The Call with Prayerlines Summer 2021

The Call ISSUE 18 | SUMMER 2021

GUIDED. TOWARDS GOD. A closer look at the journeys of digital disciples, spiritual seekers and young lives changed

YOURINES L PRAYENRSIDE IS I e2 See pag

THE C ALL IN AC TIO N

|

CH URCH MI SSI O NSO CI E T Y. O RG

WELCOME TO THE CALL AND PRAYERLINES Once again, in this issue we have combined The Call and Prayerlines into one magazine, as we are still working remotely amid COVID-19 restrictions.

We know that some of you prefer a smaller format Prayerlines separately, so we have made that available online. You can download and print a separate Prayerlines A5 booklet at churchmissionsociety.org/prayerlines

The Call is a platform for global voices in mission. In these pages you will get to know people from around the world who are joining in God’s mission in a variety of ways. By sharing their stories, insights and reflections, our goal is to give you hope that God is still at work in our world and to inspire you to put your own mission call into action, if not with Church Mission Society then with someone – but preferably with Church Mission Society.

IN THIS EDITION 04. Mission news

What God is doing through your prayerful support

10. Transformed lives in Guatemala

Church Mission Society Watlington Road, Oxford, OX4 6BZ

Azaria Spencer writes about young lives changed through relationships

T: +44 (0)1865 787400 E: info@churchmissionsociety.org

14. Fired up for mission

Discover how one church leader saw his congregation empowered in mission

churchmissionsociety.org

18. Casting a network

Read how a local partner in the Middle East is seeing faith grow online

/churchmissionsociety @cmsmission

If you have any comments about The Call, please contact the editor: the.call@churchmissionsociety.org. Opinions expressed in The Call are those of the authors, not necessarily of Church Mission Society.

Church Mission Society is a mission community acknowledged by the Church of England Registered Company No. 6985330 and Registered Charity No.1131655 (England & Wales) and SC047163 (Scotland).

Also part of CMS: The South American Mission Society, Registered Company No. 65048 and Registered Charity No. 221328 (England & Wales); The Church Mission Society Trust, Registered Charity No. 1131655-1 (previously 220297). Registered and principal offices of all above entities: Watlington Road, Oxford, OX4 6BZ.

2

20. How to…

Nigel Rooms offers tips on being caught being a Christian in public

24. Being a chaplain

Ruth Radley offers an insight into life as a hospital chaplain during a pandemic

32. The screen is no barrier

Andrea Campanale tells of connecting with spiritual seekers across continents

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

1–4 JUNE 2021

WELCOME

Prayerlines

JESUS CARES ALASTAIR BATEMAN, CEO, CHURCH MISSION SOCIETY

A

s you may know, Mark 4:35–5:20 has recently been foundational for CMS. One of the phrases that frequently jumped out to me as we dwelled on the passage is “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?” Despite having been with Jesus for a time and seen many miracles, the disciples don’t understand Jesus’ heart.

During the global pandemic, there may have been many times when people have wrestled with the question, does Jesus care for us?

In Luke 4:14–20, the passage we are dwelling on this year, we see more of Jesus’ heart for us, that he is full of compassion.

We see this in his desire to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for sinners, to see sight restored to the blind – to seek goodness for all mankind. These verses are more than what he is planning to do – they capture something of his deepest desires for us and the world. So much so that he gave his life. It puts the question, “Don’t you care if we drown?” into its rightful perspective.

Thankfully, God loves us even when we wrestle with him in prayer, as the psalmists often did. We can come to him with all our struggles, fears and anxieties – knowing he longs to listen, to help us, to care

T 1 JUNE // TANZANIA

for us, to give us otherworldly peace (John 14:27).

Knowing this is, for me at least, the essence of discipleship. I had largely missed this concept of grace in the first 28 years of my life, despite being brought up in a Christian home. I thought you needed to be obedient to earn God’s favour. When the penny dropped that he loved us before we loved him (1 John 4:19) it changed my life. And it continues to change it when the world draws me back to old ways and something, like these scriptures, reminds me again of God’s grace.

Over and over, Jesus graciously reminds me, “Yes, I care.” And over and over, he has reminded all of us in Church Mission Society that even – or especially – in the stormy times, he cares. For 222 remarkable years, he has shown his care for us and sustained us, through the prayerful support of people like you. Thanks to this wonderful faithfulness, our people in mission have been able to live out our call to show Jesus’ love and care to others.

One final point of encouragement: Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross have been asked to lead the national Church of England online service on 20 June. When Jonny looked up the lectionary reading for that day he was encouraged to see it was Mark 4:35–41!

“Over and over, Jesus graciously reminds me, ‘Yes, I care.’”

“Praise God for our new team of five deaf carpenters: Godson, Rickson, Michael, Ahmeed and Justin. These new recruits will be responsible for our venture into lower cost eucalyptus furniture,” write Ben and Katy Ray, who provide training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities at the Neema Crafts Centre. Please pray these new staff will learn quickly and be blessed with work for now and the future.

W 2 JUNE // UGANDA David and Heather Sharland are retiring to Northern Ireland after many years in mission. Pray for them as they adjust to life in another culture and for God to continue to lead them to new and exciting things in this stage.

Th 3 JUNE // SOUTH AFRICA Based at George Whitefield College, Caroline and Dick Seed are training Bible teachers across Africa and beyond. In January, they ran a course for clergy in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. Pray for the participants as they implement what they have learned in the classroom.

F 4 JUNE // UGANDA Mission partner Malcolm Pritchard, promoting spiritual development and a faithful understanding of the gospel in college life at Archbishop Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu, northern Uganda, is thankful that students have been able to return to college. Please pray for their spiritual formation alongside their academic training.

3 3

MISSION NEWS

Pioneering young leader takes on international role

WEEKEND FOCUS

From September, Andy Roberts will take up the role as director of international mission at Church Mission Society, succeeding Paul Thaxter.

Originally from York, Andy has spent almost half his life in Brazil, where as mission partners with SAMS and then CMS, he and his Brazilian wife Rose founded ReVive International, which meets the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of girls who have been abused, exploited or neglected. ReVive have also recently lobbied for increasing foster care and adoption possibilities in Brazil. Earlier this year Andy was awarded an MBE for this work.

Andy Roberts

“Andy and Rose have been pioneers in developing ReVive in Brazil with hearts passionate to serve the most vulnerable.… I know Andy will bring that same pioneering spirit, passion and heart for God’s transforming mission to his new role,” says Paul Tester, CMS mission development manager for Latin America.

Saturday–Sunday 5–6 June

OPEN TO ENCOUNTER

By Ian Adams, mission spirituality adviser for Church Mission Society This weekend focus links to the article From the Garden (page 26).

In John’s telling of the story, Mary Magdalene is at first unaware of who she is speaking with in the garden of resurrection. It is only as she hears her name, spoken in love, that she realises she is encountering the risen Jesus.

As you enter prayer today, create space for possible encounter with the Christ.

This, of course, cannot be forced. But we can make ourselves available – even through our tears.

Risen Jesus, I commit myself today to being open to your quiet presence.

In your grace, through any tears, may I sense you close to me, and even hear my name, spoken in love.

Amen

Email: ian.adams@ 4 churchmissionsociety.org

4

Virtual pioneer festival attracts hundreds

for serendipitous “bumping into” people on the screen.

Additional spaces such as The Moon and The Beach (complete with rushing ocean sounds) proved popular and the event rounded off in true festival style with an evening of music and poetry, a quiz hosted by performance poet Harry Baker and sitting round virtual campfires.

In April Gather, a CMS day-long virtual festival, brought together an international crowd of mission pioneers and others for a truly unique online experience.

Over 200 people at any one time gathered in an on-screen version of a green-field festival site The Gather virtual designed by CMS pioneer festival site course graduate James Fox-Robinson, using the Gather.town online platform.

With 10 venues, there was a wealth of variety, with conversational storytelling spaces, short talks and discussion areas, as well as worship, prayer zones and an art exhibition. The format also allowed

Celebrating a remarkable life in mission On 8 February 2021, Pam Cooper, one of CMS’s longest-serving mission partners, died.

Pam went by boat to Japan in 1968.

She taught at a Christian college founded by CMS in 1879, which in

1995 became Poole Gakuin University.

In 1999 Pam also became university chaplain, heading a small chaplaincy team and an active chaplaincy centre. Mark Oxbrow, former CMS international director, has written of “the amazing influence she and Evelyn Wroe had been in the development of Christian education in Japan.”

Pam was involved at Christ Church Shonai and in the diocese, seeking

Stephen Hatch

Connecting kids across continents In January 2021, mission partner Stephen Hatch and his pupils at St John’s Kilimatinde in Tanzania connected with an Oxfordshire primary school to give the children an opportunity to see life in other parts of the world.

Stephen teaches maths and science at

to encourage renewal in Japan’s Anglican Church, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, through initiatives such as Alpha.

