Center for Mission Mobilization 2015 Year in Review

FAVOR and Thankfulness

C E NTE R FO R M IS S I O N M O BI LIZ ATI O N 2015 Y E A R IN R E V IE W

COME & SEE !

MARVEL AT THE DOORS GOD HAS OPENED FOR US THIS YEAR. Africa Latin America Asia The United States

mobilization.org

Grace and peace, friends! This year, we have felt the Lord’s favor pouring down at every turn. Our staff have labored hard and sacrificed much, but over and over we’ve realized this ministry fruit can only be attributed to Jesus multiplying our efforts.

We couldn’t be more thankful and want to Steve Shadrach, Executive Director

celebrate God’s goodness with you!

One prime example of God’s favor is the Ignite Campaign. This summer, five key ministry partners pledged $350,000 in

matching funds to cover the coming year’s projects, conferences, and translations. Our ministry partners like you blew us away with your response, and we raised well over $700,000 in just forty days!

However, as we look to the years ahead, we can see there is still much work to be done. Today, almost three billion people are totally cut off from the gospel, but hope is on the horizon. God continues to bless us with great favor among churches, mission agencies,

and college ministries in the Global

If we can think creatively, plan

South. These believers in Africa, Asia,

strategically, and humble ourselves

and Latin America not only make

to serve the body of Christ in countries

up 80% of the world’s evangelicals,

like Peru, Brazil, Kenya, Ethiopia,

they also are often surrounded by

China, and Indonesia, we can be

hundreds of millions of people with

God’s instrument to raise up these

no access to the gospel.

nationals, equip them, and send them

This is the frontier of mission mobilization. If Jesus entrusted

out to the most unreached areas.

This is what the CMM is all about.

the church with spreading His

I’d love to take you on a journey

gospel, how can we not long and

around the world to see what God

labor to see the rest of the Body rise

has done through the CMM this year

up in unity to complete the task?

as we mobilize students, families,

With such immense and untapped

and leaders. But first, let me tell

potential around the globe, it is both

you about Joseph Mulinge, a prime

our privilege and our responsibility

example of the fruit of frontier

as ambassadors of Christ to help

mobilization.

mobilize the global church to join the ranks of those taking the gospel to the unreached.

J O S EPH M U L I N GE AFF IL I AT E STAF F M E M B E R & LO C AL ARE A M O B I L I Z E R — N AI RO B I , KE NYA

Frontier Mobilization

A frontier mobilizer is one who travels to areas of the world where the church is alive, but not heavily engaged in sharing the gospel crosstian. Not because they would not, but because for all peoples, especially the unreached, and they could not. They are challenges and trains them to find their role in unreached. It was like completing the Great Commission. scales were falling from my eyes.”

Joseph began to search the Scriptures himIn the summer of 2014, we self to find more evidence of God’s heart for the launched a frontier mobilinations, and his prayer life began to focus on zation team to Kenya, where unreached peoples. they met Joseph Mulinge.

The team started to lead him through one of Some of the team members our mobilization tools, the Xplore study, and he began to show Joseph that immediately began sharing what he was learnthe Bible is not only about ing with others. By the time he himself was in us, but about God and His week three of the study, he was already teaching purpose in the world.

Xplore to 12 others.

Joseph later recalled, “It didn’t stop there, though,” he said. “Others “Though I was a pastor who wanted me to take them through Xplore, but I had served in the ministry pointed them to those I had trained. Within very for about 13 years, I had not few weeks, four students were training others! heard this before. My minis“I tell you it works. My prayer is that the whole try was about taking care of church will embrace God’s global purpose of my salvation and the salvamaking Him known among the nations, that He tion of others around me. may be worshiped by all. The invitation fills the “They shared that there pages of the Scriptures.” are people groups who have never heard about Christ, seen a Bible, or met a Chris“This has all been possible because culturally. A mobilizer then shares God’s heart

someone who knew what I never knew had the courage to come teach me.”

