ON MISSION with CrossRoads
I recently received an amazing email the other day from Tim Neufeld, one of our missionaries. Tim was privileged to be one of the first pilots to land on an airstrip in a remote community in Papua New Guinea after 27 years of effort. This long-awaited airstrip now affords the opportunity to bring in Bibles, reading glasses and so much more to this community. God is good! This is a taste of the kinds of updates I get in my inbox on a weekly basis! Below you’ll find more stories of the amazing impact we’ve had together as a church.
I love my role here at CrossRoads and it is such an honour to serve in a position that allows me to rub shoulders regularly with people who are actively pursuing their part in God’s mission. The beauty here is that we all have the same opportunity to pursue our part in God’s mission. We are part of a mission-minded church that supports many ministries and local and global workers.
Read on and get inspired by how we’ve been ON MISSION this past year!
Missionaries
Our Global and Local workers and their ministries reach across 5 of the world’s 7 continents. Each of these have been positioned by the hand of God, into their set place, for a time such as this.
In Asia, the Hildebrandt’s are in language training to equip them for their calling to work amongst the Shan people of Thailand, while another couple serves in Central Asia. In Oceania, the Neufeld family live in PNG offering commercial and medical transport with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to and from the remotest of villages. In Europe, Dorothy faithfully serves widows and children in Romania; Raney serves in her local Italian church and is a camp cook extraordinaire; Crystal serves her local church in Germany and Anton is using his teaching gifts formally and informally in Greece. We also had the opportunity to help send off a couple serving in Ukraine.
In North and Central America, we have the largest portion of our team. In BC we support Urban Chaplains who work among the harsh environment of the downtown eastside. In Alberta, the Lord is reaching out through our supported workers to indigenous and non-indigenous youth, offering hope and joy. Some are supporting young, single mom’s to find much needed community and support; others are encouraging leaders and helping them to walk sustainable servant’s paths. 2 couples work in diverse areas with Wycliffe, all contributing to Bible translation. One specifically supports the translation of the Nkonya Bible in Africa. Another couple stand in the gap with prayer for those who are hurting and in need of a Saviour. In Quebec there is a cafe that doubles as a community center, offering a safe space to ask questions, seek faith and drink coffee. In Ontario there are 2 families working to send and receive missionaries well, and to support and train local pastors in Mexico and Central America.
Next time you are in the Café, pop over to our Missions’ Corner and pick up a prayer card and join them through prayer ministry or send them a note to encourage them!
Outreach Mission Partners
In our Sanctuary hangs 5 banners; the far left banner represents our Outreach Partners. Here are a few inspiring high points from them: 
Partners International
We have supported missionaries to the Pashtun people of Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan who are boldly sharing the good news of Jesus. One approach they take is to build a friendship and then present a Bible to people in marketplaces, and even in front of Mosques. They report that 70% of people are very receptive, but some are very resistant, even hostile. Yet they are encouraged to continue. They have also begun to acquire small mp3 devices that contain the audio Bible in Pashtun for those who are illiterate. Recently they also had the opportunity to baptize some from the Pashtun tribe who live in more open parts of Pakistan. New believers who were refugees in Pakistan have now been forced to return to Afghanistan, but that has allowed our team to build small groups of believers who meet together in Afghanistan, and from amongst the new believers a leader has emerged who is a passionate evangelist, boldly inviting others to discover Jesus and join small groups.
Global Disciples
We supported training for leaders in restricted areas in North Africa in 2022 and were able to bring them together again at the end of 2023 for further training. Enjoy a few testimonies from those that were trained:
“After the training we had last year, I connected with a man, who is searching to know Isa Al Messi (Arabic name for Jesus the Messiah). This man was listening to the radio broadcasting, those serving on the radio forwarded his name to me. I asked him why he wanted to know Isa Al Messi. He told me that his name is Isa, so he wanted to know the truth about his name. I asked him what he learned about Isa Al Messi. He said, ‘Isa is the way, the truth and the life’. I asked him, ‘do you believe that?’ He said yes and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of his life. Now I disciple him.”
Another shared, "As soon as I went back home from our last year training, I shared what I learned with my wife. She is a new believer and now she is leading 12 women while I am leading only 5. God is using this simple material to multiply disciple-makers.”
Empower Ministries
The hunger for the Word of God in Ethiopia continues to spread like wildfire throughout the country. There is a massive turning to the Lord, second only to that of China. Our support has been instrumental in enabling Empower to print Bibles in the Amharic and Oromo languages, which becomes a personal testament of faith for each believer. As of now, a single Bible is being shared among 25 new believers within a clan or family environment. This necessity is due to the millions of rural Ethiopians embracing Christianity. We have supported the printing of over 7,000 full Ethiopian Bibles. The Bibles we have provided gave approximately 178,550 believers access to the scriptures.
