Spring 2020 multiply.net
together that the world may know
Witness
Multiplying Missional Leaders
Witness Spring 2020 Contents Multiplying Missional Leaders......................... 2 Walking Alongside Ya’qub..................................4
Multiplying Missional Leaders
Miracle in Dadagali’s Village.............................6 Tending the Garden................................................8
Editorial by Randy Friesen
Phway Phway’s Cry for Help...........................10 A Fruit Farmer’s Journey................................... 12 That Ugly House....................................................14
Staff Editor-in-Chief..............................Randy Friesen Managing Editor..................Mark J.H. Klassen Layout & Design..........................Darcy Scholes Illustration & Design..................... Colton Floris Writing & Prayer Mobilization.......Nikki White Media Director................................ Daniel Lichty Circulation & Administration.........Kyle Hendy
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In January, I was in North Africa hosting a four-day mission training event for local church leaders. The Church in this particular country has survived centuries of subjugation and humiliation as a persecuted minority at the hands of Muslim governments. The Church has also been heavily influenced by a teaching that says that Muslims are cursed by God as the descendants of Ishmael. These realities have created animosity between the two religious communities and left them looking upon each other with deep mistrust. However, many Muslims today are becoming disillusioned with their traditional Islamic faith and they are longing for an authentic experience of God’s presence and love. Throughout this region and around the world, they are being drawn to Jesus. As Muslims put their faith in Jesus, will they be welcomed into the Church? Will the Church in this region set aside old wounds and reach out to their Muslim neighbors in love? Razia, a young Muslim woman from this region, recently went on hajj (the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca) and, while she was walking around the Kaaba (the holiest shrine of Islam) with hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims, she had a miraculous encounter with Jesus. Razia was so transformed by this encounter that she abruptly ended her pilgrimage and returned to her home country. Local friends there put her in touch with our team and now Razia is being discipled. With so many Muslims like her finding Jesus through dreams and visions, church leaders are re-examining their history and honestly trying to dismantle any obstacles to the Gospel in their culture and theology.
Razia had a miraculous encounter with Jesus while she was visiting Mecca.
At the event in North Africa, we brought a message of God’s blessing through Abraham for all nations. Through Jesus, all nations are welcomed into God’s family, and the blessings of Abraham become ours. For 1400 years, the story of Ishmael has been distorted and has created an impediment for the Gospel in this part of the world. Today, Jesus is on a mission to change that!
formerly MB Mission
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In every missional context, including our own, there are unique challenges and obstacles to the Gospel that missional leaders must be equipped to respond to. In my context in Canada, the Church’s relationship with First Nations (Native) peoples has been very painful. In the US, race relations
have similarly been strained. Missional leaders who follow Jesus must be ready and willing to incarnate the Gospel in their unique cultural context. As we focus on multiplying healthy disciples, missional leaders, and reproducing churches, we see how all three are linked. The foundation of our mission mandate from Jesus is making healthy disciples who obey all that Christ commanded. Out of the seedbed of healthy disciples, God grows missional leaders who help their churches embrace their mission, whatever their context. Those churches, in turn, become the means for ongoing multiplication: reproducing disciples, leaders and communities of faith, both locally and through partnerships in other parts of the world. In this issue of Witness, we are focusing on how God is growing missional leaders and how they are making unique contributions to the witness of the Church. What makes a missional leader? Nasser al’Qahtani is a close friend of mine who accompanied me on my latest trip to North Africa. He is also an inspiring example to me of a missional leader. Although he currently lives in the US, Nasser comes from Saudi Arabia where his father is from a long line of Sheikhs. Nasser’s mother, however, is a Mennonite from Kansas. His DNA is linked to both pioneer Mennonite settlers in the US Midwest and to the most devout desert tribe in the Middle East that conquered North Africa 1400 years ago! You can’t make up stories like this! Twenty years ago, Nasser was still a radical jihadist Muslim until Jesus appeared to him in a vision and revealed the necessity of the cross as the only way God could have a relationship with him (listen to his story online at bit.ly/nasserstory). Five