Missionary as an Overflowing River of Life

The ways through which God carries out his will to us, is incredible. Beyond doubt, as written in Jeremiah 1:5  “I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.” Being a missionary is not something that I had dreamed of before. However, I always liked the missionary work from the perspective of Christian and developmental activities. In my home context I socially benefited from the missionary works by studying in schools they built, health centers and other important infrastructural activities as well as the Gospel they shared in my Church. By serving God in the Student Christian Movement of Rwanda, I was equipped with more insight and interest to the missionary work Later, I discovered the Global Mission Fellows program.

During the orientation training in Seoul, I was challenged and more open minded about what the Bible says on God’s mission and creative ways to share the Gospel by addressing the root causes of injustice in the world. To get to my place of assignment, it wasn’t an easy process. It reminded me of the commissioning service in Seoul where we declared to God “Put me to doing, put me to suffering,” Months waiting during the visa process, separation with entering a new home and life without friends and family, brings soreness that I have not imagined before.  I realized that it’s really God’s mission.

When we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we cannot only bring back hope but also lead people to Eternal life. A lot is happening in this world. There are human being suffering, deaths, civil wars, conflicts, terror, poverty and hunger as well as many other factors that lead countries into chaos and force human beings to flee their homes. There are millions and millions of refugees. They take risky routes through deserts, seas and other terrible ways looking for a refuge. Today, according to the International Organization for Migration report (IOM, 2018 Report) the UN Migration Agency, shows that 3.3% of the world’s population are migrants, with over 40 million people internally displaced and over 22 million refugees. Most of these are people in crisis and in need for help from anyone.

Thanks to countries and church communities in Europe, there are places willing to become a welcoming and helping home with a heart of love for refugees and migrants. There are still some other countries and congregations as well as individuals still need to understand the reasons why people flee their homes. They must stop xenophobia perceptions so that they can be a helping hand  by opening doors and borders for human beings to find refuge. We pray for God’s Peace and hope to refugees and migrants, as well as advocating for the respect of  human rights and dignity in our daily work.

Brethren, having Christ in our lives brings peace and hope for the future. Apart from whatever social and political support that we can provide or negotiate for to those in need, it’s important also to share Jesus’s love.  Through him we have hope and Eternal life. This pushes me to describe missionary service as an overflowing river of life which has Jesus Christ as its foundation. Every single day, I see God’s love and work at my disposal. I am thankful to God and feel more dedicated to God’s mission.

I understood that many around the world suffer and have very few to understand them. It is horrible to have a broken heart, and yet you don’t even know where your help could come from. In Romans 10:14 the Bible tells us “But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?” I thank God for the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), where I am serving now, to work for justice and peace by addressing migration and Asylum policies along with fighting  racism and discrimination in Europe. I am growing tremendously and proud of our work.

“Let us be like rivers for justice and love, givers of hope to the humanity. Let the little light of yours shine.” Math 5:14-15

Jean Pierre HABIMANA

GMF-International, Class 2017-2019

Belgium #3022373

 

My Different Lent

I have no idea why I love Lent more than the Advent. My favorite moment is when I can sing with all the feels “Old Rugged Cross”, whether in English or Tagalog. I was used to a hot and dry Holy Week. During Wednesday of that week, the television channels start to retire and you cannot watch the usual programs. Instead, old films or children’s films are shown. In the Philippines, we have a worship service celebrating the Last Supper and sometimes washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday then Seven Last Words with seven different speakers on afternoons of Good Friday. Black Saturday is usually swimming day for families, because there’s a superstition that you cannot take a bath nor smile during Good Friday due to the death of Jesus Christ. On Easter Sunday, we have sunrise services sometimes all together in a park near the mountains, in an area with a hundred steps. Moreover, the long weekend is used by people who work in the capital to go home, out of town or abroad to relax and unwind.

Telling this story from my new home (Uruguay, South America) sounds extremely rare or different. Holy Week here is a 5-day holiday called Semana de Turismo (Tourism Week). There’s even a Semana de la Cerveza which is a famous week-long festival with artsy items and draft beer plus bands and performers. The weather in the capital city, Montevideo starts to cool down for the autumn season. Cool down for me, around 18 to 12 C from the summer`s 30 to 36 C with humidity. I spent my Good Friday at the local church I am working with where a group of people gathered for a reflection time. The next day, Black Friday, I was privileged to share some games with children and teens during another local church in anticipation for Easter. On the morning of Easter, almost five churches, and a group of Youth for Christ, gathered beside the beach waiting for the sunrise. We read some verses from the Bible and sang original hymns from all over Latin America. Afterwards, we had breakfast in each local churches. At 11 AM we had worship service and holy communion. I had my time with the teenagers, like a small group where I shared my work with young people in the Philippines during Holy Week. It was different for the Uruguayan teens.

