Summer 2023 Witness Magazine

together that the world may know Jesus

Witness

Developing Missional Leaders

Witness

Summer 2023

The Challenge of Missional Leadership

From the General Director

Staff

Managing Editor ............... Mark J.H. Klassen

Layout & Design Darcy Scholes

Illustration & Design Colton Floris

Prayer Mobilization

Story Research

Circulation

Nikki White

Eric Geddes

Wendy Gerbrandt

Media Director Daniel Lichty

Contact

1.888.866.6267

witness@multiply.net

We welcome your feedback.

Read online: multiply.net/witness

If you would prefer not to receive a printed copy of Witness, please contact us.

Offices

4867 E. Townsend Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727-5006 USA

300-32040 Downes Road, Abbotsford, BC V4X 1X5 Canada

For other office locations, see multiply.net

Missional leaders make disciples who make disciples. They are committed to multiplying leaders in the Church who are actively engaged in the mission of Jesus. These leaders come in all shapes, sizes, ages, personalities, and gift mixes. During this past year as I’ve traveled to several places around the world, I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many passionate and gifted individuals. I’ve learned to appreciate both the variety and quality of leaders that God is raising up among us.

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus entrusted this mission to a group of fishermen and tax collectors, and he called them to lead others in being a credible witness to the Gospel in their setting.

Today, in a similar way, missional leaders are being sent by God to join his mission in the world, each one empowered by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to the life of Jesus. As we work in partnership with local churches and national leaders around the world, Multiply is committed to developing the next generation of missional leaders, so that the Gospel will continue to spread to the ends of the earth.

Recently, I’ve been inspired by Sam Arcaño, our partner in the Philippines. Along with several other leaders, Sam has been faithfully making disciples and planting churches among university students. After years of successful student ministry in Baguio City, they are now focusing their efforts on a place called Brooke’s Point on the island of Palawan. They are not only preaching the Gospel among the thousands of university students there, but they are focused on raising up new missional leaders. With the development of a youth outreach center and an extensive campus ministry, people are finding hope and transformation in the Gospel. As young disciples are being multiplied and developed in faith and in Gospel witness, Sam has a vision to establish a training center for disciple makers who will spread throughout the country. Together, we are being invited to join in God’s mission in the Philippines.

One of the ways that we are partnering with Sam is by providing a training curriculum known as Missional Leadership Training (MLT). Sam and his team have been very enthusiastic about using MLT as a tool to develop the next generation of missional leaders in the Philippines. I am encouraged by the fact that we are able to produce practical resources that are meeting the felt needs of our partners in places like the Philippines. (For more about how MLT is empowering global leaders, read the story on page 4.)

Another encouraging example comes from Africa, where one of our key partners has effectively transitioned out of one mission assignment in order to take up another one. After several years of multiplying disciples in Malawi, Safari Mutabesha is now returning to his home country of Congo to do the same there. In Safari’s absence, another gifted and growing missional leader by the name of Shadreck Kwendanyama will continue the work of overseeing the network of churches in Malawi. In order for missional leaders to multiply, we continually need to let go of our responsibilities and pass them on to others, no matter how challenging that transition might be, for us or for them. We have much to learn from leaders like Safari and Shadreck.

As well, in the post-COVID era, we are seeing the revitalization of our Mission Training Programs. Together with local churches in North America, we are exploring new ways to entrust young leaders with mission assignments that give them purpose, identity, and a new sense of calling.

One program that has been re-envisioned is FOCUS Internship, which was hosted recently by our Central Canada team at Fort Garry MB Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba. During the first stage of training, every participant was actively engaged in local mission. Eventually, each one was given opportunities for witness and for leadership, whether in a local or global context. This internship has become a primary pathway for equipping, training, and discerning long-term global workers. (For more about FOCUS and other Mission Training Programs, read the interview on page 6.)

I have recently been challenged by an author and psychologist named Dan Allender. In his book, Leading with a Limp, he writes about how our weakness, and even our reluctance, can be a gift that God uses. He writes, “Doubt is the context for surrender. And flight is the path for obedience. When we’re reluctant to lead, doubting ourselves and our call, we are ripe for growth as a leader.”

1 Corinthians 1:27

In our North American church context, sometimes we are too slow to trust young leaders with responsibility. We have endless resources for developing leaders and we require extensive training before we ever send them out on a specific assignment.

In other parts of the world, we see a very different leadership challenge. Especially where the Church is growing fast, resources are limited, and the need for leaders is staggering. Often, new believers become new leaders instantly. As soon as they place their trust in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit, they are preaching the Gospel, discipling others, and gathering them together in new churches. Their need for further training, and their desire for it, may be very apparent, but the opportunity for it is not always available.

This is why I am encouraged by the recent success of Missional Leadership Training. Together with our global partners, we are finding new ways to bring meaningful training to church leaders who need it. This is a collaborative effort. As sisters and brothers in a global family, we have so much to learn from each other.

