VOICE, values and ventriloquism
Laura Bonney with puppet Ernie (Photo supplied)
LANDMARK, Man.—On May 15, 2022, our missions committee planned a special Sunday service.
Harold Barg shared a history of Heartland missions which included sponsoring refugees. He and Florence had just returned from a trip to Israel, and they made a side trip to Greece to meet the refugee family of AbdulMajid Hakimi from Afghanistan. They will be residing in Landmark.
Evelyn Barkman, missionary to Mali, Africa, read from Psalm 78:1–8. It is a song that encourages us to speak of God’s greatness to the generations that follow. She introduced guest speaker Laura Bonney, a missionary ventriloquist with SEND International. Laura shared her experiences teaching values in schools in the Philippines and Uganda. Her method: ventriloquism.
Doors opened for Christian missionaries when former president of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo gave a directive in July 2004 to teach values in the public schools again. She opened the country up to non-government organizations of various religions. At Canadian Thanksgiving in 2003, Laura accepted an invitation from a Filipino pastor named Tony to visit a school near his church in Metro Manila, Philippines. In 2004, they gathered a prayer team. From this team, Laura’s co-worker Ruth and a Filipino friend began writing values-based lessons for school classrooms.
Within three years, after teaching Christian values such as honesty and truth, forgiveness, purity, self-control, and obedience, the fruit of these values were evident. A 60 per cent decrease of incidents at the school was recorded. The curriculum’s title, VOICE, is an acronym for: Values Orientation In Classroom Education. The stories include biblical as well as cultural heroes.
Florence Barg (Photo supplied)
Landmark community spring tea
On May 19, 54 ladies of Landmark sloshed through spring rains to hear one of their sisters, Florence Barg, share her faith. Her laugh-out-loud anecdotes cheered our souls.
Florence spoke of her life’s awkward moments, her world travels for missions with her husband Harold, and the faith-building trials in her youth that God used to shape her to be the woman of faith she is today.
What many did not know at the time was that while Florence was in Palm Springs, not that long ago, another woman of faith prayed over her about how God was going to use her gifts of teaching and communication for his glory. When Florence returned home, she was invited to speak at this event. Glory to God!
Those who were attending the ladies’ tea blessed Adult and Teen Challenge’s women’s program with baking ingredients to stock their pantry.