years ago, Nasser joined a team from Wichita’s First MB Church that went to Paris to work with a Multiply team that was sharing the Gospel with local Muslims. While on that trip, Nasser had a dream in which Jesus called him to leave his comfortable career as a software architect and to give his life to proclaim the Gospel. Today, his teaching gift is being used to equip believers from Muslim background to find their inheritance in the kingdom of God. Nasser has been given a love for the Scriptures and God is using his humility and servanthood to open doors to disciple many young leaders who come from a similar background as him (see more about Nasser’s ministry on page 4). Nasser played a key role at the recent mission training event in North Africa. As a former Muslim, and a direct descendant of the tribes that conquered this region, Nasser helped all of us understand the history of the
dhimma, a contract that Muslim governments imposed on conquered non-Muslims. This contract required that Christians pay an annual head tax—delivered with a symbolic blow to the back of the neck—and also prohibited them from sharing the Gospel with their Muslim neighbors. In general, the contract enforced a culture of shame and subservience for Christian minorities. Although the dhimma was legally abolished many years ago, the spiritual impact is still felt to this day. As we prayed into this significant barrier to reconciliation between Muslims and Christians, Nasser was able to confess on behalf of his people their mistreatment of Christians and Jews. In turn, church leaders who represented the historic Christian community confessed not only their resentment and mistrust, but also their apathy in accepting restrictions on Gospel witness. The resulting prayer time with all participants set many captives free! Missional leaders find their identity in Christ and help others find the same freedom. They are clear on their inheritance in the kingdom of God, and they help others find righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. A missional leader is anyone who has embraced their calling to serve Jesus’ mission of making disciples of all nations. They equip others to do the work, knowing that we are called to multiply our servant leadership and impact. They are growing in Christ-likeness through adversity, testing, and persecution, valuing character and faithfulness over popularity and worldly measures of success. In every context, the enemy is trying to distract, disqualify and destroy missional leaders, because these men and women are perhaps the greatest threat to the kingdom of darkness. The MB family around the world has been blessed with many missional leaders over the past 160 years. Today, we are working with key men and women who are leading the Church on mission and thriving in various ministries, yet they need our prayers, encouragement and support. As we increasingly link our Multiply mission strategies with national, provincial/ regional MB conferences, as well as with MB churches around the world (through ICOMB, the International Community of MBs), we are praying for a new generation of missional leaders to be equipped and sent out, both locally and globally. “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1). Thank you for investing in, praying for and encouraging this collective work of mission God has called us to! As we each embrace God’s call upon our lives to be leaders in mission, the best is yet to come. multiply.net | 3
Walking Alongside Ya’qub USA By Nasser al’Qahtani *Certain names have been changed for security reasons.
A few months ago, a man named John contacted me at my home in Wichita, Kansas. I had never met him before, but John had heard about me from a friend of a friend. Over the years, I have become accustomed to contacts like this, since there are not (yet) many Saudi believers in public ministry. So if someone is looking for one, it’s usually not hard to find me. John was discipling a student named Ya’qub, a young man from Saudi Arabia who was attending university in the US and who, John claimed, had recently become a follower of Jesus. John was very excited about Ya’qub and wanted me to connect him with the underground church in Saudi Arabia so that he could hit the ground running when he arrived back home. John said that Ya’qub was ready to take over leadership of the Saudi Church. Apparently, prophetic words had been spoken over him, that he had a “massive anointing” and would be a “pillar of the church” and “pastor of the nation.”
A few weeks later, I found out that Ya’qub had publicly renounced Christ and returned to Islam. To be honest, I was skeptical. To be clear, John was not asking me to help disciple Ya’qub; he just wanted my connections in Saudi Arabia. I explained that I could not expose people like that, especially to someone I didn’t know and had never met. I offered to speak to Ya’qub, if he was willing. Unfortunately, Ya’qub was not willing. A week later, I found out that he had never given John permission to reach out to me or to tell anyone about his conversion. Then, a few weeks later, I found out that Ya’qub had publicly renounced Christ and returned to Islam.