In some ways, all missional leaders lead with a limp. Even when we—like Jonah—try to run away from the divine call, God has a way of throwing us off the boat and finding a large fish to swallow us and spit us onto the shore where we are called again into service. After all, as Paul wrote, most of us are not wise by human standards, nor particularly influential, but “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Remember, it’s God’s mission, not ours.

In my own journey, I have come through seasons of burnout, self-doubt, and (maybe too) much reflection. In fact, every leader that I have known well has shared in hushed tones similar things swirling inside their hearts and minds. We have an opportunity today to create space and systems of support and development for a new kind of leader. Let’s commit ourselves to both learning from, and serving alongside, our brothers and sisters around the world. Together, let’s develop a new generation of healthy missional leaders for this great invitation that Jesus has given us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Bruce Enns General Director

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

Empowering Myanmar Church Leaders

THAILAND | Mark J.H. Klassen

During COVID, a simple church was started in Khlong Kao, Thailand, among a group of Myanmar migrant workers. The new church met in a small room on the floor where they studied the Bible and worshipped Jesus together.

It was the second church planted by a young pastoral couple who had also started a church thirty minutes down the road. Although the pandemic eventually pushed the new church into hibernation, the group was resilient and not only survived but grew to about forty people. As the pandemic lightened, the pastoral couple identified another couple as apprentices and passed on the leadership of the new church in their hands.

“These leaders recognize the power of empowering others,” said Jeremy Penner, Multiply long-term worker in Thailand who works closely with this network of churches. “They are very good at giving away responsibilities and encouraging new leaders. Yet it seems that the biggest bottleneck in this process is the lack of training. They are asking us for help.”

Jeremy and his wife, Adrienne, have been serving among the Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand for several years and they have seen amazing church multiplication among this marginalized people group. They celebrate what God is doing among these people and they see the resilience of their leaders in the face of opposition and suffering. The Penners are also aware of the needs among these churches. Naing Lin is a Myanmar pastor and church planter within this network. He serves in the province of Samut Prakan where there are an estimated 500,000 Myanmar migrant workers. “We want to reach this province with the Gospel,” said Pastor Naing Lin, “so we have a vision to start one hundred churches in this area. That means we need at least one hundred humble and passionate leaders.”

“Pastors like Naing Lin have so much faith and energy,” said Jeremy, “but he can only do so much on his own. They are asking us to help them multiply leaders for these churches.”

With a strong desire to serve these pastors and to support the ongoing multiplication of their churches, the Penners invited Doug Heidebrecht, Director of Global Training, to come to Thailand to facilitate Missional Leadership Training (MLT).

The Penners were familiar with this unique training curriculum which has been developed through a partnership between Multiply and MB Seminary (Canada) on behalf of the International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB). In fact, when MLT was first being shaped in 2018, this fledgling group of Myanmar leaders was one of the very first to receive the training. However, with recent exponential growth and the emergence of many new leaders, the Penners felt it was time again.

So, in March 2023, about twenty-five Myanmar church leaders gathered for training in Chachoengsao, Thailand. According to Doug, who has been involved with MLT from the beginning, the group of leaders that gathered reminded him exactly of why this training has been developed. “Our goal is to provide sustainable, biblical, and missional training for global leaders who do not have access to formal ministry training in their contexts,” he said, “while at the same time providing the relational support for local trainers to provide on-the-ground training themselves.”

In this case, both the training itself and the teaching model had a strong impact on the Myanmar leaders. One of the participants explained how their culture in Myanmar is extremely hierarchical in its approach to leadership. He said that, even in their churches, it often felt like the teaching of

“We have a vision to start one hundred churches in this area. That means we need at least one hundred humble and passionate leaders.”

the Bible was unattainable for common people, because only professionals were allowed to teach.

“Many of us have sat in Bible studies where the teacher would never allow us to even open the book he was teaching from,” the church leader explained. “But in MLT, we were not only given the teaching manual into our own hands, but we were invited to teach others. We have never experienced this before. What an amazing gift!”

According to Jeremy Penner, the impact of the training sessions was obvious on the faces of those who participated. “As we sat together and learned how to teach the material,” he recalled, “the team of pastors was filled with joy!”

It was more than fourteen years ago that Multiply workers, Dave and Louise Sinclair-Peters, first came into contact with Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand and began preaching the Gospel among them. “We never could have imagined that those first Myanmar believers would become the gifted leaders of a dynamic, disciple-making movement,” said Louise, who now serves as the Regional Team Leader in Thailand. “I am honored to work with this passionate team of disciple makers in Multiply who work together to serve our Myanmar sisters and brothers.”

The vision of MLT, from its beginning, has been to provide each participant with the trainer’s manual in their own language so that they have the necessary resources to train others. At the very outset of the sessions, the focus is on multiplication and empowerment. In order to facilitate this, there needs to be strong relational support and accountability between the facilitators and the cohort of leaders.

The high level of trust and personal engagement that was communicated through the recent training in Thailand gave the Myanmar pastors and leaders renewed courage and confidence to continue multiplying disciples and training new leaders.

