RTIM Review: Issue 5

RTIM REVIEW

A LOOK INTO THE LORD’S WORK AT REACHING & TEACHING

QUARTER 1 | 2023

More on our S.Asia Training Events, Long-Term Workers, Staff Retreat, Resources, Upcoming Events & more inside!

A LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT

This February, I participated in a Simeon Trust workshop in Louisville. One of the passages I was assigned to present was Mark 8:22–9:1. The passage begins with Jesus healing a blind man in Bethsaida. The story is an odd one. Jesus lays his hands on the man to heal him. It’s a miracle! He can see people, but not clearly. So Jesus lays his hands on the man again and completely restores his sight. What’s going on here? Why did Jesus need two tries to get it right?

Of course, Jesus could have fully healed the man after the first touch, or with no contact at all. But the following passage helps us to see what Jesus is up to. Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ—in other words, he sees! And then . . . he rebukes Jesus for telling the disciples about his impending rejection, death, and resurrection. In other words, Peter doesn’t see clearly—at least not yet!

Upon reflection, I realized that the physical encounter with the blind man in Bethsaida foreshadows the spiritual encounter with Peter on the way to Caesarea Philippi.

This observation reminded me why I’m so thankful for our global workers, men and women who are committed to teaching the full counsel of God’s Word so that people clearly see the cost of following Christ. In today’s rush to “finish the task,” I fear that a number of modern missions methodologies have left people with a cloudy vision of the gospel and a cloudy vision of what it looks like to follow Christ.

This is why we say we are committed to making mature disciples. Mature disciples grow in the soil of healthy local churches. So, friends, thank you for your commitment to supporting the long, hard work of making mature disciples, establishing healthy churches, and training local leaders around the world.

The last 90 days have been exciting.

I traveled with several of our staff and a couple of Canadian churches to South Asia where we launched two separate training tracts. This was my first global training trip since the pandemic disrupted international travel. Over the course of one week, we walked through the Old. It was a joy. You can read more about that trip in our Global Training update.

In February, 33 Reaching & Teaching staff members met up in Kissimmee, Florida for our annual retreat. I’m consistently blown away by the team the Lord has assembled. We packed everyone into a living room and praised the Lord for His faithfulness; we updated the team on new developments, and prayed for our global workers. Three of our team members have written their reflections on the retreat on the pages within.

We recently added Brian McKanna to our staff. He will be leading the Central Asia region for Reaching & Teaching. I’ve enjoyed a number of conversations with Brian over the years. He’s a trusted missiologist and his expertise in Central

Asia will be a tremendous blessing to our whole team.

I’ve just returned from a week in Ras al Khaimah where I attended the 10year anniversary of the Ras al Khaimah Evangelical Church. Reaching & Teaching took part in a 2-day conference on the mission of the church. I caught up with team members from Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The Lord has done great things in and through our friends in the UAE. We have much to learn from them.

Finally, please take a few moments and read about the Corders, who are serving in the Caucasus region, and the Roots, who are serving in Mexico. Your generosity to Reaching & Teaching allows us to serve families like these. They’re a model of faithfulness overseas and I’m so thankful for the example they set for our organization.

Please continue to pray for our global workers and staff. It’s a tremendous joy to partner together to see God’s glory declared and displayed around the world through the witness of healthy local churches. Thank you for your continued partnership.

RYAN ROBERTSON

BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF OPERATIONS IN MISSIONS

January 3, 2023

| Madelyn Crawley

Our family vacations have steadily grown as spouses and grandchildren have been added to the mix of our already-large crew. With that comes more opinions and needs to consider as well all head off somewhere. The preparation and planning have also adapted to scale this growth. My dad now creates a detailed itinerary, outlining the full schedule for each day (hour by hour) so that everyone has a run-down of each day’s events and can prepare accordingly. While this does not anticipate every question or prevent every hiccup, it keeps everyone generally headed in the same direction and has eliminated much of the wouldbe chaos.