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John and I continued to correspond. I learned that he loved Ya’qub like a son. I prayed with John and encouraged him to believe that Jesus would get the last word and that there was still hope for Ya’qub. In the meantime, my wife and I invited others to pray for Ya’qub, asking God for an opportunity to still connect with him, if he would be willing. Eventually, I learned that Ya’qub had changed schools and moved to another city in the US. There he met a missionary who had been serving in the Middle East who spoke with him about Jesus and shared a video with him about another Saudi man who had come to the US and found Jesus. The video was of my testimony! Stirred by the Holy Spirit, Ya’qub decided to reach out to me. We spoke on the phone for several hours together and then we continued to talk every couple of weeks. Eventually, he asked if we could meet in person. We tried to make travel arrangements for Ya’qub to come and visit our home in Wichita, but nothing ended up working out. As we were praying and asking God to make a way for us to meet, I received an email inviting me to attend a conference in the city where Ya’qub lived. I immediately called him and said that he wouldn’t need to come to me, but that God was making a way for me to go to him. Two weeks later, I drove to Ya’qub’s city with another young man from our local team in Wichita. Outside of my
Nasser is passionate about discipling new followers of Jesus from Muslim background
attendance at the conference, we arrived with no plan or agenda, other than to spend as much time with Ya’qub as possible. We were intent on loving him in the name of Jesus. We shared meals together, went for walks together and talked at length about our lives, sharing our stories, our hopes and our dreams. By the end of the weekend, right before we left for the long drive home, Ya’qub repented for turning his back on Jesus and re-committed his life to the Lord. Several weeks later, when I had another opportunity to visit face-to-face with Ya’qub, he asked me to baptize him. We gathered together with a few of his friends and classmates, and I had the privilege of baptizing him in their presence. Then both Ya’qub and I shared our stories and preached the Gospel to the others present. One of them was a young Muslim student from Malaysia who immediately put his trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. The following day, another Saudi student also declared his faith in Jesus for salvation. What a season of harvest for Muslims!
PRAY Please pray for Ya’qub and these other young men, and ask God that they would continue to grow in their faith and share the Gospel with others. Pray also that God would grant Nasser Christ-centered and Spirit-filled wisdom as he is involved in discipling these precious new believers.
Miracle in Dadagali’s Village BURUNDI By Mark J.H. Klassen
For generations, there has been conflict between three ethnic groups in Burundi. In general, the two major groups have been at odds with each other, while they have both despised the third. Toward the third group—the Batwa— there has been outright hostility and marginalization. They do not sit with them. They do not eat with them. In fact, they do everything they can to avoid them. It has become the culture. It is accepted.
Since the school began in 2015, Karubabi has steadily grown in its reputation for quality education and equal opportunity based on Biblical values. Although it began with mostly Batwa students, very quickly, the other people groups in the region began to send their children as well, making the school a unique haven of equality and unity. Recently, however, Dadagali started missing classes. Although he loved school, he was forced to consider dropping out, due to a crisis at home.
That’s why the idea of the Karubabi Harvest School was so radical. It was a school started by a ministry called Harvest Initiatives made up of Burundians who came from Although their nation’s history is the two dominant people groups but who wanted to marred by tragic stories of division, provide education for the contempt and discrimination, poorest of the poor, the Batwa. Dadagali’s classroom is different. Harvest is a ministry that is inspired by the Gospel and the call of Jesus to love one another in ways that break down walls and bring reconciliation, peace and hope in the midst of conflict, violence and despair. They are committed to serving people like Dadagali. Dadagali is a ten-year-old student at Karubabi, and he is Batwa. His family is from a remote village, a two-hour journey by foot from the school. He walks every day to the school where he joins his classmates who are made up of not only other Batwa but also students from the other two groups. Although their nation’s history is marred by tragic stories of division, contempt and discrimination, Dadagali’s classroom is different.
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Dadagali’s mother was not well. For the past several years, she had suffered from paralysis. It was difficult for the family to provide the necessary support for one another, so Dadagali and his siblings, two of which were attending Karubabi with him, had to help out more and more at home.
