Month: October 2024
Editor’s Note: Lausanne Videos Now Available on Demand
Greetings, readers!
A month ago, I told you I was sulking that I couldn’t be at the Lausanne Global Congress in Korea (though I’m sure I would have been overwhelmed by the experience if I was). Now, though, as promised, Lausanne has posted some 40 videos from plenary sessions which you can download, share, and watch with your group. Here are some of the big topics they covered:
Day 2: The Holy Spirit as the power for mission
Day 3: The whole Church united in mission
Day 4: Learning from and praying for the persecuted Church
Day 5: Mission in the workplace
Day 6: Christlike servanthood, intergenerational mentoring, and more
Day 7: Mission to the ends of the earth
Take a look. Evidently they plan to expand the “Accelerate” collection to include more resources in months to come. Not sure where to start? Consider these videos a Pioneers colleagues said were his favorites:
- Michael Oh on declaring and displaying Christ together
- A female Brazilian leader’s prophetic call that holiness and repentance precedes revival
- Patrick Fung on courage in the midst of persecution
- Two Iranians discussing how persecution is not the end of the story
- A panel with a Ukrainian, a Palestinian, and Congolese discusses reconciliation in times of conflict.
Rather read? Our friend Justin Long has compiled a roundup of links to reflections on Lausanne.
Let’s pray for continued collaboration within the global Church as a result of conversations and connections from this event.
Blessings,
Marti
Prayer Guide: Taste and See
Source: Frontiers USA
Whether breaking an all-day fast at the iftar meal during Ramadan, celebrating a special feast, or gathering as a community around a delicious meal, Muslims across the globe treasure the important role food plays in their lives.
Yet hundreds of millions of Muslims have yet to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
Taste and See: Inviting All Muslim People to Experience the Lord’s Goodness is a 30-day prayer guide filled with familiar foods throughout the Muslim world, encouraging scriptures, and practical ways to pray for the least-reached peoples.
Together, let’s pray that they will hear the Good News, turn to Jesus, and experience his goodness and mercy.
Sign up for the prayer guide, delivered as an email series. Our friend Shane Bennett also shared this guide and included links to some of his favorite recipes from around the Muslim world, a bonus for you.
And speaking of food, consider trying some holiday recipes your newer neighbors may be making. World Relief rounded them up in a collection called Breaking Bread Across Borders: Global Recipes from Refugee Kitchens. No donation or registration required.
Finally, if you’re down to pray: See 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World, which you can use any time, but designed to coincide with the fall Hindu festival season which is happening right now. Did you know Halloween and Diwali are on the same day this year?
Video: Compassion Fatigue & Responding to a World In Need
Source: World Relief
Feeling overwhelmed by everything happening in the world? I get that! World Relief, a ministry engaging with some of the world’s worst crises, put together a helpful, thoughtful webinar on dealing with “compassion fatigue.” Good stuff.
Watch and share the hour-long recording or specific segments and find related resources on their website, including 10 Bible verses for when you feel overwhelmed.
Book: Shaped by the Spirit
Shaped by the Spirit: Being Formed into an Outward-Focused People, by Kate Pocklington. SPCK, 2024. 192 pages.
“A while ago I ordered some floating shelves for my kitchen. I found a guy on the internet who had made a hobby into a small business. He takes old, gnarled planks of timber, marked with stories of a past life, and reclaims them. With circular saw and smoothing planes, measures and squares, chisel and level, sandpaper, stain and oil, he takes the old and reshapes it, imagining something other, something new. I love those shelves. Every time I place something on them or take something from them, they bring me joy. Beauty from the old, the ugly, the no longer useful. Recycled, reformed, transformed.
“God has an exceptional way of doing the same thing with us. …He takes each of us—with our own stories, influences, and shaped by our own histories—and, if we let him, he reforms us.”
Maybe, like me, you could use a chance to pull back and explore the things God uses to shape us for his mission in the world (family background, relationships, pain, gifts, culture, and more). This beautifully written and reflective book will help.
Turns out, it’s not all about us.
Learn more or purchase in paperback from Amazon (or elsewhere) for US$14.99. Also available in a Kindle edition.
You might also be interested in a brief article, Rest in God’s Care (Soul Shepherding Institute, via Missio Nexus).
Events: Mission Conferences, Classes, and More in November
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
November 1-2, MissionConnexion Southwest (Paradise Valley, AZ, USA). A free regional mission conference held annually.
November 1-3, Innovating our Future in Missions Mobilization (Dallas, TX, USA). Provided by Missio Nexus.
November 1-4, Haven Retreat (Paphos, Cyprus). For kingdom-minded women serving overseas from various nations. Provided by Azmera.
November 3, International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (global). An annual event.
November 4 to March 9, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin throughout the year.
November 6, Proactive, Church-Based Missionary Recruitment and Sending (online). A peer2peer virtual event for church mission leaders, provided by Missio Nexus.
November 7, Bible Translation and the Next Generation (online). Webinar provided by Wycliffe Bible Translators.
November 7-9, Global Missions Health Conference (Louisville, KY, USA and online). An annual event; the largest healthcare missions conference in the world.
November 8-9, Northwest Arkansas for the Nations (Fayetteville, AK, USA). An annual regional mission event.