GIVE

Help train global church leaders by contributing to the costs of this unique training course. To give, go to multiply.net/mlt

“We have never received training like this before. What an amazing gift!”

Multiplication and empowerment: Myanmar church leaders with Doug Heidebrecht and Jeremy Penner

Discipling a New Generation of Missional Leaders

An Interview with Lloyd and Carol Letkeman, Mission Mobilizers, by Mark JH Klassen

Mark: You recently finished hosting the first FOCUS Internship in Winnipeg. What did you love about leading that program?

Carol: We loved the interns! We loved being in community with them and learning from them, and with them.

Lloyd: There were a couple of things that were unique about FOCUS. First, we had all of the interns living in high-density apartments among new immigrants. So, as they were receiving mission training, they were able to practice what they were learning with their new neighbors. They had so many beautiful opportunities to share the Gospel with people, which became very central to their learning and prepared them well for wherever they did their mission assignment afterward.

Carol: Another unique aspect of FOCUS was how diverse the group was. We had some participants in their twenties and others in their sixties. Some were single, some were married with young children, and others were married with adult children. We had four Americans, nine Canadians, and two South Americans. That diversity brought a richness to the training experience. We learned how to respect each other in our differences.

Lloyd: The third thing was how our Global Lead Team (GLT) facilitated the teaching at FOCUS, which meant that we had a very multi-cultural mix of influences. The members of the GLT are not only gifted teachers with a lot of godly wisdom, but they also brought a wealth of cross-cultural experience—some come from different countries, and some have decades of experience learning new languages and cultures. That opened the eyes of the interns and helped them see things from a wider variety of perspectives.

Carol: One example was our Regional Team Leader for North Africa and the Middle East, Nasser al’Qahtani, who talked to the group about seizing opportunities with their Muslim neighbors in the apartments. He encouraged them to speak openly about two topics:

politics and religion. That was so counter-cultural for the North Americans, but when they put it into practice, they quickly found out how easy it was to talk about these things with Muslim immigrants from around the world. It opened up beautiful opportunities for them to share their faith in Jesus. And some of those interns are still meeting with those neighbors regularly today!

Mark: What did you learn during COVID when so many programs had to shut down?

Lloyd: Mostly, we learned two things: small is good, and local is good.

Carol: During the pandemic, all the programs that involved international travel were stopped completely. No one was traveling anywhere. But, our two most successful local programs, SOAR Heartland (in Winnipeg) and SOAR Saskatchewan just kept going. They were online, and they were smaller, but they happened, even that first year. And then they moved on to a combination of online and in-person. And now they’re back full force with 250 and 100 participants respectively. So, that taught us something—it’s much easier to adapt when you’re working on a smaller scale with local connections.

Lloyd: Of course, COVID was a reset for many people. A lot of people were asking, What is church? They were re-evaluating their lives and thinking more about mission and purpose. So, we felt like we had a blank slate, especially with youth. Since our programs were already very community oriented, we experimented more with small groups and we found that youth were, in general, very open to new things during the pandemic. They were ripe for honest conversations. They wanted to explore identity with purpose.

Carol: And not just youth! Our programs have always been very multi-generational. Sometimes parents and leaders bring their youth, but they quickly realize that it’s for them too, and they stay, and they get refreshed.

Lloyd: During COVID, we saw that people had a strong desire for intimacy, so we gave them small groups, but they also wanted that sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves, so we tried to help them get outside of themselves and see the bigger church and the wider world.

Mark: We used to call them Short-Term Mission programs, but now we call them Mission Training Programs. Why?

Carol: There were a couple of things that we wanted to communicate differently. First, there’s nothing short term about God’s mission, so we want everything we do to be focused on long-term outcomes. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we want to invest in what God is doing through local churches, through the people that will continue to be a part of that local context.

Lloyd: Doesn’t that sound like a more sustainable strategy for everyone involved?

Mark: Absolutely. But hey, I’m asking the questions in this interview.

Lloyd: Whatever. Also, we wanted to emphasize the training component in our programs. Obviously, we are very passionate about making disciples, but we also want to maintain a strong focus on training missional leaders. As a church mission agency, we want to be faithful in offering that to our churches.

Mark: What do you think is the strength of the SOAR programs?

Lloyd: In the past, many of us were a part of short-term mission programs that took us far away from home and gave us this amazing experience. We just dropped in and dropped out. We made an impact, but then we were gone. Maybe we partnered with local churches, but often the support network was weak. What we’re trying to emphasize now is something more local and less individualistic. So, SOAR brings local churches together. No one comes as an individual. They come with a team, or they’re put on a team right from the beginning. And the mission focus is always local—they’re reaching their city, or region, for Jesus.

Carol: There is always still a cross-cultural element, with so many new immigrants in our cities and also reaching out to our First Nations neighbors. But we emphasize team ministry, local ministry, and it’s all very much church based. That’s been the flavor of SOAR Heartland and

SOAR Saskatchewan from the beginning. We want to mobilize local churches on mission in their communities, which aligns best with long-term sustainability.