In a different, but similar way, as our organization has continued to grow, by God’s grace, the need for more operational support has also increased. My goal is to situate this specific work of Operations within the larger work of RTIM. While several persuasive arguments can be made for the role of an agency in long-term missionary sending, a big piece of that is the operational gap that it fills, both for the sending church and for the individual workers. The mission of Operations at RTIM is the same mission as each individual unit on the field and the organization at large. That is, to make mature disciples, establish healthy churches, and train local leaders. The narrow focus of that in Operations means thinking carefully and strategically about how to steward the resources entrusted to us, alleviate our workers of unnecessary burdens, and provide structures to sustain the work happening on the field.

We strive to be diligent laborers who think carefully and strategically about the operational needs of the organization, but then ultimately trust that God will bring the fruit as he pleases

While the specifics of our tasks in Operations are different, the same Great Commission is what fuels our work too. First Corinthians 3 talks about the different forms of labor in the work of ministry, but also points out that God is the one to bring about growth. The same is true for Reaching and Teaching, even in Operations. We strive to be diligent laborers who think carefully

and strategically about the operational needs of the organization, but then ultimately trust that God will bring the fruit as he pleases (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).

STEWARD

Reaching & Teaching has been entrusted with many resources, by God’s grace, and we want to help the organization steward them well. Giving thought to processes and systems is a way of stewarding our time, money, and people to accomplish as much as possible with what has been entrusted. Many of us have been part of institutions where operations were neglected and have felt the strains of poor administration. Our aim is to support our workers well by implementing systems and processes that will serve them and set them up to flourish in their work.

ALLEVIATE

Much of what we do in operations is necessary, but time consuming and tedious work. It’s not work that can’t be done by workers themselves, but it is work that often does not have to be done by them. We want to free up and alleviate our workers of these tasks so that they can devote their attention to the primary task at hand—gospel proclamation and local church ministry.

The role of deacons within a church context has been a helpful framework in thinking through the role of operations in the mission of Reaching and Teaching. While we are not a church and our workers are not elders (at least, not necessarily), the principle and relationship of the roles are similar. Acts 6:1-7 recounts the creation of a sub-set of servants within the church whose primary focus was administrative in nature. The elders of the church were becoming bogged down in the daily administration of the church. They decided to delegate these responsibilities to a particular

group who could give the thought and oversight necessary for these important, but time-consuming needs. Their goal was the same—the good of the body, but their assignment was different. Verse 7 notes that the result was that “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied.” Similarly, in Operations, we want to anticipate and address any obstacles that would divert attention from the primary task at hand.

SUSTAIN

There are many practical considerations for families and individuals headed to the mission field, and often to a greater extent because of the contextual obstacles that can come with life overseas. Securing visas, budgeting for an unfamiliar place, raising support, and taking care of regular life responsibilities are all necessary things that workers must think through before deployment. We want to assist with making these arrangements stateside so that they can be freed up to focus their attention on learning their new language, building relationships, and investing in their local church on the field.

Some days this looks like refining policies, or sharpening communication, or rethinking onboarding processes. It looks like assisting donors, managing the many financial components of support-based work, providing HR support, and implementing structures that support specific needs that arise with our workers. The Operations team desires to be a resource for our people, providing a level of support that propels their work forward.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 7: 9-12)

MADELYN CRAWLEY Operations Manager - Asia

Just as the gift of administration is channeled toward the building up of the body (Ephesians 4:12), so the work of operations is channeled toward fueling the work on the field. The work of administration is just a means to an end—all nations worshiping the Lamb as described in Revelation 7.

Madelyn serves as the Operations Manager for RTIM’s Asia region and loves working to support the work happening on the ground there. She recently graduated with her Master’s degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and currently lives in Fayetteville, AR. She loves being a member at University Baptist Church and cares deeply about local churches.

5 CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE SENDING CHURCH WHEN VISITING A MISSIONARY

January 10, 2023 | Tim Hamer

In a recent article by The Gospel Coalition, Caleb Greggsen makes the case that “churches should consider taking mission trips where the sole purpose is to encourage missionaries.”[1] We wholeheartedly agree. One of the greatest ways to encourage and bless your missionary is to visit them in their context. The time and money may be the best investment your church can make in the resiliency of your missionary.