FAVO R I N Africa

AFRICA

Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Africa. Just as they have freely received the gospel from those crossing cultures, impart to them passion and power to freely give the gospel to other nations. Use us as You give Your Bride fresh revelation of who You are and of Your overwhelming love for the world; and let that love compel them to lay aside the “comfortable life� this world offers in order to seek first Your Kingdom. Establish Your church in Africa as a light to all nations!

MOBILIZING FAMILIES

Changing the world through mobilizing children If we wish to see Africa reached with the gospel, we must mobilize the family.

Weave, a ministry of the CMM, is reshaping paradigms of how we view children in the church. Instead of viewing them as the objects of ministry, African teachers and parents are now seeing them as agents of ministry who have a part in reaching the nations.

In March of this year, Weave held a family mobilization training in Nairobi, Kenya. A Zambian man named Derrick heard about the training and was so passionate and convicted that he raised his own funds to travel to Kenya and attend the training. He and his wife now facilitate, lead, and multiply Weave trainings to the glory of God in Zambia. weavefamily.org

For centuries, Africa has been perceived as the mission field. When someone says the word missions,

MOBILIZING LEADERS

Pivoting from church planting movements to mission planting movements Since 1895, Africa Inland Mission (AIM) has been planting churches in more than 20 African nations and have more than 1 million believers in their churches.

However, AIM is now placing a priority on mobilizing local African churches and believers to make disciples among their unreached countrymen. Their vision and goal is to see 400 cross-cultural African missionaries sent to unreached people groups and 4,000 leaders equipped with mission vision by the year 2020.

Earlier this year, the AIM international leadership invited a team from the CMM to facilitate the “Future of Mission Think Tank” in Bristol, England, with the intention of gaining insight into mobilization as they consider their path forward.

We discussed and shared various methods and tools to envision and equip the next generation for crosscultural ministry and raise up a great force of gospel workers throughout Africa and in the African Diaspora.

We thank God for His favor with AIM and are beginning to collaborate in mobilizing God’s people to God’s mission in Africa!

images of African plains and mud huts come to mind.

However, Africa has the potential to become the mission force. The evangelical church in English-speaking Africa alone is 129 million strong.

If we could mobilize just 0.1% of that number, it would be the largest mission movement the world has ever seen.

But Africa isn’t just statistics. We have seen with our own eyes the passion and excitement that the African church has for mission. The church in Africa is poised and ready to run the race in front of them. Pray for favor in the hearts and minds of the believers in the church.

Africa, continued

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

“Follow me”

This summer, the CMM sent a team of USA field staff and students to join our Kenyan team for six weeks. The theme of the summer project was “follow me”— we wanted to model World Christian habits to our Kenyan brothers and sisters.

Our staff led them through Xplore, then helped them engage with Muslims and Hindus in their own hometown. The final step was traveling a few hours into the bush to visit the Samburu region, among remote tribes that are completely unreached.

It was so encouraging to see the effect the mosque trip had on our African brothers. It is very easy for the African church to see their Muslim countrymen as terrorists and jihadists, but the trip showed them the Muslims were people just like them: worthy of God’s love and their care.

The Samburu area is a short drive outside Nairobi. It was eye-opening for Kenyan Christians to meet people living nearby who have never heard of Jesus, and it fostered in them a desire to send missionaries to reach them.

Barrett, a CMM staff member, poses with his Kenyan Christian brothers after the mosque trip. The mosque had given them Qur’ans so they could learn more about Islam. Pray that Kenyan believers will one day use that knowledge to reach their Muslim neighbors with the gospel!

Left: A mosque in Nairobi, Kenya

Gabe, far left, an American field mobilizer, teaches praying, sending, welcoming, and going for the sake of the unreached through an Xplore study. mobilization.org/xplore

FAVO R I N Latin America

L ATI N A M ER I C A

Father, we praise You for the way that You have moved historically among the peoples of Latin America. We ask that in Your goodness, You would continue to call Your Body into their role in Your Kingdom coming to earth.

May the Latin American church find eternal significance in giving their lives to the purpose of all nations, tribes, and tongues being reached with the gospel of Your hope and grace.