Bridges of Love
Here is an update directly from two local leaders we support who had the chance to visit us last summer:
“As we reflect on the past few months, we cannot but thank the Lord for His working hand through us. We are amazed at how He cares for us as a family and for the ministry entrusted to us amidst the crises that our country, Lebanon, is going through. Including economic issues, political matters, and security situations. Yet, amidst these difficult crises, the Lord has opened doors for us to visit, follow up on, and encourage many families in Europe and Canada (who we previously served as struggling refugees in Beirut). These days were like a dream, as we were able to visit these families that the Lord has looked after for years and still cares for. The Lord has also blessed us with a new center that we are using in the Bekaa Valley. The Lord has opened a door for us to rent a hall and hold Sunday meetings, discipleship groups, adult literacy classes to learn how to read the Bible, and for children who have dropped out of school and been deprived of education due to the war.”
Equip Leadership Canada (ELC)
In a restricted area of Central Asia, we have supported multiple courses of a discipleship training program. It has been a wonderful opportunity to witness the work being done and how we can continue to be a part of supporting the persecuted church. The same training ‘Authentic Leadership’ was done here by lead-trainer Paulo Pascale (member of CrossRoads) and taken by the Gregory’s who are now translating the material into Ukrainian so that they can carry on the work there.
Hellenic Ministries (HM)
Director Jonathan Macris shared, “When CrossRoads first sent their ‘top-brass’ for a vision tour of Greece, we took them to a small town in Southern Greece called Stavrothromi (translated Cross-Roads in Greek). The vision at the time was to invite you (the church) to partner with us in planting a church in Greece. Since then, together we have distributed hard-bound New Testament bibles to over 1.5 million homes, covering all of rural Greece in nearly 8,000 villages ... CrossRoads has been hugely encouraging by supporting something very close to our hearts. By raising, discipling, and launching young nationals into church planting ministries ... You have helped us hire interns to train with us at City Church. This year, one of those trainees has gone on to start his own church planting ministry and who, in turn, has sent us one of his own young adults named Leonidas. Leonidas is in Bible School and interning with us. Another intern you’ve been helping is named Haris. Haris is leading our youth and worship ministry and has grown in leadership; including overseeing our flood response initiative that plagued Greece earlier this year.”
Additionally, our church has been supporting Anton who is serving in a variety of ways to support Hellenic Ministries. This includes helping lead Operation Joshua (OJ), a 2023 Bible distribution campaign that assists teams when they come to Greece. Following the OJ campaign, Anton is also taking a group from his church to support the Oikos24 Summer Experience.
Refugee Sponsorship: Welcoming New Canadians
Last December, we received an email saying that the Hamo Rasho family would be arriving in 7-12 weeks; 2 days later we received an update informing us that they would land in 6 days! It was a whirlwind month trying to secure an apartment and all the furnishings (etc.) that the family would need. Thankfully, the family is now settled comfortably in a basement suite in Vanier. We are grateful for all the contributions and assistance from our CrossRoads family! Their names are Sherman Hamo Rasho and Suzeen Zazroub; their 5-year-old son is Bawermend and they are expecting their second child later this year! If you attend the 11 am service, you will often catch this family serving communion; they speak English and a number of other languages so go say hello!
A special thank you to Tim Burns, Benno Fath, Nicole Nowochin and Karen Marriott who serve on our Missions Advisory Team. This dedicated group provides member care for our local and global workers, support for our New Canadians, liaises with our outreach partnerships, and assess support applications. If you would like to consider joining this team, please contact Missions@CrossRoadsChurch.ca
Global Compassion Committee (GCC)
It was a banner year for the GCC raising its highest amount yet; over $470,000! Thank you to all that gave towards this years’ Compassion Campaign. Read the detailed booklet and watch the videos for more information at https://www.crossroadschurch.ca/Compassion.
In November, the GCC had their 100th committee meeting! This year the team is working on evaluating our partnerships and are putting clearer structure around country leads and co-leads as well as short term outreaches. Thank you to Bill Shaw, Richard Vander Leek, Heather Carson, Adam Minke, Chad Verity, Kelvin Singh, and Charles Nowochin for serving on this team. Additionally:
- Haiti Arise celebrated their 20th anniversary here in August. It was a great celebration with many in attendance.
- Our new World Relief Rwanda Country Director, Clemence, visited us in May.
- In June, I am taking a small team to Rwanda and Uganda to reconnect with partners and gather stories for our 2024 Compassion Campaign.
- In March of 2025, we plan to take a short-term outreach team to Uganda in support of International Needs Uganda; keep watch for applications to come out in June!
Final Notes of Gratitude
In November of 2022, I received a phone call that rocked my world - our adoption had come through! Our daughter had been born the day before and we needed to come pick her up the next day! My first call was to my husband, second call was to Karen (my assistant), to change my flight since I was in Ontario at the time, and my third call was to my supervisor, Jordan Polson, to let him know I would be taking some leave!
I am so grateful for Jordan Polson; he did everything he could to cover the gap while I was gone for 17 months. He covered my role for a few months and then played his best move when he hired Julie Cavanaugh to serve as Interim Missions Pastor for 2023. Julie did such a great job; passionately and diligently serving, and adding her wisdom, perspective and personality to the ministry. Thank you Jordan Polson and Julie Cavanaugh for all you did to serve our church and partners while I was away, giving me space to be home with my little girl!
Pastor Tracy
