Hello valued prayer partners!
We've run into a bit of a financial hitch here that we'd appreciate your prayer about.
As Canadian Citizens living abroad, we still file Canadian taxes and are responsible for paying our taxes and CPP and EI payments. We also are eligible to receive any tax credits that anyone else is eligible for.
The Child Tax Credit people asked us to fill out a questionairre to determine our residency status and continued eligibility for the Child tax credit and GST Credit. Through a miscommunication, I did not get all the information to them on time. They have cut off our Child Tax Credit which is 25% of our income!
I immediatley sent them the info they wanted and they received it. They accept the fact that we are factual residents (according to Canada Revenue Agency) but are now asking for more information.
Our contacts in the Canadian Government as well as Canadian Council for Christian Charities all agree that we are still eligible for this benefit- but the government can be fickle and it seems that they are intently looking for information to disqualify us permanently.
Please pray for this need-- for our current and future financial needs-- even if they reinstate us- it likely won't be until May or June! We've lost 25% of our income this month and perhaps for the next several months.
Please also pray that this may be handled correctly so that the government does not begin to target Canadian missionaries who are currently eligible for these benefits!
Thank you for praying!
Mike
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
expanding ministry!
Hey folks,
We're coming up to the graduation of the first class of our Pastors and Leaders training ministry! We're all pretty excited and proud of the accomplishments of these incredible students!
We have been meeting for 4 hours Saturdays and 2 hours Monday nights for more than 2 1/2 years. Many of the students have other secular jobs on top of ministry responsibilities. They have sacrificed alot of time to be at class and it is almost finished! We will have our graduation on Saturday June 5th for 10 students! And then we begin to look ahead to the next groups!
Thank you so much for your faithfulness in partnering with us! None of this could have been done without you! We are partnering together in the "Great Commission":
MT28:
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The whole idea behind the classes is to train pastors and leaders and empower them to train others. It looks like this wil be happening and the amount of students will be multiplying next year!
I was talking to one of my current students about him starting classes in his church. He has 4 or 5 pastors interested already- and they are looking at bringing their leadership out to the training. He is hoping and praying for 20 faithful students! That's twice as many as I had!
I have 2 other students who are considering starting up classes in their neighbourhoods for pastors and leaders.
I am also praying about going to Nayarit ( southern Mexico-- 2-3 day drive away) for a few weeks to train a local pastor who has several mission churches started by Seve- one of my students (a 65 year old gramma!) as she traversed the villages sharing Jesus last summer. She saw 15 people come to Christ and last December went back and baptized the believers, saw a few more saved and found a pastor to disciple the new followers of Jesus! I'm hoping to help them train the lay leaders of these new groups of Christians! Please pray with us as we seek to make disciples of the disciple makers!
I was in Mexicali , Mexico today talking to a pastor who works closely with our YUGO missionaries in that city. He is looking for some training to give his church. So we drove for 3 1/2 hours through a driving rainstorm, snowy mountain passes and back down into the rainy desert to meet Pastor Loreto for an hour and a half to talk about the training ministry. He seems like a very humble servant leader who would be a good teacher. We think similarly on many points and both have a heart to see northern Mexicanos reach out to their southern neighbours where there are more witches and spiritists than followers of Jesus. I'm planning on returning in April after hes had a chance to look at the material to see if he is interested in starting a class in his area.
I am also praying about starting another class myself closer to where we live in Rosarito or on Tijuana's west side.
So, We could potentially have 50-80 people taking this incredible training over the next few years! Can you please pray with us for the needed finances to do this work?
It costs CDN$150 over 2 1/2 years to train each student. That includes an NIV Study Bible plus their 10 workbooks for each of their courses. So with CDN$7500 we can train 50 pastors and leaders! We will ask the students to pay a nominal fee to help with the gas of the local pastor-teacher, coffee and snacks and the use of the church. But what we found out is for people trying to feed families of 4 or 5 people on $15/ day (sometimes less) the $10/ course cost was enough to keep them out of the course.
If you would like to donate to this ministry Please send donations to:
YUGO Canada
Box 231
St. Albert, AB
T8N 1N3
Or, for more information contact Marylyn at:
(780) 461-0891
yugoministries@cruzinternet.com
Please send a small note designating the donation to: "Tijuana Colonias Pastoral Training (Mike McDonald)" and it will get to us to be able to help make disciples in Mexico!
In our other ministry at the Bible College, things are going very well! I am teaching 2 classes of about 11 students each- 1 Corinthians and Exodus. I once again have some excellent students and love going down each Wednesday and Friday to teach the classes. It seems to me to be a great investment in eternity to build into these young lives- most of whom are sensing God's call to pastoral, missionary or other church leadership callings.