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

Sustaining Brazilian mission vision During the 1980s a large mission movement swept through the Brazilian church.

People sold their possessions to move to Africa and Central Asia.

That wave of mission vision has since died out, but today, something new is happening in Brazil. Young people are again committing to be missionaries, but this time, people are dedicating their lives to mobilization as well. This new generation of mobilizers will help ensure this mission vision can be sustained in years to come.

Jason and Liliam, CMM mobilizers in S達o Paulo, have already seen students stepping into leadership in this area. A seminary student named Israel asked Jason to train him to become a mobilizer, and today Israel is one of the most respected missions leaders in the country.

He has recently become the Brazilian director of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, an international mission mobilization course teaching the biblical, cultural, historical, and strategic aspects of global mission.

Israel leading a Perspectives meeting

Latin America has great potential to reach the unreached. Their culture is similar to that of many unreached peoples, and there are 4,000 Spanish words that have roots in Arabic.

In addition, the Latino church is alive and well. Take Brazil, for instance. If the evangelical church in Brazil gave only one percent of its income to send missionaries, it could field 350,000 missionaries!

Data from Global Mapping International

MOBILIZING LEADERS & FAMILIES

A vibrant and effective tool in the hands of God The classrooms of the Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinburg, Texas are filled with Latinos training to bring the gospel to the unreached.

This year, two CMM staff members, Dave and Liz, spent several months brushing up on their Spanish on their way to establish a mobilization team in Peru. As they began talking with the future missionaries around them, they realized that one component of their education was missing: support raising training.

When Dave shared with them the resources and training provided by Support Raising Solutions, the leaders of the Institute asked to translate the majority of our materials into Spanish.

We plan to start support raising trainings throughout Latin America in 2016. Imagine what a fully-funded Latino mission force could accomplish! supportraisingsolutions.org

Liz with some Rio Grande students

FAVO R I N Asia

ASIA

Jesus, we praise Your glorious name because You have raised up a vast harvest in China!

You have won the hearts of Your people. We praise You for the truths of Psalm 33:10-11, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.�

Your plans for the Chinese have withstood horrific persecution and the crushing weight of Communism. The purposes of Your heart, for all nations to be redeemed to You, are spreading like fire through the current generation. We beg You, Jesus, to use Your body in China to bring hope and reconciliation to the oppressed minority peoples in Western China and to the darkest corners of the world.

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

Buddhist lama welcomes Chinese missionaries “I’m learning that my calling isn’t to the Han Chinese, but to the unreached people groups of China.” That sentiment is like music to our field staff’s ears.

This young Chinese Christian, a friend of our team, has recently been invited by a Buddhist priest called a lama to teach his monks about Christianity, as he has grown to respect them.

The Han Chinese make up the majority of China’s population, and their numbers rival that of American Christians. Yet many Uyghur Muslims, Tibetans, and other minority groups have never heard the gospel.

Please pray for our team as they lead Chinese Christian college students to enter the mosques and temples in order to befriend these people and share the love of Christ.

Josh and Melanie, members of our new China team, hit the streets to get familiar with their new city and to practice their Chinese.

MOBILIZING LEADERS

Mission movements in Indonesia We are humbled at the favor God has given us to help equip Indonesian leaders through mentorship and assisting local Perspectives classes. Ryan, one of our SE Asia Catalytic team members, recently taught at a conference filled with pastors representing 24 denominations and more than 1,000 churches.

Fifteen years ago, fighting broke out among Christians and Muslims in northeast Indonesia, leaving more than 200 Indonesian Christians dead, their homes and churches burned. But as Ryan looked across the room of Indonesian pastors and ministry leaders, he recalls, “We did not see resentment, but broken hearts for the many Muslims in Indonesia who have never heard the gospel.” Praise Jesus, and may God work in Indonesia to accomplish His purposes!

Ryan poses with an Indonesian church leader who has translated Xplore in Bahasa Indonesia.

