International Teams Canada is a Christian mission organization dedicated to meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the poor and oppressed. Our motivation to care comes from our pursuit of Jesus and His mission to engage the most marginalized and impoverished among us, especially women, children and refugees.
Our work is always accomplished in partnership with churches, businesses and grassroots networks of passionate people investing their time, resources and abilities.
International Teams Canada has approximately 100 Canadian staff working in Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and North and South America. We are part of a wider association of “International Teams” with national offices providing leadership out of the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Austria, Australia, Philippines, USA and here in Canada. Worldwide staff and missionaries number over 1000.
Our History
1960 Kevin Dyer founds “South East Asia Literature Crusades.”
1961 First team to Calcutta, India, sells 100,000 Gospels of Mark in just three months. The work spreads to Bangladesh and Singapore. U.S. Board of Directors is formed.
1962 An old house in Park Ridge, Illinois is renovated and turned into a training center. Ten adults and 7 children begin training for the first team to Latin America. The name of the organization is changed to Literature Crusades.
1963 A team leaves the US for Brazil, with another 100,000 Gospels of Mark.
1964 Thirty-nine businessmen from North America, Australia, and Asia distribute literature at the Tokyo Olympics. An estimated 70,000 people are contacted per day. (At every Summer Olympic Games since 1964 IT has had a major outreach program.)
1965 Forty-two adults, plus children, finish the first training in Prospect Heights and are sent on four teams to Manila, Philippines; Bombay, India; Bogota, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela. In September, another twelve people begin training, newly expanded to a nine month program.
1966 In December, between Christmas and New Years, International Teams conducts its first “World Missions Congress” at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Nearly 1600 young people attend from all over the United States and Canada. Hundreds dedicate their lives to the Lord to be used in His service. These are then held every three years for the next 20 years.
1967 With teams serving in ten countries, International Teams begins its “Courier Ministry” – taking Bibles and Christian literature and relief items to Christians behind the Iron Curtain. They serve the persecuted church in this way for over 20 years.
1969 David Pavey leads our first team in Europe: Lyon, France. Since then we have had 14 short-term and 5 long term (still on-going) teams serving in France alone, as well as many long and short-term teams throughout the rest of Western Europe.
Early 1970′s King’s Inn begins, a ministry to kids struggling with drugs or other addictions. Three of the houses on campus are used to provide a communal type setting for kids (8 to 10 per house) to be discipled by house parents. Church-planting becomes one of IT’s stated objectives.
1976 Special programs are run in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. to celebrate America’s Bicentennial. Nearly 100 people dress up in early American clothing to distribute literature through floats and displays.
1979 The name of the organization is changed to International Crusades.
1976-86 SCOPE conferences are run every year where 50 pastors and their wives are invited to come for four days of spiritual refreshment.
1984 The name of the organization is changed to International Teams.
1986 International Teams Philippines is founded.
1988 Kevin Dyer steps down as President in order to give opportunity to new, younger leadership. Marc Dyer returns from the Philippines and is appointed President of IT USA. Geoff Tunnicliffe moves to Canada and develops IT Canada into a partner organization with ITP and IT USA. One organization is becoming three partners.
Late 1980′s The Courier Ministry expands to include evangelism and discipleship efforts in the communist countries of Central & Eastern Europe. Several IT personnel begin living in Hungary, Romania, and East Germany.
1989 Attorney Raineer Chu is appointed by the ITP Board, as the first Filipino Director of ITP. The influence of Filipino missionaries begins to lead IT toward defining “compassionate evangelism” as one of our core emphases. U.S. Urban Ministries is established with teams in Chicago’s inner city African-American and Hispanic communities.
1989-90 Communism collapses in the countries of Central & Eastern Europe. Teams are formed to help churches throughout the region in the development of their evangelism and discipleship ministries.
1990 ITCanada launches a church mobilization effort that grows 600% in five years.
1991 Albania opens to the world. About 20 IT personnel take part in the first ever large outreach campaign in that country. More than 120 people from over 15 different nationalities and 20 organizations and churches work closely together for two weeks. The result is the planting of two churches in Tirana and the forging of a model mission partnership (The Albanian Encouragement Project). From these seeds more than 70 churches have been planted throughout the country since then, and the Albanian Evangelical Alliance (VUSH) was born. Brian Jose, formerly leading teams in Central & Eastern Europe, moves from Austria to England and is appointed International Director.
1992 IT Australia is incorporated. IT USA, Malachi Ministries, and SONLIFE form the Josiah Venture partnership under the leadership of Dave Patty. Josiah Venture’s vision is a passionate movement of church-based youth ministry throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
1994 IT/UK becomes officially registered as a charity in the UK.
Mid-90′s U.S. Urban Ministries expands to include serving in Philadelphia (among Cambodian and Vietnamese residents), Boston, and Los Angeles (among transplanted Iranians). An increasing number of people from countries in Europe and Latin America, begin serving in IT teams. Prototype training programs and support systems are designed in order to facilitate this movement. Europe and Latin America Regional Leadership established. Filipinos pioneer our first team in Vietnam. Teams, in partnership with other organisations, are formed in Central Asia.
