About Commission to Every Nation (CTEN)  www.cten.org

CTEN was founded in 1994 by Rick Malm.  He was serving in Guatemala when he saw various well-qualified missionaries had to leave the field because their ministry focus changed and they no longer had a mission agency.  God called him to join missionaries to help them do what He called them to do.  CTEN has helped over 300 missionaries.  Their director of pastoral care will stay in contact with the home church as well as care for the Stothers.  The CTEN mission statement is simply Prayer, Giving, and Going.

College Avenue Presbyterian Church (CAPC) is a 120 year old church in Rockridge a neighborhood of Oakland, CA.  Our neighborhood was split by a freeway corridor and suffered decline but is now upscale due to the proximity to the BART station.  Our pastor of 34 years retired in 2007 and we are in transition as we applaud our past, assess our current state, and plan for the future with a new pastor.  We have strong fellowship groups, provide a weekly community meal for the less fortunate, rent out and provide space for the community.  We value our racial and cultural diversity.  Ward is being sent by CAPC as their Commissioned Lay Pastor to demonstrate the Christian calling to world missions and in particular to reconciliation.

Ward and Marda will work with Reverend Jack Drennan of Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church and his wife Gillian.  Ward will be a pastoral assistant.  Both the Drennans and the Stothers have grown children and share the passion for the church to care for its members and to work within the community.  Jack grew up in the neighborhood and has hometown credibility.  We are blessed to be invited to come alongside them.  More from Jack at http://jackinthebox2007.blogspot.com/

Crumlin Road is an old church that was firebombed in WWII and rebuilt in the ‘50s.  It has a membership of 220 families but only 60 worship on an average Sunday.  All church members are Irish Protestants with Ward becoming the first former Catholic in the church.  They have had American young adult interns for the past five years and welcome assistance from “across the pond”.  The church has a large group of faithful leaders who value prayer and Bible study as the core of their life. 

Greater Shankill Road community is a working class neighborhood with patchwork of Catholic and Protestant housing areas with little or no known mixing.  The community has suffered greatly during the 30 year Troubles and has declined in population from 70,000 to 15,000 since the ‘60s.  Although peaceful with no homelessness due to government services, the wounds of warfare are still deeply evident.  The prosperity of the EU and Ireland affords an opportunity to build up the community by incorporating forgiveness, healing, and full reconciliation of God’s people.