Northeast Missions Conference May 18: There’s Still Time to Sign Up
Photos by Tom Price
Set aside Saturday, May 18, as a day of spiritual encouragement at the annual Northeast Missions Conference at Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, PA. Learn from missionaries serving in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America, as well as about local mission opportunities—all will joyfully share their work both in main sessions and individually in booths.
“It’s really easy to get distracted by all the terrible things happening in our world, and the things that Satan is doing. But it’s less frequent that we get to hear about the amazing things that our God is doing. And there is phenomenal stuff happening all over the world,” emphasized Steve Reeves, missions pastor at Calvary Chapel Philadelphia.
In addition, Steve described a change to worship during the conference. “We’re going to have these international worship sessions where we get to praise the Lord in other languages. I’m so excited for that.” Lunch will be provided. The conference begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m.
Main session speakers include Pastor Josh Lawrence of CC Eldoret, Kenya; Pastor Arron Moon of Refuge Fellowship in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Pastor Tim Stone of Batumi Gateway Ministry in the Republic of Georgia. In the remaining main sessions, many other missionaries will offer “five-minute snapshots” of their work.
The conference is free, but registration is requested. Register at missions.ccphilly.org.
Gracia Burnham, who served as a longtime missionary in the Philippines for New Tribes Missions (now Ethnos 360), was a main speaker for the 2023 Northeast Missions Conference. Attendees were fascinated by her convicting—yet gracious—testimony describing her and her husband Martin’s captivity in the Philippines more than 20 years earlier. In May 2001, she and Martin were kidnapped by militant Muslims; more than a year later, as the Philippine military came to rescue them, Martin was killed, and she was freed. Gracia shared a highlight of her testimony holding up an orange T-shirt signed by her former captors—now serving life sentences in prison. They signed the shirt when, years later, she visited them in the Philippine prison. Impacted by the Burnhams’ testimony during captivity, five of them came to know the Lord Jesus and one became a pastor, she joyfully recalled.
CC Philadelphia Missions Pastor Steve Reeves welcomes conferencegoers at the 2023 missions conference. The conference is held just before the East Coast Pastors Conference at the church. Encouraging attendance at this year’s upcoming event on May 18, he noted, “It’s really easy to get distracted by all the terrible things happening in our world, and the things that Satan is doing. But it’s less frequent that we get to hear about the amazing things that our God is doing. And there is phenomenal stuff happening all over the world.”
A representative of Great Commission Ministries talks with a woman about their work serving God. He was one of many missionaries who came to the conference to share varied and often unknown works—worldwide and local—bringing Jesus to the nations.
Craig Cerrito (center right), assistant pastor at Rock Ministries of Philadelphia, and his wife, Sharon (next to him on the left), tell guests about the high impact, valuable inner-city missions work of the church. The church and its many ministries, which grew out of a boxing program for at-risk youth, have been recognized by local law enforcement for great effectiveness in making real changes in the dangerous downtown neighborhood of Kensington.
George Markey, Jr., shares an update about his family’s ministry, BridgeUA. He and his wife, Sharon, served as missionaries in Kyiv, Ukraine, until the Russian invasion in 2022. They now live in Hungary, where they are working to establish discipleship communities among the Ukrainian refugee population.
It’s not all work at the Northeast Missions Conference as there are many opportunities for joyful fellowship and fun. Here, Pastor Celso Nascimeinto (left) and another visiting pastor (right) take a selfie photograph with speaker Gracia Burnham. Pastor Celso serves at CC São Vicente, Brazil.
One of the mission representatives describes a book to an attendee (right) from CC Philadelphia. The hallway at the church was lined with tables manned by the many missionaries who came to the conference. Between main sessions, the hallways and rooms were filled with serious conversations as well as laughter and renewal of friendships.
Two women (left) at the Inspire ministry booth speak with a conference presenter, Hugo Limon (right). Hugo was pastor of Calvary Culiacan Norte and now leads Horizonte Ensenada, both in Mexico. “God is doing great things in this hard place, a lot with His light,” Hugo explained during his sharing time at the conference.
Tony Reyes (right), a Calvary Chapel pastor in the Philippines and director of Calvary Bible Institute Philippines, discusses his work with visitors.
Cory Kilgus, pastor of CC Trujillo, Peru, and director of CBI Peru, discusses the ministries’ work of training believers to plant healthy churches.
A guest at the conference applauds as she listens to one of the speakers.
A woman (left) prays for Brian McDaniel of Cross to Light ministries. Cross to Light operates the Haiti Bible Training Center in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the troubled nation of Haiti. The Center brings in leaders from different provinces, builds them up in the Word of God, and trains them to plant churches and provide community relief throughout the nation.
Jan Green, wife of senior pastor Tim Green of CC South Pittsburgh, PA, sells specialized coffee to support the work of the Markey family in Hungary, BridgeUA.
William Safraz of Gawahi Mission Pakistan greets a man between sessions. The mission focuses on building churches in the cities and villages of Pakistan, where there were no churches or believers just a few years ago. It also shares the Gospel through 24/7 satellite Christian television, distributes Bibles, and drills water pumps in rural areas.
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