Tips for Your Team: Frugal, Resourceful Innovation

Source: Jon Hirst, Innovation in Missions

Article: When Tennis Balls Will Do

Innovation doesn’t have to cost a lot to deliver significant learning and change. Sometimes the resourceful, frugal solution is the one we should be aiming for. But in a world full of venture capital and big dreams, we can forget that spending $100 dollars strategically can lead to more innovation than $10,000 without discipline.

Read When Tennis Balls Will Do. Love it!

Resource: 10 Activities to Generate Better Ideas

We all want better brainstorming sessions, but the challenge is how to design creative spaces where your team can think in new ways. This is harder than it seems and so its always good to be on the lookout for new tools. Here is a list of 10 ideas that may give you some new places to start.

Read 10 Activities to Generate Better Ideas. I think you’ll find more than one your ministry team can use.

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Resource Roundup: Celebrating St. Patrick and the Great Commission

Source: Various

Did you know Patrick was one of the earliest Christian leaders to think deeply and write clearly about completing the Great Commission? You might read the chapter about Patrick in the book Missionary Monks, watch the docudrama I Am Patrick, or follow links from a resource list by missiologist J.D. Payne.

Via Family (formerly Weave) has suggestions you can use to help your kids learn more about the real St. Patrick. Read Beyond Shamrocks and Leprechauns. It includes an activity you can do with your family.

See also The Real Story of St. Patrick (Voice of the Martyrs). Looks like it’s from their series of books for kids highlighting courageous Christians from Scripture (Paul, Stephen, Thomas) and early church history (Saints Patrick, Valentine, and Nicholas). Praise God that many more have come after them. May we, too, be faithful in lifting up Jesus and introducing others to him, despite the obstacles and challenges.

Article: Why Easter Matters for Missions

Source: Radical, April 6, 2023

The needs of the world can quickly overwhelm us. The Lord will send his church to countries ravaged by war, camps filled with refugees, villages living in abject poverty, and trauma-laden communities right next door. As they go, members of his church will meet the physical needs around them, just like their Lord. And this is but the beginning.

Jesus came to give his people abundant life, but he didn’t stop there. Jesus came to bring us back to God. The resurrection ensures that the message that missionaries bring to the lost offers them a path to eternal joy, not just relief from temporal suffering.

Read Why Easter Matters for Missions. And thanks to OSCAR for highlighting this article.

For more to help you refocus on things that matter most, read Why Spiritual Formation Is Central in God’s Mission (Bradley Bell).

Missions Podcasts: Find Your New Favorite

Sources: Various

Looking for a missions-oriented audio soundtrack for your workout or road trip? Missio Nexus has got your covered. Thanks to Brigada for reminding us of this resource.

Browse the Missions Podcast Directory. You may find a new favorite.

See also He Who Has Earbuds, Let Him Hear: Audio Bibles on the Rise, which reports that Gen Z is the first cohort to prefer digital over print, according to American Bible Society research (Christianity Today).

News from Gaza, Tanzania, Algeria, Tajikistan and More

  1. World: Churches Accelerate Progress Toward the Bible in Every Language
  2. Middle East: Regional Leaders Worry as Ramadan Approaches
  3. Tanzania: 11 YWAM Missionaries Killed in a Road Accident
  4. Algeria: Ministry Leader Charged for Holding an Unauthorized Assembly
  5. Tajikistan: Demand for Exorcisms on the Rise, Despite Crackdown

Read or share the email edition.

World: Churches Accelerate Progress Towards the Bible in Every Language

Source: Mission Network News, February 16, 2024

Approximately 1,300 languages still lack God’s Word, but that number is shrinking at a faster rate with every passing year. In 1999, new translation projects were begun every two weeks on average. Now, the pace has accelerated to every 17 hours, according to Wycliffe USA.

John Chesnut, President and CEO of Wycliffe USA, recently visited a church translating Scripture in Madagascar. “They drafted four full Bibles in four years. And then they said, ‘Hey, we want to get the quality better. Can you come help us?’”

“They will dedicate four completed New Testament translations this summer. The translations are part of a goal Wycliffe USA set 25 years ago and hopes to complete next year. They called it Vision 2025 and started praying for Bible translation to begin in every remaining language.

