Do you ever look around and see someone:
- Hungry and feed them?
- Thirsty and give them a drink?
- A stranger and invite them into your home?
- Naked and give them clothing?
- Sick and care for them?
- In prison and visit them?
At Main Street Church we want the answer to be YES! Being the body of Christ we want to use what God has given us to shine the light of Jesus on each other and commit to meet the physical and spiritual needs of our community and beyond in our greater global community.
Missionaries
Jaap and Morina Feenstra
Location: South Asia
Agency: Wycliffe Bible Translators
Focus: Jaap travels back and forth in South Asia overseeing Bible Translation departments, or operational unites, in various countries to accomplish their goals of serving churches, organizations and language communities, reached and unreached, in order to provide them with the Word of God. Morina works part-time handling personnel care issues of team members that Jaap is working with. The other 90% of her time is involved with Mother Tongue early childhood training with various partners.
Prayer Requests: Creativity in finding appropriate strategies, energy in the many challenges and safety for travel to the various remote places. May the Lord use them to have the Word of God go out to reach heart for the first time or to feed those who are already His.
John and Susan Chalkias
Location: Zambia
Agency: Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry
Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry is committed to serving Jesus Christ. Our mission is to help orphans and the less fortunate around the world by sharing God’s love and what He has blessed us with. We have a particular call in the area of caring for children who are either infected or affected with HIV/AIDS.
Website: seedsofhopecm.com
Role: John Chalkias – Executive Director | Susan Chalkias – Founder/Director of Operations
Focus: Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry is committed to serving Jesus Christ. Our mission is to help orphans and the less fortunate around the world by sharing God’s love and what He has blessed us with. We have a particular call I the area of caring for children who are either infected or affected with HIV/AIDS.
Prayer Requests: Pray for ongoing funding for the Buseko Children’s Home and Grace Academy. Pray for John and Susan as they travel back and forth between Chilliwack and Zambia throughout the year.
Global Partners
Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry
Missionaries: John Chalkias – Executive Director | Susan Chalkias – Founder/Director of Operations | Dave & Shannon Doerksen
Location: Zambia Africa, Northern Thailand
Website: seedsofhopecm.com
Agency: Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry™ started in 1995 after hearing about the plight of children orphaned because of AIDS. In 1996 Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry™ opened the first home for HIV/AIDS children in Thailand. Since that time, we have been involved in bringing aid to children in several countries.
There largest project is in Ndola, Zambia where they have an orphanage for 160+ children that have been infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The orphanage Grace Academy provides care for children from new born to High School. Their vision is to raise leaders and the way to do this is through education and opportunity.
Seeds of hope also has a project in northern Thailand that minister to women living with HIV that have been cast out of their communities due to the stigma of HIV. Some were infected through the sex trade and other by unfaithful husbands. At Nuu Rain the women are given love and hope through the mentorship program, a comfortable and secure home, medical care, and life skills to reintegrate their society. Most importantly for our ladies is they get to experience the love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ministry Partners
Cyrus Center
Location: Chilliwack
Agency: Cyrus Centre Ministries began in 2004 in Abbotsford as a community response to a community need to fill a gap for homeless and youth at-risk of being homeless and their families. Prior to opening, youth who found themselves homeless had to leave their community to receive services; Cyrus Centre began by offering a street front location with showers, laundry, meals and a safe environment with adults who would listen and be the hands and feet of Jesus. In 2008 we opened an emergency youth shelter (now known as our youth emergency housing program) Youth no longer have to leave Abbotsford to receive the help they so desperately need. In 2013 we opened a home for youth to live semi-independently staffed with house parents. In 2014 at the request of the community we opened In Chilliwack in the old library on Wellington Ave.
Today services offered include; life skills training, emergency housing, extreme weather shelter, meals, food bank, laundry, showers, outreach, referral, drop in, Bible studies, Church outreach etc.
Cyrus Centre is active throughout the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon creating awareness, leading and participating in initiatives to alleviate poverty, suffering and exploitation. Between Metro Vancouver and the Okanogan Cyrus Centre has the only emergency youth beds available.
Website: cyruscentre.com
Pearl Life Renewal
Director: Joan Goosen, Founder & Program Director
Location: Chilliwack
Focus: Pearl empowers girls and women who are sexually exploited, trafficked or in prostitution, through support, education and Jesus’ love, to embrace hope and renewal.
Website: pearlliferenewal.com
Prayer Requests:For sexually exploited women to experience a hopeful future of healthy living, free from the chains of chains of addiction and mental illness and every other evil that seeks to keep them captive. “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron” (Psalm 107:13-16).
BC Teen Challenge
Location: Yarrow
Focus: Adult and Teen Challenge BC is a faith-based restoration program for men and women, ages 19 and older, who are trapped in addiction. Adult and Teen Challenge BC endeavours to help people become mentally sound, emotionally balanced, socially adjusted, physically well, and spiritually alive!
Website: teenchallengebc.com
One Life One Chance
Location: Chilliwack | San Quintin Mexico
Focus: OLOCM is a Canadian-based Christian charity serving in the San Quintin Valley, Baja California, Mexico. We walk alongside local indigenous churches, pastors, and community leaders already at work, to bring long-term, sustainable and holistic transformation through education, humanitarian support, and training programs. Our ultimate goal is to demonstrate God’s love, hope, and reconciliation for all people.
