This page highlights the organizations and projects that received Acts of Grace grants in 2022.
For more information about each charity, click on the organization's logo to be directed to its website. Click on the Project Pictures link under each grant description to view photos related to that particular project.
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Dormitories for the Shipibo Bible INstitute (Peru)
AMG International advances the Gospel by equipping Christ-centered leaders and local churches around the world to meet the deepest needs in their communities. Shipibo Bible Institute was the vision of Shipibo church leaders to train pastors for the people groups living in this area of Peru’s Amazon rainforest. Many of these people have not yet been reached by the Gospel and those who have been do not have a trained pastor who can faithfully teach the Word and shepherd them. Since the Bible Institute was founded in 1999, it has grown to a point of surpassing the accommodation capacity of the 2 existing dormitories with some students and teachers sleeping in the dining / instructional space while others stay in town with willing community members. In partnership with AMG International, this grant provides funds to build two new dormitories for the Shipibo Bible Institute. These new accommodations will increase the number of pastors who can attend and be trained and equipped to plant and shepherd churches among the Shipibo people. The grant also provides funds to replace doors, window screens and window rebar for the dining/ multi-purpose space on the campus. These renovations will maximize and extend the use of this building for instruction, meals and many other uses as well as increase the security of the building in between learning sessions.
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Launching an After-school Care Centre (Colombia)
Hope Story helps vulnerable children access education, health, and discipleship in strong communities through their local church. As an extension of local churches in the Medellín, Colombia, Tiempo de Paz currently operates two after-school care centres, which are places of refuge for vulnerable children aged 5-12 years. In Medellín, children attend school for only half of the day and many are left to roam the streets for the rest of the day. In the after-school care centres, children are given meals, tutoring and homework support, access to music and computer training as well as recreational activities, and receive professional counselling. Through these centres children also receive Bible teaching, are taught to pray and learn about Jesus. Entire families are provided with an alternative vision for life - to embrace Christ and his Church and to break free from the drug culture and organized crime that continues to dominate life in this city. This year, TdP will launch a third centre in a community called Guayubal - a centre of local drug trafficking, abuse, violence, sexual abuse, prostitution and poverty. In this neighbourhood, nearly 40% of homes face food insecurity, many families are led by single mothers and children are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, sexual abuse, violence, poor academic performance, mental health problems, and spiritual poverty. In partnership with Hope Story, this grant provides funds for the initial start-up and operating costs for the first year of the new after-school care centre. The Centre will support 50 families, impacting more than 250 beneficiaries with the hopeful anticipation of providing children and families in Medellín with a safe place to learn, grow, and develop a Christ-centred vision for their life.
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Digitizing Biblical Resources for the Middle Eastern Church (Middle East)
Langham Partnership equips Majority World church leaders by helping well-managed locally-owned national Christian publishers become self-sustaining such that they are able to support a maturing church with high-quality biblical and theological books. These publishers are able to translate, create and distribute theological books written by and for Majority World Church leaders in the local language and with greater sensitivity to local issues. This grant supports a locally-owned Christian publisher in digitizing key biblical resources for electronic distribution and download for the Middle Eastern church. Despite growing security concerns, the Middle Eastern church is growing with increasing spiritual hunger and a deepening desire for Christian teaching. The digitization of these resources will support their long-term availability to the Middle Eastern church while increasing the privacy and security of the individuals accessing them.
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Medical Equipment for the MMI Amazon Hospital Boat (Colombia)
Medical Ministry International (MMI) is an opportunity to serve Jesus Christ by providing spiritual and compassionate health care in this world of need. By establishing and supporting Health Centers and local initiatives in developing countries, MMI increases access to affordable, respectable, quality health care for those in need and opening opportunities for evangelism and sharing the Gospel. More than 280 indigenous communities in the Amazon Region do not have access to basic health care nor simple life-changing surgeries. Many of these communities are isolated, some accessible only by boat. As a registered health care provider in Colombia, MMI Amazon travels by boat to the remote villages of the Amazon jungle surrounding Leticia, Colombia providing primary, dental, nutrition, and vision screening services and building strong relationships that lead to invitations to share the Gospel. As the scope of current health care services grows, capacity is limited by the facilities available in the villages served and the power of the existing boats to reach a particular geographical radius. MMI is building a hospital boat that will not only extend the reach of the services to all 9 community regions in the Amazon but also expand the scope of health care services in all areas to include optometric and ophthalmological consultations and surgical services and ambulatory surgical services. This grant provides funds for the purchase of medical equipment for the MMI Amazon Hospital Boat including a portable ultrasound to monitor pregnancy and check for kidney stones, gallstones, liver disease, and the cause of stomach pain; a Colposcope to detect/monitor vaginal/cervical diseases and an anesthesia machine. These three pieces of medical equipment will provide for necessary diagnostics and anesthesia to allow for service delivery to those accessing health care services on the new vessel and, over time, increase the overall public health of the communities served.