Photo altered for security purposes

FAVO R I N the former Soviet Union

THE F O R M ER S OV I E T U N I O N

Jesus, thank You for the work You’re doing through Yarik and Jenny. Thank you for the open doors his Russian ehtnicity gives him in Russia. We ask that You would raise up a great host of Russian missionaries and send them into places like Georgia and Kyrgystan and Tajikistan. They can go where we cannot! Spread Your Kingdom far and wide in the former Soviet Union, Father!

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

A Journey to Abkhazia In November of last year, Yarik, a Russian field mobilizer, took a group of students across the border into Abkhazia. Abkhazia has claimed independence from Georgia since the ‘90s, but is yet to be recognized by most of the world.

Yarik recalls, “As we crossed the border, it was as though we had gone back in time. From the car window we saw the beauty of nature starkly contrasted by empty, abandoned factories, huge empty apartment complexes, and every third building destroyed by shootings, bombs, or robbery.”

This conflict zone is inhabited by ethnic Abkhaz people who are, as a rule, very superstitious. The area’s few Orthodox churches sit crumbling, while a monument to the republic’s head shaman graces the capital’s center plaza.

Looking around him, Yarik saw “a people group looking to sorcery rather than to Christ, the Living God. The atmosphere in this country is seeped in hopelessness—they do not have a desire to develop or rebuild because they fear having it taken from them by dangerous criminals or by recurring war.”

Yarik’s team ministered to three of the six missionary families living in the area, and it was incredible to see his Russian brothers and sisters begin to see the need for missionaries in Abkhazia. For many of them, it was their first mission trip, and they expressed interest in coming back again short-term. Yarik was able to talk with one young man in particular about serving long-term in Abkhazia.

Yarik, second from left, with one of the teams who traveled to Abkhazia

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

Mobilized to be a mobilizer Yarik and Jenny have also been using the Xplore study to mobilize Russian believers. One of the Xplore graduates named Dima has come alive with passion for unreached people groups, and has started a weekly prayer time for them.

Recently he even had the opportunity to share some of the principles of Xplore with his congregation and invite them to the Friday night prayer meeting. Praise Jesus for Dima, who has been mobilized to mobilize others!

FAVO R I N the United States

THE UN ITED S TATES

Staff and students visit a Hindu temple in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Jesus. Thank You. You truly have blessed the American church.

Father, forgive our pride and comfort. You tell us that You will complete the good work You began in us. You have called all of creation to worship You. May the church in America be mobilized in humility and reverence. Restore to us the joy of salvation so that we might tell the nations of Your truth. Thank You Jesus.

MOBILIZING STUDENTS

Homegrown field mobilization Our stateside field teams are committed to fueling mission vision and helping believers find their most strategic role in the Great Commission. These U.S. field teams also provide a good training ground for future overseas staff.

The CMM’s two teams are in Fayetteville, Arkansas and College Station, Texas.

They disciple students to engage with internationals from countries without access to the gospel and begin sharing their faith cross-culturally with them. They also visit local Hindu temples and mosques, and disciple students through Scripture to show them God’s heart for the lost.

MOBILIZING FAMILIES

The faith of a child Weave, a ministry of the CMM, seeks to equip parents to see their families as part of God’s global story. This year, we witnessed a little girl named Shiloh gain a heart for the world.

Shiloh had been using Weave’s resources for some time, so when her Awana teacher assigned her a project on missions, she chose to do a report on what the CMM is doing around the world.

Through the process, Shiloh discovered that a group of Ethiopian leaders wanted to give fabric world prayer maps to Weave Training graduates, but they didn’t have access to affordable maps in their country. Shiloh decided to turn her seventh birthday party into a fundraiser for her Ethiopian brothers and sisters across the globe.

Her selflessness helped the Ethiopian church grow deeper in their love for God’s global purposes. weavefamily.org

Shiloh, far right, holds up seven fingers for her seven years MOBILIZING LEADERS

God’s bank account is global One of the biggest obstacles to sending more missionaries and one of the primary reasons people leave the field is financial funding. Support Raising Solutions was created in 2001 to address this problem. Our SRS Bootcamps have trained more than 10,000 workers from over 600 ministries. By God’s grace, we have also published The God Ask, one of the leading books on the subject.

