April 2007

Evangelical Friends International (EFI)
Friends Prepare to Launch New European Region in June 2007

After years of prayer and planning, Evangelical Friends are ready to launch a new region in the world of Friends—EFI-Europe. This soon-to-be-organized region of Friends will join the global family of Friends already established in North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. EFI-Europe will begin with existing fellowships in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Romania, and Hungary.

It has been a long time coming. The fruit of much prayer, planning, and travel to Europe to connect with new Friends groups spread all over that continent is now being realized. Hungarian Friends are laying plans to host a small group of Evangelical Friends leaders from scattered places across Europe. The meetings will be held in Tolna, Hungary, south of the capital city of Budapest, June 7-10, 2007.

Evangelical Friends International (EFI) will take steps toward forming a new region at this historic gathering. EFI-Europe Region will be the fifth world region for Evangelical Friends, joining Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America.

The agenda will include reports of new works, worship, prayer, and Christian fellowship. How many will actually be able to attend is not known, but it is possible that representatives will come from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, and Albania. Delegates from the more established churches in Romania and Hungary will also attend.

EFI-North America took official action several years ago, recommending to the Evangelical Friends International Council of Regional Directors that consideration be given to forming an EFI-Europe Region.

Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region has nurtured church planting in the region for nearly a decade. My wife, Carolyn, and I visited Eastern Europe in June 2002 first to meet Friends and to encourage regional awareness and cooperation, important general goals for each EFI region.

First steps were taken then to learn to love one another and to share fellowship informally with the small group that gathered from the countries of Ireland, Romania, and Hungary. Since that time, new contacts have arisen elsewhere in the region and new Friends contacts have been made in Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The largest group of Evangelical Friends on the Continent is located in Hungary. Many of the Hungarians are Roma, but ministry has spilled over into neighboring Romania and the Balkan nations of the former Yugoslavia, an area that was wracked by war and economic decline during the early 1990s.

The purposes of each of the EFI regions are evangelism, church renewal, Christian fellowship, leadership training, and encouragement of cross-cultural mission. Pray that a clear vision of Christian ministry with a Friends identity will be seized and spread by the European delegates. The nature of regional cooperation is determined by each region, so pray for evidence of creativity and a spirit of outreach among those who gather.

Initially, EFI-Europe will be quite diverse ethnically and linguistically, as are the other EFI regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Pray that the bonds of Christian love will be immediate and joyful and that the world will know they belong to Christ because of their love for one another.

EFI-Europe Region will be the smallest of the EFI regions in numbers, but with considerable potential for witness and growth, especially among minority populations and among the majority populations of the nations of Eastern Europe and Russia.

This will surely prove to be an exciting year of participation with European Friends in the opening of a fifth region among EFI. But even more exciting are the prospects of reopening European countries, long closed to the spread of the gospel message, through the love of Christ and the ministry of Friends.

—Ron Stansell serves Evangelical Friends International as Director of the Council of Regional Directors— Samuel Pinto (EFI-Latin America); John Williams, Jr. (EFI-North America); Mkoko Boseka (EFI-Africa); and John Vanlalhriata (EFI-Asia). The Council will soon expand to include a new regional director for EFI-Europe.
Ron lives in Newberg, OR, with his wife and travel companion, Carolyn. Ron is Professor of Religious Studies and Missions at George Fox University and travels to the international regions of Evangelical Friends—Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe—as Council Director.