1998 Partnership formed with Reach Out Ministries, another youth leadership development organisation. Executive Team formed.
1999-2000 East Asia Regional Leadership established ACCESS, a standardized, two-week intensive, introductory training program designed for all people joining International Teams anywhere in the world.
Today 102 teams, made up of people from over 24 different countries, serve in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Central and Southeast Asia, Australia, Latin America, and North America.
Our Vision: A Message from CEO Neil Ostrander
In partnership with local churches, International Teams serves the poor with practical programs that meet needs for shelter, food, clothing, clean water, education, medical care, sustainability, friendship, encouragement and hope.
Following the example of Jesus, we respond to all with an authentic desire to see emotional, economic and spiritual transformation. In the process, we ourselves are transformed as we build relationships and learn from our neighbours.
International Teams is moved to serve where the need is greatest. In urban Canada and across the globe, the greatest need is felt among orphans, widows, refugees, the unemployed and working poor, and those who are marginalized or oppressed.
In Canada, we work to build networks of churches that will collaborate for the good of their cities. Our goal is to encourage congregations to integrate fully in their local neighbourhoods and to equip the church to serve their global neighbour.
We invite you to join us as we serve joyfully in obedience to God, strengthened by those who stand beside us and encouraged in prayer.
Neil Ostrander
CEO, International Teams Canada
Board of Directors
We believe that International Teams is a part of God’s Kingdom and that God is in control. Therefore, as leaders we submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and seek His will in all we do.
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Paul FletcherPaul is currently serving as an interim pastor with Vision Ministries. Before this, he served as the Senior Pastor at Woodside Bible Fellowship Church. Apart from serving on the International Teams board, he also serves on the HCJB board, a large, global broadcasting and medical mission. |
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Gerry Fowler • ChairmanGerry is the owner of Manna International, the primary business of which is exporting soybeans from South Western Ontario to Europe. He is an elder at Bethel Bible Chapel in Sault St Marie, Ontario. He is married to Elizabeth and they have been blessed with three children and 10 grandchildren. |
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Barry KingBarry is a lawyer with Strathcona Law Firm in Edmonton Alberta. His experience in the practice of law is wide ranging, with an emphasis on commercial litigation, including bankruptcy and insolvency. As well, he has provided general counsel to a variety of charitable and commercial enterprises. He is a long standing resident of Sherwood Park AB where he lives with his wife Ruth and three daughters. |
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Faith Morphy • Finance Committee ChairFaith is the Owner/Operator of Young Drivers of Canada. She is a member at Waterloo MB church in Waterloo, Ontario. Faith is married to Ray and they have 2 children. |
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Stuart ThomsonStuart is an independent financial planner living in Kitchener, Ontario. He has a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from McMaster University. Stuart and his wife Debra are involved in the church plant at Forward Church – Huron Park in south Kitchener. They have two adult daughters. |
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Karen ToewsKaren has a project management background, primarily with Alberta based oil and gas companies. She is a native Calgarian amd has led or served on, many short-term teams and met her husband, Patrick, on a Careforce International team to the Dominican Republic. She and Patrick are involved in First Alliance Church. |
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Stephen TullochSteve is the ‘Community Care Director’ at Elevation in Waterloo, Ontario. He has a BA from Laurentian University and a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary. Now that Steve and Deb’s 5 kids have scattered, they have turned their empty nest into ‘The Branches’, a ‘community of hospitality in Uptown Waterloo’. |
Statement of Faith
The iTeams Canada Board of Directors has approved and confirmed the following Statement of Faith:
- We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit was born of the virgin Mary, was true God and true man existing in one person and was without sin. We believe in His representative and substitutionary sacrifice, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the Father, His present life as Lord of all, High Priest and Advocate, and His personal return in power and glory.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and gives life to believers, enables them to understand and apply the Scriptures, empowers them for godly living and equips them for service and witness.
- We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, without error in the original documents, fully trustworthy, and the final authority in all matters of Christian faith and life.
- We believe that each member of the human race is fallen, sinful and lost; that the shed blood of Jesus Christ provides the only ground for forgiveness of sins and justification to all who receive Him by faith; and that only through regeneration by the Holy Spirit can they become children of God.
- We believe the one, holy, universal Church is the body of Christ, composed of all regenerate people. This redeemed community worships God and seeks to proclaim the Good News to all people.
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting punishment of the lost.
International Teams also accepts the Lausanne Covenant and the World Evangelical Fellowship Statement of Faith.