This year we have been able to multiply the effects of our SRS Bootcamps. We have hosted monthly trainings across the USA for the past 14 years, but now we have

equipped other great ministries to lead this training themselves, such as Avant, East West, Evangelism Explosion, FCA, New Tribes Mission, Pioneer Bible Translators, SIM, and Word of Life.

In our first year of this new SRS Network, more than 1,000 ministry workers were trained to lead our Bootcamp. Our goal is to flood the nations with spiritually healthy, vision-driven, fully funded Great Commission workers. supportraisingsolutions.org

UGANDA N B E L I E V E RS ST U DY T H E B I B L IC AL B A SI S O F M I SSIO N S U SIN G X P LO R E

Four Methods of Mobilization

1

WORLD CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP Our field staff lead small group studies, using the content from our two flagship resources, Xplore and Go Mobilize, to help growing Christians embrace their role in bringing the gospel to the unreached. However, we don’t simply teach. Our field staff model World Christian habits and say, “Come, follow me.”

2,334 people discipled through small group studies

2

MOBILIZATION RESOURCES The CMM provides versatile resources that can be reproduced locally for sustainable impact.

Topics cover mobilization, support raising, and family mobilization, and we are producing resources in Spanish, Chinese, Amharic, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, and English.

22,120 books sold

83

countries have downloaded our resources

Kenyans study Xplore.

3

NETWORKING & PARTNERSHIPS We partner with leaders of mission agencies, seminaries, college ministries, and churches. As an African proverb puts it, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

One prime example of the CMM’s partnership efforts is the Global Mobilization Consultation.

This December, we will host the second GMC, which brings mobilizers from around the globe together to learn from each other, network, and plan for the future.

300 attendees from 35 countries at the 2015 Global Mobilization Consultation

4

TRAINING & COACHING Our field staff equips believers to pray, give, mobilize, and share their faith cross-culturally. Additionally, Weave teaches family mobilization principles, and Support Raising Solutions helps ministry workers reach full funding.

6,151 people trained in large group settings

New Teams

By God’s grace, this past year, the CMM sent 45 of our 160 staff and children overseas to start six new teams. These teams have been planted in locations with the greatest mission sending potential to unreached people groups.

J OSH, MEL AN IE AND THE IR FIVE CHILD REN VISIT A LOCAL T EMP LE.

1 CHINA FIELD TEAM

2

With 10 years of experience networking, partnering,

SOUTHEAST ASIA CATALYTIC TEAM

and mobilizing within China, Steve and Tamara are now

Our catalytic teams are dedicated to mo-

leading our growing team to help believers embrace the

bilizing and resourcing ministry leaders

unreached peoples within their region.

within a 13-country region with great

Non-specific photo for security purposes

sending potential to the unreached.

3

4

KENYA GLOBAL SERVICE TEAM

KENYA FIELD TEAM

With 130 million evangelicals in English speaking Africa,

With 20 million evangelicals in Kenya, God

we have set up a mobilization hub to help mobilize all of

has given our field team great favor as

East Africa to the unreached while giving leadership to

they teach, train, and equip Kenyans to

our mobilization teams across the world.

begin cross-cultural outreach to Muslims and Hindus within their reach.

5

6

COLLEGE STATION FIELD TEAM

PERU CATALYTIC TEAM

God has shaped the University of Arkansas and Texas

Latin America is poised to become one of

A&M into two of the most fertile sending bases in the

the strongest mission sending commu-

country. We’ve placed a field team at each campus to

nities worldwide. Through partnership,

guide the hearts of students to the unreached peoples

teamwork, and collaboration, we are help-

of the world.

ing usher in a new era of mission sending to the unreached.

Presorted Non Profit U.S. Postage Paid Fayetteville, AR Permit #986

PO Box 3556 Fayetteville, AR 72702 mobilization.org

As this year ends, would you prayerfully consider giving an extra gift to the staff person you support?

That would definitely pour encouragement into them and help launch them into a fruitful 2016. Thanks for your partnership! —  Steve Shadrach, Executive Director