Being part of Israeli society at large, not necessarily because


of our faith, brings economic pressures. Being a believer in the food business is almost impossible because Israelis must obtain their kosher license from the rabbinate, and the rabbis will cause all types of difficulties to avoid giving a kosher certificate to a food business owned by a Jew who believes in Jesus.


Also, believers who want to rent a facility for church use run


into major objections. Tis is a major issue in cities that are more religious.


To be continued in the November/December issue of Fellowship Focus.


Focus on Our Churches Evangelical Bible Church


Dallas, Oregon Troy Bassham, Pastor ebcdallas.org Evangelical Bible Church has a new


Senior Pastor! Welcome Pastor Troy Bassham and family!!!


During the two-year process, the


Transition Team turned the gavel over to the Pastor Search Committee who then reviewed approximately 120 résumés. Eventually, the Search Committee got the list down to eight candidates. Tese were then carefully screened and interviewed over the phone. Once the list of candi- dates was reduced from eight to four, the Pastor Search Committee turned over the list to EBC’s Governing Board of Elders. Te Elders then conducted another detailed interview with each candidate. As a result of that process, one candidate, Pastor Troy Bassham, was invited to visit EBC for a meet-and-greet and to deliver both a sermon and a testimony.


A few days following the weekend


visit by the Basshams, the EBC congrega- tion met to vote on whether to offer a call to Pastor Troy. Te vote was overwhelm- ingly positive. A long and detailed search process drew to a close. Praise be to God!


On Sunday, July 7, we held a special


THANK YOU reception for Interim Pastor Bill and Doris Murphy. While it seemed like yesterday, July marked the eighteen month since Bill and Doris first walked into EBC. It has been an amazing journey with many positive changes to our church including the institution of the Governing Board of Elders that replaced the previous Church Board as the govern- ing/policy-making arm of EBC.


Te Small Group Leadership Team,


has been meeting weekly since March 2019 to design the framework within which the small group ministry will be greatly expanded. Under the mission of “Seek, Connect, Grow,” the group is currently designing the training materials and building a list of small group facilita- tors who will head up each of the groups to be formed. Te group reports that they are on track to roll-out the new small groups in October.


Te former Youth Center is no


more! Tis past spring, the building was demolished and turned into an additional parking area. Tis summer Vacation Bible School was a partnership with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) which provided a lot of the curriculum and Bible stories. Another big change this year was the time of day! VBS 2019 took place in the evening. Because of that, many new volunteers/staff were able to be involved without missing work.


Sheldon Schmidt led a training in


July to familiarize the sound crew with the sound and video equipment in the new Youth Center. In order to keep advancing EBC’s technology offerings, it was decided to have regular trainings and trouble-shooting sessions.


EBC’s short-term mission team,


Books for Bolivia – Chapter 2, returned home on March 31. While in Bolivia, they were able to support Dan and Judy Burkes in their ministry by helping to fold, col- late, staple, bind, staple again, and some- times reinforce covers on 1,301 books! In addition, they reinforced the covers on 200 Bibles. Tese books consisted of song books, school books, and several Bible


study tools. Te Burkes estimated that this would have taken them four to six months of work in their spare time if the EBC team had not come! Books last only about three years in the jungle climate, so this will be ongoing work for the Burkes who will continue to print small quantities of the materials needed.


In May, the EBC Healthcare Com-


mittee sponsored the video “Fatal Flaws,” which presents both sides of the medically assisted death issue. Immediately following the 55-minute video, Pastor Bill addressed the spiritual and biblical perspectives of this issue. Te committee considers this to be a serious topic and is of the opinion that believers need to be aware of legislative issues affecting our religious beliefs and how to voice one’s concerns.


In early June, a no-obligation seminar


on Biblical Stewardship co-hosted by Den- nis Wiens and SAT-7, in partnership with Financial Planning Ministry provided participants with a better understand- ing of wills and trusts and gave them an opportunity to have a trust and/or will prepared at no cost or obligation.


Provided by EBC Communications Team


Kenora Bible Church Kenora, Ontario Simon Cheung, Pastor kenorabiblechurch.ca We enjoyed our annual Worship and


Picnic in the Park on the first Sunday of July. Te picnic shelter was lined full of lawn chairs as Pastor Simon taught from the story of Naaman and even gave a children’s story with pictures. Aſter lunch a great game of baseball sprang up.


In July, Ray Alary, president of Fellowship Focus, September/October 2019 17


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