered counselling services in conjunction with various government and counselling agencies as well as several churches (including Central Heights MB Church in Abbotsford and Cedar Valley Mennonite Church in Mission, B.C.). For instance, in 1994, Central Heights allowed him to set up a counselling service in an office in the church, and even referred a few individuals to him. He left within four or five months after there were some questions about confidentiality and few clients wished to see him. Ong had a B.A. in psychology from the University of Waterloo and a Master's degree in counselling from Trinity Western University. However, he also claimed to be a medical doctor and a Ph.D. candidate; when Conference of Mennonites in B.C. conference minister Chris Arney did extensive checking overseas, he discovered that Ong did not have a medical degree and had not enrolled in any Ph.D. program. It was later discovered that Ong was in Canada on a student visa and was not allowed to work. Ong evidently had considerable medical knowledge, good counselling skills, a believable Christian testimony and a persuasive manner, allowing him to fool many people. It is reported that he borrowed $3000 from a former client so that he and his family could afford to go back to Singapore, money which he has not repaid.

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