EMC Missions introduces four new faces!

Four new names and faces will start showing up on EMC lists and publications over the next few months. On June 6 and 7, the Board of Missions had the privilege of hearing Jayda Brandt, Jenny Klassen and Mark and Gillian Wiewel share about their calling into missions. All four were formally accepted as EMC associate missionaries.

Jayda Brandt

Jayda Brandt is from the Blumenort Community Church. She has spent the last few years at the University of Winnipeg getting her teaching degree and completed her final practicum at a school in Bangkok, Thailand. She fell in love with the country and started exploring the idea of teaching at a Thai school long-term—but not a missions school. As she tells it, every time she added that caveat—“not the missions route”—it felt more and more wrong. She visited Grace International School, a missions school in Chiang Mai, and found her new home. Over the last months she has asked for prayer to develop a missions heart, and by the time she left for Thailand on July 20, that missions heart shone brightly. She is serving with TeachBeyond and teaching Grade 1 at Grace International School.

Jenny Klassen

Jenny Klassen is originally from Saskatchewan. As a young university student, she felt called to more, and participated in a one-month trip to Japan through Multiply (MB Mission). Falling in love with Japan, she knew she wanted to go back, and a number of years later she signed up for Multiply’s longer mission trip, called TREK. With travel shut down at the time, she spent her ministry time in Winnipeg, volunteering with a number of ministries, including Inner City Youth Alive (ICYA). With her heart for the people on the margins, she fell in love with ICYA and the community they serve, and she stayed on as a full-time worker. Since joining ICYA full-time in 2021, she has become an active member and leader at Many Rooms Church Community. At ICYA she is the youth discipleship coordinator, and she spends her time mentoring and discipling teens and young adults.

Gillian and Mark Wiewel, with son Oliver

Mark and Gillian Wiewel have been working toward missions since feeling a call as teenagers. The last few years have been spent intentionally preparing for life and ministry overseas, as Mark completed his teaching degree and Gillian her TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree. Along with their young son Oliver, Mark and Gillian left for Prague, Czechia on August 11. Sent by Ridgewood Church and serving with TeachBeyond, Mark will be teaching Grade 6 at the Christian International School of Prague, which provides a biblical education for missionary kids (around 30 percent of the student body) and expat students from around the world, and Gillian is looking forward to building relationships in the community.

Each of these missionaries has a page on our website where you can learn more or sign up to receive their newsletters. Find it at www.emcmissions.ca/missionaries.

– EMC Board of Missions