So visit your missionaries. Here are five things to consider before you go.

BE CLEAR ON THE PURPOSE OF YOUR VISIT.

The focus of a missionary visit should be the missionaries’ spiritual health. So prepare by reading their newsletters or social media posts before you arrive. Know the basic facts about their country and ministry so you’re not asking questions to which you should already know the answer. Ask your missionary to set aside uninterrupted time so you can hear a full report of their life and work. Probe, listen, empathize, and offer wise counsel. Find out how they are really doing. The aim is for your missionary to feel loved, heard, and prayed for. Those are good goals. We see this play out in Scripture too. The Apostle Paul sent the faithful minister Tychicus to the Ephesians with one purpose: “that he may encourage your hearts” (Eph. 6:21–22).

One of the greatest ways to encourage and bless your missionary is to visit them in their context.

AIM FOR THEIR HEART, NOT THEIR FRUIT.

It can be tempting to want to see results in ministry; given the cost to make their ministry possible, missionaries perhaps feel that pressure more than most. While ministry evaluation is healthy, save that for another time. Instead, ask about the health of their relationships with coworkers. Inquire how their kids are doing as they acclimate to climate and culture. Celebrate wins and grieve losses, but refrain from probing for results. Some missionaries labor through much trial and suffering for many years before the Lord grants tangible fruit in

their ministry. If you know the state of your missionaries heart, it will guard you from inspecting their fruit.

PACK HEAVY.

This is not the time to prove you’re the world’s lightest traveler. Instead, leverage your luggage capacity for their joy. Find out what the kids want from home and pack it. Ask grandparents what they want to send. Bring books, taco seasoning, homeschool curriculum, letters from loved ones, and their favorite flavor of chips. Make sure that square inch of luggage space is crammed full of encouragement and edification. This is an easy win.

I once dragged a pogo stick across three continents having to bounce it into action to convince customs officials it wasn’t a weapon of nefarious intent. It was well worth the effort to deliver a missionary kid his birthday wish.

DON’T BE A TOURIST.

Speaking of packing, leave your safari gear at home. It’s an adventure to experience a different culture, but your missionary may have grown weary of it. A great way to show love is by NOT asking them to take yet another trip to the local tourist trap. Find out what their favorite restaurant is and treat them to dinner. Ask what their kids love to do for fun and do that together. Your trip is about serving them. Offer to cook a meal, do the dishes, and sit down and play a game with the kids. Better yet, send mom and dad out on a date while you babysit. Be a tourist of your

missionary’s home first. Anything else they want to show you is a bonus.

On a recent trip, the highlight was being invited into family worship. It was more meaningful than any sight we saw or exotic food we ate. The pure beauty of a family singing and confessing sin to one another far eclipsed the flora and fauna of their country.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE WHAT THE LORD MIGHT HAVE FOR YOU AND YOUR CHURCH.

meeting. Give your church fuel for prayer and a snapshot of life on the mission field. Leverage your experience to bolster a burden for the nations and a zeal to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Could it be that while aiming to encourage your missionary the Lord also invigorates you and your church for reaching the lost? Go ahead and book the trip. It’s a kingdom win.

[1] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ article/mission-trip-churches-shouldtake/

TIM HAMER

Sending Church Coordinator & Member Care Associate - Asia

Your trip is about serving them. Offer to cook a meal, do the dishes, and sit down and play a game with the kids.

Pastor, it is good to get out of your routine. You should experience jet lag, traffic chaos, language barriers, and a church service in a different culture. We often realize things we normally overlook when we’re out of our comfort zone. So embrace it. The Lord just might be using your missionary visit to prepare you for your next sermon series or season in ministry.

After your trip, prepare to update your congregation in a service or prayer

Tim, Karla, and their three teenagers live in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada. Tim grew up on the mission field in a church planting family and has a huge soft spot for missionary kids and their parents. Tim and Karla are long-time members of Hope Bible Church where he served as the Director of Mission and Compassion Ministries prior to coming to RTIM. Tim loves helping sending churches send well and serving our workers as part of the member care team for Asia.

