SCHEDULE FOR ECLDN WEST SESSIONS- 2009-10 June 23, 2009

ECLDN West will meet the following dates and locations for the 2009-2010 season:

Sept. 29, 2009- CRC offices, Mainway- Orientation session including lunch for all participants.

November 7, 2009- Faith CRC - Mentor session including lunch for everyone

December 5, 2009 - Faith CRC

January 9, 2010 - CRC offices Mainway (Please note this is not the first Saturday of the month)

February 6, 2010 - Faith CRC - Mentor session including lunch for everyone

March 6, 2010- CRC offices, Mainway

April 3, 2010- CRC offices, Mainway

May 1, 2010 - CRC offices, Mainway

June 4-5, 2010 - Crieff Hills Retreat Center

PLAN NOW FOR ECDLN WEST RETREAT February 10, 2009

Please plan to attend the ECLDN West retreat at Crieff Hills Retreat Center.  Directions available at www.crieffhills.com 

ECLDN OPENS NEW SITE FOR 2008-2009! March 21, 2008

Its official!   After five years of meeting together on one site and after several years of planning and prayer, the ECLDN Advisory Board recently decided to proceed with the startup of a second site for 2008-2009!   

We are excited to annouce that Norm Sennema, a pastor in the CRC for the last 14 years has accepted the challenge of serving as the Site Team Leader and Curriculum Coordinator for this new location east of Toronto.   A second staff person, Terry Kloosterman has recently accepted the role of serving as the Participant/Mentor Coordinator for this new site.  This new development will allow more people from the eastern part of the province to participate in the program.   This new site will holding its monthly gatherings at an as yet to be determined location.

Meanwhile ECLDN (Ontario West) will continue as it has for the last five years.  Kevin DeRaaf (Pastor of Faith CRC in Burlington), Ben VandeZande (Regional Leader for Christian Reformed Home Missions)and Barb Van Giessen (Adult Ministries Director at The Journey in K/W) will continue to serve as a staff leadership team for this site.   This site will continue to meet at the CRC Denominational Building located at Mainway in Burlington.

Applications for the new year are now being accepted for both sites.   Applications are due by July 15, 2007 to be considered for the coming year.

ECLDN ALUMNI UPDATE LETTER March 18, 2008

 Dear ECLDN Alumnus,

    It is a pleasure for me to be writing you this letter, if for no other reason than the fact that the ECLDN is still with us, functioning well, impacting lives and developing leaders!  This is the first Alumni-type letter, and something we hope to do at least twice each year (spring and fall).  We trust that each of you are doing well, and enjoying a rich, Christ-inspired, life after the LDN!  Writing this letter has brought back a flood of great memories for me, as I hope reading it will do for you.

    This year, 2007/08 marks the 5th year of the ECLDN and this years student count is 29 from 7 Classes. Fourteen new participants have joined us this year!  Kevin, Barb and Ben continue to lead, along with Tonia Hook as the assistant.  We continue to be grateful to these amazing people, for God’s leading in their lives and the commitment and dedication they show in the development of leaders for our local churches.

    Each of us received the call to be Kingdom workers, and for some it was a natural next step in our walk with Christ, while for others it was a quest into the unknown… something someone else saw in us, that we couldn’t quite see for ourselves.  For all of us, our three years as part of the LDN was nothing less than life altering!  What has God done in your life since your ECLDN experience?  If you have some time, we would love to hear from you.  Please send us a quick email to bbylsma@growingleadership.com.

    As we look into the future, we see an increasing need for the identification of leaders, a training process for them to discern and grow their gifts and values, a forum for increased biblical understanding and a platform to experience a continued molding of their character.

    Today, we sit less than a year away from the expansion of the LDN to an additional site East of Toronto.  One that we pray will be geographically positioned in the Classis Quinte area.  The process is well under way and we are thrilled to announce that Pastor Norm Sennema from Port Perry, ON has agreed to lead the LDN site east of Toronto.  Please pray for Norm as he begins to develop a team around him.

    We have come to realize the potential of the LDN on the life of the local church and her ministries.  We have seen Hilda continue on to become the Ministry Developer for Prayer and Evangelism with Home Missions, Michael use his gifts in the area of administration (Membership, Treasurer) at Connections Community Church (new church plant in London, Ontario) and Frank has become the Classis Ministries Coordinator and NCD coach for Classis Niagara.  Each of these people left the LDN better equipped to face the day to day challenges at the crossroads where life meets Kingdom mission.   Each of us spent 3 years in the LDN because of a desire to be difference makers in our lives and the lives of those around us.  Matthew reminds us that “the Harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.”   

    It is our prayer that this trend continues in each of your lives as well as those future leaders around us as we envision taking the LDN to the next level of service and equipping.  However, in order to do that, we will need increased Kingdom resources.  This letter is intended to keep you connected with the LDN’s continued impact on the lives and development of the leaders among us.  We would like to extend a challenge to each of our alumni to prayerfully consider participating in a future that will be reinvested into the lives of Kingdom workers in our local church and ministries.

    If you feel that in this season of your life, you would like to financially support the ministry of the ECLDN, please provide us with your contact information in a responded email, or send a cheque payable to “HOME MISSIONS – ECLDN” and mail to:

Christian Reformed Church of North America

3475 Mainway Dr., PO Box 5070

Burlington, ON         L7R 3Y8

Attention: Judy VandenBroek

    Thank you for your dedication to your personal and leadership development over the past few years!  Please continue to include the LDN in your prayers as we continue to envision the future of this important ministry.

    On behalf of the ECLDN Advisory Board have a blessed Easter Season!

Brian Bylsma

ECLDN Alumni - 2005

 

 

 

 

EASTERN CANADA LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS GETS NEW WEBSITE! March 6, 2008

We are pleased to announce that we are developing  a brand new website! We are currenly working on adding the content for our new site. Come back soon!