On October 11, 2023, Grace Family Church in Sacramento hosted a Mission Reunion, which is a friendly get-together of missionaries from different countries. Over 100 people from different cities were able to attend.
Special guests of the Mission Reunion were: Valentin Siny, rector of the Tauride Christian Institute, Ukraine, board member of the South Coast Council Mick Stokwell and Nathaniel Parrow, mobilizer of the younger generation for mission. Twenty missionary teams presented their ministry.
Pastor Vasiliy Khripunov of Grace Family Church shared about street evangelism, Petro Babich represented joint project of Pacific Coast’s Slavic Baptist Association and the House of the Gospel Church, Fresno, and shared about trips to Ukraine and Spain. Oasis Chamber Choir sang and shared about their missionary trip to Poland. Light to the East Ministry shared about their projects and invited others to join in partnering with them. Petr Panasenko shared about the ministry through Christian literature.
The program also included a few panel discussions on themes such as:
- Local evangelism (Vasiliy Khripunov, Grace Family Church; Andrey Dzuba, Cornerstone Church; David Slobodenko, Bryte Church)
- Ministry in Spain (Viktor Kovba, Torrevieja, Spain, and Dmitriy Murkin, Valencia, Spain)
- Expanding the borders and increasing the resources of the missions (guests: Pastov Valentin Siniy, representatives of SBC, Mick Stockwell and Nathaniel Parrow
According to the organizers, the presence of live discussions instead of dry presentations made the program more interactive and gave more opportunities to ask questions to guests. In addition, since this event took place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., the attendees also had some free time for fellowship, prayer, and refreshments Throughout the day, everyone had an opportunity to vote for the most creative evangelism method. The winners were awarded monetary prizes. At the end of the day, Pastor Valentin Siniy shared a message, and reminded everyone once again about the importance of prayer for the peace and support of Ukraine.
Sergey Tkachev, head of the committee for organizing Mission Reunion
Photo – S. Iotko
Video on the Association’s YouTube channel: "Modern Methods of Evangelism" Missions Reunion 2023. Part 1. | Part 2 | Part 3. In Russian only.