THREE TYPES OF MISSIONARY CANDIDATES

January 31, 2023 |

Ken Caruthers

It was first the Holy Spirit’s idea for Paul and Barnabas to serve as missionaries: “Set them apart for the work I have for them” (Acts 13:2). We know how the story goes: they accepted this divine plan and their church did, too. After a while, Paul and Barnabas were sent away on their first missionary journey.

Today, churches attempt to repeat this process. The Holy Spirit may be less explicitly involved, but it still goes something like this. A pastor preaches and introduces the idea of becoming a missionary, usually through some kind of sermon application. He’ll say something like, ”Maybe God wants you to be a missionary!” Most people just listen, unchanged. But the thought grips someone and that moment jumpstarts a process that involves everything

from contemplation to wrestling to rationalizing to trying the idea on for size to swallowing her anxiety to embracing the growing excitement. Finally, she accepts the idea of crosscultural ministry for herself, even with all its unknowns.

What does this potential missionary need at this point? More than anything, she needs her church. Before now, she’s done all the thinking and questioning and planning on her own. She’s gone through some kind of internal, subjective screening process and has arrived at a conclusion—as tentative as it may be. This is still only her idea. In other words, no one else has evaluated whether or not she would be a good fit for crosscultural gospel work. That’s why she needs her church, the community of

By working together with her church, her future ministry can move from being simply her individual idea to being their corporate idea—and this makes all the difference.

Christians who know her well and are therefore in a good position to evaluate her fitness for this work. What’s more, God has given her pastors whose job it is to train her and help her grow. By working together with her church, her future ministry can move from being simply her individual idea to being their corporate idea—and this makes all the difference.

I’ve been on both sides of these relationships—as a missionary and also as someone helping others think about whether or not they should be a missionary. Here are three types of missionary candidates I’ve regularly encountered.

GREEN-LIGHT CANDIDATES

Green-light candidates are already serving in your church in obvious ways. Maybe they have a title—like deacon or elder. Maybe they don’t. But they have been serving as one.

Faithful servants will have a track record of their strengths and weaknesses. They will have completed some kind of evaluation process—whether formal or informal—to do what they’ve already been doing. Often, this means they meet the qualifications Paul lays out for elders and deacons in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Their good character and gifts are known and affirmed.

Put simply, green-light candidates are ready! They might only be a few months from living overseas.

YELLOW-LIGHT CANDIDATES

Yellow-light candidates are active church members who for one reason or another are not yet serving as deacons or elders (again, with or without the title). Perhaps they’ve not had enough time at your church. Perhaps they don’t yet meet all the biblical qualifications. Perhaps they need to grow in some area of character or in their understanding of Christian doctrine.

But you see potential in yellow-light candidates. With a little time, they will soon be ready to serve cross-culturally. So be patient. They might be a few years from living overseas.

RED-LIGHT CANDIDATES

Red-light candidates come in different

shapes and sizes. Sometimes, you just don’t know enough about them so you can’t give an informed assessment. They’re not even members of your church! Other times, they are members of your church and you do know enough about them to give them an informed assessment. And that assessment is “no”—at least for now.

Red-light candidates may be eager, sincere, and likable, but they are not ready for overseas service. Give them time and hopefully they’ll become model church members.

Two factors automatically move any candidate into the red-light category. First, if a significant sin pattern comes to light. Christians struggling with significant sin will not likely find the support they need when they’re overseas and often isolated. Second, if a candidate resists the church’s role in the affirming and sending process. You don’t want to send missionaries who are skeptical of the church; they will export that DNA wherever they go and are therefore not ready to engage in biblical, church-centered missions.

Realistically, red-light candidates need significant preparation. This process might take several years, if it even happens at all. In my experience, many folks who start out as red-light candidates never follow through and live cross-culturally for the sake of the gospel.

GETTING FROM “ME” TO “WE”

The key to reviewing missionary candidates is to use the same processes your church uses to evaluate Christians for ministry. No individual Christian should prepare alone. They need their church’s evaluation and, yes, even their acceptance. They need their church to mobilize, own, and invest in their future ministry.