Website: onelifeonechance.ca
The Table Gathering Ukraine
Director: Eunice Mitchell (Esau) – Founder
Location: Chilliwack | Kyiv, Ukraine
Focus: Bringing women, once orphans, to a family table where they can feel safe, then providing life skills, employment with our Bread of Life Home Services (assisted living for widows) and career training through a faith based approach of counselling, spiritual discipleship and pastoral care.
Bio: Eunice had a career in the travel industry that spanned 30 years which included 16 years with Menno Travel Service, many as Manager of the missionary travel focused company, as well as owner/operator of two travel agencies. Her caring heart and “wanting to serve” attitude that made her successful with her clients eventually led her to start up a non-profit in Ukraine ministering to orphans and widows. It started in 2006 when she made a pilgrimage to the Molotschna region of Ukraine with two cousins to find the ancestral home of their grandparents. They found the house in the village of Alexandekrona, and an intense interest in the welfare of the Ukraine people began. In 2014, with the help of Helen Sedikh from Kyiv, they started to minister to women who were once orphans, and met once a week over a meal. This gathering at the table included teaching life skills along with some Bible studies and from there grew into an Alpha course, ESL, a Bible Study and several business opportunities that helped these women support themselves. The Table Gathering Ukraine is now a registered charity in Ukraine and is a registered society in Canada.
Website: thetablegathering.ca , silversoul.org
Skate Life (Young Life Canada)
Director: Matt Aulakh – Program Coordinator Fraser Valley
Location: Chilliwack, Hope, Abbotsford, Mission & Langley
Focus: Matt is a local/regional missionary to the Skateboarding community. Matt is building relationships, disciplining leaders and sharing the gospel of Christ in a unique way through developing relationships with kids, running small groups, bringing kids to skate camps and training leaders.
Prayer Request: Pray that doors and relationships would continue to open in the skate community in the Fraser Valley.
Meadow Rose Society
Executive Director: Sheila Friesen
Founder/Director of Communications: Kathereen Kessler
Location: 2-45789 Spadina Ave, Chilliwack BC V2P1T5
Focus: Child Poverty
Mission: Working with our community to ease hunger and the needs of impoverished children, aged three and under, by acquiring and supplying the basic needs for these children and to be the voice of our community to promote public awareness of these needs.
Website: www.meadowrosesociety.com
Local School & Youth Outreach
Afternoon Adventures
School: McCammon Traditional Elementary School
Leaders: Lindsey Doerksen & Shannon Hawkins
Focus: To reach out into our community and build encouraging relationships with the students from McCammon Traditional Elementary School in Grades 3-5. Afternoon Adventures is a safe, fun, and productive after school program for families who cannot afford traditional after school care for their children. This program offers great activities, including drama, cooking, woodworking, science, music, sports, art projects, and much more. Main Street Church is one of 4 local Churches, who have partnered with 4 Elementary Schools in the Chilliwack School District, to run the Afternoon Adventures Outreach Program
Prayer Requests: Pray that the students and their families would see God’s love through the leaders, and that lasting impacts would be made.
Boys Club
School: Central Elementary School
Leaders: Wade Godin & Ryley Lewis
Focus: Mentoring grade 5 & 6 boys, teaching life skills and character building. Our goal is to help teach the boys Christian life principles and connect them to Main Street Church.
Prayer Requests: Pray the boys will come to know Christ and become part of Main Street Church.
Rundle hang out
School: A.D. Rundle Middle School
Director: Lindsey Doerksen & Carley Ratzlaff
Focus: To reach out into our community and build encouraging relationships with the students of A.D. Rundle Middle School in Grades 6 & 7. The Rundle Hang-Out Program is an outflow of Afternoon Adventures. This program offers great activities, life skill building, and much more. Main Street Church is one of 5 local Churches, who have partnered with 3 Middle Schools in the Chilliwack School District, to run the Hang-Out Program.
Prayer Request: Pray that the students their families would see God’s love through the leaders, and that lasting impacts would be made.
Short Term Missionaries
Tsion Westeringh
Location: United Kingdom
Agency: Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Harpenden
Website: ywamharpenden.org
Role: Co-leader of ECO (English Culture Orientation) School
Focus: Tsion is currently the Co-leader of ECO (English Culture Orientation) School. ECO starts again in April, and have 11 Chinese and 15 Brazilians students. Tsion’s main role is to oversee the ECO program and help with teaching English. Tsion is looking into working with a new ministry Orphans Know More. OKM is a ministry part of Youth With a Mission. OKM is a pilot project in the Jinja Region of Southern Uganda. OKM believe that the best way to tackle the international orphan crisis is to care for children in families. God has been really speaking to Tsion about joining the ministry and is planning to go to Uganda November 7th of this year to look into the ministry, see the homes and meet some of the girls and boys!
Prayer Requests: Please be praying for this year’s ECO program as they are adding new staff to the team. Team members come from different cultures and have different personalities so she would like prayer for team unity. Tsion would also like prayer as she trusts God for her direction. She would also ask for prayer for continued good health.
Dave & Shannon Doerksen
Location: Zambia, Africa
Agency: Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry
Website: seedsofhopecm.com
Role: Building Foreman
Prayer Requests: Pray for safety and health
Missions trips
One Life One Chance Mexico Trip
Seeds of Hope Zambia Missions Trip