“We visited their village and prayed for Dadagali’s mother,” said Deanna Hiebert, Multiply worker in Burundi and a part of the team that works in partnership with Harvest to support Karubabi Harvest School. “It was heart-breaking to see how painful it was for the children to see their mother in that state of need. When I asked Dadagali about her, he couldn’t hold back his emotion, and started crying. It’s very rare for Burundians to show emotion like that.” However, God had mercy on the family and answered their prayers. “One day, we heard that Dadagali’s mother was miraculously healed of her paralysis,” said Deanna. “We
“It’s hard to describe how beautiful that long, serpentine chain of people looked as they made the difficult journey up the steep hillside.”
were so excited that we hiked up the hill to their village with some of the staff from the school and celebrated with family and neighbors.”
In the end, it took over sixty staff and students to carry the baskets to the village. They each carried their load and made the two-hour journey on foot up the hill.
Dadagali and his siblings were back at school with their classmates and continued strong in their studies. Unfortunately, only several weeks later, tragedy struck their family and their mother died during childbirth, an occurrence that was not uncommon in the village, and left the whole school in shock.
“It’s hard to describe how beautiful that long, serpentine chain of people looked as they made the difficult journey up the steep hillside and over rivers,” said Deanna. “For some of those students, it was their first time hiking into those hills, their first time to see how their Batwa friends lived, and the first time they would have shared a drink of water in a Batwa home.”
“What happened next was another miracle,” said Deanna. “Normally, when a Batwa woman in a remote village passed away, very few people notice, especially nonBatwa. But this time was different.” When Dadagali’s classmates heard about his mother’s death, they responded with compassion and support. In an amazing show of solidarity, his classmates began gathering gifts at the school to be taken to Dadagali’s village home. The children’s pastor at the school organized the gifts of food, money, and supplies for the family. “It was amazing,” said Deanna, who was there at the school to watch it happen. “It started with a few cobs of dried corn. Then came a few kilos of beans and some dried manioc. Some blankets were added to the pile and then some coins. Soon the pile was so big that baskets were brought. The baskets were filled and more had to be added. Hundreds of students brought small gifts to show Dadagali and his family that they loved him and that they were mourning with him.”
For Deanna and her husband, Doug, the message was clear and full of hope: “God is using this school to transform a community,” they said, “to bring unity among ethnic groups. It’s happening in the lives of the staff and students. God’s kingdom is coming, and it won’t stop in Dadagali’s village. These young missional leaders have the potential to transform their nation and their world for Jesus.”
PRAY & GIVE Please pray for Dadagali and his family, for comfort and provision as they mourn their loss. Pray also for the Karubabi Harvest School and their vision to transform a nation for Jesus through an extraordinary educational experience and raising a generation of Jesus followers. If you would like to make a donation toward the school through Multiply’s partnership with Harvest Initiatives, go to multiply.net/burundi-harvest multiply.net | 7
Tending the Garden LATIN AMERICA By Nikki White “When I saw the yard space of our new home, I was excited to think that I could finally have the garden that I always wanted,” said Brazilian church leader, Emerson Cardoso, as he recalled his recent move. “It did not work out quite the way I planned,” he added wryly, “but through that garden, God taught me a lot about church planting.” Emerson has been instrumental in promoting a regional network in Latin America that now has twelve countries actively collaborating in the areas of mission, education, pastoral care and conference building. He currently oversees church planting and pastoral training as President of the Mennonite Brethren Conference in Brazil (COBIM).
He also serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) and as Multiply’s Regional Leader for Latin America. He is also pastor of a church that recently purchased a sports arena in order to reach youth. Emerson is a visionary, a strategic thinker and a dynamic missional leader. He is also, by his own admission, a terrible gardener. Once his family had settled into their new home, Emerson made an impulsive mass purchase of plants with his new yard in mind. Impatiently, he yanked out handfuls of grass in his yard, dug some holes and began planting. Two weeks later, they were all dead.