KEN CARUTHERS

For over twenty years, Ken has served as a missionary leader and trainer. He has helped large mission organizations, churches, missionaries, and indigenous church leaders with their missions strategy. He served as an Associate VP for the IMB and lived 12 years in Central Asia. Ken earned his Ph.D. in applied theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is passionate about serving local churches. He and his wife have 2 children and reside in Virginia.

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GLOBAL TRAINING UPDATE

TRAINING LOCAL LEADERS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

In January 2023, RTIM’s Global Training Team had the privilege of launching a new Training site in South Asia. Located in major city, this site was originally planned for a 2020 launch date. But the COVID pandemic derailed those plans. In the Lord’s providence, he delayed the launch of the site until this year.

A key part of our strategy for training local leaders is building a team of qualified volunteer teachers. We partnered with a local church in Canada to build this team. They proved to be a skilled group of people, checking all the boxes for great cross-cultural teachers. They were skilled in the course content and showed great teaching flexibility in the delivery and application of that content. We’re so grateful for this great team! Without them, and other church partners like them, it is hard to pull off these trips!

An additional key element of our strategy is our Site Coordinator. This person is a trusted local partner who can pull together a group of pastors and leaders for a training. In this case, the Site Coordinator is a local national pastor who has a heart for training his fellow under-served pastors. The insight he provides into his context is so valuable to us, because it helps us understand the particular pastoral and theological questions that need addressing.

We arrived in the city on a Saturday, in time for a few people on the team to attend the local church service led by our Site Coordinator. For security reasons, not everyone on the team

was able to attend. But for the three who did go, it was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

By worshiping with our brothers and sisters in South Asia, we see a tangible image of the important work we are engaged in. Each one of the pastors and leaders we taught are part of small local churches around the area. Our goal is to help them grow in their pastoral skill and theological training to contribute toward healthy churches being established. To see the life of the local church in action is a tremendous encouragement toward faithfulness in this area.

At this site, we had the opportunity to spend a few busy days teaching a group of about 45 men and 40 women. The men walked through an overview of the Old Testament, while the women did an overview of the Bible. This site was a first for us. This was the first time we conducted a men’s and women’s training event at the same time in the same location.

The result overwhelmingly positive! At the end of the week, both the pastors and the women expressed their appreciation for the training and shared how encouraged they were by the teaching. As a teaching team, we were just as encouraged by their kind words and their enthusiastic hunger for God’s Word. One pastor said: “This was first time I attended a training of this kind. The teachers helped me to better understand the story of the Old Testament.”

Lord-willing, this was just the first of many more teaching trips at this site. We are grateful for a great group of students and a gifted teaching team! We thank God for the opportunity and trust that his word will cause growth in the hearts of all involved.

NATE BROCK Training Facilitator - Europe

Nate grew up on the mission field in Northern Italy and currently lives in Louisville, KY, with his wife Rachel, and their four children (Charlie, Will, Kate, and a baby boy coming in Dec ’21). He is a graduate of Clarks Summit University as well as The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M. Div. in Christian Ministry). Prior to his role with Reaching & Teaching, Nate served as a pastor in Indianapolis, IN.

THE WOMENS INSTITUTE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

This past January, Reaching and Teaching’s Global Training team launched our first ever Women’s Institute in South Asia!

Early the first morning, the ladies began to trickle in. At first, it appeared we would have 15-20 women, but as the morning went on, the room continued to fill and fill until we had more than 40 ladies with us. On the break, we began chatting with the ladies who had come in late, and they were so apologetic, explaining that they’d traveled through the night, along with their kids, and were working to get the kids settled in their rooms for naps before they came to the training.

Immediately, we were humbled at the lengths these women were willing to go to in order to sit under teaching from God’s Word. An overnight journey in any context can be brutal, but this one involved a train that didn’t have seats for all the passengers, and it included mothers holding small children for the

8+ hour train ride. Yet these ladies — and their children — were all smiles when they arrived.

We asked them how they were able to have such joyful spirits after staying awake all night, and they responded with, “This is the first opportunity we’ve ever had to come and study about God outside of Sunday morning church. The men have had opportunities to do this, but we’ve never had the opportunity to attend.”

