Icon viewers:

With great interest I read in the Ebenezer Mennonite church bulletin (now called, Ebenezer Emissary) that the Ebenezer Church in its recent Missionary Conference surpassed the $250,000 goal for the 2014 Missionary Budget by $5,000.

I am pleased and I would congratulate the congregation for maintaining the high priority of world evangelism in its overall program. Having pastored the congregation for 18 years (1961-79) I still follow the on-going  activities of the Ebenezer Church. The lengthy news article in the Lima News on November 7 by Rosanne Bowman was a good article but was remiss in some important facts  of the beginning and purpose of the 50 year  history of the Annual Missionary Conference.

True, the church had a long history of good Biblical preaching and missionary giving, however, the first Missionary Conference as such and the introduction of the Faith Promise program two years later was the first amalgamated effort to merge the several sources of giving into one concentrated program of supporting missionaries. 

Founding the missionary conference and later introducing the Faith Promise Program was inspired by my learning of approximately 20 churches that were successfully using the above program. Highlighted in a book by Dr. Norman Lewis of the Back to the Bible Broadcast, Triumphant Missionary Ministry in the Local Church, was the unusual success of Dr. Oswald J. Smith, Pastor the People’s Church of Toronto,  Canada.

My wife and I drove to Toronto to learn first hand of the program. As pastor, I purchased personally 50 copies of said book  and distributed it to our congregation while teaching the meaning and mechanics of the Faith Promise Program. Instructions were thus: “read the book this week and bring it back next Sunday for 50 more people are waiting to read the same book”.

The immediate result of the first year was as follows. An increase of giving from $9,900 in 1965 to promises by faith of $24,722 with actual receipts of $32,790. The second year the receipts increased by $17,000 for a total receipts of $49,746. On the third year receipts increased by another $10,000. 

The full story of Ebenezers’ involvement and success is recorded on page 86 of Dr. Norman Lewis’ second book; Faith Promise for World Witness.

All of the above “Foot Prints of the Past” are of God, by God, and for God. I thank Him for allowing me to be a part of His leading this congregation.  Now the “Foot Steps to the Future” are  in the hands of others  of His choosing. To God be the Glory!

Pastor  Dan U. Dalke, Founder, Director & Servant