Lloyd: That doesn’t mean we resist international partnerships. In fact, we hope to host a team from Brazil next year at SOAR Heartland, and maybe a team from Mexico too. We’re working closely with our Regional Team Leaders to help facilitate these partnerships. But the end goal is to multiply these programs in their local context. We’d love to see SOAR programs all over the world. We believe in this model for local mission mobilization.

Mark: What are you most excited about as you disciple a new generation of missional leaders?

Lloyd: I see a willingness in younger leaders to embrace a very incarnational model of ministry. They are willing to live among their neighbors in ways that allow them to identify very personally with the issues that those people are facing. They’re willing to struggle through complicated issues of peace and social justice, and they’re willing to embrace them with less money and less power. For many, that means some sort of bi-vocational ministry. It’s a different model, but it gets me excited to see these young people forging forward with boldness and creativity.

Carol: For me, it’s just so encouraging to see a new generation that is excited about mission, whether that’s at home or abroad. Their world is small. They want to keep learning. They want to stay connected, and they’re committed. It doesn’t matter whether they’re on mission here or there, it’s just a part of their DNA as followers of Jesus. It’s inspiring.

Lloyd and Carol (both in glasses) with FOCUS Interns in Thailand To learn more about this unique internship, go to multiply.net/focus

A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR

“Sooner or later, they will call on us to fight,” Pastor Oleksii said.

When he and his two friends, Pasha and Dima, heard that military officers were circulating service orders among the men in nearby villages, they decided that they would not wait to be called in by the Ukrainian army, but rather they would report on their own.

The three men had no intention of becoming soldiers in the war, but they also had no intention of avoiding the authorities that were conscripting all men under the age of sixty to bear arms and fight for their country.

“We chose to go to them first,” Oleksii reasoned, “so that they would not accuse us of trying to hide.”

A few hours later, Oleksii and his friends were standing in front of the military authorities.

“Where are your papers?” the officers demanded.

“We have not yet been served our papers,” Oleksii responded. “We have come on our own initiative.”

The officers were both curious and suspicious. Although many men volunteered to join the army, officials would regularly go into the towns and villages to conscript soldiers. Some men were even detained at borders trying to flee Ukraine to a neighboring country for refuge, and then forced into active combat.

“We are here to serve,” Oleksii told the officers. “But we will not bear arms. Our faith in God will not allow us to kill another human being. Yet we would like to tell you about other things that we are doing to support our country.”

The three men went on to explain how they, along with others from Mennonite Brethren churches, were actively addressing the practical needs of Ukrainians who were caught in this brutal conflict. Over the next hour, they described in detail how they were caring for orphans and the elderly, helping with evacuation and resettlement, bringing generators and wood stoves to villages during

winter, and how their church buildings were being used as shelters for the displaced. They were also distributing food and relief goods in dangerous zones along the front lines, feeding and caring for soldiers, and offering counselling and even days of respite for traumatized families by sending them away to a retreat camp set up in the mountains by New Hope Center.

“We are fighting,” they said boldly, “but not with guns or missiles. We fight against despair, against hunger, against hate. We believe Jesus won the final victory on the Cross, but many are still being attacked and needing to be rescued and reconciled to God.”

The officers listened, perplexed, wondering whether these men were trustworthy.

Detaining them further, the officials checked and verified the men’s church membership status, as well as the statutes of their MB churches regarding active combat. They even verified baptism dates. Finally, the officers sent them away, saying brusquely, “Go! Do what you are doing. To us, you are useless!”

The interrogation, however, was not over. The next day, military officials showed up at the church shelter in Mukachevo where Oleksii and others were serving. The officers proceeded to hand out service papers to men throughout the village, including members of the church, obliging them to report to the military center.

“So, we went again,” Oleksii said, shrugging, “and again we had the same conversation, but with different officers. Eventually they, too, let us go.”

These officers, however, had already seen with their own eyes the work that was being done by the churches. They knew it was genuine and invaluable, so they gave official acknowledgement that their religious status qualified its members and leaders as non-combatants. These men, the officers declared, were neither cowards nor traitors. They were fighting for their country. But theirs was a different kind of war.

Stories by Nikki White

CHURCH ON THE EVACUATION ROUTE

In February 2022, within the first few days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, troops occupied the city of Berdyansk where there was a small Mennonite Brethren church called Heart of Christ. “It felt like the end,” Pastor Alexei recalled. “We knew we had to evacuate the vulnerable.”

It was disheartening for the church in Berdyansk as they were still relatively new and they had been enjoying a strong sense of calling, and of mission. Was all of that over?

The people of Berdyansk began their evacuation westward through a city called Vinnytsia. Although many from the Heart of Christ MB continued westward, some felt called to stay. “When we stopped in Vinnytsia, there was just too much to do,” Alexei recalled. “We just had to stay and help.”

the residential areas for their gatherings, scraping together whatever old equipment they could manage to find.