In 2002 she was ordained deacon and in 2004 was priested and became assistant vicar at Christ Church Shonai, serving there in addition to her university work until she retired in April 2009. We celebrate her remarkable 41 years of faithful gospel ministry in Japan.

the secondary school at St John’s Seminary. As part of aspirations week at Garsington Church of England Primary School, pupils met online with Stephen and his class to gain a glimpse of life in Tanzania. Garsington headteacher Zara d’Archambaud commented: “Meeting Stephen and his class really was the highlight of our week. Our children loved seeing the school, the children and hearing Stephen talk about his work. We are hoping to keep the schools connected through other enrichment activities.”

Publishing pioneers New books are being released by director of mission education Jonny Baker and mission partner and pioneer graduate Ann-Marie Wilson.

Jonny’s new book, Pioneer Practice, draws on over a decade of experience training and supporting pioneers to share practical wisdom in an accessible way.

It includes stories and articles from Jonny and other pioneer practitioners. Jonny comments, “Its focus is practice – how pioneering happens on the ground. We don’t just want dreamers, we want dreamers who do.” Pioneer Practice is available from getsidetracked.co for £12.

Overcoming is Ann-Marie Wilson’s account of her journey so far in campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM), from an encounter with a young girl in Darfur through

founding the charity 28 Too Many to seeing laws passed against FGM in Sudan, where it all began. Overcoming will be published in June by Lion Hudson – find more information at lionhudson.com.

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

5

NEWS IN BRIEF

MISSION NEWS

Missio ni n

CONFEREN

2021 ONLINE

1

to

th

20

e

ur

ch

Feb r u ry 2 0 2 a

1

an d w orld at thi

e

?

i s G o d s ay i n g

N SOUTHERCE

9–

Ch

...o demic. an fp

Wh at

e... m i at

s

tim

Southern Conference goes online Each February usually sees the CMS Southern Conference gather at High Leigh, Hertfordshire – but this year’s online gathering garnered a higher attendance, with over 100 people meeting on Zoom.

Speakers included Alastair Bateman (CEO), Debbie James (deputy CEO), Marcio Ciechanovicz (community mission enabler) and Tanas Al Qassis (regional manager for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa), plus mission partners Ann-Marie Wilson (Britain/Africa), Andy Roberts (Brazil), Ben and Katy Ray (Tanzania) and a mission partner in South Asia.

Participant Rev Tony Coulson commented that the conference was, “a great success”, adding, “We realised the benefits of a conference online when we heard from mission partners in various parts of the world and were able to ask them questions. We hope to be back at High Leigh next year, but are thankful that with the help of the technology we were able to have such an informative conference and to be blessed by it.”

FOR MORE STORIES AND MISSION RESOURCES GO TO:

churchmissionsociety.org 6

New role for Nick Drayson In addition to being Bishop of Northern Argentina, mission partner Nick Drayson has been appointed Primate of the Province of South America. As primate, Nick leads the small team of bishops in the Province of South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay).

Applications open for Africa-focused MA A new route is being launched through the Pioneer Mission Leadership Training MA course. It focuses on the African Christian Diaspora and is fully accessible online. Led by African scholars, students will study Africa as a creative and vibrant centre of Christianity and site of theology for the 21st century.

CMS pioneer team to lead online worship On Sunday 20 June Cathy Ross and Jonny Baker will lead the Church of England’s weekly online service, including a conversation reflecting on Mark 4:35–41.

Africa conference – save the date The Africa forum team are working on this autumn’s Africa conference, which will take place on 8–10 October 2021. They hope to hold the conference at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, and are looking at the options of a hybrid event including in person and online options.

7–11 JUNE 2021

“When someone takes on a challenge, I love seeing how it moves people to generosity!”

Prayerlines M 7 JUNE // MIDDLE EAST Local partner Medhat shares the gospel and leads people to Jesus alongside supporting a region-wide network of others doing the same. Pray for people to be drawn to Medhat and his team’s new Facebook page designed to connect the team with people experiencing visions and dreams of Jesus.

T 8 JUNE // EGYPT

FINANCE UPDATE

Charlie Walker, director of finance and corporate services at Church Mission Society, shares how he is inspired by CMS supporters.

I

have been hugely inspired by the fundraising efforts of so many of our supporters. When someone takes on a challenge (John Harwood’s 94 walks spring to mind), I love seeing how it moves people to generosity – people love to give! I guess we shouldn’t be surprised – Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

In the coming months I will be joining in “Two-gether for mission” by doing a fundraiser (not sure what at the time of writing!) to celebrate 222 years of CMS doing mission.

We continue to remain so thankful for how last year ended financially: we had around £50k surplus on our general fund.

As I write the audit is not quite

finished, but we are confident this will be our final position. This is in no small part down to so many of the fundraising efforts you have undertaken.

You may remember I have asked you to pray for tenants at CMS House. We now have a full set of tenants in the building and have recently welcomed Wycliffe Bible Translators. We are looking forward to getting to know them. As we continue to monitor government guidelines closely, we are expecting the building to open up more in the coming months and I look forward to seeing more of our staff and supporters in person. Have a great summer!

Joe and Sarah are sharing the gospel through teaching English and training teachers in a local school run by the Church. Pray for Sarah as she takes on a pastoral responsibility for both future students and staff at the nursing school where she works, including overseeing the weekly Bible studies.

W 9 JUNE // NORTH AFRICA Pandemic restrictions have encouraged mission partners M and H to spend more time with people locally, sitting outside with local women (H) and getting to know the men on their street (M). Please pray for more opportunities to share and be good news as these relationships deepen and language develops.

Th 10 JUNE // UKRAINE Local partner Anya Manchuliak is leading the worship ministry at the Tabernacle of the Living God church in Kiev. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and inspiration as Anya works with the church’s 30-strong worship team to develop the worship ministry and lead the church in bringing glory to God through music.

F 11 JUNE // MIDDLE EAST Please pray for mission partner Ultan in his work on behalf of persecuted Christians in partnership with Middle East Concern. Pray for new relationships to be established, for existing relationships to be strengthened and for God’s will to be done through faithful, collaborative efforts.

7

WORLD VIEWS

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 12–13 June

THE POWER OF PRAYER By local partner H, based in Spain and serving the region of North Africa by providing training and enabling young people to reach their nations with the gospel.

Something I’ve been challenged about recently is the power of prayer and I have been reflecting on New Testament principles that show us to pray with persistence and authority in the name of Jesus. I have been leading times of intercession for our team, sharing my heart for prayer and praying bold prayers for the nations of North Africa.

Recently I have experienced remarkable supernatural answers to prayer.

One of the ways I support my teammates is with their residency renewal process here in Spain, especially lately, as pandemic restrictions and procedures have further complicated the process and applications have got lost in the system. I do what I can humanly speaking and then I pray.

Lately I’ve found my prayers have been answered exceptionally fast. Often, an email I send elicits an immediate, favourable response. A document needed arrives the very next day.

We hear of many believers who are sick but prayers for healing have also had results. Recently, a team member shared a prayer need for a pastor’s wife who was having breathing difficulties.

No sooner had we prayed than a message arrived on my friend’s phone.

The pastor was writing to say that his wife was feeling much better.

Pray for H and his family and those PRAY he is walking alongside, for them to grow 8 together in love for God and obedience to 8 his word.

LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGES Mission partners Patricia and Peter Wyard describe the melting pot of languages in Aru, DR Congo.

L

anguage is a very prominent part of life in Aru. There are so many languages spoken, but no single common language.

This makes communication stimulating, but at times very trying.

We have French as the language of the university and the hospital, although it is spoken with a Congolese accent. We have Lingala as the second common language, which is spoken quite widely in the town of Aru, but not in the villages.

We have Swahili as a third common language, used in the cathedral for part of the service and spoken by people who have lived further south. And then we have the three local tribal languages, all of which are represented in the diocese: Lugbarati, Kakwa and Alur. And I have just found out that there is a seventh language spoken in the Archdeaconry of Kpandroma: Kilendu. Oh, and of course there are a handful of English speakers, mostly those who spent some time in Uganda. Our house supervisor, Robert, knows all of these languages except Alur and Kilendu, which makes him an excellent interpreter.

Fortunately, our French is getting quite fluent now, even for difficult tasks such as teaching theology.

We have started learning Lingala, which is very enjoyable and helps us to

participate in the worship better.

Peter wishes that he could also learn Lugbarati, especially for leading the Rooted in Jesus group he has just started in nearby Ombi parish, as it would speed things up and help him to get closer to the participants by understanding them immediately. But that is a step too far at the moment. Thankfully, Robert is a very good interpreter and at least Peter can learn the Lugbarati memory verses, which we all say together.

We didn’t realise before we came that Aru is rather unusual in being such a melting pot of languages.

We get the impression that for the earlier missionaries to Congo working in Boga, Swahili went a long way and was a genuine common language. Here in Aru today, the local people themselves find the multiplicity of languages quite confounding, and there is almost always an interpreter standing at the front of a service or meeting.

HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA! Mission partner Catherine Lee reflects on Easter hope and challenge amid grief in Taiwan.

