Shaking things up in the Mid-Atlantic Region
by Chris Surber, D.Min. Mid-Atlantic Area Representative
and pastor of Cypress Chapel Christian Church, Suffolk, Virginia
God is shaking things up in the Mid-Atlantic region. In a few months my family and I will depart from Cypress Chapel Christian Church as we relocate to Montrouis, Haiti. God has called us to implement the vision He gave us to minister to missionaries, train pastors, and equip the local Haitian Church under the auspices of the ministry we founded for Haiti — Supply and Multiply.
Next month my brother in the Lord, Pastor Michael Brinkley, will similarly depart from Eure Christian Church (Eure, North Carolina) to answer the call of God to be a part of the effort to make disciples in Oviedo, Florida. He and a team of followers of Jesus will put their hands to the plow to begin planting our latest church under development in the CCCC — Palmwood Church.
Here is what Michael and his family have to say about their upcoming move:
When God called us to Florida He applied His message to Elijah to our situation (1 Kings 17). The Lord told Elijah that He would send ravens to a certain brook to feed him during a famine. Now if Elijah did not go to the place of provision then he too would have suffered from the famine. The Lord has all along been saying His perfect provision awaits us in Florida. So without a house or a job we go with great expectation to see God provide where He is guiding.
A friend of ours told us that he had been reading Hebrews 11 about the people of faith. He said, “You know what? It didn’t seem like any of them had all the information they wanted. They just acted on faith in what God already said. Besides, Michael, if he gave you all the signs and doors you have been asking for, you wouldn’t have use for faith. You could just go by sight. That’s not how God works.”
Why are we going to Florida? Nine-year-old Micah said, “So we can make Christians and then can tell other people about Jesus. We are going so we can build a church.” In answer to the same question, twelve-year-old David replied, “To train and send out missionaries.” David believes that while he is in Florida God will speak to his heart some more about his earlier vision for an orphanage. He is really passionate about helping orphans.
When you think about going to Florida, how do you feel? All of the children said basically the same thing. They were kind of excited but sad about leaving friends and family. Micah especially said that he was happy because God was sending us somewhere to make more Christians.
Interestingly, Cypress Chapel is where Michael grew up and where much of his family remains. I asked him to be our guest speaker for a revival service in late August. In his strong message about following Jesus he said, “You have to walk by faith. If it is all mapped out for you then it wouldn’t require faith. God calls us to live boldly as we follow Jesus.”
His point is well taken and my family is applying that principle as we prepare to move to Haiti in January. As part of our foundational work in Haiti, we took a team of 27 people to Haiti in August. The team was made up of people from five churches including our little old country church in Suffolk, Upper Room Assemblies of God in North Carolina, Bethany Baptist Church in Portsmouth Virginia, Catalyst House Church in Virginia, and First Congregational Church of Peru, Illinois. It was a large and vastly varied mission team!
We were amazed at God’s work sending support through the growing network of friends and partners of Supply and Multiply. On our trip we paid for some significant improvements to an orphanage, we built tables for children at a feeding and Bible teaching program, we trained pastors, encouraged church leaders, baptized new believers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But it was all built on a foundation of sharing the love of God.
On that trip we solidified the groundwork of our ministry partners in Haiti, Stephen and Autumn Byxbe of Together We Can — Haiti, as we have now established Legliz Asnamn (Churches Together) Evangelistic Association, comprised of a growing network of nearly forty pastors. In one day we founded an evangelistic association and the Institute D’Biblique D’Montrouis (Montrouis Bible Institute). That was a fruitful day of ministry!
We performed baptisms and worshiped with fellow missionaries at the Montrouis International Fellowship, where Christina and I will provide a pastoral presence to English speakers in Haiti. We handled the immediate transition needs of the little girl we are adopting in Haiti, as her custodial grandmother departed this life to be with the Lord only a week before our trip. She’s staying with the other children at the orphanage our ministry partners direct until we move in January. We did a lot on that trip.
But what was perhaps most exciting for me was to bring back a team full of people with changed hearts, having had an encounter with God in Haiti. We were making disciples in both directions; Americans ministering in Haiti and God transforming American hearts along the way. That is our central call, and it’s what the Surbers and Brinkleys are zeroing in on for this next season of ministry in the lives of our respective families.
We serve an unimaginably immense God. He is shaking things up in our lives and He is shaking things up in the Mid-Atlantic region of the CCCC. To learn more about Palmwood Church go to www.palmwoodchurch.com. (Information is being added as the site is developed.) To learn more about Supply and Multiply you may visit www.supplyandmultiply.com.
