Thoughts Along The Journey

By Jacob (Spain)

While mobilizing in Western Canada I saw an OMF strategy that seemed effective.  In simple terms, a team of people from one region band together and travel to mission events across Canada. They visit key churches, Bible Colleges and Seminaries, and participate in the MissionFest events hosted in several Canadian Provinces.

Traveling as a team provides mutual support, knowledgeable interaction from a variety of fields (albeit from the same region), and allows them to cover several bases at once. While one person provides a seminar the others can continue to man the booth. I know from experience that exhibiting at large mission events or local churches is more enjoyable when done by 2 or 3 people than when done alone. The dialogue is encouraging, you can take some time to get off your feet without “abandoning” the booth, and the conversations with visitors can be more enriching.

Seminars – opportunity for interaction

Another key element, especially at larger events like MissionFest Manitoba or a Canadian Bible College is speaking in seminar options. These seminars provide a great forum to connect with people already interested in our focus. It lets them see some of the how in our ministry approach. For example, offering a seminar that highlights one of our values lets students/attendees not only hear about our values, but actually see how those values are lived out in a real life context.

It requires creative thinking since event sponsors often choose the topics.  In my presentations, I used adult learning techniques to foster interaction and give everyone a chance to learn and express him/herself. Regardless of the topic, I could use these interactions to give practical examples of our commitment to growing people in our organization.

Although I haven’t interacted with the OMF group to hear about their “results”, I do know that World Team suffers in the area of name recognition across most of Canada. I believe strongly that physical representation at events like MissionFest can raise awareness about who we are and what God is doing in and through us around the world.

What events have you participated in that were fruitful?

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By David Smith, ChurchLink team leader and former worker in SE Asia

Do Hard Things is the title of a book I am reading with my son. It is about how teenagers, a designation only around since the 1940’s, have been given a free pass for a life of low expectation and self focus until they become “adults.” Funny thing is, physically they are already adults. The book is written by teenagers and is for teenagers; their message is do hard and important things. There are many parallels between mobilization and the topic of this book.

As mission workers, we are the ones best able to speak to potential mission workers. Seeing undiscovered potential in others and calling it forth is part of good leadership, even when it means they will need to do hard things. Our passion about doing hard and important things is the very thing to spur others to get going.

So, here are five types of hard things the book I am reading recommends. With a little imagination I think you will see how these are the hard things that Jesus has mobilized us all to do in missions.

1) Do things that are outside your comfort zone. “These actions can challenge us because they are unfamiliar or even scary, but they usually become some of our greatest memories.”

2) Do things that go beyond what is expected or required. “These actions are hard because they rest entirely on our own initiative.”

3) Do things that are too big to accomplish alone. “We’re passionate about these because God has placed them on our hearts.”

4) Do things that don’t earn an immediate payoff. “They’re hard because you won’t see much progress from one day to the next and because, especially at the time, it can seem like you’d be happier if you didn’t do them.”

5) Do things that challenge the cultural norm. “These choices are hard because they can cost your popularity and friendships…But the payoff is huge: if we do them, we can change the course of history.” 

After all Jesus did the hardest thing for us.

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By Valerie (“urban farming” in NYC)

Thinking back to my twenties as a “wanna-be missionary” this is what I remember:  I didn’t know how to take the first step towards missions.  Printed materials from various agencies were a blur to me…they all looked the same.  Everything sounded great, how should I choose where to go?  Missions seemed like something waiting within the vague future of my life.

But in my twenties, I also remember people who talked to me about taking practical steps toward the field.  I remember people who spoke with passion about their ministries and made me want to join them.  I remember people who displayed a mature Christ-like character that made me want to be mentored by them.  I remember people who saw potential in me for reaching the nations.

PEOPLE cultivated me for missions. It was a long road, but it paid off!  How can YOU do the same?

GO and FARM:

• Prayerfully CHOOSE three people (units) that you know right now.
• PLAN for regular contact with them, via phone/skype/email/home assignment/etc.
• PRAY for them to join your team.
• COACH them to take practical steps forward.
• SHARE YOUR PASSION about your ministry, and your hardships too.
• BE CLEAR that you see potential in them for your ministry.  Communicate your vision for them and the value you see in them!

No one is ready to join your team the moment that you meet them.  Stop waiting for perfection and work with whom God has given to you now.  Take a risk.  Invest in lives over time, pray for results. We cannot afford to waste time now that may generate a new crop of missionaries in the future!

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For sale: baby shoes, never worn. – Ernest Hemingway

In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.

Six word stories have caught on and you can find imaginative collections with a quick Google search. Can you tell the World Team story in six words?

Let’s say you’re in line at the market wearing a World Team shirt. The man behind you asks “What’s that, a sports team?” You have less than a minute to answer before your change is in your pocket and you are on your way. How would you answer him?

Granted, you would have time for more than 6 words in the market scenario, but let’s get the creative juices flowing and hear how you’d share the heart of World Team in six words! Maybe it’s a story specific to your field or someone you know. Or maybe you can capture the essence of World Team’s global purpose. Have some fun thinking afresh about our ministry and how we can share it with others.

Post your six word stories here and check back to see what others have to say.

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By Dave Martin – Papua retiree

The job is huge…  impossible…  finding enough quality people to establish reproducing churches among the unreached of our world.  There’s too many of them.  We need many more good missionaries.   What if…. for starters, we had 100 more?

Our situation is not unlike the need to feed the great crowd who had been following Jesus for three days and had nothing to eat.  Check it out in Mark 8:1-9.  There were about 4,000 needy souls and no apparent resources to meet their needs.  But Jesus was there!

He who had fed a few million with manna for forty years, could certainly take care of 4,000 all by himself.  Omnipotence.  Wow!  Did you see that!  But no, our Lord wanted to teach his followers something.  It would serve them well in the days to come – in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria… you get the picture.

The disciples asked, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”  A valid question, but before the disciples asked “how” Jesus expressed the foundational truth to their mission and ours: “I have compassion for these people…”

When he called his disciples together to talk to them about the needy crowd, the first thing out of his mouth was the expression of his heart.  His love for broken, hurting, hungry humanity:  “I have compassion for these people…if I send them away hungry to their homes; they will faint on the way.”

The disciples were to be conveyers, not only of the multiplied bread and fish but of the tender compassion of his heart.  He would fill their hands with the food to distribute, but he longed for their hearts to be filled with his heart.  It’s as if he says to them, “I love these people, and I want you to love them too.  I want you to see them with my eyes.”  That’s what comes first.   Before our hands are filled with the resources, our hearts must be full of Christ’s heart.  First things first.  That’s the heart of it.

This is no mere theory.  This is foundational truth.  Our mission is first a heart matter. For starters, 100 new recruits would be great, but only if our hearts, and theirs, are filled with the Savior’s passion for the world.

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