Late in the afternoon, I went to the Museum of Visual Arts with some friends to catch an exhibit of an Argentinian painter named Sergio Viera. I have appreciation for the art in my new home. I always enjoy my time going to art museums for free. The masterpieces always remind that something or someone will always be out of my league or sense of reason and it’s alright not to fully grasp its sense, but at the same time it’s vital to not miss it’s beauty and that feeling of transcendence. That is maybe why I love lent more than advent because most of the time, death is harder to explain than life.

Micah Pascual

GMF Class of 2017-2019

Advance #3022332

Take after the Easter Reflection, me with 3 German volunteers.

BE PATIENT – BE FLEXIBLE – BE PRAYERFUL

Patience is often defined as the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble and suffering without becoming angry or upset. Patience is always a bitter plant, but we can all testify about its sweet fruits. In most cases we become impatient when things are going out of hand thereby forgetting that with God everything is under control. In this missionary journey I have seen the importance of trusting in God and leaving everything into his hands as the author of our lives. If a car is having a problem, taking it to the carpenter to fix it is time wasted and won’t produce the desired result.

The same applies to our lives, when we face problems we tend to use wrong channels to address them. Often times we share with people trusting in them more than God who is not like us humans who lie. He is faithful, whatever he promises, he fulfills.  Numbers 23:19.

Spending three months at Methodist Ministries Centre working with Methodist Church in Kenya as a project coordinator has affirmed my faith and trust in God. Initially I never knew what to expect in a land where I know no one, but I have managed to transition well. I owe this to the overwhelming support I get from my workmates, family, friends and other Global Mission Fellows. Besides the support, the affirmations I received during training gives me strength whenever I feel weak. I always take time to go through each and every one of them and reflect what God is telling me using this mighty way. Recently I was going through the aforementioned, and I saw a note written “Be patient, Be flexible and Be prayerful”. This alone is enough to remind me that God is with me since when I answered His call I said, “ I will go in the strength of the Lord” Psalms 71:16.

 

Tinashe Tembo

Global Mission Fellow

Class of 2017-2019

3022359

CHRIST in Liberdade, Hope of Glory

Since the 1st of January 2018 I’ve live in Brazil, specifically in Liberdade (a neighborhood in the state of Minas Gerais) to serve as a social educator in the Shade and Fresh Water Project. It’s an important step I’ve taken, leaving my comfort zone and responding to God’s call.

Completing the formalities for obtaining the visa but especially let God put in place the promised favorable circumstances that would allow my departure and my stay in the best possible context.

My patience was put to the test and my motivation strengthened. I measure all the Grace of God so that I am there and I testify that nothing resists God, no circumstance to the contrary, because He always realizes His plans for our lives. What He has decided He always does, and nothing can resist him. Isaiah 14:27

The testimonies received on Liberdade are hardly reassuring because this community, although it is overflowing with love, is confronted with the problems related to the traffic of drugs, aggressions of any kind and crimes. Moreover, the economic and social situation of Brazil does not facilitate the improvement of living conditions.

In addition, the family unit, this unique institution, instituted by God, the basis of all cultures, the root of any nation, the bedrock of children’s social development, is floundering. Abandonment of children by parents along with controversial and broken relationships between family members produce unbalanced and difficult children.

This picture, not very bright, mortgages the future of children in search of social welfare in these disadvantaged areas. It negatively depicts their moral values and poses the thorny problem of education.

However, this sad picture can not obscure all the efforts made by the United Methodist Church of Brazil in this struggle for social justice and the welfare of children.

Project Shade and Fresh Water is a boon to holistic children’s change and a source of refreshment for the social and holistic development of the Liberdade community to prevent crime.

Eli Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Nobel Peace Prize winner, Methodist Christian Missionary in India and Theologian, wrote: “We grow small things trying to be great …” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Stanley_Jones

This sentence, much more than a thought, pushes us to reflect on our role in this society in loss of moral values and social principles. Because it is part of our growth to help, in all humility, to grow these children and adolescents by giving them a Christian education; help prevent crime through their social development so that they become treasures for their family, their community and society. The future of these children and adolescents will not come alone, if we do not take steps to lead them on the road to success.

To neglect these children is to destroy ourselves. We exist in the present only to the extent that we put our faith in the future.

To not give them an education is to deprive them of their right. A valuable right inscribed in the social principles of the Methodist Church in Article 162, C-Rights of Children.

Our commitment to the mission as Global Mission Fellows, pushes us to leave our comfort zone, to trace a groove of love in the hearts of these souls in quest for landmarks, to give Christian education to these children who represent the hope of a new world, to ignore our weakness and our fear of danger because under the cross nothing is painful and by faith everything is possible. Christ in Liberdade, the Hope of Glory!!!

