In This Issue: Stories of transformation
- VIDEOS: Two Stories of Transformation
- FEATURE FILMS: Los Traficantes and Trade of Innocents
- WEB SITE: A Life Overseas
- WEB SITE: Middle East Experience
- EVENTS: Conferences and Training
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 share it freely!
VIDEOS: Two Stories of Transformation
Sources: Pioneers, Wycliffe Global Alliance
Looking for engaging stories to share with others? Two recent videos, both free on Vimeo, tell the stories of tribal people who have embraced the gospel and experienced lasting change.
Never The Same
Don and Carol Richardson arrived in the village carrying their seven-month-old boy Steve – and a message that would change the tribe forever. Steve and his siblings would grow up among the Sawi, learning the language and embracing the culture in ways that would shape the rest of their lives. Their story, told in the book Peace Child, inspired a generation to take the gospel to the remaining isolated tribes of the earth.
Fifty years later, Steve, now president of Pioneers-USA, joins his father Don and brothers Shannon and Paul to visit the Sawi village where they grew up. Never the Same journeys with Steve as he travels to the swamps of Papua, Indonesia, introduces us to the Sawi, and explores the impact of the gospel among this previously unreached group and neighboring tribes.
» Watch Never the Same (length: 15:46). You can’t download it but you can watch in online or purchase a copy on DVD.
An Amazing Story of Transformation
In June 2012 one of the most isolated tribes in the Brazilian Amazon received the New Testament in their own language. Now a video, produced by The Wycliffe Global Alliance in partnership with the Nadeb people, invites us to witness the spiritual transformation that the Word of God has worked in the lives of the Nadeb and in their community.
As a related story explains, “People once shy and insecure now stand up for what they believe and for who they are in the eyes of God. The church that was born from the translation process is distinctly Nadeb, preaching, singing, and dancing in their own language and style.”
An Amazing Story of Transformation includes interviews with local believers and Christian workers involved in various aspects of bringing the message to the Nadeb.
» Watch and/or download An Amazing Story of Transformation (length: 10:30). Also available in Spanish, German, and Brazilian Portuguese.
FEATURE FILMS: Los Traficantes and Trade of Innocents
Source: Mission Rise, Trade of Innocents
Two recent feature-length films might interest our readers – one dealing with drug trafficking in Mexico, the other with human trafficking in Southeast Asia.
Both are being shown in theaters in limited release, but you can arrange to show them in your context. Trade of Innocents is also available on-demand from some cable networks. I know people involved in both these projects but have not seen either film. Learn more and view trailers on the film websites.
Los Traficantes is a Christian film retelling the true story of Esteban Mendoza Cruz, former Mexican drug lord, who experienced a major transformation through faith in Christ while serving a 33-year sentence in La Mesa prison in Tijuana.
Trade of Innocents is the fictionalized story of a couple working to infiltrate the sex slave trade of Southeast Asia and free its young victims. By all accounts, an intense look at the world of human trafficking and social justice; rated PG-13.
» Have you seen a film or video that would be of interest to other readers? Let us know or leave a comment on our website.
WEB SITE: A Life Overseas
Source: A Life Overseas
“No doubt, living overseas can be brutal – on a family, on a faith, and in a soul. But, there’s no doubt, too, that it can be one of the most depth-giving experiences an individual can embrace,” say the writers at the new web site, A Life Overseas. It’s a community blog written by and for Christian workers living in contexts foreign to them. Here’s a taste:
When My Child Is Sick: Missing the Promise and Illusion of Safety (from Lisa serving in Laos)
Are You Succeeding as a Missionary? (from Chris in South Africa)
Five Mistakes I Made My First Year on the Mission Field (from Laura, who served in Southeast Asia)
» Readers might also be interested in browsing another site listing more than 350 missionary bloggers. Some of the most interesting posts show up on its blog watch page.
WEB SITE: Middle East Experience
Source: Middle East Experience
Middle East Experience is a fairly new web site dedicated to providing an open forum for the varied voices of today’s Middle East – Sunni Muslim or Shia Muslim, Christian, Jewish, religious and non-religious, all in one place.
Developed by followers of Jesus, the site is committed to respectfully covering Muslim-Jewish-Christian relations. It includes news stories from a variety of sources, editorials, resource reviews, blog posts, videos, photos, and more.
» Read the most recent postings.
» See also the web site Global Voices, which features “citizen media stories from around the world.”
EVENTS: Conferences and Training
Source: Missions Catalyst Calendar
Some events planned for December:
December 4-5 – Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Harrisburg, PA, USA). From Support Raising Solutions. Similar events are planned for early next year in Kansas City, MO; Bentonville, AR; and Portland, OR.
December 6 – Missions and Change (online). Missio Nexus webinar with Ray Sanford of One Challenge International. (Check the Missio Nexus website for a preliminary list of 2013 webinars).
December 12 – Global Day of Worship in some circles; Global Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering in others (international).
December 27-31 – Urbana Student Missions Conference (St. Louis, MO, USA). Sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
» View the complete calendar and/or let us know about events.
Marti Wade is a writer, speaker, and project manager for the Church Partnerships Team at Pioneers. As a mission mobilizer, she has also trained and sent out many short-term teams to do relationship-based research to serve among the world’s least-reached peoples.
Marti has managed and published Missions Catalyst since 2004 and is the author of Through Her Eyes, a book about the lives of women serving cross-culturally in the Muslim world. She and her husband Chris live in Oregon.