At Home and Abroad
At Home and Abroad
By Tamene Menna
Pastoral Assistant
Hello Church Family,
Fourteen years ago, when I was in Ethiopia, I came across a mission group that was passionate to share the gospel. I quickly learned that the team came from America to reach unreached people groups in Ethiopia. At that time, I was a seminary professor, and along with my father, I was involved in mobilizing Ethiopian evangelical churches for mission and church planting. Given this, I was very excited to meet these folks.
Pastor Mark Spansel, then one of the pastors at Northpoint (who later became my close friend), was the leader of the mission team. He told us that they came all the way from Corona, California, wanting to help reach the unreached people groups in Ethiopia. I was amazed by their passion and readiness to take the gospel outside of their comfort zone to a culture completely foreign to them. I gladly joined the team for a week of mission work doing door to door evangelism—taking the gospel message to those who had never heard it before. This was my first experience of Northpoint Church, the leaders’ vision and passion for the mission and the members’ readiness and commitment to participate in spreading the seeds of the gospel to my home country. Ever since that point, Northpoint has made several mission trips to various parts of the world, including places such as Kenya, Botswana, India, Greece, Spain, and Mexico.
Northpoint’s mission commitment is not only global but local. Since 2012, the Lord has placed in our elders’ hearts a shared vision of being a multiplying church. As a result of that vision, ReBuild Fellowship was born. ReBuild is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural church in Riverside, California and was launched in September 2016. The church is led by Dr. Kimani Gathere and his wife, Lydia. Kimani and Lydia have been members of Northpoint since 2004 and have participated in various ministries of the church.
ReBuild is a growing church plant with members devoted to unity, service, and evangelism. The church meets at a strategic location near UC Riverside, and they have continued to reach out to university students and to do evangelism in the local neighborhoods. The members meet for fellowship and Bible study at pastor Kemani’s home on the third Friday of every month. ReBuild Fellowship recently held an all-church workers orientation on Saturday, March 2, 2019, where they gave a training seminar for all the church’s ministers.
ReBuild is already involved in local church planting. In June 2018, a couple (Pastor Mel and his wife Trish Campbell) left ReBuild Fellowship to launch Fellowship Corona, meeting at Luseno School here in Corona. Fellowship Corona continues to grow. Regarding his vision for local mission, Pastor Kimani says, “We want to be active and visible locally and will find new ways to be relevant and resourceful to our community.”
Praise the Lord for how He used Northpoint to plant ReBuild and multiply its efforts. Many of you here at Northpoint have been praying for them. Some of you have been visiting, helping with their children’s Sunday school, and encouraging them. They are grateful for that. I would like to thank you all for taking part in this work of God’s kingdom.
May the Lord continue to use us together for more local missions and to see more and more people transformed in our community and around the world. As we celebrate what God has done, let us also look forward prayerfully and readily to what he will do in the future through us.
In Him,
Tamene Menna
Pastoral Assistant