“I decided that the problem must be the soil,” Emerson laughed. “So, I pulled out all the dead plants, bought big bags of fertilizer and dumped them all out on the ground. Then I bought new plants, dug new holes and tried again.” The result? Large, lush, healthy weeds. They sprung up with appalling speed and quickly choked the life out of the fragile new plants. Emerson realized that he was looking for shortcuts to healthy growth. Eventually, hard work and humble consultation with more experienced green thumbs resulted in a pretty decent garden. He now references this gardening experience frequently as he consults for other MB conferences regarding church planting in Latin America. “In a garden, I learned that the soil must be worked and enriched over a period of time,” he said. “It cannot be rushed. Weeds must be identified and removed at an early stage. These principles apply very well to church planting.” Recently, in one Latin American country, Emerson saw these lessons clearly illustrated. “We gathered a group of pastors together to talk about church planting, but
it was evident that the soil of these pastors’ hearts was hard. There were weeds of jealousy and unforgiveness germinating. This was not going to change within days.” It took three years for Emerson’s team to work through these issues with this group of pastors. “Imagine if we had just started by dumping resources on these churches,” Emerson said, “in the same way I dumped fertilizer on my yard. Those sins, like weeds, would have only grown bigger and faster, choking out whatever we tried to grow!” Instead, Emerson and his team took a more careful, intentional approach, and the process resulted in healthy growth. Today, MB churches in that country are multiplying and flourishing as never before. Emerson and his team are now focusing on a similar collaboration with the MB conferences in several other Latin American countries. Emerson is a busy man. He no longer has much time for tending his garden at home. But his passion for growing things is still strong, as is evidenced in the way that he is investing in mission partnerships and serving churches throughout Latin America.
Phway Phway’s Cry for Help MYANMAR By Louise Sinclair-Peters
I had not seen Phway Phway for several months. She had been among the ladies who had helped sort coffee beans on our farm in Myanmar. During their time with us, many of the ladies had been powerfully touched by the love of Jesus Christ. However, it was difficult for us to do follow-up with them, so we had lost touch with many of them, including Phway Phway. Then, several months later, on a day when I was experiencing some severe disappointments, I asked God what I should do. I heard him say something unexpected, “Louise, hang on. I have a surprise for you, to comfort you and bring you joy.” That very day, Phway Phway walked into my house and said, “Is there anything I can do to help you? I am going to have a baby in two weeks and I can’t pay my hospital bill.”
Phway Phway knew she could not afford the surgery, so she started yelling out, “Jesus, help me! Jesus, save me!”
“Sure,” I said, “Why don’t you teach me the local language?” Every day, Phway Phway came and taught me. She quickly became part of our family and we had opportunity to pray for her and teach her from the Bible. Weeks later, when Phway Phway was in the agony of labor, the doctor announced that the baby was stuck in a breech position and that an emergency C-section would be required. Phway Phway knew she could not afford the surgery, so she started yelling out, “Jesus, help me! Jesus, save me!” The nurses all looked at her in shock and said, “We thought you were a Buddhist?” “I am,” she said, “but I believe in Jesus too.” Then she began calling out again, “Jesus, save me!”
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At that very moment, the baby moved within her and slipped out safely into the doctor’s hands!
Phway Phway, “and please come back and teach the Bible to our family. We want to know more about Jesus!”
Less than a week later, Phway Phway was at my door again. She had walked two miles to my house just to tell me how Jesus had saved her life. Since then, she has not stopped proclaiming the saving power of Jesus. She has been telling her extended family and her whole community about what Jesus did for her. And one by one, her family members have been coming to us for prayer in the name of Jesus. First, it was Phway Phway’s widowed aunt who was suffering from diabetes. Soon after we prayed for her, she called and said, “The headaches and exhaustion are gone! And the doctors said that my blood sugar levels are normal. They say I don’t have diabetes anymore!” Now we have a Bible study every week in her home and her whole family attends! After that, we visited Phway Phway’s husband’s family in a village outside of Yangon. There we met an uncle who couldn’t walk. We quickly prayed for him and asked him to try and walk on his leg. He immediately jumped up and started walking back and forth across the floor, saying, “I couldn’t do that before!” Within a short time, we heard that this man was walking laps around his village every day! “Thank you for praying for me!” he said to us through
Phway Phway and Louise: “She walked two miles to my house just to tell me how Jesus saved her life.”
