In This Issue: Miraculous movements, language learning tools, and more
- BOOK: Miraculous Movements
- ARTICLE: Status of Global Mission
- BOOKLET: Bible Story Coloring Book
- WEBSITE: Everyday Language Learner
- EVENTS: April Missions Events
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!
Quotable
“She was an ordinary village woman; she was in a newly planted church. She started teaching them the stories, especially the women, with songs, and the most important thing she taught them to do was to obey the truth.”
Jerry Trousdale, Miraculous Movements
BOOK: Miraculous Movements
Source: Thomas Nelson
Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus, by Jerry Trousdale. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012. 208 pages.
Miraculous Movements recounts an amazing change taking place within Muslim communities where the truth of Jesus Christ is turning around the lives of many thousands of Muslims from more than 20 people groups. Discover through the sometimes humorous, often sobering, but always enlightening and encouraging true stories how imams, sheiks, and entire mosques are forsaking Islam and embracing Christ.
This close look at what the Lord is doing to spread the gospel highlights the key scriptural principles that help Christians reach out in love to share the gospel in their own community. The author outlines the principle of service to others that opens doors of opportunity to the work of the gospel.
Author Jerry Trousdale works with CityTeam International, an organization dedicated to helping disciples make disciples through CityTeam’s own ministry and through training other ministries in more than 30 countries.
>> Purchase the book for $US9.99 from Amazon (US$7.99 for the Kindle edition). Learn more at Miraculous Movements. See also a mission leader’s review (Ted Esler) and an interview with the author, Missions Leader on Thousands of New Church Plants in Muslim Areas (The Christian Post).
>> Editor’s note: I recently finished another (older) book that illustrates some of the same disciple-making principles but primarily in an American context. See Felicity Dale’s An Army of Ordinary People.
ARTICLE: Status of Global Mission
Source: Justin Long, January 31, 2012
The 2012 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is out, and it features the latest Status of Global Mission page. IBMR is free to download.
“Among the many other bits that are shown on this page year after year is the addition of data for AD 1800, thus giving us a 225-year window onto the progress of the missionary task, and the most current estimate of the global total of unevangelized individuals: 2,066,504,000. This number is still rising right now, at a rate of about 1.01% per year. The remaining task is getting larger. More workers are needed! By 2025, it is estimated that the total of unevangelized individuals will top 2,261,675,000-in other words, between now and then, we will have added another 200 million unevangelized souls – roughly the equivalent of the total population of Brazil.”
BOOKLET: Bible Story Coloring Book
Source: OSCAR
Editor’s note: Readers, what do you think of this? A tip of the hat to OSCAR, the UK information service for world mission. Editor Mike Frith writes:
“We like to feature simple resources that can be used by missionaries in cross-cultural situations. One such resource used by a number of missionaries working with children, is the Colour Bible. It’s a simple printed resource which consists of 10 stories from the Old Testament and 10 from the New Testament, each with text in simple English and a picture to colour in. The Messianic promise develops as you progress through the stories. It’s the gospel in a nutshell, simple but effective.
“There is no copyright on the Colour Bible, so you can print as many copies as you like or use it as part of your own outreach material. A Spanish version is also available and a version in the Swahili language is in preparation.
>> See also: new downloadable lesson plans to help you teach kids about the world from Stand4Kids.
WEBSITE: Everyday Language Learner
Source: Everyday Language Learner
Want to have more fun learning language? Poke around the Everyday Language Learner site. The page on language learning activities has some great ideas to get you started or keep you going, whether you are studying on your own, working with a language helper one-on-one, or learning as part of a group. See Ten Essential Tools for Everyday Language Learners. EDLL’s latest tool is a free email series called the Ten-week Journey. Check it out.
>> Editor’s note: If language learning is going to be your full-time or part-time job for a while, especially if you won’t have close supervision to keep you going, consider additional training in language acquisition. Programs like MTI’s PILAT course are pricy but priceless.
EVENTS: April Missions Events
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
Looks like a busy month for mission events. Here’s our listing. Let me know if I’ve missed something that ought to be included so we can put it on the calendar. Thanks!
April 2 to June 24: CLASS: Encountering the World of Islam. Online classes are offered regularly; twelve weeks long.
April 4 to May 9 – CLASS: Leading Change & Managing Transitions. A web workshop from Missio Nexus (six sessions).
April 5 – WEBINAR: Cultivating a Missions Culture in the Local Church: Inculcating Values that Bring Missions to Life. A learning initiative from Missio Nexus.
April 9 to 17 – CLASS: Perspectives Intensive (Minneapolis, MN, USA). One-week alternative to the regular semester class; designed for pastors and business leaders.
April 11 to 12 – CLASS: Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Milwaukee, WI, USA). Provided by The BodyBuilders.
April 12 to 14 – CONFERENCE: MissionFest Toronto (Toronto, ON, Canada). Free, annual, community-based missions conference in the Missions Fest tradition. Largest missions gathering in this part of Canada.
April 16 to 19 – CONGRESS: Call2All Western Europe Congress (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Bringing together Christian leaders to focus and strategize together on completing the Great Commission in our lifetime.
April 19 – WEBINAR: Above Reproach: Sins that Ministries Tolerate and What to Do about It. A learning initiative from Missio Nexus.
April 19 to 21 – CONFERENCE: Ethnic Ministries Summit (Spartanburg, SC, USA). A coalition of ministries encouraging local churches to share Christ’s love with the growing ethnic diversity in our communities. Sponsored by the Ethnic America Network.
April 20 to 21 – CONFERENCE: Mission ConneXion Alaska (Fairbanks, AK, USA). Free, community-wide mission conference formerly known as Mission Fest Alaska.
April 20 to 22 – CONFERENCE: Hindu Ministry Consultation (Chicago, IL, USA). Promoting the birth and development of Christ-centered movements in Hindu cultures and communities. Sponsored by the Rethinking Forum.
April 20 to 22 – RETREAT: The Journey Deepens (Portland, OR USA). Sense God is calling you into missions, but need help in discerning your direction? The Journey Deepens Retreat is a great next step.
April 23 to 27 – CONFERENCE: Global Member Care Conference (Chiang Mai, Thailand). The Global Member Care Network provides a platform to hear global voices about member care in a borderless world, which is characterized by increasing hostilities and schisms.
April 27 to May 1 – CLASS: GO Equipped TENTmaking Course (Bergen, Norway). Provided by Global Opportunities.
April 29 – EVENT: Internet Evangelism Day (global). Website also provides resources you can use year-round.
Marti Smith is a writer, speaker, and project manager for the Church Partnerships Team at Pioneers. Since the mid-90s she has helped prepare cultural research teams to explore unreached communities and mobilize efforts to serve them.
Marti manages and publishes Missions Catalyst and is the author of Through Her Eyes, a book about the lives of missionary women in the Muslim world.
Here’s a great interview with Jerry Trousdale. “Missions Leader on Thousands of New Church Plants in Muslim Areas” (Christian Post)
http://www.christianpost.com/news/missions-leader-on-thousands-of-new-church-plants-in-muslim-areas-71886/