I

n the middle of Taiwan’s fourday Qingming (Tomb-Sweeping) festival weekend, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Just as many in Taiwan were at their family graves and tombs remembering their dead, so we celebrated new life; the joy of Easter filling us with hope once again.

Yet we are aware of pain and suffering all around us. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown, isolation, deaths and illness have affected millions worldwide, though here in Taiwan we remain almost sheltered from the worst.

But sheltered as we are from the pandemic, the 2 April train crash on Taiwan’s east coast shook us all to the core. Fifty people were killed and over 200 injured when the Taroko Express Train No. 408 from Shulin, Taipei, to Taitung crashed into a construction truck that had fallen onto the track from a road above. The train dragged the truck into a tunnel and derailed, with deadly results. The east coast train line is well known for its dramatic cliffs, stunning scenery and long tunnels; I myself have done that trip many times. Taiwan’s population of 23 million may seem large, but the island of Taiwan is small and densely populated, so we are all affected. The whole of Taiwan was in shock.

All Easter weekend, we saw nothing but news reports of death,

grief and suffering on our TVs and phones. We saw people grieving the loss of children, spouses, relatives and friends.

We saw Taoist priests and wailing mourners calling out to their loved ones to return home. We saw the tragedy of Rev Chang, a retired Presbyterian pastor from the indigenous Amis tribe in Yuli, Hualien, whose 56-year-old son and two grandchildren, aged 22 and 20, were killed. His grief-stricken daughter-in-law survived with only minor injuries. She reported that they had missed an earlier train and had bought standing tickets for the ill-fated Taroko Express 408. I can’t imagine losing your husband and two adult children all in one terrible, tragic moment.

We heard everyone around us asking, “Why?” Why indeed? How could this happen? Why so much suffering? For Christians, at Good Friday services held that same day as news was still coming in, we heard again the words of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Words heard on repeat, literally or in essence, throughout the whole weekend.

Poignant words of sadness, of desperation and despair, echoing our own sense of shock and grief. It was indeed a sombre weekend in Taiwan.

THE CA LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

And yet on Easter Eve, when we lit the Easter fire on the steps below Advent Church at the start of the Easter Vigil, we saw again that light has conquered darkness, love has conquered death, hope has once again come into our world. We had a baptism too, a sign of light, hope and courage. Our faith is not meaningless, void and empty, even if we do question “Why?” in the dark times. But we were challenged afresh on Easter Day, when we heard in the sermon about how many of us still seem to approach our faith as if we are going tomb-sweeping rather than meeting with the risen Christ.

For Christians, the tomb is empty, Christ is risen. Yet so often we cling to the past, to our memories, rituals and traditions, instead of to the risen Christ and the new life and hope he brings.

Photo: Light has conquered darkness: candles in Advent Church, Taiwan.

9

COVER STORY

GUIDING YOUNG PEOPLE TO GOD IN GUATEMALA Azaria Spencer, a mission partner working with street-connected children and young people, reflects on her first three years.

I

’m frequently asked, “What do you enjoy most about your work?” The answer is always the same: relationships with the people I serve and seeing their lives transformed.

LETTING GO OF DOING Often we focus on numbers but some impact cannot be counted. Relationship and transformation are not easily measurable, but they are what God is all about and are what

he has been doing in me and through me in Guatemala.

When I arrived in Guatemala I had all kinds of expectations of what I might “do” or “achieve”.

Even when I tried, it was hard to surrender my desire to “do”.

However, it is through that surrender that God can work more holistically.

Through working alongside Street Kids Direct (SKD) I was led to working closely with a group of teenage boys. In a moment of searching and questioning, a close friend said to me, “Azaria, the love you have for the youth comes from God. Why else would a lady from Yorkshire love a bunch of Guatemalan youth so much?”

FROM FOOTBALL TO FAITH Retrospectively I can see how God led me to work with them. It began through facilitating a weekly football outing, which even as I type 10

seems utterly ridiculous to me.

I don’t particularly like football and I certainly cannot play, but they love it and with my limited Spanish back then it was a great way to spend time with them, to build trust and show love.

Through consistency and relationship, and as my Spanish improved, we started a weekly “family time” activity consisting of food, films and fun. This then grew into short Bible studies and eventually into more one-onone mentoring-type sessions, fulfilling a sisterly or even motherly role in their lives.

This has led to the absolute privilege of seeing these young men grow and transform.

MUCH LOVED, SLOW TO ANGER Take Danilo, for example, when I first met him as a somewhat stroppy 13-year-old. He was intent on making everyone’s lives difficult. Over time he softened and began to share more of his

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

Top left: Fun at football – building foundations for relationship

Middle: Danilo (right) has gone from stroppy teenager to vital volunteer Top right: Maria recently wrote of her new-found confidence in a letter to her sponsor

14–18 JUNE 2021

Prayerlines A PLACE OF SAFETY

story, a lot of which at least gave context as to why he was so angry and broken when I first met him.

Through support, guidance, help with education and by far most importantly love, I have seen him completely transform. Now he volunteers and serves in our centre, he is full of fun banter, he is succeeding in school and is exploring deeper relationship with God. He is not simply someone I work with or serve; he is my friend.

One young adult with a particularly difficult and complex background was once angry, quick to place blame and easily provoked.

The other youth frequently teased him and he would always bite, it never ended well. He was unable to sustain a job or finish school.

Through consistency in love and forgiveness and substantial support, his whole life has changed. He has moved away from his old context, is supporting a younger sibling, working hard to earn his own way, learning English to further his education and more importantly he has a strong and joyful faith. One of his passions is sung worship. Now he is slow to anger. Recently I witnessed some of the youth try to provoke him and he didn’t rise to it at all – this is a huge transformation.

One 16-year-old, who is not comfortable in his own skin and hasn’t quite worked out who he is or found his full identity in Christ yet, will often ask if we can go shopping to buy a new T-shirt or socks (with his money). I realise now it is not because he necessarily needs these items, but rather because he wants to spend time with me: to talk, to escape his home life, to be accepted, heard and loved. There was once a time when he wouldn’t go near or open up to anyone. God is working in him, slowly transforming.

When I first met Maria, she was incredibly shy and had little selfworth. She had missed a lot of schooling and was not confident, regularly saying, “I can’t do it.” Over time SKD has helped her to attend school, provided her with a fantastic mentor and been a safe place of acceptance and love for her to try new things and see that she can do it.

I translate the children’s sponsorship letters and recently Maria wrote: “Thanks to you I can study, and I know I will be somebody in life and I am going to achieve a lot with effort, it doesn’t scare me to be someone important.” Simply incredible!

These are just a few examples of lives transformed. To have played even a small part in the journeys of these young people is an honour.

The impact is lives transformed by God and heading to much brighter futures. Imagine how many more lives God will use them to impact.

RESPOND

Is God calling you to go further afield?

Go to churchmissionsociety.org/ mission-opportunities

M 14 JUNE // GUATEMALA Please pray for wisdom for mission partners Mark and Rosalie Balfour as they use their home Betania to offer hospitality and time out with Jesus for Street Kids Direct workers in Central America. Pray for safety as Mark and Rosalie travel to different projects.

T 15 JUNE // BRAZIL Daniel and Sarah Brito Medeiros, working with girls who have suffered abuse, write that Sarah has recently started dance therapy/ministry sessions with a girl who has been self-harming.

As this girl encounters God through dance and through the staff at ReVive, pray for God’s transformation in her life.

W 16 JUNE // CHILE Local partner Christian Donoso, making disciples and planting churches in Concepcion, writes that they currently have 30 adults meeting to hear the word of God, pray and praise God together.

Pray for this church plant to flourish and draw in new people who are wanting to meet with God.

Th 17 JUNE // PARAGUAY Mission partner Tim Curtis is working with church leaders in the Chaco region, developing study materials and promoting use of the Scriptures.

Give thanks that Tim has been able to continue to work with Northern Enlhet Bible translators in Filadelfia. Pray for safety in travel, especially on the TransChaco Highway.

F 18 JUNE // BRAZIL Pray for mission partners Jimmy and Katia Rocks running a New Wine Discipleship School programme from March to July as part of their ministry through Vineyard Floripa in Florianopolis. Pray for them as they teach on a wide range of topics, aiming to train and equip students to serve 11 Jesus as lifelong disciples.

FEATURE STORY Left to right: Joyce, Bela and Ana have returned to ReVive, excited to support more young people at risk

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 19–20 June

A GARMENT OF PRAISE

By Anna Sims, who builds relationships, prays and reads the Bible with English-speaking female prison inmates through Walking in Liberty in Lima, Peru.

I can safely say that never before has frying bacon made me cry. I’ve found this past year particularly challenging and feel worn down, exhausted and my spirit feels faint, and there I was in my kitchen, crying, because of the bacon.

Laura had recently completed her sentence for trying to carry cocaine out of Peru in 2014. She was a regular at the Bible study and we got to know her better as we chatted, ate the food we had taken in for the Bible study group and prayed and studied the Bible.