“There were thousands of people who knew almost nothing about Jesus!” said Alexei. “Many were in physical need, yet they were even more hungry for social interaction. Some would just come to talk. They were so open.”

One local woman came to them completely broken and disappointed in God. She had lost her parents, her husband, and her daughter was seriously ill. The woman never smiled. Yet, after many conversations, the woman began to attend their church. Eventually, she said to Alexei, “You are showing me another God. I am no longer angry with him. I just want to understand why this happened in my life and what he wants to tell me through this. I want to believe.”

The small church grew to about forty people, including several new believers who were preparing for baptism. Soon, they were hosting Sunday school for children, in addition to serving refugees, distributing aid within Vinnytsia, and going to the front lines of the war to host games nights, movie nights and Bible studies.

Alexei and his family were among those from the Berdyansk church that decided to remain in Vinnytsia. Refugees were crowding into the city, many unable to find or afford accommodations. “People were sleeping on the floors of school buildings in the worst of conditions,” Alexei said, “no food, no hygiene, no way to keep warm or to cook anything. Even worse was the lack of hope.”

Together with seven other members of the Berdyansk church that had evacuated, Alexei opened a help center in Vinnytsia and began to serve those in greatest need. As they offered food and emergency supplies, they also extended invitations for people to meet for fellowship and prayer.

“People began to come, and a church was born,” said Alexei, “and soon we were running out of room to meet!” Alexei and his small group decided to rent a small room in one of

The new church in Vinnytsia was also called Heart of Christ MB, just like the one in Berdyansk. The two churches pray for one another constantly and are keenly aware of the dangers that they face. In Berdyansk, homes and churches alike are being invaded without notice, possessions and properties seized, and residents taken for interrogation. In Vinnytsia, so many people are in transition, not knowing if they should stay, or keep moving.

PRAY

Please pray for peace in Ukraine. Pray specifically for the Heart of Christ MB churches in Berdyansk and Vinnytsia, that their hearts will continue to beat strongly during these challenging days.

“When we stopped in Vinnytsia, there was just too much to do. We just had to stay and help.”

Reconciliation at SOAR Saskatchewan

Joanna Chapa and Multiply Justice

Joanna Chapa is a Mission Mobilizer on the Midwest USA team. She also serves on a team called Multiply Justice, which exists to bring awareness of diversity, reconciliation, and justice issues throughout the organization. The team does this by facilitating conversations and humbly listening to the marginalized in order to encourage intentional actions that express the justice of the kingdom of God. Other members of this team are Stephen Humber (USA), Silvia Lopez (USA), Aurelie Michou (France), Kyla Sinclair-Peters (Canada), John Johnstone (Canada), Cecil Ramos (USA/Thailand), and Nasser al’Qahtani (USA/Middle East/North Africa).

“I was a teenager when I found Jesus,” said Tysyn Cardinal. “But I used Christianity as an excuse to walk away from my identity as First Nations. I just didn’t have any context for reconciling my faith with my Indigenous background.”

Tysyn has lived his entire life in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His father is Cree First Nations, from Treaty Eight in Sucker Creek, Alberta. His mother is from European background. “My dad was a musician,” explained Tysyn, “and he moved our family from Alberta to Saskatoon because he just wanted something different. Maybe he didn’t think too much about it, but he extracted our family from our culture, and that left me and my siblings feeling ashamed of our Indigenous heritage.”

my heart,” Tysyn explained, “and SOAR was definitely one of those places where he challenged me. The leaders there were actually investigating what reconciliation might look like with First Nations. I had never heard of that before. I had been a Christian for about six years, and I had never encountered that kind of conversation.”

According to Ryan and Terri Epp, the program leaders of SOAR Saskatchewan, reconciliation has been one of the pillars of the program since before their time as leaders. “And it’s a very specific core value,” Ryan explained, “that is postured toward honoring our relationship with First Nations in Saskatchewan. It’s part of our call to local mission in the Saskatchewan context.”

As Tysyn looks back at his family’s journey, he sees them being an example of successful assimilation. “We embraced Canadian culture, and we distanced ourselves from everything Indigenous. And I was okay with that. Maybe that was the goal of colonization.”

However, ten years ago, Tysyn was invited to play drums for the worship team at SOAR Saskatchewan, a ten-day mission training program in Saskatoon. “I wasn’t very good at drums,” admitted Tysyn, “but I said yes anyway.”

It was at SOAR that Tysyn first started to hear fellow believers talking about nurturing a positive relationship with First Nations people and culture. “God was working in

Ryan admitted that when he and his wife took over the leadership of the program five years earlier, he did not fully appreciate the significance of that pillar. In fact, he wanted to change it slightly so that it was less specific. However, he changed his tune dramatically after spending more time in discussion with program founders, Lloyd and Carol Letkeman, as well as with local First Nations church leaders like Dallas Pelly, who has also been involved with SOAR for many years.

“We are now more committed than ever,” said Ryan, “to being on mission in the Saskatchewan context. For SOAR, that means valuing the relationship with our First Nations neighbors, however complicated that may be.”

