Local Missions we support:   

International Missions we support:
At SASS we support three missionaries around the world; Latvia, South East Asia and Brazil.

Latvia - Wes and Mo (Maureen) Blackmon are serving in Tilza, (see photograph on the left) approximately 15km from the Russian border, with the Greater Europe Mission (GEM). Wes celebrated his first year as a missionary and all the challenges that has entailed, not only linguistically, but being completely out of his comfort zone. More about the Blackmons.

Maureen celebrated her 15th anniversary of ministry with GEM, having begun in 1993 when Latvia attained independence. Certainly a period of growth for both! Since settling again in Latvia, Mo has continued to work away at her Master of Theological Studies program (focussing on Spiritual Formation) which she began at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto back in 2005. For now, she is attempting only one distance education course per year. She loves to learn and to pass this practical knowledge onto others.

Resources recommended by the Blackmons. Wes and Mo enjoy organizing courses and workshops which both they and other colleagues lead. A workshop on the Biblical understanding of team dynamics and personality types was particularly helpful last fall for their ministry team, and they are considering offering the same to local school teachers. The Blackmons lead their team members in an ongoing discipleship course for leaders and an interactive marriage Bible study. They visited Canada in January of 2009, which included a visit to SASSPC.

We can support them by praying for the items below requested by Wes and Mo:

• Pray for spiritual renewal among believers in Latvia, especially among leaders and missionaries (we ALL need ongoing fresh experiences with our Lord!).
• Pray for spiritual fruit to come from MUCH work that has been done in our village of Tilza throughout the years. There seems to be a great resistance to the gospel here. Pray especially for the youth in two local schools - they have heard and seen much of the gospel and have responded very little (altho we see signs of it beginning!).
• Latvia is EXTREMELY hard hit by the present financial situation, with the future looking even worse. Pray for a fresh and deep turning to the Lord in this crisis. This is all everyone is talking about these days. Pray that we as believers will be His voice of hope, His Hands that help. We belong to a kingdom that CANNOT be shaken....
• Pray for trust to grow and rifts to be healed between Christian leaders. Pray together with Jesus (John 17) and with us for this crucial unity among the body of Christ in Latvia. In such a small country (1/15 the size of BC), disunity among believers is seen and felt, and is such an ungodly witness.
• Pray for believers to experience the deep, healing Presence of Jesus Christ in all areas of life. There is widespread and deep brokenness among people here. Pray for us who minister, that we will have wisdom and discernment from God to pray into these situations.
• Thank you so much for caring, and for praying along with us.
  
   

South East Asia - Due to intense persecution of Christians in certain South East Asian countries it is prudent not to disclose who we support in this part of the world.

Brazil - Reginaldo Menezes continueas ministering with the Evangelical Missions for Assistance to Fishermen (EMAF) in Brazil, planting churches and boating to the many remote villages where the fishermen and their families live in extreme poverty and despair. Many programs have been created for their medical and dental care while evangelists minister to their souls. A 2007 annual report for the ministries reported that Brazil now has 66 full time missionaries and 1300 voluteers in EMAF's seven fields of work. New chruches had been planted in four states, schools, health and evangelism projects, farms, sports facilities, social centres and many other initiatives had been launced to aid the itinerant fishermen along the coastline and in villages throughout Brazil "where iliteracy borders on 60%".