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REV. MARLENE EVANGELISTA
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SNAPSHOT
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David and Marlene are called to minister to the hurting as Mercy Ministers in the area of practical helps, community organization and development both locally and abroad; whenever and wherever God provides the opportunity. Marlene, David and their family want to reflect the love of Jesus through practical assistance and has established a non-profit, Christ-centered humanitarian mercy foundation called 'The Angels of Mercy Network International'.
Locally, they have had countless oppurtunities to provide practical assistance to newcomers from various ethnic backgrounds. Husband and wife are presently reaching out through practical helps to the homeless and street people in their own community in Surrey, BC - a city that is experiencing both rapid growth and an influx of needy people.
Abroad, Marlene and Dave are leading short-term mission teams to do Crisis Outreach Ministries and Community Development evangelism in response to a deadly mudslide disaster on one of the Islands in the Phillipines when almost a whole rural community was buried in several meters of mud one morning in February 2006. Their Share-a-Hope Rebuilding Mission will help rebuild local churches as well as share hope and bless the surviving families of the over 300 schoolchildren who were helplessly buried alive with their teachers.
Dave and Marlene are actively involved in multicultural church planting ministry in British Columbia, Home Group leadership with ethnic groups and Alpha Ministry. In addition, they serve as volunteers and mobilizers with Wycliffe Bible Translators as information, awareness and recruitment representatives across Canada. God has called husband and wife to reach to the lost as pastors, evangelists, mercy ministers and missionary pastors; and God will continue to bless their various ministries as they serve the Lord.
Read on for the 2006 community newspaper article entitled "Where Angels Tread" by Paula Carlson, Staff Reporter, The Leader, December 27, 2006 [Surrey Leader] about the work of the Angels of Mercy Network International:
WHERE ANGELS TREAD
by By Paula Carlson
Staff Reporter
The Leader
December 27, 2006
Leonard, a homeless man, shuffles into The Front Room, his long beard grey and tangled and his hair brushing the tops of his shoulders.
His face lined and drawn, Leonard brightens when he sees Marlene Evangelista, who is volunteering her time to cut street people's hair at the Whalley shelter.
"I waited all year for you," he tells her, taking a seat for his annual grooming tradition.
Evangelista gets to work, snipping and shaving and when she's done, "you can just see the years coming off," she says. "He looks like a different person."
On some level, he is. Under Evangelista's care, Leonard is no longer a scruffy man overlooked by those around him; he is someone who matters and is deserving of attention.
It is this simple gift, Evangelista says, that can trigger transformation.
Reaching out to those in need is at the core of Angels of Mercy Network International, a non-profit society created 10 years ago by Evangelista and her husband David.
"We believe that every person is capable of showing mercy, you don’t need money," Evangelista says. "Angels are messengers of God. They can be somebody that comes into your path, that lifts you up, that gives you hope."
To underscore that belief, the couple named their first daughter Charity Hope.
"Because where there is charity, there is hope," Evangelista says.
Last weekend, Angels of Mercy volunteers performed 30 haircuts at The Front Room, just one service offered by David and his wife.
On many occasions, David has driven battered women to transition homes in the middle of the night. The couple connects new immigrants to resources, hugs tear-streaked prostitutes and takes the truly desperate into their Newton home.
They distribute their personal phone number to crisis centres, agencies and individuals and answer distress calls 24/7.
Evangelista, a diminutive Filipino, has no qualms about heading into prisons and pre-trial centres to talk to tattooed inmates. Last Thursday, she dropped into Luke 15 House, a halfway house for paroled convicts.
"I brought Christmas goodies and new pillows for the guys," Evangelista says.
They receive no government funding and often barter for the donated goods they receive. Their community service, along with four children and an ailing mother at home, as well as David's full-time job at Trinity Western University, leaves little spare time.
But Evangelista wouldn't have it any other way.
In 1983, just two years after coming to Canada from the Philippines with David and four young children, Evangelista was hit by a car driven by a drag-racing youth. She was seriously injured and spent more than a year in a wheelchair.
During that time, in a moment of despair, she asked God what her purpose was.
Reflecting on the goodness other people showed to her young immigrant family, the idea for Angels of Mercy was born.
Today, Evangelista has fully recovered and at 57, says she is too busy to retire.
"I have a second chance at life. I have to use it wisely."
She challenges others to do the same, adding that 2007 is the perfect time to start.
"Seven is God's number. It's a year for everyone to be blessed. So get out there and bless someone."
For more information about Angels of Mercy Network International, call 604-591-1441 or e-mail dmevangelista@telus.net
SOURCE: "Where Angels Tread" by Paula Carlson, Staff Reporter, The Leader, December 27, 2006
ANGELS OF MERCY NETWORK INTERNATIONAL
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