Witness Fall 2021 Contents Editorial: We are All Sent by God.................... 2 Tibetans in the Neighborhood.........................4 Bound for Peru..........................................................6 Broken Glasses..........................................................8
We are All Sent by God Editorial by Vic Wiens
Shared Mission with the Congolese...........10 I Saw It Happen....................................................... 12 The Rest of My Life.............................................. 13 The Duty of Love...................................................14
Staff Managing Editor..................Mark J.H. Klassen Layout & Design..........................Darcy Scholes Illustration & Design..................... Colton Floris Prayer Mobilization..........................Nikki White Story Research..................................Eric Geddes Circulation.......................................... Robin Lesser Media Director................................ Daniel Lichty
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Have you ever been publicly corrected? Ouch! It’s painful, but the lesson is not soon forgotten. On a study leave in 1989, I spoke at a mission conference at Forest Grove Community Church in Saskatoon. I was the junior missionary, with only five years of experience, while G.W. Peters was the senior mission statesman, with nearly fifty years of experience. I spoke first and gave a well-intentioned call to faithfulness in mission, asserting that some are called to go, like me and my family, and some are called to stay, like the sending church I was addressing. When my senior colleague took the pulpit, he corrected me in no uncertain terms. “Brother,” he said, “you do well to re-examine the Scriptures, and re-think your message. Did not Jesus commission all his followers to “go and make disciples”? And did he not send all the gathered disciples “as the Father sent me”? Finally, did he not prophesy on the Mount of Olives to all the apostles, saying “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem… and to the ends of the earth?”
Did not Jesus commission all his followers to “go and make disciples”? And did he not send all the gathered disciples “as the Father sent me”? What could I say? G.W. Peters was right. In hindsight, I think he was not only correcting me, but the entire church. We are all called, all sent, all witnesses, and all must be going according to God’s assignments for us. It is God’s mission and God who sends. Before we go anywhere, whether crossing the seas or crossing the street, we are sent. Before the foundation of the world, God the Sender started his mission by designing the perfect plan of salvation, which included Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But isn’t it amazing that the Triune God chose to include and send us, his jars-of-clay people? It started with Abraham being sent by God to “be a blessing.” The sending story continued when God sent Israel from Egypt to “be a kingdom of priests.” Throughout the Old Testament, there were further sendings in God’s mission to the nations, such as Elisha to the Syrians, Jonah to Nineveh, and Daniel to the Babylonians. The New Testament story is centered around the incarnation of God the Son, which is the supreme sending. Yet the sending gift goes on