Needless to say, our team was overjoyed with the incredible privilege of sharing more about God’s Word with these dear ladies. We taught the first course in the Women’s Institute: “Overview of the Bible.” We traced the theme of redemption from Genesis to Revelation and showed how each book fits into the grand narrative, as well. The ladies were intrigued to learn how the Bible all fits together and were particularly interested in hearing about the faith seen in characters like Job in the midst of suffering. Persecution for Christians is quite common where these ladies live. They’ve known more suffering than many of us, especially when it

comes to standing for Christ. Despite the persecution their community has experienced, their desire to grow in their faith and share it with others is strong. We hope and pray that through attending the Women’s Institute, these ladies will know God more deeply and be better equipped to share Truth from His Word with their children, neighbors, and friends.

Our team will continue facilitating trainings in this area for the next three years, returning 5 more times to finish the Women’s Institute. Please pray with us that God’s church would be built up around the world through this investment in His Word.

KELLY COOPER Women’s Training FacilitatorAsia

Kelly came on board with RTIM as a Women’s Training Facilitator for Asia in 2022. She is passionate about seeing women grow in their faith through a deep knowledge of God’s Word. Prior to serving with RTIM, Kelly served in Bangkok for 3 years. She has also taught high school and university courses for Palmetto Christian Academy and Charleston Southern University. Kelly is thrilled to see how God is going to move among the women of Asia to make His name known!

LONG-TERM WORKERS

CORDERS

Caucasus Region

B.C. and C.C. have been serving in the Caucasus region with RTIM since March 2020. They have been married 32 years and have 5 children—ages 18 to 6— with them on the field.

In March 2021, after a year of languagelearning and COVID lockdowns, God led B.C. and a national pastor to begin a ministry among an unreached, Middle Eastern people group that lived in Caucasus. The vision was simple: share the gospel, make disciples, plant a healthy church, and watch God change lives and raise up national leadership from within. This fellowship now has 16 committed people. B.C. spends his time learning the language of this unreached people group, leading various discipleship groups and Bible studies, and leading worship. C.C. ministers to others through hospitality, encouragement, and communication with the women.

This RTIM family’s sending church is Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, KY. Eight other churches support them monthly. These supports give, pray, and occasionally even send their own for the purpose of making disciples and providing prolonged trainings to help young local believers be rooted in the Word of God.

The political climate in this region is tense, which makes it increasingly challenging to minister to unreached people groups who live in Caucasus but are not from there. These people risk deportation. The government seems to grant fewer and fewer visas; foreigners seem to have access to fewer and fewer

jobs. Prejudice is everywhere. Most have nowhere to turn. To return to their country of origin would likely mean imprisonment—or worse. But other countries won’t give them visas either. Recently, a businessman visited this RTIM family and discussed his expertise and eagerness to begin a business to assist with job opportunities, livelihood, and resident status for asylum seekers. Please pray for this opportunity.

The months ahead are busy and full of promise. B.C. and C.C. are preparing for the arrival of a team who will participate in evangelistic outreach and lead theological training. Next month, B.C.

will speak at a three-day youth retreat for TCKs. Another theological training team will arrive the following month. In the summer, two female practicum students will serve alongside this family in their routine ministry for 6 weeks and participate in a weeklong summer camp for 11- to 14-year-old nationals.

As a platform for their ministry, C.C. serves in a private school that uses Christian curriculum. She works as an assistant administrator and English communication teacher. The student body has students from 17 different countries, nine of which are Muslim. B.C. serves as a member of the school board.

ROOTS

Oaxaca, Mexico

We are the Root family and Oaxaca, Mexico has been our home for nearly 8 years. There are 8 of us plus a cat and a dog. The Lord called us to Oaxaca after completing 2 years of missions training and theological education in South Texas. Oaxaca is rugged mountainous state located in the far south of Mexico. We serve in Oaxaca because it’s unique in that it’s one of the most under reached areas of Mexico. It’s also the most linguistically and culturally diverse state in Mexico with some 16 different language families. Inside those families are many more mutually unintelligible dialects and of course significant cultural differences between the people who speak these languages. Historically this cultural and linguistic diversity has been a barrier to the rapid spread of the gospel in Oaxaca, which is why there is still great need for missionary efforts in Oaxaca even in 2023. Those realities were the primary impulse and motivation to go to Oaxaca and are why we are continuing here today.

