March 25, 2008

Friends,

There we were in the interior of Ghana, Africa, just two weeks ago,

• a delegation of church leaders from Brazil, Ghana, Egypt, and the United States
• listening to each other’s stories of lay leadership training and holistic evangelism,
• inspired and encouraged by the prospects of new south-to-south partnerships in mission, such as
• Brazilian missionaries training at the Egyptian seminary in Cairo before initiating their ministries in the Near East, with a better awareness of both the Orthodox churches and the different expressions of Islam
• church leaders learning from the Brazilian church new strategies for church development in new areas
• rather technical, quite “churchy” subjects.

And then we all took a trip to the interior of Ghana where we saw and experienced the face of God!

Innocence.

I was aghast. As our Ghanaian hosts took us several hours into the interior to show us their churches and schools, I realized that with all our planning, it is simply not about us. On one of those unplanned detours suddenly we were amidst children who in their poverty exuberated the Spirit of Christ. Can you see it too?

Peace.

Joy.

Raging happiness.

The fervor of prayer.

I think I experience, at least a little, the idea that mission is God’s doing and occasionally, partially, but profoundly, the missioners, too, are missionized by the very God who sends us forth.

Thank you, friends and churches, for supporting us on the mission.
Yours,

Tim & Marta

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 276