ALLABAH Franck

Global Mission Fellow, Class 2017-2019

Social Educator, Shade and Fresh Water Project, Brazil

Advance #3022375

Black and White

My friends! When I was a little kid, I barely understood the difference between white and black ‘people’. It was because I was in the dark about the existence of the former. Grown and nurtured in a black African country where white folks were seldom seen, a day I saw one, acquisitiveness shadowed me. Curiously I wanted to understand the difference between the two. In actuality, I saw a white ‘person’ with a normal body comprising a head, hands, feet, eyes, hair … just as I also appeared in the mirror. My attention was not drawn by the skin color as even among black or white it is diversified.

In the long run I realized that the inability to substantiate the difference owes to the fact that I pictured everything in normalcy. The roots of racism lie deeply in man’s nature, wounded and bruised by original transgressions. Some are conciliated to believe that racism only prevailed in historical publications. We can hardly delete racism as its richness in scars and stains are deeply embedded in our contemporary society. Racism has not departed, undoubtedly there are these biases.

Someone raised an argument on this debatable subject “…that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it. Racism, we’re not cured of it.” Obama said. One might not concur with him but given different horrendous acts of racism being experienced around the world, probably we need to think twice. All racism is wrong and repudiating that it exists does not make it go away. Today we are arguably living in a barbarous society where asking for respect is something long gone by. Without beating around the bushes, It is high time folks pull up their socks and stop fighting racism with racism but rather solidarity. Racism springs up from ignorance and it’s ridiculous no matter where it comes from. It is beyond human comprehension and has no space in our society.

As United Methodist Missionary under Global Mission Fellows program, working in Brazil where there are many different skin colors, accepting that racism still negatively decorates the society is a virtue. I kindly call all people of God to understand that individuals are equally created in the image and likeness of God. Genesis 1:26-27. It is not good for a Christian to show partiality or favoritism because our God is not partial. Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.”

Jesus commands us to love one another as He loves us. John 13:34. If God is impartial and loves us with impartiality, then we need to love others with that same high standard. Jesus teaches in Matthew 25 that whatever we do to the least of His brothers, we do to Him. If we treat a person with contempt, we are mistreating a person created in God’s image; we are hurting somebody whom God loves and for whom Jesus died.

Black and white, victim of racism, prejudice and discrimination, we should all be ready to forgive. Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Finally, I call those who practice racism, prejudice, and discrimination to repent. “Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” Romans 6:13.

We are all God’s image.

Anany Kasongo

GMF International Track, Class of 2016-2018

Shade and Fresh Water Project

Brazil

#3022192

When We Try to Help God

We try in life. Sometimes, we try too hard to the point of struggle. We plan, organize and invent procedures of how our trials should work. We often exceed the limit to fixed conclusions, risking ourselves to disappointment and regrets. With the excitement from the email I received about my placement breakthrough in South Korea, gradual levels of fear and anxiety grew within me with the endless research I googled about Korea. I was watching YouTube videos every night at work into late hours, as the days approached  to training in Atlanta. This opportunity opened a world of more expectations and learning platforms for who God really is- precisely to me.

I must confess that my narrow-mindedness at that time served as a temporary frustration for me. I planned well; taking notes, mirror rehearsals, voice recordings and many more interview preparations and then a shock of the visa denial (I never prepared for that!). Frustrated with my suffocated plans, I reapplied without consulting the right people. Making decision on frustration is a mistake I would never advise anybody applying for the program to try. The second interview was successful but the visa was delayed due to administrative processing.  I missed my chance for Atlanta training. At this point, greater ideas and plans to quit danced in my mind  when my own struggles tried to blackmail me. Giving up became an option, but just then when I gave up on myself and burden it to God, the mission wins. The idea is trying to help God when I know I cannot.

I had to apply for the Korea visa weeks later. It took me three days to get the visa unlike the first attempt for the U.S visa that took more than two months. I stopped to strain, played my part and God played His. He knew best.

With grudges from the unsuccessful plan to travel to Atlanta for training, I ignored most emails that followed prior to the second training at Incheon- South Korea. This risk hit me rough again. Not taking a critical look at my flight Itinerary, I assumed that just like all the trainees I will come home after three weeks of training to say goodbye to family and friends before heading to my placement site for two years. I was wrong. It would have made no sense to go all the way from a continent to the other to and fro, twice for the sake of blowing “bye candle” considering that it is missionary work and the money used was the church’s money. This mistake served me another bitter truth and/or regret.

That meant that the few items I carried for the training were all for the next two years of service. Bad feelings emerged but I got emotional and material support from the community here. It was different from the Koreans I thought I’d meet based on You tube and Google. Falling in the hands of strangers who treat you better than you think you deserve is a gift from God.  If we were to help God be God, how would we have influenced strangers to be kind to us for two years and forever? No wonder Jesus confirmed to apostles then as it is recorded in Matthew 28 the second part of verse 20      ” …and surely I am with you always to the very end of ages”.

Marygoret Makhupe

International Track

Class of 2017-2019

Seoul, SOUTH KOREA.

#3022333