Brethren Reformed Church, our sending church located in Brookville, Ohio, has been a faithful partner in this ministry for nearly decade. From the beginning of our conversations about missions in 2012 they’ve stood with us through faithful love, care and support. Our stateside times are always encouraging and their faithful prayers and check-ups on our family are undoubtedly what have brought us through the fog of discouragement and uncertainty that can so often be a part of the missionary experience.

The ministry that God has given us here has evolved into a mission strategy centered on the local church. God allowed us to integrate into a church plant that had begun about a year before we arrived in Oaxaca City in 2016. I soon became involved in teaching and

preaching in and since 2018 have been serving as one of the Pastors. Heidi has taught Sunday school in the children’s ministry from the beginning & we’ve led the ministry to the youth group the last few years as well.

We’ve seen God work in an amazing way in our years there, to essentially rewrite the ecclesiological DNA of this Church. Today our church (Comunidad Gracia Redentora) is one of the very few churches in Oaxaca City, a city of 500,000 people, that embraces a theology with a high view of the sovereignty of God, plurality of elders, expositional preaching and intentionally gospel & Christ centered worship. It’s been a great blessing to be a part of seeing how God has worked to take a church that had some shaky theological foundations but was new enough so that those things weren’t set in stone, and granted the opportunity so that a new course could be set towards a more biblical direction.

Our prayer is that God would be pleased to use our church as platform to plant other healthy churches that would reach other remote regions of our state and to continue equipping church leaders. We also hope to serve as an influence, encouragement and even a model for other churches who are turning to, seeking and desiring sound doctrine and biblical worship.

Please pray for Mexico and for our state, Oaxaca and for the local churches here. It’s a wonderful place but one that faces many challenges. We are confident, though, that through the proclamation of the gospel, the faithful exposition of the scriptures the power of prayer light can continue penetrating darkness, souls can be saved, and healthy churches can be raised up.

Discover more about our Global Training ministry at rtim.org

FEATURE: STAFF RETREAT

DYLAN EAGLE

Working for an organization where your many of your teammates are scattered around the globe means that any time everyone gets to be together is quite special! I’ve only been a part of Reaching & Teaching for four months, so this was my first opportunity to attend a staff retreat. But three words come to mind when I reflect on our time together: prayer, stewardship, and joy.

Prayer. We set aside time to pray not only for the organization at large, but also for each individual worker and their family. Praise God, Reaching & Teaching has grown to nearly 90 missionary units around the world; we’re in countries and among language groups that we never could have imagined a few years ago. We spent a lot of our time together hearing updates and prayer requests from each individual family—and we were happy to do it. As stateside staff,

we are here to serve and support our global workers. Is there a better way to do that than prayer?

Stewardship. I came away impressed by how seriously each staff member takes their role. All of us, in various ways, are committed to advance the gospel around the world. We all desire to steward our time and resources to ensure our workers are well equipped to make mature disciples, establish healthy churches, and train local leaders for years to come.

Joy. This group loves working together! We are brothers and sisters in Christ. God has brought us together to serve local churches. I was moved when I sang, along with 30 or so staff members, “Come rejoice now, O my soul, For His love is my reward, Fear is gone, and hope is sure, Christ is mine forevermore.” Our

shared commitment to Christ makes our work that much more enjoyable— and that much more fruitful. Over the next year, I can’t wait to see how our staff serves our partners and workers so that more healthy churches can be established around the world.

CHRIS PHILLIPS

One of the unexpected strengths of the Reaching & Teaching staff that I have grown to truly appreciate is how involved staff are in personal evangelism and discipling. After our recent staff retreat in February, I reflected on how many conversations I had over a meal or in between meetings that naturally flowed into ministry that had nothing to do directly with Reaching and Teaching. Over and over, I heard someone talk about a person they were reading the

Bible with, or an evangelistic Bible study they were hosting in their home, or a Sunday School class they were leading.