November 8-11, Field Security Seminar (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International.
November 9, On Mission (Spring Lake, MI, USA). A Great Lakes regional global conference. Explore how the North American Church is resourcing and responding to the global church.
November 10, Virtual Prayer Gathering: Call to Prayer (online). Provided by Missio Nexus; a monthly event.
November 11-13, Support Raising Bootcamp (Capetown, South Africa). Provided by Via Generosity. Similar events will be held in Brazil, November 13-15, and Uganda, December 3-5, and a virtual bootcamp in Spanish will be offered for Latin American audiences November 28-30.
November 11-22, School of Mobilization Leadership (Chiang Mai, Thailand). Training for ministry leaders from Global Mission Mobilization Initiative.
November 14, Youth Missions — Is It Worth It? (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
November 14, Engaging Second-Generation Immigrants for the Great Commission (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
November 14-16, B4T Expo (Raleigh, NC, USA). Transforming nations through business.
November 14-16, The International Conference on Missions (Lexington, KY, USA). An annual event rooted in the Christian/Disciples of Christ tradition.
November 18-22, Storytelling Training (online). Get hands-on experience with oral Bible storytelling with five three-hour sessions provided by Story Runners.
November 19, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer for Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI for the third Tuesday of each month.
November 19, 2024, State of Giving and Financial Outlook (online). Webinar from ECFA.November 21, 4 Tips for Trusting God in the Unknown (online). Webinar from Wycliffe Bible Translators.
November 21, Missionary Formation for Effective and Sustainable Ministry (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
View the complete calendar. Submissions welcome.
Milestones, Multi-national Missions and More
Editor’s Note: Time to Celebrate
Greetings, friends!
Do you want to know what blesses me most when I look for news to share here? I love to watch the videos of celebrations—often baptisms or Bible translation events. This week, we have both.
- Watch the one-minute Presentation of the Wayuu Bible in Colombia (Bread of Hope) and read our related story below.
- Watch a baptism in Cornwall, England which has a little bit of everything and may be different from what you’ve experienced. My father’s family came from Cornwall, and I couldn’t resist! Also look for the link about revival in Britain which we tucked away toward the end of this week’s News Briefs.
Praise God, at work from Cornwall to Colombia and all around the world.
Blessings,
Pat
Latin America: Latino Christians Uniquely Positioned for the Great Commission
Source: Mission Network News, October 7, 2024
Approximately 80% of Christians are from the Global South. Yet [more than] 50% of the world’s international missionaries still come from North America and Europe.
Dave Matthews founded Reflejo to mobilize more Latin American Christians in missions.
“As the gospel has expanded to other nations—in our case, Latin America—we also have that duty to the Great Commission to obey and to go to all nations, bringing the gospel,” Matthews says.
“We’re a missionary agency for Latin Americans—Spanish and Portuguese speakers from Central and South America—to go to the unreached, to go to the hard-to-reach places that don’t yet fully have the gospel as they should.”
Matthews says there are many advantages to sending Latinos to places such as the Middle East and Central Asia.
First, Latinos can often blend in more easily and are less likely to attract unsafe attention. People from Central or South America also have fewer stereotypes and biases that could create barriers for them in Muslim-majority countries.
Historically, early Arabic influences on the Iberian Peninsula contributed to the cultures and languages of Spain and Portugal. With Spanish and Portuguese colonization, those same influences shaped Central and South American worldviews, values, and more. Hundreds of years later, the similarities help Latino Christians to connect with unreached peoples on the other side of the world.
Reflejo has also successfully placed Latino Christians in areas where others may not have access or be welcomed. They are met with curiosity and openness that allows them to quickly build relationships. For example, someone from the United States may not be able to safely travel to or work in certain countries that are open to South Americans.
“We are seeing access in a few of these places, and we’re well received. People are curious about where we’re from, what we’re doing, who we are, and we get to build relationships over time and share Jesus in a different way,” Matthews says.
Colombia: Dedication of the First Bible in Wayuunaiki
Source: United Bible Society, September 24, 2024
August was a significant month for the Bible cause in Colombia, where the Colombian Bible Society (CBS) celebrated vital milestones, including its 50th anniversary. This celebration showcased God’s faithfulness in the country and included the dedication of the first Bible in an indigenous language, Wayuunaiki, with two special events.
The Wayuu make up 19.42% of [Colombia’s] indigenous population, equivalent to over 380,000 people, making them the largest Indigenous group in the country. This community also resides in northeastern Venezuela.
At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 10, the San José Coliseum, where the dedication took place, welcomed attendees to witness a historic moment. Diana Leal, CBS Executive Director, opened the event with a warm welcome:
The event continued with the Guajira Metropolitan Choir, who uniquely performed the Colombian national anthem— in Wayuunaiki. Following this, Bible Consultant Pastor Cosme Vivas shared:
“The Wayuunaiki language is not inferior to any major language because God speaks Wayuunaiki too. He loves the Wayuu people and wants them to hear Him in their language.”
Read the full story and check out The Wayuu People, a 3.5-minute video about their culture and way of life (Bread of Hope).
As we mentioned in our last news briefs, the number of languages needing translation efforts begun has dropped below 1,000. See Stones of Remembrance: A Milestone in Bible Translation History ( Wycliffe Bible Translators).