About Lighthouse Coffee Lighthouse Coffee is a new business venture that supports church planting and community development in coffeegrowing villages in Myanmar. Their direct trade model allows them to pay fair wages, ensure ethical farming practices, and reinvest profits into communities that desperately need development in education, health care and infrastructure. People like Phway Phway are being transformed by Jesus through Lighthouse Coffee. To learn more, go to their website: lighthousecoffeemyanmar.com Or follow them on Facebook and Instagram @lighthousecoffeemyanmar
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A Fruit Farmer’s Journey To Becoming A Missional Leader USA By Mark J.H. Klassen & John Ervin
In the 1970s, Vince Balakian’s family started a fruit farm in Central California. The farm thrived and the business of selling fruit prospered. In the 1990s, a larger packaging facility was added and the enterprise became Fruit Patch, Inc., which quickly grew into a major exporter of tree fruit to markets all over the world. Vince’s primary responsibilities with Fruit Patch were in the areas of packing, cold storage and shipping. He gave himself wholeheartedly to the company, but he knew there was more to life than running a successful business. “Over the years, we took on more and more farmland and kept expanding our production,” said Vince about Fruit Patch. “It was very prosperous, but also very demanding. My work was virtually seven days a week, and we took very few days off during the year. I still loved farming, but the business side of things was consuming one hundred percent of my time. Eventually, we started to look for a way out.” In the mid-2000s, the Balakian family sold Fruit Patch. However, the new owners asked if Vince would stay on to help with some of the operations and to oversee export sales. “I knew it wasn’t my long-term goal,” said Vince, “but I agreed to do it.” His new role with Fruit Patch introduced Vince to a life that he had never known: “In 2000, I didn’t even have a passport. I had never traveled, other than flying to Hawaii for a vacation. I really never needed to go anywhere. I was chained down to a packing house and a farm.” For the next few years, Vince travelled all over the world with Fruit Patch on export-marketing trips, promoting their products and dealing with international buyers. In the 12 | witness
process, he discovered something that surprised him: “I found out that I actually enjoyed traveling, and that I was good at it. I mean, I enjoyed building relationships with people from all over the world. I learned to appreciate their food and their culture. It was fascinating.” Back then, Vince listened carefully to something that his mother told him. She didn’t like the idea of him traveling so much, but somehow she believed it was for a purpose. She said sternly, “Vince, make sure you do something with this someday.” Those words stuck in Vince’s mind, and came back to him later when he and Fruit Patch decided to part ways, as the transition to the new team was complete. It was a major turning point in Vince’s life: “I remember that day so clearly. I didn’t see it then, but God had all of this planned.”
