SIMs core value no 9 at work. THE CHANGING FACE OF MISSION SOMEONE ASKED ME RECENTLY, “How is the face of mission changing in SIM?” The following are a few stories that illustrate the incredible new realities of God at work in the world: > An Ethiopian SIM missionary recently had the opportunity to speak to students at Pakistan’s oldest theological seminary. What did he talk about? He writes: Before I started the class yesterday, I asked the students some questions, including their future vision. Ninety-five percent of them want to be pastors, three don’t know what they will be doing, two said international preachers, but only one guy wanted to do missions work. Why only one? Pakistan is one of the most unreached nations of the world. Why is there no passion, no zeal, no tears and, more sadly, no vision for missions work? There are many possible reasons, but what I found out is that there is a deep-rooted misconception of the ownership of missions work. According to their perception, missions work is white men’s work. If theologians in a well-recognized seminary have such a perception, where is the hope for this nation? I thank the Lord that he gave me the opportunity to challenge them—“I am not a white man, I am neither from the U.S. nor from the UK, I am from the jungle of east Africa, Ethiopia.” The result of his time in this part of the country was the planting of a vision for mission in the hearts of these students—something that others in the past had obviously failed to do. Listening to an African talk about mission transformed their preconceived ideas of what mission is about. Rev. James Ha has just joined the SIM team in Singapore. He has spent the best part of the past 25 years planting Chinese-speaking churches in Australia. His reason for joining SIM is to take the Gospel to the many Chinese workers sent on contracts around the world. He and the East Asia office are in the process of recruiting a young pastor from Central Asia to go to Lagos, Nigeria, to help the young church that Rev. Ha has planted there. Currently, our Korea and Canada offices are in dialogue with the view to placing a Korean pastor and his wife in Canada with a heart and plan to reach the First Nations people in Canada. The Koreans and First Nations people have similar cultural roots. In a response to the growing number of sending agencies in West Africa, SIM is in the process of establishing a partnership office that will relate to these new agencies and churches in West Africa that desire to use SIM’s network to be their channel of service. SIM South Asia is the most culturally diverse team we have, with more than 20 nationalities working together to share the Gospel with the millions of people who have never heard or fully understood all that Jesus has done for them. They project a mosaic of the Church in the world today that shatters some of the impressions of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. These are but a few living examples of the changing face of mission and how it is affecting SIM. God is at work in new ways in his Church in the world, and it is exciting as an organization to be on this journey into this new age of mission. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” —Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 16:12:18 +0000
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