Bacon is expensive in Peru, but it was an easy food to take to the women inside occasionally. Now, I was making Laura one last bacon sandwich to eat in the overpriced and mainly shut airport.

As I read Isaiah 61 at the beginning of March, the promise to give “a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (61:3b) jumped out at me. As I reflect on my journey with Laura over the last five years, I can’t help but give praise to our amazing God, for all his deeds seen and unseen in her life. Our almighty God specialises in transforming the broken lives of people and using his children, regardless of how faint-spirited they feel, to be Jesus’ hands and feet, demonstrating his love with acts that are sometimes as simple as making someone a bacon butty.

Praise God for his work in PRAY Laura’s life and pray for Anna’s work to reach 12women like Laura and set them on more a path with God.

RESTORED LIVES

RESTORING

LIVES

ReVive, founded by CMS mission partners Andy and Rose Roberts, works with children and teenagers in Olinda, north east Brazil, who are suffering from abuse or exploitation.

T

hey started the first safe house for girls in the city in 2014, helping girls to heal from trauma. Three of the girls have since returned to work at ReVive: Ana, Bela and Joyce shared their stories with Andy.

FIRST MEMORIES Ana: I remember we arrived on a rainy evening and it was all very new. It was complicated at the time because I didn’t really know what was happening. I created a

lot of defence mechanisms. I was pretty aggressive at the beginning.

I remember it dawning on me that I wasn’t going back to a family, that I was going to be here for a while. I remember throwing a bag of books out of frustration! But there was a gradual process of chatting with the staff, especially the therapy sessions with the psychologists. I was able to talk about all that I’d gone through – the aggressions, both physical and verbal – and realised that being

psychologist talked to me about how to get better, and told me I’d need a lot of people supporting me.

I remember you telling me off about something and we had an argument.

Then I told you that I wanted to be a mirror of good things to the other girls and not of bad things. It was that strength of character that made me who I am today.

Joyce: I really enjoyed being able to talk to all the staff. It’s very different now being a responsible adult! I realise now how much you were all trying to prepare us for what was to come through all the activities and courses – so many opportunities which we would never have received in other places.

COMING BACK TO REVIVE

aggressive to those around me was a way of expressing that.

Joyce: As soon as I arrived here I felt a real peace. Even though Ana was really upset, I knew it was going to be the best place for us. Everything that happened was really good.

Bela: I remember who was on shift the day that I arrived and I remember Joyce being the first person to greet me. I remember not caring about much and not wanting to get involved with anything. I was a bit suspicious, but with time I started to open up and to trust the staff. I began to accept their advice, to recognise my errors and to make friends.

HIGHLIGHTS Ana: I remember being very happy. I remember that you never gave up on me. Even on my worst days or in my most aggressive moments – hitting walls, kicking things, dislocating fingers – when no one could stand me, you guys never gave up faith in me. My

Ana: I was at school when Elise (ReVive’s coordinator) called me, but I missed it.

I called her back straight away and she told me that there was an opportunity to be back at ReVive as a young apprentice. I didn’t think twice and started jumping around the school, I was so happy!

As an apprentice, I’ve realised how much work behind the scenes there actually is! I used to think that you guys didn’t do anything in the office but now I know. I’ve learned so much doing the admin, the kids’ legal processes – so many things.

Andy: I remember that during your time at ReVive you told me that one day you would work here and be one of the educators. Now you’ve completed your 18 months as an apprentice, I hear that you’ve been offered a job and your prediction has come true!

they were going to tell me off. But then Rose told me about the vacancy and asked if I’d like to be an educator.

I started to cry because I’m so grateful – you guys have been with me through the ups and downs. With my experience of being a kid at ReVive, I’m sure I can help the current girls to show them what is possible, with God, with our own strength and that there is light in the darkness. That they can be more than they can imagine and can achieve their dreams.

Bela: I was having lunch with my aunt when Elise got in touch. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe it. I was really nervous – it’s my first job. I never imagined you would want me back after some of the stuff I did here when I was younger. Like Ana said, I’m just so grateful. I was really rebellious, but this opportunity has changed so many things. I didn’t make the most of some of the opportunities when I was younger, but I’m going to make the most of this one!

Joyce: Coming back has been great and strange. I remember praying when I was younger – I wanted God to bring me back here one day as a volunteer or as a member of staff. I spent four years praying for this and asking God for it, to be able to give back all that I’ve received here. So, when I received your message asking for my CV and to go through the selection process I was so nervous… and then so happy when Elise told me that I’d passed and had the job offer. Over time I’ve realised that I have something the other staff don’t – I know what it is like to be a girl at ReVive.

GIVE

Ana: Yes, I’m so happy! When Rose and Elise called me into the office, I thought

Your support means CMS people in mission can invest in people like Ana, Bela and Joyce.

Go to churchmissionsociety.org/give

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

13

FEATURE STORY

FROM BURNED OUT TO FIRED UP FOR MISSION Phil Marsh, mission and ministry development officer in Ely diocese, shares his experiences of the Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) journey and the transformation it can bring.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I

first got involved with PMC 10 years ago, when Nigel Rooms (Partnership for Missional Church leader at CMS) introduced it to Southwell and Nottingham diocese. Our church was invited to be part of the very first cluster.

I’ve been involved since then as a church leader and as a facilitator, and leading the team working with a cluster of churches in Ely diocese.

14

I was looking for something different. I was burned out by ministry, by being the service provider, the events manager, the coordinator. Despite having a really collaborative ministry and wanting to raise up a team of lay folk, I just found it like pushing water uphill. And I was figuring there had to be a different way of helping congregations to engage in ministry.

PMC offered a framework that would enable me to lead the congregation in the exploration of rethinking their missional culture without having to put the frame in place as well. It married up with where I was in my thinking and how I was seeking to lead. This isn’t an off-the-shelf programme in a book, this is about building a community of mission-mindedness.

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT WILL LOOK LIKE” Everybody wanted to know what it was going to look like in five years’

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

time. And all the time I was saying, “Well, I don’t really know. Because this is about what God is doing and how God is leading us.”

Three things helped me through that. One was the PMC people leading us as a group of spiritual leaders. They invested in us both at the cluster weekends and in between – checking in and reflecting with us on what was going on. That relational element was key.

The second was the spiritual practices of PMC. They were steadying and centring. They don’t just help us organise the congregation to do reflective and discerning work, they’re also personal spiritual practices.

And the third is the impact I saw on individuals within the congregation. I saw people become much more outward looking. I saw their confidence build and grow.

I saw formation happening in members of the congregation far more than after any sermon I had ever preached or any other course or activity we had undertaken. It wasn’t all done and dusted, but I realised they would be

21–25 JUNE 2021

Prayerlines transformed for the rest of their Christian lives. And that seemed worth investing in. Sure, I could put time and energy into getting another project off the ground, but when I leave, those things stop.

This work, formed in hearts and minds, remains.

TRANSFORMED LIVES People challenged their normal activities and thought about the impact beyond themselves. It transformed their decision-making – not just coming to decisions based on argument or persuasion, but having a sense of conviction because God is involved.

I saw people transformed in their lives as well. One individual, when we started the process and were looking for “people of peace”, recognised quite openly that he didn’t have a very wide social circle. But after three or four years involved in PMC, he ended up organising social events because he wanted something he could bring his mates along to.

So somehow in the midst of it, he learned how to build relationship with others.

SHIFTING THE FOCUS For some, the locus of their sense of mission moved from, “I help the church with its missional activity,” to seeing mission happening among their colleagues or with neighbours and friends. And people really began to have a sense of being involved in God’s mission in the places where they lived and worked. That was the biggest shift, away from, “I am here to help the

church with its mission,” towards, “I am actively involved in mission every day of my life.”

BUILDING CAPACITY It’s broadened my imagination on where and how and in whom God works. It’s changed how I view Christian leadership. I’ve become convicted of the need for us to learn how to build capacity in congregations.

It’s changed my leadership away from needing to be involved in everything to trusting people to work stuff out themselves. And having appropriate spaces for them to reflect and learn and grow.

It’s about discipleship growing in the midst of doing and trying and experimenting. And my role is not necessarily making events happen, but rather to nurture and enable people, and to be okay with the fact that it isn’t always pristine or the way I’d envisage it to be. But that becomes a learning space for people.

I just haven’t seen anything else that has had the same transformational impact on individuals and in congregations.

PMC offers a scalability and capacity as well. Because you cease to be dependent upon a few people driving things.

This will help you discern for yourselves the activity of God in your local context – and how God is calling you as a church very specifically at this time in this place to act and engage with his mission in the world.

JOIN IN

Find out more about PMC and how your church could get involved at churchmissionsociety.org/pmc

M 21 JUNE // FROME Elizabeth Alden, a first year CMS MA student, and her husband Andrew are starting out as pioneer ministers among young adults in their community. As they begin, please pray for connections with young adults who will welcome the words of Jesus and follow him.