“I remember that day so clearly. I didn’t see it then, but God had all of this planned.” Not long after that, Vince received a call from Mark Thompson at Multiply in Fresno. (He and Mark were related through marriage—their wives were first cousins.) “Mark invited me out for lunch,” Vince recalled, “and he asked me a simple question, ‘What are you gonna do now?’” At the time, Vince didn’t have an answer for Mark. In fact, he was dumbfounded by the question. “I was forty-five years old,” Vince said, “and really, I had no idea. I assumed I would keep farming, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
However, God had a plan and, although Vince continued to farm on a smaller scale, he began to understand what else God had for him. “You know, it’s not easy when you’re in the middle of it. Sometimes we can’t see the path through the forest, but when I look back now on everything I experienced with Fruit Patch, it makes sense that God had me go through that, because that’s given me the ability to do so many other things now.” A few months later, Vince went back to Mark and told him that he had a vision for taking people on international trips. “I had all kinds of ideas,” Vince recalled, “and I had the resources to support them. But I didn’t have a vehicle to do it. Mark, on the other hand, had the vehicle and he needed someone like me to help make it happen.” Through his local church, Reedley MB, Vince started getting involved with mobilizing short-term mission teams. “We started with some teams to Thailand, vision trips, taking pastors from churches so they could experience what God was doing in Thailand, and learn and be inspired and then bring that back to their churches.” Vince had a big vision. He saw lots of teams, not just from Reedley but from other churches too, and not just teams of young people but all ages, and all levels of experience and skill. “I wanted to see teams going out all the time for specific tasks, meeting specific needs.” One of Vince’s favorite examples came from a team that was sent to Chiang Mai, Thailand. “They wanted people to teach sewing and hairdressing. You might think that’s obscure, but the missionaries there worked with young women from a detention facility that really wanted to learn a practical skill. We had a couple of great older women who had cut hair their whole lives and they said, ‘Sure, we’ll go.’ So we sent two retired hairdressers and six other ladies and they had a great time serving together and teaching. And they met a very real need.” Vince has been passionate about the rich learning that participants experience on these trips, especially from interaction with other teammates. “I love seeing teams with all different ages, from teenagers to retirees, the young and old, serving together and learning from one another.” He has also seen the long-term effect on participants and their relationships with God: “Our teams come back changed and focused on impacting others. As people get to know the nationals that they work with and the missionaries, they start making changes in their own lives. They view life differently. These trips have exposed them to what God has for them, and now they’re pursuing God’s calling upon their lives.”
It’s been the same for Vince himself. “I had a tendency to put God in a box, a small box,” he admitted, “and as long as what I experienced fit into that box, everything was okay. But I’ve seen things in other places done differently that have challenged my understanding of God. I’ve learned to accept that God is bigger, and that he doesn’t always fit into my box.” When asked about partnership in mission, Vince recalled an experience in Thailand when one of his teammates, as they were leaving, was very upset and said that she felt bad about taking so much more than she had given. The next day, one of the missionaries apologized to Vince, saying that they as hosts had taken way more from the team than they had given. Both sides felt like they received more than they gave. “That’s partnership,” said Vince. “It’s a reciprocal relationship. Both sides are giving and receiving on equal ground.” Another defining experience for Vince came in Lithuania a few years ago when he was there with another team. His host’s van broke down and the team was stuck out in the snow on the side of the highway. Vince turned to the host and asked, “What do you need?” He was expecting them to say that they needed monetary help, or something practical, like a new van. Instead, the host said plainly, “We need a church in North America to partner with us.” That stuck with Vince, and he’s been committed to church partnerships ever since. In the midst of it all, Vince acknowledged his own shortcomings. “My challenge is to trust God more,” he confessed. “My whole life I’ve been the kind of person to make things happen on my own. I tend not to bring God into something unless I really need him. I’m learning to rely on him more and to bring him in at the beginning.” For Vince, the journey continues. As he works to pass the family farm on to the next generation, he is trusting God that his new calling as a partner in mission will also have long-term impact: “I believe in what I’m doing. I believe that these short-term teams are making a difference in the lives of people around the world, and in the lives of the team members themselves, and I believe that churches are growing through these dynamic mission partnerships.”
GO What does your journey to becoming a missional leader look like? Is God calling you to get more involved in short-term mission? To speak with a Mission Mobilizer at Multiply, call 1.888.866.6267 or go to multiply.net/go multiply.net | 13
That Ugly House CANADA By Nikki White
John had a beautiful view of Mount Baker from his house. For years, he had been enjoying the sunrise over that mountain every morning, each time feeling a rush of gratitude and intimacy with the Creator. So when his new neighbor decided to build his house on the one spot of their acreage that would block that view, John was mad. “Some nights, I would just go out alone on our land and yell,” said John. “But around people I’m a quiet kind of guy, so I never went over to confront them or anything.” He shrugged his big shoulders and smiled. “I just avoided them altogether.” As Multiply’s First Nations Ambassador for Western Canada, John Johnstone and his wife, Jenn, seek to build bridges and champion conciliation between those who are estranged or hostile toward one John realized that a another. John realized that a posture of resentment and posture of resentment and unforgiveness toward his unforgiveness toward his neighbor was at odds with that calling. But somehow neighbor was at odds with John just couldn’t bring his calling. himself to cross the lane that divided them. “They wrecked my view,” he said. “I didn’t want to know them; I didn’t even want to see them. Then our kids started hanging out and playing together.” He grimaced, remembering. “That made me even madder.”