New this semester is a Discipleship class I am also participating in. We are training 6 of the young people (3 guys- 4 ladies) to disciple up to 3 of the other students each. It has been an excellent opportunity to build into the lives of each other as we spend an hour a week, one on one, talking about our walk with Jesus as well as giving them counsel on their discipling ministry. All 3 of my guys are excellent servants of Jesus and I look forward to hearing from them in the future as God works through them!
Thank you so much for your partnership in prayer and finances with us! We appreciate each one of you and could not do this without you!
Partnering together with you to make disciples in Mexico,
Michael and Sharlene McDonald
We're coming up to the graduation of the first class of our Pastors and Leaders training ministry! We're all pretty excited and proud of the accomplishments of these incredible students!
We have been meeting for 4 hours Saturdays and 2 hours Monday nights for more than 2 1/2 years. Many of the students have other secular jobs on top of ministry responsibilities. They have sacrificed alot of time to be at class and it is almost finished! We will have our graduation on Saturday June 5th for 10 students! And then we begin to look ahead to the next groups!
Thank you so much for your faithfulness in partnering with us! None of this could have been done without you! We are partnering together in the "Great Commission":
MT28:
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The whole idea behind the classes is to train pastors and leaders and empower them to train others. It looks like this wil be happening and the amount of students will be multiplying next year!
I was talking to one of my current students about him starting classes in his church. He has 4 or 5 pastors interested already- and they are looking at bringing their leadership out to the training. He is hoping and praying for 20 faithful students! That's twice as many as I had!
I have 2 other students who are considering starting up classes in their neighbourhoods for pastors and leaders.
I am also praying about going to Nayarit ( southern Mexico-- 2-3 day drive away) for a few weeks to train a local pastor who has several mission churches started by Seve- one of my students (a 65 year old gramma!) as she traversed the villages sharing Jesus last summer. She saw 15 people come to Christ and last December went back and baptized the believers, saw a few more saved and found a pastor to disciple the new followers of Jesus! I'm hoping to help them train the lay leaders of these new groups of Christians! Please pray with us as we seek to make disciples of the disciple makers!
I was in Mexicali , Mexico today talking to a pastor who works closely with our YUGO missionaries in that city. He is looking for some training to give his church. So we drove for 3 1/2 hours through a driving rainstorm, snowy mountain passes and back down into the rainy desert to meet Pastor Loreto for an hour and a half to talk about the training ministry. He seems like a very humble servant leader who would be a good teacher. We think similarly on many points and both have a heart to see northern Mexicanos reach out to their southern neighbours where there are more witches and spiritists than followers of Jesus. I'm planning on returning in April after hes had a chance to look at the material to see if he is interested in starting a class in his area.
I am also praying about starting another class myself closer to where we live in Rosarito or on Tijuana's west side.
So, We could potentially have 50-80 people taking this incredible training over the next few years! Can you please pray with us for the needed finances to do this work?
It costs CDN$150 over 2 1/2 years to train each student. That includes an NIV Study Bible plus their 10 workbooks for each of their courses. So with CDN$7500 we can train 50 pastors and leaders! We will ask the students to pay a nominal fee to help with the gas of the local pastor-teacher, coffee and snacks and the use of the church. But what we found out is for people trying to feed families of 4 or 5 people on $15/ day (sometimes less) the $10/ course cost was enough to keep them out of the course.
If you would like to donate to this ministry Please send donations to:
YUGO Canada
Box 231
St. Albert, AB
T8N 1N3
Or, for more information contact Marylyn at:
(780) 461-0891
yugoministries@cruzinternet.com
Please send a small note designating the donation to: "Tijuana Colonias Pastoral Training (Mike McDonald)" and it will get to us to be able to help make disciples in Mexico!
In our other ministry at the Bible College, things are going very well! I am teaching 2 classes of about 11 students each- 1 Corinthians and Exodus. I once again have some excellent students and love going down each Wednesday and Friday to teach the classes. It seems to me to be a great investment in eternity to build into these young lives- most of whom are sensing God's call to pastoral, missionary or other church leadership callings.
New this semester is a Discipleship class I am also participating in. We are training 6 of the young people (3 guys- 4 ladies) to disciple up to 3 of the other students each. It has been an excellent opportunity to build into the lives of each other as we spend an hour a week, one on one, talking about our walk with Jesus as well as giving them counsel on their discipling ministry. All 3 of my guys are excellent servants of Jesus and I look forward to hearing from them in the future as God works through them!
Thank you so much for your partnership in prayer and finances with us! We appreciate each one of you and could not do this without you!
Partnering together with you to make disciples in Mexico,
Michael and Sharlene McDonald
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