T 22 JUNE // CORNWALL Festo and Grace Kanungha, seeking to establish new worshipping communities of children and young people in Liskeard, ask for prayer as the family continues to await a decision on Festo’s UK visa application. Pray for the youth and families ministry as they reestablish post lockdown.

W 23 JUNE // OXFORD Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) is a programme used by CMS to help churches join in with what God is already doing in their community. Pray for Nigel Rooms, PMC leader, and Nick Ladd, PMC consultant for Bath and Wells, as they meet with international researchers today to discuss the theme of missional discipleship.

Th 24 JUNE // LINCOLN Lay minister and pioneer Kate Mitchell is studying for an MA to learn how to help people connect with God differently, for instance through nature or exercise. As Lincoln diocese looks for new ways of walking with people, pray for everyone to see this as a time of excitement and flourishing.

F 25 JUNE // PLYMOUTH “The work club has faced major challenges during the last year,” writes mission partner Ruth Sayers, a church worker helping unemployed people get back into work. Formerly running as a drop-in centre, the work club has been very limited recently. As they plan to reopen, pray for a suitable venue and 15 more volunteers.

THANK YOU

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 26–27 June

LAMENTING TO THE GOD WHO CAN CHANGE HEARTS

By Dave Bookless, based in the UK, director of theology for global Christian environmental organisation A Rocha International.

Last summer, in the first lockdown, we suggested God was saying: We are not in control.

Our way of life has to change if we are to live.

This is a sign of things to come.

That still holds. Chaos and uncertainty are the new normal for the 21st century, whether through more pandemics, abrupt climatic change, rapidly rising extinctions, food insecurity, economic turmoil or the resulting social and political fallout.

In that context, we’re learning about lament, waiting and trust. The Psalms frequently include cries of lament.

Lament is the cry of those who are part of the problem to an almighty, all-loving God who alone can change hearts. It is a desperate groaning about problems we cannot solve. Romans 8 speaks of a triple groaning: all creation groans “as in the pains of childbirth” (v.22); we, as believers, “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption” (v.23); God’s Holy Spirit “intercedes for us through wordless groans” (v.26). The Greek root word “stenazo” encompasses the feeling of being constricted and pushed forward as in a baby’s birth, with extreme distress or pleasure. Today we experience pain and longing but, as the pain becomes more intense, so the hope of future joy is ever closer.

Pray for Christians everywhere to PRAY lean in to God in their lament and for our pain and groaning to lead to joy.

16 16

FROM ADDICTION

TO NEW LIFE IN JESUS Thanks to our generous supporters, who gave to release people at risk from dangerous temptations and show them new life in Jesus, we raised just over £71,000 for our Lent appeal!

B

ecause of generous donations from people like you, CMS local partner Wilhelm Polikhronidi is able to come alongside men who are struggling with addiction and help them discover new life in Jesus and rewrite their life story.

There are many routes leading to addiction, and each individual’s story is different, but the way to abundant life is always the same: Jesus.

Fortunately, local partner Wilhelm and his colleagues at a Christ-

centred rehab centre in Be’er Sheva, Israel, are there to show people a way out. At the Aviv Ministry, people struggling with addiction can find a place to belong and heal.

Wilhelm is a recovering addict himself; he understands how incredibly hard it can be to escape the grip of alcohol and drugs. Having found freedom in Jesus more than a decade ago, he is committed to helping others find the way to abundant life too.

Trained in both counselling and biblical studies, Wilhelm is well placed to help men in the rehab centre find strength, faith and hope in Jesus and overcome their addictions.

VLADIMIR

Top left: The men at the rehab centre enjoy getting together for Bible study (Vladimir in red on the left) Bottom: Alexander is now free to live a fuller life Top right: Evening meal in the rehab centre

The team at the rehab centre received a phone call from a local Christian: “My friend’s husband has become an alcoholic and is living on the streets. Can you help?” The Aviv Ministry outreach workers went out to find this man.

A few months earlier, Vladimir had been living on his own for a while, tying up some loose ends before following his wife to their home country of Russia for a few months. During that time, he started drinking heavily and it wasn’t long before his life was out of control. He missed his flight to Russia, the lease on the flat expired and with nowhere to go, he was forced to start sleeping on the streets of Tel Aviv. This is where the Aviv Ministry team found him and invited him to come and stay at the rehab centre.

Today, Vladimir’s life story has been rewritten. He is sober, eagerly participates in devotions at the rehab centre and is very open to the gospel.

He has already started working outside the centre, and may soon be ready to begin a new, independent life.

ALEXANDER Another person who has found new life in Jesus through Wilhelm’s ministry is Alexander.

Now 54, Alexander was a drug addict for 30 years before coming to the rehab centre in Be’er Sheva. He decided to follow Jesus about 10 years ago, went to a Bible school and even served in a Christian rehab centre for a while, but became disappointed in God and fell away. For the next several years, he returned to faith several times: “Each time I would leave God, I felt an intense inner pain, and I would run to drugs and alcohol to silence it.”

When Alexander came to the rehab centre in Be’er Sheva, God started revealing himself through the Scriptures. What had previously just been theory to Alexander started to become a living reality. He drew nearer to God and realised he needed to be more dependent on him and be faithful to him. He says that now, God has finally become alive and real to him.

Alexander compares his journey to faith to that of Nebuchadnezzar. They both heard a lot about God, saw his miracles and admitted God was great, but only after living like an animal for several years, did Nebuchadnezzar, and likewise Alexander, truly receive God’s revelation.

SOWING SEEDS Dov Bikas, head of Aviv Ministry, says, “During the course of the year, many addicts come to us and leave after a short period of time. Some get well and return to normal life, some become true believers, while others may cut the programme short and leave too early – just to fall again into addiction. But still we can say that 100 per cent of our rehabilitants hear the gospel, get to know Christians closely and acquire an experience of living in a Christian home, and we believe that all these seeds have great potential to eventually sprout up and bring fruit in their lives.”

Stories like Vladimir’s, Alexander’s and many more are possible because of the generosity of people like you. Thank you.

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

17

FEATURE STORY

CASTING A NETWORK FOR SPIRITUAL SEEKERS Medhat is a local partner working across the Middle East.

Here he tells how people have come to hear the good news of Jesus both in person and online, even during lockdowns.

“I

was afraid I was on my own!” This was the first thing that A, a professional man in Cairo, said when we connected him with another Christian at his workplace.

My ministry is all about connecting those exploring faith with Christians in their local area.

I build and maintain a network of trusted volunteers who connect with seekers near them. Our volunteers answer questions about anything related to our faith and connect people with other local Christians, and help source any materials they might need.

A’s faith journey had begun when some Islamic hardliners made references that A wanted to investigate further. As he researched those references, A came across some Christian programmes. He contacted the makers of one programme and subsequently said, “I accepted Christ as my Lord and now I feel like a newborn baby living a new life.”

On meeting A, our volunteer

18

noticed the joy on his face. A expressed a desire to be baptised, though he was also afraid. Our partner encouraged him not to rush into baptism before some discipleship to prepare, and met with him twice a week to learn and study the Bible together. In one of his first discipleship meetings A brought his friend and started sharing about Jesus – A is very eager to reach people around him with the good news.

NETWORK CONNECTIONS Like A, many others get in touch as a result of TV and radio broadcasts, social media posts and other online material. Some have seen broadcasts from our organisation and contact us directly, others get in touch with media organisations with whom we work closely – we support those organisations by connecting seekers with our volunteers.

Another part of my work is in

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

empowering local churches and home churches to use the internet – so this area of work has become very important in the last year.

Normally, I would travel to encourage our volunteers, as well as speaking to them regularly by phone. Although I have not been able to travel over the last year, I continue to be encouraged as our volunteers share stories of God at work. God is doing great things even in this pandemic – we see people coming to Christ and lives changed.

FINDING A FAMILY L is a university student from a Muslim background, studying in

28 JUNE – 2 JULY 2021

Prayerlines SMALL BEGINNINGS One of our field partners, a pastor, met with an Iraqi refugee woman who had requested discipleship. As he met with her, he was also put in touch with another woman in the same city, a refugee from a different country who wanted to learn more about Jesus. After several visits, the pastor decided to start a house church meeting in one of their homes and encouraged them to invite others. Now there are over 25 members in that meeting excluding the children!

DEVELOPMENTS ONLINE

a different country to where she grew up. She lived there with her mum, but then her mum died and she was totally alone, far from family. L has been very lonely since her mother’s death, and has gone through trauma in her life.

Several years ago, L and her mother had been introduced to a church, but felt their faith was not taken seriously. A partner organisation connected with L online over several months, and now she is in touch with a female volunteer from our network. She reported that, “L is a wonderful girl and has a strong faith and loves the Lord Jesus a lot,” and L would like to be baptised. L is being linked up to a Zoom discipleship group and our volunteer meets her regularly and takes her to church, and they celebrated Christmas together.

Our volunteer hopes to see her get to know faithful believers in her city who can encourage her faith and make her feel like she has family.

During the pandemic, we have further developed the material we put online, to engage seekers and to support our partners.