14 | witness
One day, John’s wife told him that their neighbor was very sick. The man had cancer. John recalls feeling sad, thinking about the wife and young children that would be left behind if he died. Then John clearly sensed the Creator challenging him. “Hey, John?” “Yeah, God?” “So, I want you to pray for your neighbor, okay?” “Sure,” John replied, nodding. “I’ll do that.” A second passed, then God spoke again. “No. I mean, go pray for him now, face to face.” John bristled. “I’ll tell you what, God. Let’s make a deal. You bring him to me in the next five days, then I’ll pray for him to be healed. But there is no way I am crossing that lane. I am not going down to that man’s house!” The days went by, and each time John drove onto his property he glanced across the field at what he called That Ugly House. He felt a little guilty. “But mostly I was still mad,” he confessed. “I missed my great view.” Then on the fifth day as John was walking down the lane that marked the boundary of his land, he saw his neighbor walking toward him on the other side of the fence. Slowly, painfully, the man drew closer, then looked up and saw John. They both stopped, face to face, silent. Ok, God, John thought. You win. “So,” John said, “I hear you got cancer.” “Yeah, I do,” the man replied.
own heart, he asked himself, “Do I really want this man to be healed?” Yes, he decided. He really did. John looked for the words to pray. His heart was filled with different emotions. He felt messed up inside. Then he felt the Creator ask him, “John, what would you say if this was your own son? Pray that way.”
“I prayed that the man would be healed—and not just a little bit healed, but fully healed. Then I said goodbye and walked away.” So he did. “I prayed that the man would be healed—and not just a little bit healed, but fully healed. Then I said goodbye and walked away.” It would be months before John saw his neighbor again. Then one day, he noticed that there was a gathering of people in the yard of That Ugly House, and John thought that they must be drunk. They certainly seemed to be in a happy, party mood. Then the neighbor’s wife came out of the house and saw John across the lane. “Hey John! Did you hear?” she yelled, giddy and grinning. “My husband just got his test results back. He is cancerfree! Your prayer worked!” “That was ten years ago,” John concluded his story. “My neighbor is still healed. That Ugly House is still there. It still blocks my view. I still get kinda mad about that sometimes. But now I know that it was God that blocked my view, so I would see what really mattered.”
“That sucks.” John took a deep breath, then went on. “So, I don’t know what it’s like on your side of the fence,” he said, “but here on my side of the fence we believe in Jesus.” “Oh, yeah?” The man lifted his eyebrows questioningly. “Yeah,” John said. “And I think God told me that I’m supposed to pray for you. But,” he added hastily, “if you don’t want me to, that’s really okay.” John’s neighbor nodded slowly. “No, that would be great. You can pray.” At that moment, John glanced across the field. To the view that once was. He asked himself if he really cared more about a beautiful view than about this man and his family. John thought about the prophet Jonah and felt a great but ironic empathy with that reluctant prophet. Examining his
Please pray for John and Jenn Johnstone. John is from the Leq’a:mel First Nation and works as Multiply’s First Nations Ambassador for Western Canada. To learn more, go to multiply.net/john-johnstone multiply.net | 15
Living on Mission in Times of Crisis Join us as we multiply faith, not fear. For opportunities to participate in the mission of Jesus, go to multiply.net/livingonmission
During these difficult days, we have much to learn from the global Church. On a recent call with Safari Mutabesha, Multiply’s national leader in Malawi, our African brother had this to say to us in the West about living on mission in times of crisis: “We are praying for you every day. We know you in the West are not used to suffering and restrictions. Let’s keep our focus on Jesus, who is bigger than any problem, even this virus. Let’s listen to him and together discern as a community what God is telling us to do next. This is not the end of everything. After everything, there is Jesus.”
