Two well-known ministries of Assemblies of God World Missions — HealthCare Ministries and Sustain Hope — are now officially joining hands under the umbrella of a new ministry, CompassionLink: Serving a World in Need, as of January 1, 2016. This new ministry is part of AGWM International Ministries, under the direction of Dr. JoAnn Butrin, a long-time missionary and member of AGWM’s leadership team, the Executive Committee.
CompassionLink consists of a total of five missionary teams, listed here alphabetically:
- Community Health Evangelism — CHE (“chay”) is a Christ-centered approach to health and development that has been implemented in more than 30 countries. AGWM recognizes it as an effective strategy for church growth and improving the health of communities.
- HealthCare Ministries — HCM is well known in the Assemblies of God as the international health outreach of AGWM. HCM sends teams of volunteer medical professionals on short-term assignments; depending upon the need in the destination community, the team will provide one-on-one patient-provider interaction, prevention education, health education seminars, and doctor-to-doctor medical seminars.
- HisAbility International — This team is focused upon ministry to persons with disabilities, aimed at raising awareness in churches worldwide of the abilities and needs of the locally disabled, and offering tools and training to enable engagement with, and ministry to, them.
- Pastoral Care International — PCI focuses on counseling, training, and prevention for the emotional issues faced by church and community leaders and other survivors of natural and man-made disasters. Seminars are designed around the need of the church or community and focused on topics like grief recovery, PTSD, abuse, depression, conflict, self-esteem, marriage and family, and burnout. The seminars are also designed to be catalysts for outreach and evangelism within an affected community.
- Sustain Hope — Having done work in many countries for several years now, Sustain Hope improves lives through community-initiated, sustainable solutions that utilize local resources in areas of agriculture, water, sanitation, and alternative fuels, using a Christ-centered, best-practice approach. The Sustain Hope team provides on-field consultations and training in all of these areas.
CompassionLink was developed to serve a hurting world. It is a Christ-centered, development-based approach to helping people to help themselves.
A hallmark of AGWM is a holistic approach to ministry — caring for spiritual, physical, emotional, and social needs. CompassionLink ministry philosophy is that every person has value, dignity, and potential, no matter his/her life situation. CompassionLink missionary teams are committed to “walking with” rather than “doing for” needy communities and individuals. While walking that journey with the needy, CompassionLink missionaries take every opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
CompassionLink missionaries enter into relationship with needy persons, communities, and national churches by invitation of missionaries in all regions of the world. Assessment is done to determine assets, needs, and the best means of serving the targeted area. Relevant training and services are then offered, with the goal of equipping the people to solve problems, modeling appropriate steps toward resolution of issues: community health evangelism, health education, medical seminars, medical/dental/optical services, services and training for ministry to persons with disabilities, disaster relief training, post-crisis pastoral care, micro-enterprise, training in community development, and identification and use of appropriate technology.
The CompassionLink missionary teams are committed to the best possible assistance, with a shared passion to see lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(Source: AG World News)