Up to now, we have mainly given training and resources to our volunteers on the ground, to help them to answer questions as they meet with seekers. Now we are also giving that support to our media partners who are engaging with such questions online by creating a website bringing together relevant information.

We are also responding to the fact that people are having dreams and seeing Jesus, but not understanding what they are dreaming or why.

We’ve created a visions and dreams Facebook page to help them explore this, and to connect them with the good news.

PRAY

M 28 JUNE // MIDDLE EAST “Please pray for the church and believers here, that through this time they will know the presence of God and the leading of his Holy Spirit to grow and flourish,” writes R, a mission partner involved in various ministries in a family of four churches.

T 29 JUNE // JORDAN Mission partners Fiona and Joel Kelling have been staying with family since early December, working to support and strengthen the diverse Christian communities of the Middle East from the UK. Pray for them as they plan to return to Jordan in time for the beginning of the school year in September.

30 JUNE // SPAIN/N AFRICA During the pandemic, a mission partner couple in Spain have been involved with their local food bank, helping over 100 families to make it through this very difficult time. Pray for new connections made through this work to bear fruit as they build relationships and share the gospel with people.

Th 1 JULY // EGYPT AND SUDAN Local partner and evangelist Habeeb Kamal has not been able to travel internationally during the pandemic and has instead been discipling believers locally and connecting with churches online to preach the word of God. Praise God for the way he has been using Habeeb differently during this time.

F 2 JULY // LEBANON

Please pray for Medhat, and for all of the young Christians and seekers his team meet virtually and in person, that they will find fellowship with local Christians and grow in faith.

Vectors designed by Makyzz at Freepik.com

Currently on home leave, mission partners Phil and Sylvie Good are considering their next steps. Pray for continued growth where they have sown seeds through building relationships with people and their work with a new school building for refugee children which 19 opened towards the end of last year.

HOW TO...

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 3–4 July

PEACE THAT WON’T LIE DOWN

By Phil and Sylvie Good, working alongside churches in Beirut supporting refugees.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace and he does not lie down and rest while there is injustice destroying the peace he died for.

His death bought peace and justice with God, and he is bringing peace and justice to people suffering violence. He will not lie down until peace and justice rule the whole earth.

We pray for peace Peace where the pain hurts most Peace for the obvious external violence And peace for the hidden internal violence Healing for the hurt caused by all violence A healing of the scars in the bodies And a healing for the scars in the souls Peace without end Peace that understands Peace that has nails in hands and feet Peace with a hole in the side feeling pain Peace that is greater than hate and war Peace that is bigger than my fears Peace that does not give up Peace that brings justice Peace that won’t lie down Welcome today the Prince of Peace.

He is very close and he won’t lie down and he won’t give up.

Pray for people in Beirut to be PRAY able to engage with God’s peace even if their 20 20 circumstances are not peaceful.

HOW TO...

BE CAUGHT BEING CHRISTIAN

By Nigel Rooms, Partnership for Missional Church leader at Church Mission Society

O

ne of the paradoxes of being a Christian in the Western world is that there is freedom of religion, yet it seems many Christians resist the idea of practising their faith in ways that can be observed publicly.

FAITH, A PRIVATE MATTER There is a long story behind how this situation has come about. During the Enlightenment period (approx. 1650–1950) in Europe (and later North America and in other “Western” places) the individual, rational, thinking mind became of the highest public

value. The scientific method, which claimed to be objective, reigned supreme. So, facts (which can be proven by the scientific method) and values (which can’t) came to be separated. Facts were allowable in public, values in private.

Religious faith (despite many valiant attempts over the centuries) cannot be proven via the scientific method. And so religion must be relegated to the private sphere, which is why you often hear politicians say that religious people should not interfere in public matters. Incidentally, some people think this is also why women tend to be more religious than men – since men have, until very recently, controlled the public world of “hard” facts, while women concentrated on the private, family home and “soft” values.

So, with some notable exceptions, the Christian Church in the West has given in to this “social imaginary” of how things are organised – faith is considered a private matter. In the Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) process, we help congregations take a close look at themselves, their beliefs and actions, kind of like a mirror. The data from across the UK shows that the kind of congregations we work with exhibit quite high levels of individual and privatised spirituality within the boundary of the church.

And some (though fewer) people are involved as individuals in their wider community outside the church.

However, churches rarely act in public in the name of their church. We tend to exhibit our faith when we go to church, but for the rest of the time it largely remains hidden. We are rarely caught being Christian out in public.

conversation we have to being about Jesus. This might work for some, but to many these days such an approach comes across as false and overbearing. Somewhere in between hiding our faith when we are in public and imposing it upon others is a way

we have six mission practices, two of which are particularly relevant.

The first is Dwelling in the World, where a local church identifies a public “Kingdom”-type issue that God is calling and sending the church to address, such as poverty or loneliness.

As part of this practice, church members are encouraged and equipped to form relationships with concerned people outside the church (we call them “people of peace”). We show them how to set up and have one-to-one meetings with these people of peace.

When enough of these people outside the church have been identified, a bridge-community can form which acts together on this public issue.

When something good happens in that action, which looks like the activity of the God who is always at work, it is pointed out by church members, so that everyone else has the chance to notice God at work. For example, a Christian might simply look at some progress made and say something like, “Looks like God to me.” We call this second practice Announcing the Kingdom. This is one simple way in which the body of Christ and her individual members can overcome the public/private split, take up an authentic role in society and be caught being Christian.

“Somewhere in between hiding our faith when we are in public and imposing it upon others is a way of being Christian that pays attention to what God is doing.”

SIMPLE STEPS I’m not arguing for forcing our faith to the surface, turning every

of being Christian that pays attention to what God is doing. God is always at work, creating a trustworthy world, always forming kind, loving, gentle community. After all, that is who God, as Trinity, is.

In our world today, there are many forces at play which block people’s view of God at work in our world. Here are just three: How human behaviour is destroying our planet through climate change and species extinction.

How peoples are being driven apart through nationalism and isolationism.

How the “bubble-fication” of our lives prevents community, since we stay within our chosen group of people that look, think and act like us.

I suggest that in such a world, it is perhaps easier than it used to be to be caught being Christian in public. So how to go about it? In the PMC process

READ

You can read more about these practices in the booklets Missional Church and Forming the Missional Church published by Grove.

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

21

FEATURE STORY

STOPPING TRAFFICKING

BEFORE IT STARTS Mission partners B and K have spent the last decade working to prevent human trafficking in South Asia. K shares some of that journey, and reflects on the challenges the pandemic has brought.

I

came to South Asia after university, doing work in the slums for a year. After a few months I went to a conference and someone spoke about children in the red light area and human trafficking. That talk hit me like nothing else before. I remember weeping as I left the seminar. Later that night, I was struck that I get to go to sleep in a safe, warm bed with all I need – yet all around there are children who have the opposite. They don’t have safety, they have fear, things being forced on them repeatedly.

I prayed: “God, is this your way of telling me that you want me to be involved in stopping this?” and asked for an opportunity to experience antitrafficking work in that year if it was what God wanted me to do. And that is what happened – I spent a month each in two projects, working to rescue girls and caring for those who had been rescued.

I came back to the UK and was a social worker for a number of years, working with children and families to widen my experience. I contacted mission agencies and God opened the doors through Church Mission Society

22

for me to return to South Asia.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS B and I met early in my time in South Asia, and share a passion to empower communities and churches to recognise and prevent trafficking. While my background is in social work, B has theological training, so we can approach the issue from different angles.

We started working in a rural mountain area, building a project from scratch alongside a local church network. Our first job was to convince people that trafficking was a problem. Even though it was being reported in the newspapers, people thought, “This doesn’t happen here. It happens in the cities.” But in the cities, they say, “No, it doesn’t happen here. It happens somewhere else.” This is a really common problem with trafficking: everybody believes it happens elsewhere.

It took us two years to earn the trust of the local people and enable local leadership to see this was a problem that they needed to do something about. We formed a small team and did some analysis

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

to see how big the problem was and what other issues there were.

We ran training for church leaders, school leaders, wherever we could get an inroad, with anywhere from five to 500 people.

We ran programmes with all ages, because both adults and children are trafficked. In schools, we focused on how to keep safe, to recognise the methods of a trafficker. Then with parents, how to prevent these things from happening in the first place, and with leaders the responsibility to look out for the whole community.

NOT JUST STRANGERS Most people are trafficked by people they know: a neighbour, somebody they grew up with, people they don’t suspect. And that’s why it works. It’s not just a stranger coming in and it’s not about kidnapping. It’s people willingly going.

We trained our team in issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse and child protection, which are very much related to human trafficking. The team and community needed to become

5–9 JULY 2021

Prayerlines comfortable talking about delicate issues – relationships, sex and so on – which took a while.

NEW CONTEXT, SAME GOAL A couple of years ago we moved to a new area, in a city. We still work to prevent trafficking, through a network including schools and different health organisations. Our goal was to train these organisations in how they can prevent trafficking. I don’t necessarily think we need to have a separate anti-trafficking programme – awareness should be embedded within all professions.

