Missions Blog for Churches

Serving As Senders: How to Care for Your Missionaries While They Are Preparing to Go, While They Are on the Field, When They Return Home
by Neal Pirolo

One book that our team regularly shares with pastors and missions leaders as we visit churches is Neal Pirolo’s Serving as Senders. The book is great not only because it tells us what we should be doing, it’s great because of the practicality with which it tells us how we should be doing these things. Pirolo, a missionary himself, brings a perspective that is valid as well as clear to a subject that many churches neglect. It isn’t as if we don’t care. If asked, most of us would exclaim that we do! But for whatever reason we often neglect doing much more than sending support checks.

This book will help churches with established missions ministries as well as those just starting out. The ideas will spawn creativity that will lead you to develop your own new ways of meaningfully ministering to those serving overseas. Even more, the book will help us realize and then remember that the Church is much bigger than our local congregation, and the call to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world,” is not an or statement but an and statement.

If you’ve got some new ideas of how you or your church has cared for missionaries, why not share them here? I’d love for others to be able to read them, but also to take these ideas as I visit churches in the PCA.

George Verwer, Operation Mobilization
“I strongly believe that this is one of the most significant missionary books of this decade. Unless the Church and God’s people respond to its message, the work of reaching the unreached is going to be greatly hindered. Every committed sender needs to get involved in distributing this book.”

Dr. Ralph Winter, U.S. Center for World Mission
“This key book makes the strategic point that mobilizers–the senders–are as crucial to the cause of missions as frontline missionaries. It is a book just crammed with solid, exciting insights on the most hurting link in today’s mission movement.”

Click here to order Serving as Senders online from Amazon.com.

When churches endeavor to begin Faith Promise, they often do not have members who have their own stories of how God grew their faith. So one of the requests I have heard regularly is to have some Faith Promise testimonies that churches could share with their members to both instruct and encourage their people. If you have such a story that you are willing to share, would you send it to us? We will only use first names (and you can change those if you want), and the city and state you are from. This would be a great help to your PCA brothers and sisters across the country. Send these to cr@mtw.org.

MTW has a great opportunity for individuals who want to participate in a mission project.  Please pass this on to your church members, friends, and others who may be interested.

WHERE?  Bay St. Louis, MS.  

WHAT?  Lagniappe PCA/Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build: 10 Houses in 1 Week! Lagniappe is is responsible for 2 of the 10 houses.  This is part of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2008 (see article below).

WHEN?  May 11-16, 2008. Construction will begin Monday morning the 12th, so you would need to arrive by 7:00 pm Sunday the 11th.  There will be an opening ceremony that night at Lagniappe.  The build would last through Friday the 16th with dedications that afternoon.  

COST?  $200 per person covers food, lodging, and construction materials.

WHAT WE NEED?  We need 50 volunteers.  The more skilled the volunteers the better.

This will be a high energy, physically demanding week with exciting results. 

HOW DO I SIGN UP?  Email Carol Gann at Katrina@mtw.org

For more information on this project, see the article below:

Carter Project: On to the Gulf Coast
Preparations are under way for 25th annual work week.

Ground is being broken, foundations are being poured and floor systems are being installed. These and a myriad of other preparations are under way throughout the Gulf Coast as the date draws nearer for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2008.

Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, headquartered in Biloxi, is the host affiliate for the 2008 Carter Project.

During the weeklong event, May 11-16, Carter Project volunteers will build 10 new houses in Biloxi and another 20 in nearby Pascagoula. …………..In Biloxi, the new homes are being planned for a small neighborhood near Yankee Stadium, the site of opening and closing ceremonies and the Framing Frenzy.

Though it’s been two and-a-half years since hurricanes Katrina and Rita cut a path of destruction across the U.S. Gulf Coast, the region is still suffering. Families have been displaced, jobs have been lost and the rebuilding, though steady, is far from done.

“Many people don’t realize or remember the utter devastation that Katrina brought to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” said Chris Monforton, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. “Biloxi, Pascagoula and Gulfport were hit extremely hard, yet seem to have been largely forgotten by the public and the media.”

The event will help draw attention back to the Gulf, celebrate the 1,300 Habitat homes built so far in the hurricane recovery effort, and recognize President and Mrs. Carter for their 25 years of dedicated service to Habitat for Humanity. “Rosalynn and I look forward to creating not only new houses, but new awareness about the dire need for affordable housing in the Gulf,” said President Carter.

“I think the Carter Project will send a message that these communities and others along the Gulf Coast have not been forgotten, the need is still great and that hope for a new beginning is still alive,” Monforton said.

Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania Vision Trip
October 6-14, 2008

God is at work in the Baltic region and you are invited to see and experience Mission to the World’s ministry in this strategic area.  Veteran missionaries Gary and Linda Johnson (Sweden) and Carl and Becky Chaplin (Latvia) will be in-country hosts and the MTW Church Resourcing Director Jack Beall will be leading the trip.

Who are the participants?  PCA pastors and missions leaders.  Spouses are welcome, too!  Group is limited to twelve, so don’t delay!  Please pray and see how God may have you and your church partner with MTW in the Baltic region.

Cost:  $1,800.  Includes air and ground transportation, hotels (two people per room) meals and emergency evacuation insurance.  Scholarships available.
Registration:  Reserve your places by e-mailing or calling Ruth Ebbs rebbs@mtw.org or 678-823-0004 x2301.  A $200 deposit (check payable to Mission to the World) is required.  Balance is due by July 31, 2008.
Please mail checks to:
Ruth Ebbs
Mission to the World
1600 North Brown Road
Lawrenceville, GA  30043

Schedule (subject to change):
Monday: Group leaves Atlanta on the afternoon of Mon, 10/6.
Tuesday: Arrive in Linkoping, Sweden, late morning.  Tour around Linkoping, then drive to Tranas, Sweden.  Overnight in Tranas.
Wednesday: Overview of Gary Johnson’s Tranas ministry; join church group that evening for prayer time.  Overnight in Tranas.
Thursday: Travel to Stockholm; tour and see new MTW ministry, meet with local pastors. Overnight in Stockholm.
Friday: Flight from Stockholm to Riga, Latvia.   Tour the town that afternoon.  Dinner with national pastors and wives.  Overnight in Riga.
Saturday: Visit the Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary, see more of Riga and visit Reformed Church pastors.
Sunday: Worship 10 AM and 4 PM at two of the Reformed churches, drive to Vilnius, Lithuania, p.m.  Overnight in Vilnius.
Monday: Meet with president of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Lithuania.  Tour Vilnius.  Overnight in Vilnius.
Tuesday: Flight home from Vilnius.

Questions?  For more information, contact Jack Beall (jack.beallATmtw.org or 678-823-0004 x2335).

Today, I met with Cartee Bales, Missions Pastor at Kirk of the Hills in St. Louis, MO. Cartee is also the Chairman of Missouri Presbytery MTW Committee. The committee has created a helpful website for churches in the presbytery to cooperate and share in their missions ministries, www.mopresmissions.org. This would be a great tool for other presbyteries to consider implementing.