tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:51:05 +0000We serve in the mininstry of Every Community for Christ, a ministry of OMS International. Serving 48 ministries in 43 countries in 2009.http://richandanita.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)Blogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-1925262002317304448Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:48:00 +00002009-08-07T13:51:40.913-07:00Currently at OMS we have a group of 19 church planters attending a two week training course, which we had also hosted in August of 2008. The training delegates are from a number of countries with ministries in many more countries. In ECC, we spend much time talking about and training leaders to reproduce themselves. It is always exciting to receive reports from leaders that have attended http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/08/multiplication-training-group-at-oms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-8055347877593801214Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:39:00 +00002009-08-07T13:48:37.926-07:00CaribbeanJune 2009During our visit to a Caribbean island, we had the privilege of participating in a four day training event on the multiplication of leaders and groups. The group had almost 70 participants, about half of the delegates were within the ECC ministry. The others were church pastors that want to have a more effective church planting ministry going out from their church. It is exciting to http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/08/caribbean-training-group.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-7190823675884400949Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:35:00 +00002009-08-07T13:38:42.279-07:00ColombiaJune 2009In the middle of June 2009, I had the privilege of visiting our 3 ministry partners in Colombia with another OMS missionary. We each had our own purpose, mine being financial administration. Since we have few OMS missionaries in Colombia, we in ECC must send funds from the OMS office directly to our ministry partners. I needed to communicate our ECC and OMS expectations on the handlinghttp://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/08/colombia-changes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-5490762707245407962Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:29:00 +00002009-08-07T13:34:56.684-07:00ColombiaJune 2009When me and another OMS missionary arrived in Colombia at the national convention of the IGLEICO national church in Medellin, the President invited us into his temporary office for a snack and something to drink. He was very happy to tell us about the church reaching all of the Americas, but he was even more happy to tell us that many young adults have received a call to go and are http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/08/colombian-youth-for-missions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-3662115597795933324Mon, 18 May 2009 01:57:00 +00002009-08-07T13:28:43.644-07:00Click on the link to the left, "View Ministry Photos", to see our new ministry photos on Flickr.http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-photos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-773691600837189384Mon, 18 May 2009 01:33:00 +00002009-05-17T18:50:34.081-07:00In April, Anita and I visited Mexico City and spent one day helping at a drop in center for the homeless.  That day 20 homeless people came to the center for two meals, a shower and to wash their clothes.  On the street, they live in "families" and the 20 were from 3 different families.There was a time of rest and games.  There was also a time of singing and Bible study.  The discussion was open http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-drop-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-4497799346482034869Mon, 18 May 2009 01:23:00 +00002009-05-17T18:32:21.057-07:00When Anita and I visited Mexico City in April, we were privileged to attend a baptism service of people from newly established house churches. Since house churches don't have a baptistry, the baptism was held at a water park!  Two bus loads and 7 SUV's of people from 13 house churches went to the water park for the service and a day at the water park.  About half of the people were http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/05/water-park-baptisms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-4889693777041547338Mon, 18 May 2009 00:59:00 +00002009-05-17T18:05:20.768-07:00As I stood in line at the airport ticket counter to leave the Caribbean, a group was ushered to a designated line especially for them. Those of us who had been waiting wondered why they were receiving priority treatment.  At first it was said that they were a tour group.  Then we found out that this group of about 100, mostly younger families, were immigrating to Mexico.  As I moved from line to http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/05/passengers-and-immigrants.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-5537867196525235266Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:13:00 +00002009-05-17T19:00:23.152-07:00Back in September 2007, I had went to the Caribbean with another OMS missionary to give a training on evangelism and church planting.  Our focus was to transition church planters from planting churches, to being trainers of people who plant churches.  Each one could have 6-8 people in on-the-job training for planting churches and training the leaders of the groups.I had written about a mother andhttp://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/04/caribbean-mother-and-daughter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-1012517452024085908Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:45:00 +00002009-04-26T17:08:57.199-07:00I had the opportunity to visit the Caribbean in January 2009.  It was a wonderful time of meeting with various ministry leaders.  I came away from my time there very happy with young leaders that I have had the privilege to support, encourage and work with to expand their ministries.The family in the photo has started 3 house churches in the past 7 years.  They have a passion for the Lord and http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2009/04/caribbean-youth-ministry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-6110496251292206920Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:28:00 +00002008-10-01T14:37:18.917-07:00October 1, 2008 Each month the OMS staff spends a half day in prayer. We have a different prayer focus each month, such as praying for a region of the world and the OMS ministries in that region. Today was a half day of prayer, and we had two topics of prayer. We prayed for the persecuted church. Many people are coming to know Jesus around the world. In many places, this causes a harsh reactionhttp://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-prayed-for-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-2281966834405796701Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:39:00 +00002008-10-01T14:07:17.581-07:00Date: May 13-24, 2008Anita and I went to the Philippines to participate in an ECC church planting training event.The training was scheduled for five days, until the typhoon hit and knocked out power, toppled trees and flooded areas. Trainees were to come to the training from the city that was most affected. However, the Philippine leaders decided to go ahead with the training, just eliminate one http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/09/philippines-training.