Missions Catalyst 01.28.09 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: Stories from the Amazon, Support-raising Help, and More

  • BOOK – World Go! Manual Equips World Christians
  • FILM – The Enemy God, Story of a Yanomamö Shaman
  • BOOK – New Mary Slessor Biography (and Others)
  • EVENTS – Support Raising Training, Business as Mission, Conferences

Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!

Resource Reviews, edited by Marti Smith, are published once a month.

Dear Readers,

I hope you’ll help me welcome 150 new subscribers who joined us this week in response to a recommendation in Perspectives in Practice. That’s a great newsletter for alumni of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement courses. If you aren’t getting it, we encourage you to take a look!

We also got about a dozen new subscribers from the National Short-Term Mission Conference. A warm welcome to you as well, and thanks for joining us!

blessings,
Marti Smith, managing editor

BOOK – World Go! Manual Equips World Christians

Source: World Gospel Mission

World Go! Manual, World Gospel Mission, 2008. 110 pages. Available in print for US$10 or downloadable (for free!)

What do you think of when you hear the word missionary? Do you think of a super-spiritual someone who has dedicated his or her life to serving in a particular foreign country for years to preach the gospel and plant churches?

Well, those guys are awesome! But Christ really has called each of us as Christians to minister, to help the oppressed, to preach the gospel – essentially to be a missionary wherever we are. Regardless of where we live, how we earn our paycheck, or how capable or incapable we feel, we are to be emissaries of Christ.

In other words, that “we” in the following verse pretty much means all of us: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal though us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

And that’s what this manual is all about. Each of the nine sections includes a story, a summary with scripture references, and suggested action items for the reader.

FILM – The Enemy God, Story of a Yanomamö Shaman

Source: Caleb Resources

The Enemy God, by 10X Productions, 2008. 100 minutes. DVD available for US$19.99 plus shipping and handling from Caleb Resources.

Could the indigenous peoples of the earth know of a spiritual realm we in the West don’t see? In this true story of life and death in the Amazon rainforest, The Enemy God recounts the life of Shake, an extraordinary Yanomamö shaman (witchdoctor).

This award-winning motion picture immerses viewers in the world of the Yanomamö people. Use it for short-term team training, missions conferences, and small group studies, to cover such topics as spiritual warfare, tribal worldview, and indigenous rights.

Additional features on the DVD include an introduction by Bautista (Shake) Cajicuwa and additional material about shamanism. Due to (non-sexual) nudity and violence, the film is not recommended for children under 13. See also the film’s website.

Editor’s Note: Two books about the Amazon are available from Caleb Resources.

BOOK – New Mary Slessor Biography (and Others)

Source: Wipf and Stock

Mary Slessor – Everybody’s Mother: The Era and Impact of a Victorian Missionary, by Jeanette Hardage. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2008. 382 pages. Available from the publisher for US$31.20 plus shipping.

How did a petite redhead from the slums of Dundee become a role model for a hundred years? Why are there statues of her holding twins in Nigeria?

She was known for her eccentricities: She climbed trees, walked barefoot and bareheaded through the forest, didn’t filter her water and shed her Victorian petticoats. On the other hand, because of her understanding of and rapport with the Africans among whom she lived, the British government appointed her their first women magistrate anywhere in the world and later awarded her the highest honor then bestowed on a woman commoner.

“Undoubtedly the best biography of Slessor to be so far produced.” Andrew F. Walls

Editor’s Note: A quick search reveals quite a few biographies of the remarkable Mary Slessor, including several for children. I also enjoyed Mary Slessor: The Barefoot Missionary, by Elizabeth Robertson (2001, 111 pages) which was quite readable and engaging but lacked the careful documentation that characterizes Hardage’s book.

The first Slessor biography to be written is now in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from several websites; it’s Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary, by W. P. Livingstone (1915, 400 pages).

If you’re interested in missionary biographies and don’t know where to start, pick up Ruth Tucker’s From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, second edition (2004, 528 pages).

EVENTS – Support Raising Training, Business as Mission, Conferences

Source: Marti Smith, Managing Editor

1. Support Raising

Do you know about The Body Builders’ Boot Camp for Personal Support Raising? One just wrapped up in Dallas, Texas yesterday. Four more are scheduled across the US in coming months:

  • Nashville, TN: February 9-10
  • Colorado Springs, CO: March 23-24
  • Bellflower, CA: April 21-22
  • Philadelphia, PA: June 8-9

We mentioned the “webinar” coming up this week from The Mission Exchange, Practical Tips for Personal Support Raising in a Tight Economy. If you work for a US mission agency you might be able to participate for free. Sign up today.

For other ministries that help with personal support raising, see the list of resources put together by our friends at OSCAR, a mission information service in the UK.

The Body Builders also brings us the NVision Seminar, four lively and engaging 90-minute sessions which thoroughly reveal our biblical, cultural, historical, and strategic role in worldwide saturation of the gospel. You can bring it to your church, or check out the seminar scheduled in California (San Luis Obispo) March 7-8.

2. Business as Mission

GO Equipped TENTmaking course is a four-and-a-half day program offered several times a year. It includes a curriculum of 30 sessions for new, current, and former tentmakers.

  • Fort Myers, FL, USA: February 25 to March 1
  • Bergen, Norway: May 20-24
  • Victoria, BC, Canada: June 25-28

For additional help with what’s now usually called “business as mission,” visit the Business as Mission Network.

3. Plus… Seven More Mission Conferences!

March 17 to 18 – SENT Conference (Houston, TX, USA). Training, equipping and networking. Sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas.

March 28 – ACMC Mid-Atlantic Conference (Dresher, PA, USA). Contact Joe Steinitz.

March 28 – ACMC Workshop (Gurnee, IL, USA). Contact Lee Christenson.

March 28 – OMF International Heart for Asia Conference (Lancaster, PA, USA). Contact OMF’s NE Regional Director.

April 25 – OMF International No Limits 2009 (Long Beach, CA, USA). Contact OMF’s SW Regional Director. “Expanding the Kingdom in an Unjust World.” Hear reports from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, North Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.

April 25 – OMF International Breakthrough Missions Conference (Redwood City, CA, USA). Contact OMF’s NW Regional Director.

November 7 – ACMC New England Regional Conference (Boston, MA, USA). Contact Joe Steinitz.

Want your event included? Let us know!

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