Human trafficking is not something you can just address head on – it needs approaching from different angles, which is why we did training on domestic violence and sexual abuse. All these issues are connected. I would really love to see churches getting involved in the needs of their own communities, helping the vulnerable without needing to call it an anti-trafficking programme.

COVID-19 – AN UNKNOWN IMPACT Generally, where there is economic hardship, trafficking thrives. Even with COVID-related travel restrictions, it will happen. I heard that traffickers were dressing girls to look older, to make them look as if they were going to work as nurses.

There were fewer people visiting the red light areas, but this will

change. I think as soon as travel opens up, there will be explosions of people being taken here and there. And traffickers will have an easy way in, because so many people will be desperate and they prey on that desperation.

The more tangible impact of the pandemic is that many NGOs, schools and health networks became more focused on relief work, while others have had to reduce travel and react to reduced funds. Organisations’ desire to be involved in anti-trafficking went way down. As schools return, there is so much to catch up on.

We hope to be able to re-establish connections with organisations and to work with them on how they can prevent trafficking in their own fields.

M 5 JULY // ASIA-WIDE Asia needs people in mission. Please pray that God will continue to call people to mission in one of the least evangelised regions in the world. Pray that people will have ears to hear God’s call and respond with openness and obedience.

T 6 JULY // SOUTH ASIA Please pray for local partner S as he plans to expand his talk show about the struggles faced by first generation Christians into another language to reach more people. Pray for S as he seeks a second production/post production team, guests and all that is needed.

W 7 JULY // ASIA-WIDE PASSION FOR PREVENTION In anti-trafficking work, the rescue part is where there is drama and clear stories, but we need to stop people ending up there in the first place. By the time people are rescued, huge harm has been done.

And rescue alone will never stop the issue. Prevention is harder to quantify, and complicated – but in issues of domestic violence, child protection and trafficking, prevention is crucial.

GIVE

B and K’s work is only possible because of generous supporters like you. To help them financially, go to churchmissionsociety.org/anon and use the fund code M.BABK or call 01865 787489. If your church would like to connect with mission partners like B and K, contact churchrelations@churchmissionsociety.org

Please pray for Hwei Mian, an experienced policy writer, and Esther, Asia-CMS’s new safeguarding manager as they develop, contextualise and implement safeguarding policy and training with staff across more than eight countries in Asia. Pray that the safeguarding framework they develop can also benefit other Christian organisations and churches across the region.

Th 8 JULY // NEPAL Andrea and Andrew Young have continued their role of providing pastoral care to United Mission to Nepal workers from the UK during the pandemic using Zoom.

Pray that the new UMN staff support programme, where staff uphold each other, will be well received and help overcome mental health stigma.

F 9 JULY // SOUTH ASIA “Please pray for each child’s home circumstances,” write mission partners B and K, who have been tutoring several extra children in their home during the pandemic alongside working to prevent human trafficking. Pray for these children 23 K. to experience God’s love through B and

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 10–11 July

STEPPING FORWARD IN BATTLE

By B and K, who are working to prevent human trafficking and encouraging the church in South Asia to take action.

Psalm 18 reminds us to call upon the Lord, for he is worthy to be praised. He has given us the shield of his salvation.

Our God is holy, just and able! We can have full confidence in him.

As a teenager new in faith, I (K) remember reading Psalms like these and not relating to them, thinking I didn’t really have any enemies. At the time, someone said they looked at such passages in the Psalms in the light of spiritual enemies. That made a lot more sense.

Now, years later and working in anti-trafficking, seeing the plight of persecuted Christians and the abuse suffered by many, the idea of an “enemy” is no longer a difficult concept to relate to. We cry out on behalf of many who daily experience the strong enemy (v.17), both physical and spiritual, and for those who do not know who to cry out to. We pray that they will experience the Lord as their support, that they will be brought into a broad place and that they will know the Lord delights in them (v.18–19).

Psalm 18:19 reminds us that we have been armed with strength for the battle.

Let us go forward in that strength, even if we don’t always feel it.

Pray for B and K as they step PRAY forward in the battle against human trafficking, 24when they don’t feel strong. even

BEING A CHAPLAIN IN COVID TIMES Mission partner Ruth Radley works in the multi-faith chaplaincy team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH), providing spiritual care and support to children and families. We asked her to tell us a bit about the last year from a hospital chaplain’s perspective.

I

have been a chaplain at Birmingham Children’s Hospital for about four and a half years now, but this last year has definitely been the strangest.

FAMILY CONNECTIONS Just as for everyone, COVID-19 has hit us hard. Our once open visiting policy, so important for children in such difficult circumstances, has been reduced to two nominated visitors only, and no children. The two visitors cannot visit at the same time, which has added difficulties for families who have sick children with us. It also

means that we have a few patients who have not seen their siblings for over a year.

These changes have enhanced our role in caring for whole families: being with parents struggling alone and more recently sending home packs for the siblings. The packs let them know that, although we may not see them, we are aware they are there and how hard it is having their sick sibling away.

Siblings are a group that we in chaplaincy are very

FEATURE STORY much aware of, with their often silent struggles when there is a sick sibling over a period of time. I’ve been helping patients make cards with their hand or foot prints to send home to siblings.

VIRTUAL SERVICES

Top left: Keeping in touch – making cards for patients to send to their siblings Top right: Ruth Radley Bottom: A memorial tree at our annual memorial walk

We have produced a number of virtual services over the last year: at Christmas and Easter, and we are in the process of recording a second virtual memorial service, which takes place each May. Not having services in person has been so hard for many people, but for some our memorial events give such a precious opportunity to remember and speak about their child who has died – the total loss of this would have been particularly hard for them.

Realising this, and very aware that at this event the team speak to and support many parents and families, we have chaplains avvailable by phone at the end of the virtual service to offer support to all who need it.

Last September we were able to hold our annual memorial walk at the National Arboretum, though rather differently to previous years.

Usually we would have a large gathering, but this time people were encouraged to come and walk in their own time, and to collect crafts we had made in advance to place on a memorial tree or to take home. Chaplains were on hand to provide support in a socially-distanced way and many families thanked us for finding a safe

way to continue. Indeed, being forced to do this in a different way has actually helped us discover some things that we will take forward into future events.

In addition to the virtual services, we made a couple of animations around Christmas – one telling something of the Christmas story, the other, “The Virus that (tried to) steal Christmas”, featured hospital staff from BCH showing how Christmas wasn’t cancelled here, even though it was different, and that “love, just like a virus, can be anywhere”.

STAFF SUPPORT As well as our support for families and sick children, we have continued to support our amazing staff. COVID-19 has been hard on all of us for varying reasons, but I have been particularly aware that for staff, many of their coping mechanisms have been taken away. In this large, busy children’s hospital, our staff are still dealing with some very traumatic events and the death of children. We have sometimes had to remind them that while these things are hard in general times, in this time, they can be unimaginable.

We have of course had patients with COVID-19, but it has been very different to the adult hospitals. Very sadly we had four staff members who died with COVID-19 – and once again the chaplaincy team were called upon to offer support to affected staff.

We held three different acts of reflection for the recent day of

reflection held around the country, which was a privilege.

We also had a large number of staff who volunteered to help in the adult hospitals, with many being well out of their comfort zone. Nursing adults is very different to children, let alone all the other different things they were encountering. The hospital took their welfare very seriously and we chaplains were part of the team calling these staff to ensure they were as okay as they can be and holding debriefs. Chaplaincy were also asked to help the team at the large NHS trust in Birmingham and some of us were able to respond to this.

Of course, there is so much more I could share. We are very fortunate that chaplaincy is viewed as such an important part of our hospital life here and that we are able to support so many people in so many different ways. Thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support for us.

LEARN

One of the modules in CMS’s Pioneer Mission Leadership Training explores the ministry of chaplaincy in mission – find out more at pioneer.churchmissionsociety.org THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

25

MISSION SPIRITUALITY

FROM THE GARDEN: LIVING THE RESURRECTION

Ian Adams, mission spirituality adviser at Church Mission Society, asks how we might live in these demanding times as a people of witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

T

he compelling account of Mary Magdalene’s garden encounter with the risen Jesus, as told by John in his Gospel, is a personal story.

It is also marks the beginning of a communal witness to the resurrected Jesus, soon inspiring a movement that continues even now to bring God’s grace, mercy and peace to the world.

As individuals, as a society, as a movement and as the Church, we may find in this remarkable story a model for life and for mission – a way to understand, to live and to share the Christ story.

This begins in lamentation.

THE NECESSITY OF WEEPING But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?

For whom are you looking?”

(John 20:11–15a NRSV) Mary weeps. The angels see it. Jesus sees it. In both cases they ask Why are you weeping?

I suggest that this is not an admonishment. Mary is right to weep. Her loss has been great.

In these demanding times surely we too are right to weep, to mourn, to lament.

For our own losses. For our mistakes. And to mourn alongside those with whom

26

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

we live and work. To enter into the suffering of the world, and that of the people among whom we have been placed.

