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In CPE's first year of operation, three evangelism campaigns were conducted: in Paraguay, Russia and Peru. By 1996, ten campaigns were conducted in six countries.
At that point, the King Road missions committee felt that the load was getting too heavy for it to handle. This ministry would have to have a broader base. The solution came in the formation of a CPE Administrative Committee consisting of nine members chosen from various MB churches of the Fraser Valley and one member from the Alliance Church. The Administrative Committee operates under the umbrella of MBMS International.
The Administrative Committee took over direction of the ministry in January, 1997. During the course of that year, 15 campaigns were conducted in nine countries. Growth continues. This year (1998), 23 campaigns will take place in 11 countries. The projection for 1999 is for 23 campaigns to be conducted in 13 countries, including Mexico and Costa Rica. The question which the executive director is facing now is when to stop accepting more applications for campaigns. They keep pouring in. The Lord of the Harvest keeps on opening doors.
Regional CPE centres
With so many campaigns to staff with volunteer workers and co-workers, it became necessary to internationalize the teams. A recent campaign in Nicaragua was made up of six Peruvians, six Paraguayans, six Nicaraguans and a few Canadians. To help co-ordinate such international teams, regional CPE centres have been established in Peru, Nicaragua, Philippines and Ukraine.
Follow-up
The most often asked question concerns follow-up of the thousands of newly born babes in Christ. Follow-up is the responsibility of the national churches. The CPE Statement of Strategy reads, "With long-term impact in view, every new believer will be followed up for the purpose of discipleship. This may be accomplished one-on-one, in group Bible studies or through existing follow-up programs of the local church." Records are kept and reported.
Some national church conferences are ideally structured for follow-up. The India MB Conference, for example, is divided into 12 districts known as Field Associations, a legacy from the MB mission period which ended 25 years ago. These FAs provide the perfect infrastructure for conducting a campaign and for follow-up. Each FA has invited CPE to conduct a campaign in turn. The FA names the 21 local churches which are to be directly involved, and smaller churches/worship centres join the nearest large church for the campaign. In this way, follow-up is assured. The pastor and his elders know every family in town, and they have a written record of the responses made.
Into the future
So far, a total of 55 campaigns have been conducted. By the end of 1998, the total will be 64. This success has raised significant questions about the future. Is there an ideal yearly average? What are the limiting factors? For one thing, more volunteers are needed. The Ukraine team for July, 1998 had an enrollment of 29. That is considered a full complement. Some teams have to get by on six North American volunteers, augmented by nationals. For another thing, finances are stretched at this point. Additional donors will be needed if further growth is to take place.
However, the Lord has supplied all of the needs in terms of volunteers and finances to date, and the Administrative Committee, together with the executive director, believes He will supply them in the future as well. CPE is a harvest ministry, and many fields are ready to be harvested. Dan Nickel, CPE Secretary
The leaders of this particular CPE campaign, Augustine and Esther Munge from Nicaragua, were ordered to stay in a designated hotel for the night and to leave Cuba the next day. The stated reason for this action was that they did not have the correct visas. The one US and seven Canadian volunteers, who all had the required "religious visa", were permitted to stay with their billeting families for some more days. Pastor Daniel Cabrera of the Brethren in Christ Church, which was hosting this campaign, arranged for the CPE volunteers to conduct evening services in his church. The congregation received this spiritual ministry with much gratitude. Some 270 people attended the Sunday worship service.
The area selected for this campaign was Cuarto Camenas (translated "mule wagon"), a poor section on the outskirts of Havana City. Undaunted, the Brethren in Christ churches, 12 at this time, are inviting CPE to conduct another campaign in October, 1999. CPE is praying for wisdom to minister Christ to a spiritually deprived population in a manner that will find favour with both God and man. Dan Nickel, CPE Secretary
Obuchov. In this town of 100,000 near Kiev, the younger generation, led by young, unpaid pastors, are building a beautiful spired church structure from lumber cut in the forest and homemade bricks. It has won them the respect of the whole city.
We stopped here twice, first to conduct a door-to-door campaign and then at the end of the month to follow up. On our second visit at one small church, there were 20 newcomers from the ones who had prayed to accept Jesus at the beginning of the month.
Zaporozhe. We spent only half a day here with Frank and Nettie Dyck, who work with a small, struggling Mennonite church. Yet here, for the first time in our life, we heard a nightingale sing. It confirmed that this is a land of great contrasts--the greatest poverty, evil and suffering and yet great hope.
Berdjansk. We attended a powerful, Spirit-filled worship, prayer and witnessing service in a church led by a young, converted engineer. We came here only for historical reasons, to see where our Mennonite ancestors had once lived, and met a man converted in 1939 through their witness.
We were overjoyed when one day the head matron of a large orphanage experienced "a turnaround in mind and heart". She was said to be a hard boss, but she was in tears when we departed. It wasn't planned. We had happened to be put in this government institution for lodging, and some alert persons on our team had been ready to explain the hope that was within them (I Peter 3:15).
Odessa. This church, new in 1995, had 9 members when we went there the first time. Now, after two campaigns, there are 62 baptized members; 100 new believers were recorded in this campaign.
We had supper with Maria, who had opened her heart to the Lord when we had come to her door in a previous campaign. Her husband, a three-star general, had died just before we got there on this trip. He apparently repented before his death, but had the death of many Christians on his conscience--there is a mass grave in Odessa full of skeletons three feet deep. He asked, "How can God forgive me all such sins?" The pastor said the conversion of these two people had done the most to reduce opposition to the gospel in the city.
Chernovtsky. This city is located where Romania, Ukraine and Poland come together. Here Ivan, a veteran pastor who had been imprisoned for six years, heads a church which has spawned 13 daughter churches. Other brothers, now mostly pastors and deacons, had spent a total of 46 years in prison for teaching the gospel to their children. One of their care groups meets in a house where once 14 believers were shot to death.
Our chauffeur, a Chernobyl victim named Ivan, has been a Christian for a year. He would run ahead of my Ukrainian witnessing partner Luda and me, announcing our coming at the next house and asking if it was suitable for us to visit. He was very polite and was respected by the whole village.
On our last Friday, we came to a dormitory with 17-18-year-old chemistry and engineering students. After our testimony, one of them was uncertain, three or four said no, but a young man named Ivan stood and confessed that he believed what we and the Bible said. Paul, a theology student at a Bible college in Kiev, said that he would look after this new convert.
John J. and Elfrieda Krahn
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