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-3859879969639365403Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:07:00 +00002008-10-01T14:02:08.112-07:00Date: September 19-23, 2008I went from Mexico City to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to make arrangements for the ECC Latin America Coordinators Seminar at the end of October.We do not have ministry there, so another ministry leader is helping me make arrangements for our group of 55 from 7 countries.The ministry leader is the country director for VisionTrust. They have about 1600 kids in http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/09/dominican-republic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-4993999511350364068Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:18:00 +00002008-10-01T13:55:57.111-07:00Date: September 11-19, 2008Rich and Anita travel to Mexico City to minister with the OMS missionaries and ECC pastors.Three years ago I, Rich, visited Mexico City for the first time. At that time, there was a group of young adults on a short term mission trip from Ireland. I joined the group one day as they traveled to various places to pray for that area. One of those was on a vacant piece of http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/09/mexico-city-answered-prayer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-666161287120519995Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:05:00 +00002008-10-01T13:53:33.144-07:00Date: September 11-19, 2008Rich and Anita visit the OMS and ECC ministries in Mexico City.One of the exciting things about evangelism and church planting is the stories of changed lives. When people commit their lives to Jesus, their lives change. It is so exciting to meet people that the Lord has changed their lives. It is also exciting to see many of our younger ECC pastors grow in their faith http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/09/mexico-city-ecc-pastor-development.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-8069851738756567421Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:41:00 +00002008-10-01T13:51:00.180-07:00Date: August 11-22, 2008Church Planting Training at OMS headquarters in Greenwood, IN.I was previlidged to plan, organize, coordinate and participate in a church planting training event with worldwide impact, 15 countries of ministry represented.The leaders were Bill and Bill who have planted many churches in many countries and have trained people from all over the world. It was a pleasure to http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2008/09/world-conference.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-1626125264456523979Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:43:00 +00002007-11-20T12:23:22.781-08:00 PhilippinesIn October, our Every Community for Christ church planters in the Philippines held a leadership training seminar for 14 new leaders of house churches. The report I received from our National Coordinator was very encouraging.In the past year, they have begun over 100 house churches!One couple attended the training seminar along with their four children. They had left behind occult http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/11/training-philippine-leaders.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-3813018851788822424Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:28:00 +00002007-11-20T12:22:53.218-08:00Recently here at the OMS office, we received training so that we are able to be on a "Risk Assessement Team" (RAT) when the need arises.The world has become very dangerous for those that are going to the nations with Christ. Therefore, we need to be prepared to meet unsecure situations in many places around the world. RAT's are formed when a situation presents itself in a given country.We were http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/11/were-rats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-8624973912309525656Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:11:00 +00002007-11-20T12:22:02.675-08:00"Why did it take so long for us to hear of the Good News of Jesus?"That was the question that some South Pacific tribal people had after they received the Good News of Jesus.The church we attend here in Greenwood had it's annual missions conference and the main speakers were a missionary couple that had worked on a remote island in the South Pacific. They work with Wycliff Bible translators and http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-did-it-take-so-long.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-2541178029900504762Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:18:00 +00002007-10-17T08:26:06.895-07:00In September, I spent some time in the Carribean to give a church planting seminar. I taught with an OMS missionary from Ecuador.What part of the world does God want to save? He wants to save all people of all times, all nations, languages and tribes. According to Revelation(7:9), all of these will be present in heaven.We are commanded to go to the WHOLE world. When we consider that this is what http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/10/carribean-church-planting-seminar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-8097172747801891268Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:13:00 +00002007-10-17T13:07:47.848-07:00This mother and daughter attended the church planting seminar. The mother pastors a church and her husband pastors another church. The daughter helps with both of them.They have a vision to plant many churches throughout their province by training lay leaders to be pastors of house churches.They looked over a map to determine the population and the number of churches needed to reach all to peoplehttp://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/10/church-planting-family.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-2305476522531499220Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:59:00 +00002007-10-17T08:43:48.525-07:00I had the pleasure to meet a professional leaguebaseball pitcher. Baseball is very popular, so this man drew a crowd.I have not attended a professional game in this country, but I will one of these times.I was told that he has a unique pitching style,which is side arm and sub-marine.Each province has a professional team and the players on each team are from that province.He told me that he has a http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/10/carribean-island-baseball.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-1733192339222792159Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:56:00 +00002007-10-17T08:45:24.954-07:00New photo's of our family and the trip to the Carribean island nation.Just click on the link.http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-photos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-9221471922372319568Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:44:00 +00002007-10-15T12:55:13.449-07:00We are enjoying having a full house again. Emily is home from a year with Youth With A Mission(YWAM) in Australia. Her time included classroom learning about ministry and missions and outreach to the countries of Kuwait, Thailand and Indonesia. It is good to have her back home for a time as she prays about what the Lord would have her do next. Emily has enjoyed visiting family and friends.Jessicahttp://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/10/full-house.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30713836.post-6049576152277271800Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:40:00 +00002007-07-30T06:24:47.734-07:00The past year has brought a lot of change to our lives, and much stress. After traveling much of this spring, we were able to take some much needed vacation and spend time with both of our families.The first part of our vacation week, we spent with many of my family members in northern Michigan near Sleeping Bear Dunes. We enjoyed being able to stay right on the shore of Lake Michigan. My mom http://richandanita.blogspot.com/2007/07/busy-year-vacation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rich and Anita)2