“It was really a God-sized prayer saying, ‘Lord, what would we need to do in order to see all these languages started by 2025?’” says Chesnut.

Praise God that churches like those in Madagascar are stepping up to the challenge. Wycliffe USA reports more and more churches are engaging in Bible translation for their local languages.

Read the full story.

See also From Flicker to Flame, a short documentary from Ethnos360 about the dedication of the Simbari Bible (Papua New Guinea) and read an OMF report about the dedication of the new Tampuan Bible Dedication (Cambodia).

See also Wycliffe Bible Translators to Sell Florida Headquarters (Ministry Watch).

Middle East: Gaza War Worries Regional Leaders as Ramadan Approaches

Source: Mission Network News, March 5, 2024

Senior U.S. and Israeli leaders are meeting in Washington this week to discuss the Gaza crisis. The U.S. began humanitarian aid drops this weekend in the latest attempt to alleviate suffering.

Hamas officials have not agreed to a temporary ceasefire that Israel signed off on, so the war rages on, sending ripple effects throughout the region.

“Remember that whatever is happening in Gaza is affecting not only the surrounding countries but also the whole Middle East—Yemen, Dubai, Jordan, Egypt,” Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says.

“All over the Arab world, people are feeling it.”

The timing of Israel’s potential expansion into Rafah has some Middle Eastern leaders on edge. Ramadan—the Islamic month of fasting—begins the same day Israel vows to begin its assault on Rafah.

Read the full story. Other sources are also reporting uneasiness across the region.

Please take a minute to watch this video from INcontext and pray.

Tanzania: 11 YWAM Missionaries Killed in a Road Accident

Source: Evangelical Focus, February 27, 2024

A Christian ministry lost 11 of its members in a traffic accident in Tanzania (Africa) on Saturday 24 November.

“Leaders and students” taking part of a masters program of YWAM were “on a field trip with other local YWAMers” near the city of Arusha. “One mini-bus was struck and overrun by a large truck with failing brakes,” YWAM Ships Kona said.

“Five injured individuals are still hospitalized and two more people in critical condition to be rallied around in prayer,” an update the day after the incident said.

Other media, citing official sources in the country, confirm that a total of 25 people died: one girl, 10 women, and 14 men. Among the dead were an American, a South African, and a Kenyan. The injured included people from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Switzerland, the UK, and Mali.

Local and international leaders of YWAM were trying to respond to the tragedy on the ground with details of repatriation, medical evacuation, family support, and funeral arrangements.

YWAM has opened a link for donations to help pay for expenses that are expected to rise to US$350,000.

Read the full story with prayer points.

In a February 26 letter, YWAM Cofounder Darlene Cunningham said, “We have not seen a tragedy of this magnitude in all of YWAM’s history and we are all devastated.”

Algeria: Ministry Leader Charged for Holding an Unauthorized Assembly

Source: Middle East Concern, March 5, 2024

Pastor Ourahmane is a senior pastor overseeing a number of churches and Bible schools in several areas of [Algeria], in addition to his responsibility as vice president of an association of more than 45 Protestant churches.

In March 2023, he was investigated by the authorities, after a small number of Christian families spent three days during a school holiday in a church compound under his supervision. The compound has a small church, which had been sealed in 2019 by an order from the governor of the province.

Pastor Ourahmane was not informed of the court hearing or the verdict (two years in prison and a fine) until mid-September 2023. He was charged with holding an unauthorized religious assembly (worship) and holding worship in a building not permitted for worship. The charges are based on two articles of the Ordinance to Regulate non-Muslim Worship, enacted in 2006.

On November 19, there was hearing appealing the verdict [but] the sentence was upheld. Pastor Ourahmane has filed a further appeal.

Prosecuting the vice president of the EPA is an escalation of a campaign, started in 2017, to close Protestant churches and harass leaders. Only a handful of churches are still open. Several Christians, especially church leaders, have faced court cases on different charges.

Read the full story.

See also Africa’s Largest Mosque Inaugurated in Algeria after Years of Delays (The Guardian). It features the world’s tallest minaret and its prayer room can accommodate 120,000 people.