By Lloyd Mackey

Trokosi Fetish slave women who have been released learn to sew at the IN Network Centre in Adidome, Ghana. Their goal is to return to their villages with the ability to support themselves.

Why, IN Network, of course.

If most Okanagan readers guessed wrongly, that would be understandable. The IN office has only been in the Kelowna area since last March – having moved at that time with  its president, Mel Newth, from the Fraser Valley.

Of that staff of 1,000, only Newth is Okanagan-based. And he speaks of the fact that the ministry operates as a “virtual office.” Some of its major international administrative and coordinating functions are, for example, in such places as Austria and New Zealand.

There are various pragmatic reasons for such a decentralized operation, says Newth, not the least of which is IN’s commitment to carry out its mandate in a “holistic” way.

IN’s vision, he notes, is to “glorify God and win men, women and children to Jesus Christ. We want to connect Christian partners in effective evangelism, church-planting, discipleship and community development.”

That involves “two-way giving and receiving,” he suggests. There are “supply-line countries” like Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Hong Kong – where a substantial amount of the helping resources come from.

And there are the places where the needs are being met – places which Newth calls the  “front-line countries,” such as Colombia, Romania, Uganda, India and the Czech Republic.

The whole purpose of the “network” is to make these linkages. And Newth notes that the national partners, on  the ground, are frequently the best people to identify the needs – whether they be spiritual, relational or community-building.

One example, out of Zambia, appears on the IN international web page under the heading, ‘A lesson taught: loving your enemies.’

Newth cites a recent instance of effective linking between supply-line and front line countries.

It was the support Canadian Christians gave a project officer in Ghana, so that he could take community development short courses at the Coady Institute, a highly regarded Catholic facility associated with St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

IN began in 1974, founded by New Zealander Ray Harrison, previously world director for Youth for Christ International.

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Having attended the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, he was captured by the then-revolutionary idea of sharing the gospel by partnering with nationals working in their own countries.

Until fairly recently, the organization was known as International Needs. Its change to IN Network reflects both the global need-meeting objective and its networking modus operandi.

Newth, also a New Zealand native, was mentored by Harrison, serving in several capacities in the growing organization – before succeeding the founder as president in 1989.

In the late 60s, Newth and his wife Val immigrated to Canada.

For several years, he was residential development vice president of A.E. LePage, a national real estate brokerage firm (now Royal LePage).

Returning to New Zealand in the mid-70s with their two oldest daughters, they added one more there. Mel became involved in a partnership which developed a chain of ice cream parlours, named Cream Cans.

They returned to Canada in 1986, where Mel headed up the IN Canadian operation.

Newth credits some of his particular approach to ministry leadership to having been involved in Christian (Plymouth) Brethren assemblies in New Zealand.

The CBs, he says, had a strong emphasis on lay preaching, teaching and leadership, as well as a keen awareness of mission and outreach.

Val, for her part, was the office administrator for a Surrey law firm for several years, during their Fraser Valley time. Until recently, since their move to Kelowna, she has continued her association with the firm, using her own form of ‘virtual office’ operation.

The Newths’ daughters, Sarah, Karla and Maryka are, respectively, a psychologist, a bank executive and an occupational therapist. They are all married and have, so far, given their parents two grandchildren.

The Newths attend Willow Park (South Campus). Before they moved here, they were at another Mennonite Brethren congregation, North Langley Community Church, where Mel was on the missions committee.

Mel is also on the board of Christian Info Society (CIS), the publishers of BC Christian News. Before the Okanagan move, he served over a decade as CIS board chair.

While his IN Network duties necessitate his frequent travel, Newth hopes to raise fair amount of awareness for the network in Okanagan churches. He can be reached at 250-764-5446.  

innetwork.org 

January 2008