While we are an organization that’s all about ministry around the world, it was truly encouraging to hear how much ministry is going on “at home” through our staff. Though we all strive for excellence in our specific role, I left staff retreat most encouraged by how we’re also striving for excellence in our Christian lives at home.

We’re all best at our jobs—sending and supporting missionaries—when we’re making much of Jesus where we already live. I pray this would continue to mark the staff of Reaching & Teaching well into the future.

KATIE MITCHELL

8:00AM on a Tuesday. A living room in Kissimmee, FL. Surrounded by close to 30 strangers.

This is where I found myself a few weeks ago. I joined Reaching & Teaching only a few months prior and was attending our first staff retreat a few days after taking on a new role for the org. I looked around the room and saw a few familiar faces—some I knew personally, but most I only knew from intently scanning the staff page. By the end of the week, I would consider them all family.

As the Reaching & Teaching newbie, the week truly felt like a fire hose of relationship-building. I was learning names, roles, convictions, plans—all things I was familiar with, but needed a deeper understanding of. As the week went on and I heard from various members of the Reaching & Teaching

team about the work the Lord is doing stateside and abroad, I found myself humbled and grateful that God brought me to this team.

To be honest, when I first joined staff, I was just a seminary student looking for a flexible, part-time job. But our staff retreat made me realize that I’d been blessed with much more than a job. I now had a unique opportunity to serve a faithful missions organization as it seeks to accomplish the beautiful tasks of making mature disciples, establishing healthy churches, and training local leaders.

What a privilege. What a joy.

A GROWING TEAM!

Introducing our New Regional Leader for Central Asia

Brian M Regional Leader - Central Asia

Brian and his wife Kami served for seven years as missionaries in Central Asia, working in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. After returning to the US, Brian spent six years as a global trainer, traveling around the world to equip international church leaders for ministry. He desires to see the gospel spread and churches established among the nations of Central Asia. Brian is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and Kami have three children.

RTIM’s Regional Leaders:

Latin America & Sub-Saharan Africa

Europe & MENA

Asia

AJ Gibson

Peter Brock

Chris Phillips

Why You Should Come

Whether you are considering long-term missions or want to mobilize your church, our Preview Day is a great place to start!

What you can expect from the day:

Grow in a biblical understanding of missions

Discover RTIM’S DNA

Connect with like-minded Christians

Learn how you can partner with us

Atlanta, GA

Thursday, June 1st

Mount Vernon Baptist Church

Louisville, Ky

Monday, July 10th

Third Avenue Baptist Church

New York, NY

Thursday, September 21st

North Shore Baptist Church

Time: 8am - 5pm

Price per Individual: $50

DISCOVER

Missionary Methods

St.Paul’s or Ours: A Study of the Church in the Four Provinces

By Roland Allen

At Reaching & Teaching, we aim to review as many books on missiology as we can - some we would endorse and with others we would differ. Make sure to check out all of our book reviews, including this one, on our blog.

Full Review on the RTIM Blog

Register for Cross Con 2024!

JANUARY 3-5

God’s people have always been opposed—opposed by earthly enemies, by spiritual foes, by worldly governments, and even at times by supposed friends. And yet, God’s people press on in hope. We can be assured that God will prove victorious in the end, having already triumphed over his foes on the cross.

Join us as we exult in the God who brings life out of death and joy out of sorrow. Together we are called to worship and to bear witness, that our coming and conquering King might be known and adored by the nations.

Missions Talk Podcast

Reaching & Teaching is excited to partner with 9Marks on the production of Missions Talk. Missions Talk is a regular conversation about biblical and practical elements of missiology.

Partner with Reaching & Teaching!

Your financial support ensures Reaching & Teaching is equipped to make mature disciples, establish healthy churches, and train local leaders around the world.

As RTIM grows, your partnership in the gospel provides strategic care and resources for our team of global workers and global training efforts for the years ahead.