First to Join Pioneers and Planters
White Wing Messenger|August 2021
Michael Edwards is pastor of Orange Grove Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A fourth-generation bishop, he is the grandson of former General Overseer M. A. Tomlinson and great grandson of A. J. Tomlinson. Bishop Edwards is a graduate of Tomlinson College (1979). He and his wife, Cindy, have been married more than 45 years.
MICHAEL EDWARDS
First to Join Pioneers and Planters

In every new church plant, there is a moment when someone is the first person to place their right hand on the Bible and take the Membership Covenant. In that moment, a mission (a church plant) is transformed into a new local church. None are more surprised than me that this is my membership story, who as a teenager in the early 1970s was one of those who was first to join the newly established church in Windsor, Canada.

The when, where, and why of this story goes back a generation to when my dad was a young Christian attending our Hazel Park Church in Detroit, Michigan. Years later, in remembering those days, he shared with me how he would look across the Detroit River at the Canadian city of Windsor and feel a calling to establish a Church of God (of Prophecy) in that city, which did not have one. It took over 30 years for him to see this “vision” fulfilled, a journey which included him accepting the position of National Overseer of Canada in 1969. Our family then immigrated to the city of Windsor, where Dad threw himself into traveling to our churches across the country, as well as being at conventions, camps, and emergency situations (often traveling on his own money). However, when not traveling, he made time to rent a room in the old downtown Windsor YMCA, where we would have worship services on Sundays. I doubt when moving his family to Canada that Dad imagined the night he organized the mission at the “Y” into a new local church it would be his son who joined first.

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NEW JERSEY FOR JESUS CHRIST
White Wing Messenger

NEW JERSEY FOR JESUS CHRIST

Jonathan Olavarria serves as pastor of The Hub Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, a ministry of the Church of God of Prophecy since 2016. Jonathan has served in various ministry roles including summer camps, youth, children, Christian education, pastoral care, and evangelism. Pastor Jonathan is also a vice principal with Newark Public Schools. He and his wife, Noemi, have been married since 2012 and have been blessed with two sons, Adrian and Benjamin.

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4 minutos  |
August 2021
First to Join Pioneers and Planters
White Wing Messenger

First to Join Pioneers and Planters

Michael Edwards is pastor of Orange Grove Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A fourth-generation bishop, he is the grandson of former General Overseer M. A. Tomlinson and great grandson of A. J. Tomlinson. Bishop Edwards is a graduate of Tomlinson College (1979). He and his wife, Cindy, have been married more than 45 years.

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6 minutos  |
August 2021
Celebrating God's MIRACULOUS PROVISION
White Wing Messenger

Celebrating God's MIRACULOUS PROVISION

We are always excited to share the testimonies from the nations of the miraculous provisions of God. Rejoice with our family as they celebrate.

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4 minutos  |
August 2021
CARING FOR KIDS IN CRISIS Children and Depression
White Wing Messenger

CARING FOR KIDS IN CRISIS Children and Depression

Depression is a common and serious medical illness. It is real, it happens, and it is treatable. Society has put a stigma on mental illness, and as the salt and light of the world we must put an end to that stigma.

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4 minutos  |
August 2021
The Significance of Planting Churches on New Ground
White Wing Messenger

The Significance of Planting Churches on New Ground

Bishop Chin Kang Mon is the national overseer of Myanmar. Bishop Chin has planted numerous churches throughout the country. One of our newer nations, Bishop Chin has 35 churches, 3 missions, and 1,550 members under his care as well as three orphanages. One of his greatest accomplishments is the establishment of South East Asia Mission College. Bishop Chin writes, The ultimate objective of this college is to prepare, equip, and train his people to be effective workers of God in Myanmar and beyond. Its vision is to adequately produce and multiply planters, evangelists, missionaries, and cell-leaders. SEAMC graduates and students are enthusiastic in different fields of ministry in Myanmar. There have been 425 graduates from SEAMC and 75 percent of graduates have been serving the Lord as missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and association/church key leaders in Myanmar. Fifty percent of the graduates have been serving the Lord in new mission fields among unreached people groups.

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5 minutos  |
August 2021
HOW PENTECOST CAME TO ANEGADA
White Wing Messenger

HOW PENTECOST CAME TO ANEGADA

Bishop Adrian L. Varlack, Sr. became a committed follower of Jesus Christ at age 14 in an island-wide revival in his native Anegada, British Virgin Islands. He has been an ordained bishop since 1972 and has spent 48 years in international missions promotions, church administration, preaching, teaching, and writing for the Church of God of Prophecy, including three years as overseer of Canada, where he supervised 40 pastors. He has traveled and ministered in over 90 nations and territories. September 1999, Varlack joined International Leadership Development and Discipleship Ministries as a member of the faculty of the Center for Biblical Leadership and served as an instructor for 19 years. At the 2006 International Assembly, he was also appointed church historian, and in September 2018, consultant to the general overseer. He lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, with his wife of 54 years, Janice Smith Varlack, also of the British Virgin Islands. They have seven children, 25 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

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5 minutos  |
August 2021
FACING FORWARD
White Wing Messenger

FACING FORWARD

Pioneers and Planters in Central and South America

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2 minutos  |
August 2021
Our Leaders on Mission
White Wing Messenger

Our Leaders on Mission

Marsha Robinson is the Communications department publications coordinator for the Church of God of Prophecy International Offices. She is the managing editor of the White Wing Messenger, Mensajero Ala Blanca, and Le Messager a L'Aile Blanche. She is an ordained Church of God of Prophecy minister and actively works as a community chaplain.

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5 minutos  |
August 2021
The Will to Serve
White Wing Messenger

The Will to Serve

Wilson J. Rodríguez is from Nicaragua. He is a 22-year-old member of the COGOP in Nueva Guinea, a city in southeast Nicaragua. Under the leadership of his national supervisor, Bishop Jorge Marrero, and his local pastor, Uriel Mejia, Brother Wilson serves the church in youth, children's, and discipleship ministries as secretary and assistant treasurer. He also has his own ministry collecting food to distribute to those in need.

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2 minutos  |
August 2021
Time in the Bank
White Wing Messenger

Time in the Bank

You might think that money is the most valuable currency in the world. All of society seems to run by cash or card. However, it’s not the change in your pocket that’s your most valuable possession. It’s something even more sacred— and I guarantee you, you’re rich in it!

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2 minutos  |
August 2021