Mission Projects
Jamaica Mission Trip
Powhatan Mennonite Church is a covenant congregation with Maranatha School for the Deaf under Virginia Mennonite Conference through Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions. Church Council is working with the Mission Board to organize a team to Jamaica. The men will be doing general construction work on a house near the school, continuing work that has already begun on an addition and modifications on the house for the school. They will also help with the general maintenance and repair of buildings at the school. All team members will spend time relating to the staff and students at the school. They will also have opportunity to become acquainted with the local Mennonite Church and leader Robert Henry.
The team will travel and be in Jamaica January 13-21, 2001. Ken Horst will come to Powhatan to have an orientation with team members on January 6.
We can all remember to pray for the team as they prepare to go. Council has set up a fund to receive donations of money to help support this mission project. Please earmark all checks "Jamaica Mission Fund."
Team Members:
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Ed Ranck, Leader
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Don Benson
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Carl Duncan
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Brian Ranck
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Doris Ranck
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Bill & Bertha Schaefer
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Ben Powell
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Andy Vaughn
By Betty Hertzler, Chairman of Missions & Service
Sunday School Mission Project
Help us support Pastor Aleksander in Belarus with our Sunday School offering this year.
Each month he will need $120 to continue his work for Christ in Belarus.
Kukkarchuk Aleksander and his wife Kukharchuk have three children, Michail (born 1982), Sergei (born 1987) and Irena. They have taken a step in faith to quit working for the government and pastor full time. He writes, "...I repented February 23, 1992, in the Kobrin Evangelical Christian Baptist Church. I was baptized July 19, 1992. I am presently a member of the Kobrin church. In 1996, with the blessing of the church, I attended the Bible Institute in Minsk and finished there in 1999. At the present time I’m filling the role as pastor of a church in the village of Imanin, Kobrin area, Brest region.The church in the village of Imanin is very young. Not too many years ago, American missionary, Tim Kennell, started to preach the good news of Jesus Christ in the village of Imanin. From this small group who studied the Bible, a church was started. But Tim had to leave Belarus. So at present, I, Kukkarchuk Aleksander, am the pastor responsible for this church in Imanin. Every Sunday we have a service, and on Wednesday we meet for Bible study and prayer. The church has a real heart for mission work, and with all out strength we continue to preach the good news to the people around us in spite of some difficulties. There is not always a convenient time to develop relationships with the people of the village in order to make some sort of contact with them. Our plan is to meet every person in the village and to talk a witness of God’s love to all people in the person of Jesus Christ.
This year one person was baptized, and people from the village attended the service and heard the Word of God. We have a spiritual connection with other churches, and we visit from time to time a church in Peski.
At the moment we are resuming Sunday School Our services, as is the Sunday School, are held in the home of one of our members. This is not very convenient, especially for our Sunday School. The desire of our heart and our prayer to God is to have our own building for our church in order that through God’s blessing and our zeal, it would be filled with saved souls."