The complications, Ryan made clear, run deep. “Canada has a broken past, a dark history when it comes to mission,” he shared frankly. “Our country attempted to train Indigenous peoples to think and act like European settlers through a mandatory schooling system. That led to huge amounts of damage and generational trauma.”

“I just didn’t have any context for reconciling my faith with my Indigenous background.”

For the Epps, and Multiply’s regional leadership team, the way forward was to clarify the role that a mission training program like SOAR could play: “SOAR is an event, but it’s also a voice among our churches. We’re wrestling with our country’s past of dishonor and mistreatment, but we’re also advocating for something different. SOAR can also be an educational tool for the churches to engage in tangible ways in mission, modeling good relationships with First Nations.”

event, making up about one-third of the total number of participants. “That was so inspiring to me,” said Tysyn. “I love that SOAR has become a safe place where Indigenous youth can come and be themselves and be accepted.”

Tysyn knows that the special environment at SOAR didn’t just happen. “That’s the result of a continual focus on reconciliation over the years,” Tysyn affirmed, “and a faithful choice on the part of the program leaders to learn how to be reconcilers, peacemakers.”

For young Indigenous leaders like Tysyn Cardinal, SOAR has been a tool in God’s hand to radically change his life. “God used SOAR to ignite something within me,” he said. “That’s where I started to reconsider my identity, my background, my people.”

In 2021, as Tysyn was beginning to learn more about his Indigenous heritage and about what reconciliation might mean for him personally, he heard news about the discovery of a mass unmarked grave for Indigenous children in Kamloops, BC. “I had heard about stuff like that growing up,” said Tysyn, “so I wasn’t really shocked by it, I just felt numb. But that’s when I realized that I needed to figure out how to reconcile my faith with being Indigenous. At that point, I knew I needed to walk that path, and SOAR played a massive role in helping me process that.”

In 2023, at SOAR Saskatchewan, there were about thirty Indigenous youth that participated in the ten-day

Today, SOAR’s commitment to build bridges into the First Nations community in Saskatchewan is bearing fruit relationally and spiritually. “I’m so thankful for Ryan and Terri, how they have continued that emphasis on reconciliation at SOAR, that vision, and for their support, and for everyone who was praying for SOAR. I know I wouldn’t be in this place spiritually if it wasn’t for all that. I wouldn’t have known that it was okay to be Indigenous and Christian.”

Based on his experience, Tysyn is optimistic about the long journey that his country is walking toward reconciliation. “God used SOAR to reinvigorate that in me and to teach me how to be more faithful to the call of Jesus. I believe that God is going to bring reconciliation in the way that we need it here in Canada. I have hope for that.”

PRAY

Please pray for justice, peace, and reconciliation to be expressed through the work of Multiply worldwide.

To learn more about SOAR and other mission training programs, go to multiply.net/go

Tysyn Cardinal, leading worship at SOAR Saskatchewan 2023 with thirty Indigenous youth in attendance

“I love that SOAR has become a safe place where Indigenous youth can come and be themselves and be accepted.”

Secrets from the Egg Cooler

NORTH AMERICA | Nikki White

Oscar Wiens and his brother started a chicken farm in Saskatchewan in the late 1960s, which quickly grew to include multiple barns and a feed plant. He was a good husband, an attentive father, a savvy businessman, and a faithful follower of Jesus.

Oscar also had a secret, one that he took to the grave. In 2003, he passed away at the age of 79.

“I found out at his funeral,” confessed his grandson, Matt Braun, who works with Multiply in Manitoba. “I was shocked. Many of us were. We had no idea what Grandpa had been up to.”

quietly with family members for hours, the guy who would sit me on top of an old wooden mandarin orange crate in his truck and take me and my mom—his daughter—out for hotdogs and ice cream at the local Dairy Queen.”

As members of the Parliament Community Church in Regina, Oscar and Ted were always keeping an eye out for young people in need of summer jobs. But Oscar was not just interested in developing rugged farmhands, he was looking to develop future church leaders.

“Working on the farm was grueling,” Matt recalled. “All us kids did it at one time or another—shoveling manure, hauling feed, stacking eggs. Grampa would work alongside us and shoot the breeze. Sometimes he would sit us down in the egg cooler and ask a few questions.”

Matt’s grandfather, Oscar, was born in 1923 in Ukraine. His family immigrated to Canada when he was only two years old and eventually settled in Manitoba, where he and his four siblings grew up during tough economic times. However, Oscar faced the challenge with an entrepreneurial spirit. Even as teenagers, Oscar and his youngest brother, Ted, were hauling eggs from local farms to sell to grocery stores in Winnipeg.

After getting married in 1975, Oscar and his wife, Elsie, moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, where the brothers’ business evolved. Before long, they set up a specialized egg production unit in the province. In time, O&T Poultry (Oscar and Ted) had contracts with Safeway and Campbell Soup, with ventures reaching as far as Africa, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and Russia. The brothers were, as they say, living the dream.