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Building Healthy Churches That Model the Gospel (Canada)
Publications Chrétiennes believes that the Gospel produces true and lasting change in the life of the believer and that healthy churches are the best way to impact the community with the Gospel. Knowing that books are an important tool that God uses to form passionate, faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and to build up of the church, Publications Chrétiennes focuses on publishing French-language books that will be effective tools to make disciples, share the Gospels, and raise up leaders in the French-speaking church. Doing ministry in the French-speaking world is difficult as often these men are working with limited financial resources and staff. Also, there are frequently only a few like-minded churches in their city meaning they can often feel isolated. This project focuses on strengthening and improving the health of the church throughout Quebec and the French-speaking world and to develop a culture of effective biblical discipleship. This multi-year grant provides funds for the French translation of 19 books specifically on topics to address the principles of healthy church development and biblical discipleship as well as for an annual conference to encourage and equip pastors and elders through provide training, relationship building, networking and targeted dialogue that works through the application of biblical truth to their Christian life and their church. It is the prayer of Publications Chrétiennes that through this project, churches throughout Quebec and the French-speaking world become embassies of Jesus by modelling the Gospel to the world and equipping their people for ministry.
This project is a recurring grant that will take place over the years 2022-2024.
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Building the RIsing Above ASsociates Curriculum (Canada)
Rising Above Abuse Counselling Agency seeks to bring healing to our land and to educate, equip and empower Indigenous people to rise above their pain. Rising Above desires to see Indigenous people empowered by the Holy Spirit to experience life, identity, purpose and healing in Christ as God the Father intended. Through conferences, regional seminars, music ministry and ministry projects, Rising Above works with victims of abuse, counsellors, helpers of victims of abuse, pastors, and social workers in major cities, smaller centres and Indigenous communities. Rising Above conferences focus on abuse issues prevalent among Indigenous people including recognition, impact and healing of issues such as sexual abuse, residential schools experience, generational impact of residential schools, grief and suicide. Counselling is provided by mostly Indigenous counsellors qualified with Masters-level psychology degrees using biblical counselling principles and approaches. Additionally, Rising Above Elders and Associates act as speakers, mentors and leaders throughout the country. To build its long-term capacity to train and retain the next generation of Associates to carry the ministry into their communities, Rising Above will build a new Associates Training Curriculum. This new curriculum will gather traditional and working knowledge of current Associates and Elders and compile their expertise into a structured, multi-media training resource. Through an online interactive platform, this modular curriculum will guide and mentor the new and younger speakers, leaders and Associates, equipping them with a biblical model of healing as it applies to healing from abuse and other trauma. This grant provides the funds for the development and launch of the new curriculum.
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A Dynamic Platform of Theological Education for French-speaking Churches (Canada, International)
SEMBEQ exists to assist in raising up the next generation of Christians principally in Quebec. SEMBEQ's mission is to equip pastors, chaplains, and various ministry leaders who are community-oriented, to encourage and help the local church to grow in its ability to multiply and train disciples, leaders, elders and deacons within its midst. As a context- and church-based seminary, most of SEMBEQ's courses are taught within local churches. Specifically, SEMBEQ acts as a tool of the local churches in the training of their members and leaders, primarily in Quebec and French-speaking Europe. While there are good resources available in French, these are mostly paper-based. In order to continue to effectively serve the meet the needs the church today, as especially of younger, technology-savvy generations, there is significant need for a interactive online platform that enables high quality French-language theological training with supportive coaching, mentoring, group discussions, student follow-up, as well as giving access to the various courses and required resources. This grant provides the funds for the digitization of SEMBEQs core theological courses and hosting them in an online dynamic interactive platform that allows churches to independently provide university-quality theological training of pastors, future leaders and mature disciples in the French-speaking world.
This project is a recurring grant that will take place over the years 2022-2023.
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church-based Community Transformation Training (Tanzania)
Tearfund Canada partners with the local church in the poorest places to bring restoration to those living in poverty and need. In partnership with the local church, key activities include improving food security through conservation agriculture, economic empowerment through women’s savings groups, and helping communities to adapt to changing climate through Creation Care. Tearfund also desires to build up the Church long-term and believes that God’s people, as the only permanent social "agency" in the world, can be a force for change to mend broken relationships that are at the root of poverty. To that end, Tearfund underpins all of its projects with Church-Based Community Transformation (CCT), a biblical model of development that works with local churches, facilitating local church growth & outreach. CCT helps congregations see beyond their own immediate needs to identify and address unmet physical, social and spiritual needs in the wider community through their own resources. Each church's outward expression of the holistic training received is unique as congregations determine for their own communities what needs must be met and how. Some community development programs resulting from CCT include houses and roofs for widows, care of child-headed households, community gardens and training for neighbours, farms at schools, etc. As the church more readily understands its role in loving their neighbour, CCT also acts as a catalyst for amplifying the efforts and impact of other local economic and agricultural initiatives. This grant funds all of the CCT Training in the Chamwino District of Tanzania for the next 18 months.
This project is a recurring grant that will take place over the years 2022-2023.
