Helen Blackburn
Category: ServeBeyond Agent
Project: Outreach Ministry in Bolivia
Personal Journey | Helen accepted Jesus at a Barry Moore Crusade in Saskatoon in 1971. In 1972 she took a year’s leave of absence from the Calgary School Board and left for Briercrest to find out about the Christian life. One year turned into three and after graduation at BBI she left for Swaziland in 1975 with AEF. In 1979, she entered Multnomah School of the Bibleand upon graduating in 1981, returned to teach and finish her BEd after her degree in Calgary. After her dad’s passing in 1983, she contacted the EFCM and left for France for a year of French and returned to Africa in 1986. Helen was commissioned as a Career Missionary with the EFCCM (now ServeBeyond) in Calgary in 1990 and returned to Bau, Zaire, until all expatriates were evacuated in 1991. Sevastopol, Ukraine was her next posting where she taught English at School #3 and held home Bible studies as follow-up to Summer English Institutes. In 1999 she was refused a new visa and given 10 days to leave the country. In the fall of that year she began Russian studies in Columbia, SC and left for Russia in 2000. She worked at the State Educational Center in St. Petersburg, teaching English and Bible, until 2004 when she returned to Canada. Helen retired in 2005 but accepted the Lord’s leading to Tarija, Bolvia where she now lives and works.
Current Ministry | The Outreach Ministry Project assists the children in a Boys’ Home and a Support Centre in Tarija, Bolivia. The main focus is working with the kids at the Support Centre and teaching English as a second language to students. This includes providing practical things that help the children in their studies, school supplies and uniforms, school fees when needed and occasional gifts of encouragement. The purpose of the English classes and relational outreach is to reach people with the good news of the Gospel and share God’s love with them. This is fundamental to the EFCC’s purpose of seeing lives transformed by the power of the Gospel. The local communities benefit from both the opportunity to improve their English and through the hope of the Gospel.