However, Oscar had other dreams, dreams which very few people knew about.

“To me, he was just grandpa,” Matt shared. “He was the guy who would sit at the Sunday table after lunch and talk

For some of the young men that Oscar employed, the questions were more targeted: What was their relationship with Jesus like? Were they thinking about Bible College or

Oscar Wiens with three of his grandchildren, including Matt Braun of Multiply (center back)

“I found out at his funeral. I was shocked. Many of us were. We had no idea what Grandpa had been up to.”

seminary? Back then, very few of these young men had the financial resources to pursue a seminary education.

“That was grandpa’s big secret,” Matt said. “The one I never knew about until after he died.”

For a long time, Oscar had been quietly funding the education of young people who felt God’s call to service. It was only at Oscar’s funeral that Matt and other family members heard about people like Glenn.

Years earlier, at the height of Oscar’s poultry business, Glenn was a Bible College graduate, newly married, and had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. “My wife and I had just moved to Regina,” Glenn recalled, “and I was driving truck. We were also volunteering with youth at Parliament Community Church, where Oscar and his brother, Ted, attended. The next thing I know, I’m hauling eggs for O&T Poultry.”

“Oscar played this oversized role in my life,” Glenn acknowledged. “He inspired me to pay it forward, to invest in people with no strings attached.”

Now Glenn is a pastor in Denver, Colorado. “To think it all started in the egg cooler,” he said chuckling.

“I never knew about Glenn,” said Matt. “I bet Grandpa never told a soul. That’s just the kind of man he was.”

Oscar continued to be that kind of man, right up until the moment of his death.

Glenn remembered the day when Oscar sat him down in the egg cooler. “I was sure I was about to be fired,” Glenn said. “After all, in the first few months of my job, I had backed the truck into the loading bay and smashed 750 dozen eggs!”

However, Oscar had something else in mind. “At first, he just wanted to chew the fat, like always,” said Glenn. “Somehow, the subject went from eggs to cars to commodity futures to seminary. Had I thought about going? At the time, I wasn’t sure.”

Glenn dodged the question. He told Oscar that, even if he wanted to go, there was no way he could afford it. “Then Oscar pulled out a blank cheque,” Glenn recalled, “and quietly asked me how much I needed. Well, there went my excuses!”

Soon after, Glenn and his wife found themselves at the MB Seminary in Fresno, California and, eventually, in full-time service. He never forgot what Oscar did for them.

“It was at the hospital,” Matt related. “We were all gathered around him, the whole family. No one expected him to wake up or speak, but he did! He looked around, saw me, and said, ‘Matt, I want you to pray for the family now.’ I was only twenty-two! It was an honor, sure, but it was also nerve-wracking!”

In the hospital, young Matt drew a deep breath and did as his grandfather instructed. Not long after, Oscar stopped breathing. It was a sacred moment for all. Later, Matt was handed his grandfather’s Bible, at Oscar’s request.

“I still use that Bible today,” Matt said with a smile, “and think about the egg cooler.”

Different people have different roles in the development of missional leaders. All leaders need mentors, encouragers, people along the way who will believe in them and invest in their training. Oscar invested in Glenn and Matt. Who has done that for you? And who is God asking you to invest in?

O&T Farms: successful poultry business and training ground for church leaders

“Oscar played this oversized role in my life. He inspired me to pay it forward, to invest in people with no strings attached.”

Hidden with Christ in God

Philip and Robyn Serez have served with Multiply for more than two decades, during which time they have discipled, trained, and mobilized many young leaders into mission throughout the world. They have modeled what it means to be missional leaders. In November 2020, Philip was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a rare neurological disease for which there is no known cure. The following is an excerpt from their presentation, which they continue to share freely and boldly with those who will hear. It is a glimpse into their faith-filled response to the diagnosis and into their enduring role as missional leaders.

Philip: We want to testify to how we have been experiencing joy in the middle of difficult times. Grief, pain, and sorrow are all real, but so is God, who generates a joy in the hearts of believers that transcends circumstances and sustains through hardship.

Since being diagnosed with ALS more than two years ago, I have lost my speaking voice and most of the strength in my hands, arms, and legs. Every month, there is something to mourn, the loss of an ability, a pastime, a dream. ALS is a degenerative disease that causes the brain to stop communicating with muscles. There is no cure. Eventually, the muscles that control my breathing will fail, unless God intervenes and heals me.

Robyn: Shortly after Philip was diagnosed, I was sitting at the piano and a little song formed in my heart: “I am hidden with Christ in God. You surround me all the days of my life.” It’s based on the words of Paul in Colossians 3, a passage that has become very precious to us through this time. It says, “your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:3, NLT).

This isn’t just true for the Serez family, it is a gift for all believers, for everyone who follows Jesus. So this isn’t just our story, this is God’s story, it’s about who he is and

how he loves his children through the highest highs and the lowest lows of our lives.

Philip: Alongside the weighty grief of a life-ending disease, there are also these pulsing embers of joy, glowing deep within, getting stronger and stronger. Since the beginning of this crisis, we have been surprised by that joy. Sometimes we look at each other in amazement and we ask ourselves, Why do we have all this joy?

Because God is with us. He promises that we will not suffer alone. Instead of removing pain from life’s equation, God adds a variable, his presence, and his presence brings joy. This is a powerful reality for us in the story we are living. We carry deep sadness in this season, but we do not carry it alone. The grief of losing years with my family is gut wrenching, but his peace overrides it all. I may never reach the milestones in mission I had hoped for, but I do not despair, because I am hidden with Christ in God.

This disease has left me powerless. But I call it the terrifying delight of losing everything, because I’ve discovered that God’s companionship is so much more real when it’s all you have left. I can only collapse in the arms of my loving heavenly Father. I cannot perform for his attention. I cannot be strong for his approval. I have nothing left to bargain with. I have only him. I am

left only with the love and acceptance of God—and that is untouchable. It is a fountain of hope filling our souls, overwhelming life’s cruelest circumstances. My heart is filled with trust and courage because I am hidden with Christ in God!

Robyn: Some days are hard. It’s easy to doubt and question God in situations like this. It’s easy to blame him rather than trust him. Every day, we live with all of our brokenness. Sometimes, I just put my head down and busy myself with managing our situation. In those times, it’s hard to hear his voice. But God has always proved himself faithful, and I’ve never lost my hope or trust, or sat too long without joy.

Philip: Why do we think we can avoid trouble and sorrow? Why are we shocked or angry when it comes to us? Suffering is everywhere! Before this disease, I was a part of a privileged elite, a club that knows little of suffering. I lived a charmed life. But I was blind to human suffering all around me. I was naïve to the depths of pain throughout the world and throughout history.

Jesus declares that hard times will be our reality: “For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world” (John 16:33, NLT). If this is true, how do we have the audacity to put God on trial for every hurt, or threaten to disavow his very existence when a crisis comes? When we choose to blame God rather than trust him, it prevents joy from germinating in our hearts.

May we repent of a weak faith that is so quick to blame and so slow to trust. Jesus has overcome this world’s pain and he wants to share peace with us, and through us. I may be tempted to see myself as a victim, but I see how that mindset kills my joy. I am tempted to blame God and envy others—especially when they talk about their plans and future dreams. Early on in my diagnosis, I had to do business with God about these real temptations. With his gracious help, I rejected that victim mentality and declared that this disease did not define me. I would not subjugate myself to it in any way. I would declare, “I may have ALS, but ALS does not have me.”

Robyn: When we live with our identity rooted in Jesus, it is so powerful, and we develop huge spiritual muscles. It especially affects how we pray. We don’t pray as victims. We pray with confidence and expectation because we know who we are and to whom we belong. We pray with freedom to trust God’s plan, purpose, and timing, no matter what. We pray as Jesus taught us, “deliver us from the evil one.” We push back the darkness. We declare Christ’s authority over the enemy, over ALS, over Philip’s body, and even over modern medicine. Everything submits to him.

Philip: These days, I stand in the truth that I am redeemed by Jesus, adopted by the Father, and resuscitated by the Holy Spirit. This is the source of everything. We are learning on this journey where to discover real life. I’ve lost the muscles to embrace the present, and I’ve lost the time to dream about the future. Most of the things that excited me in the past can’t help me now. Leisure, sport, travel, personal ambition—these have all gone bankrupt.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, we carry the presence of God in common, weak, even cracked jars of clay: “We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours…. We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity” (2 Corinthians 4:7, 10, TPT).

Now, I’ve always known that God overrides our weakness, but I never considered that it was his intention to shine through our brokenness. Could this be how God chooses to reveal himself to the world? Not through our success or health, but through our suffering, our struggle, even our decaying bodies. That would radically reclassify suffering for the believer. It would mean that our weakness does not, in fact, disqualify us, it qualifies us. Tragedy doesn’t prove there is no God, rather it becomes an opportunity for him to demonstrate his amazing grace for everyone to see. Persecution isn’t an unfortunate consequence of believing, but rather it is God’s venue for our witness.

Robyn: God is more than up to the task of carrying us all the way, no matter what the finish line looks like here on earth. He is the eternal Creator of all and yet he is fully present and intimate. At once, he is tender and terrifying. In that deep, deep place with Jesus, I can say it is well with my soul, with our souls. God has been faithful to us over the years. As we surrendered our lives to him, he has prepared us for today’s challenges.

That’s why we share. We want everyone in the whole world to know that God is real and true and that he is the joy-giver regardless of our circumstances. We want to encourage ourselves, and everyone else, to redirect our focus on the eternal story, the eternal truth that God has given us new life, new hope, and new joy through his Son, Jesus. And that he doesn’t just show up in the hard times, but he knows the way through them, and he promises to go with us and prove himself faithful. And there is joy—joy for the whole world.

Please pray for Philip and Robyn and the entire Serez family. To watch a recent video interview with them, go to multiply.net/serezvideo