In any work of healing it is vital to give space and voice to our losses. To be healed they need to be recognised. So it is important for us to be open to weeping. And to hear the question Why are you weeping?

But lamentation is just a beginning. Let’s not miss Jesus’ second question. For whom are you looking?

THE POSSIBILITY OF ENCOUNTER Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). (John 20:15b–16 NRSV) Mary encounters the risen Jesus. But she does not yet know it, supposing him to be the gardener.

In a sense, she has got it right.

Jesus is the great gardener, in whose care she will flourish in all seasons of life. But true recognition comes as she hears the risen Jesus

12–16 JULY 2021

Prayerlines speak her name. Mary!

A good question for us to ask might be this: could Christ the gardener be close by? Am I alert to his presence, or am I overly occupied with other things (however worthy they might be)?

And could the Church rediscover its nature as a space in which all may hear their names spoken in love? A community in which we find ourselves recognised. A garden in which holy encounter may take place. Are we open to such encounter?

But encounter is not the end of the story.

THE JOYFUL PATH TO SHARING Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.

But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

(John 20:17–18 NRSV) Mary’s response is to embrace Jesus. That is natural, good and right.

Jesus’ response is not a rebuke to her action, but rather a call into something more. To go and to say. And so, in John’s telling, Mary becomes the first witness to the resurrection.

And if the story begins in lamentation, and pivots on encounter, it now

bursts into joy. Mary goes and tells what has happened: I have seen the Lord.

The God story is one of love and devotion. And our embracing of the one who embraces us is natural, good and right.

But what might we do with our stories of the one who embraces us; with the experiences of our encounters with the risen Christ? Not just keeping them to ourselves, but allowing them to spill out from us, small gifts to our world, glimpses of God’s closeness.

What might our I have seen the Lord look like? What might be the actions we commit to this season? What might we say, and how might we say it?

Stories change us, and stories change the world. Could there be a more compelling story than that of Mary Magdalene’s encounter in the garden with the risen Christ?

How might we live and share that story this Easter and Pentecost?

M 12 JULY // UGANDA Mission partner Helen Kisakye is a dance advocate, helping to change attitudes towards people with disabilities and teach children about their rights through dance. Pray for Helen and the team as they begin activities for year two of their children’s rights project and for the 40 children involved in the project.

T 13 JULY // MADAGASCAR Pray for local partner Florent Lahitody, who coordinates discipleship programmes in the Diocese of Toliara and oversees a rural parish. Pray for God to keep using him to spread the gospel of Jesus and disciple believers to follow Jesus closely.

W 14 JULY // TANZANIA New mission partners in training Christine and David Torrance are planning to settle in Kondoa, where they will join in with local ministry and discipleship and David will teach at Kondoa Bible College.

Pray for them as they prepare to start training with CMS and make connections for support.

Th 15 JULY // SOUTH SUDAN Lynn Treneary teaches English at Chaima Christian Institute in Maridi and works with evangelist teams and the Mothers’ Union. Pray for Chaima Christian Institute, which reopened with reduced classes in March. Pray for students and teachers as they get back into rhythms and routines of education.

F 16 JULY // UGANDA Images taken in the Barbara Hepworth Studio and Garden, St Ives

Mission partners Tom and Verity Clare are new diocesan health coordinator and homeschooling teacher respectively.

Pray for them and their four sons in a time of transition as Tom takes on this role and long term mission partners in their area retire – pray for wisdom and 27 good relationships.

FEATURE STORY

IMAGINING OURSELVES

OUT OF A JOB WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 17–18 July

A STORY OF REDEMPTION

By Heather Johnstone, who leads the Rehema Project in Mara diocese, which seeks to empower disadvantaged women and children in the area.

It was 7pm, dark and chilly for September. As Mary (not her real name) and I locked up the Rehema workshop she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “Promise me you will return to Tanzania.” It was the evening before my departure for home leave. I replied, “Don’t worry, six months will fly by.”

Almost 18 months later I still have not been able to return to lovely Mary, the project and people I love so much.

Mary inspires me for many reasons, but especially because every Monday (her day off) she spends several hours at the AIDS clinic in Musoma. She feels called by God to educate and guide young women recently diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Mary left school after her primary education and was married into a very difficult situation as a teenager. After being raped repeatedly, Mary had a daughter and ran away. Later, she married a man she loved and had two more children, but he beat and cheated on Mary, and infected her with HIV. She ran away again, preferring to fend for herself and her children and avoid the cheating and abuse. Mary is entrepreneurial and managed to provide for herself and her family better than her husband had.

Today, Mary is a God-fearing Christian woman. Kind-hearted, dependable and a natural leader. She could try her hand at anything and probably succeed.

PRAY 28

Praise God for the wonderful things he has done in Mary’s life and pray for more stories like this.

When taking on a new role, many of us look for job security – yet when mission partners Catriona and Steve Bennett (an anaesthetist and surgeon respectively) moved to Rwanda, they hoped to be out of a job a few years later.

Here Steve shares their journey.

“D

on’t overestimate what you can do in a year…” is a quote attributed to Bill Gates, former head of Microsoft. Fair enough, but Catriona and I had both spent a year working in East Africa previously so we had some idea of what might be possible. We looked forward to seeing what we could accomplish in five years as mission partners at Gahini Hospital in Rwanda.

We anticipated that I would work caring for patients who might need surgery, while Catriona would work alongside the hospital’s non-medical anaesthetists developing their skills as well as delivering some more complicated anaesthetics. In addition, we hoped that we might improve the hospital’s surgical facilities,

as the equipment there was not particularly appropriate or reliable.

Both of us have a passion for teaching and training, and we expected this might be a legacy for us among the Rwandan nonmedical anaesthetists and doctors training to become surgeons.

Through all this we hoped to share God’s love with patients and staff, and thought it might be possible that within the expected five years of our placement we would have developed facilities and trained enough staff that there would be Rwandans to carry on our work. We thought that we would have essentially worked ourselves out of a job.

INAUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS In the first few months after we arrived in Gahini, we found the reality was rather different from what we had expected. There was practically no functioning anaesthetic equipment, so we were limited in the operating we could provide. The hospital functioned like a government (district) hospital. Rwandan district hospitals were not supposed to have specialists, so even when we got anaesthetic

2020 the Work underway – in rbished fu re s wa rd orthopaedic wa

A new operating table and light set up at Gahini – new equipment helped in being allocated surgeons Gahini’s general surgery ward was refurbished in 2019

equipment, we struggled to get the anaesthetic drugs we needed because the district pharmacy didn’t have them.

There was another hospital in the province that the government were already developing into a referral and teaching hospital. Links with the Kigali teaching hospitals were non-existent and trainees weren’t interested in moving to a rural hospital. In addition, a national audit had discovered that the hospital was £800,000 in debt leading to the hospital director and administrator being sacked soon after we started. Meanwhile, the priorities of the new director and of the diocese weren’t always what we anticipated.

We resigned ourselves to the thought that God knew why he had sent us here, and if we managed to merely serve the local patients by providing surgical care, we would at least be showing his love to the poorest in the rural community.

The situation didn’t really change during our first 30 months at Gahini.

However, rather unexpectedly a number of welcome developments occurred at about the same time.

SURPRISING DEVELOPMENTS The university needed placements for recently graduated medical students, and we received several new doctors to work in surgery under my supervision. To my surprise I then became an associate dean of the University of Rwanda.

Influenced by Catriona’s presence as a specialist anaesthesiologist, a German charity built a fully equipped orthopaedic theatre suite for a visiting orthopaedic surgeon to provide surgery for children with disabilities.

Shortly after, the government sent an orthopaedic surgeon to our provincial referral hospital, but he found there neither equipment nor facilities. As Gahini had the facilities needed, our hospital was able to acquire two orthopaedic surgeons and became the orthopaedic referral hospital for the whole province.

We received some very generous grants and donations, which allowed us to refurbish the surgical and orthopaedic wards and equip a highdependency patient area to look after some of our sicker patients more safely.

students for their clinical placements, and she has been invited to be the university’s external examiner for their exams. And at the beginning of this year, the government sent Gahini an anaesthesiologist. We hope that they will also send a Rwandan general surgeon to replace Steve by the time we leave.

The end of the Bill Gates quote is, “… but don’t underestimate what you can do in ten years!” We would suggest that even more important is to bring God what you have to offer, and let him work miracles through your weaknesses. Despite the inauspicious beginnings of our time in Rwanda, we have seen Gahini develop its facilities and improve its Rwandan staffing to the stage where we have indeed almost worked ourselves out of a job. Hallelujah!

GOD’S MIRACLES THROUGH OUR WEAKNESSES In the last six months, the hospital has been recognised enough for its work to be sent intern doctors, so there are now eight new doctors working throughout the hospital.

Catriona’s anaesthetic work has resulted in her receiving a number of non-physician anaesthetic

EXPLORE

Is God calling you to imagine a different future in a new context? Go to churchmissionsociety.org/ explore for resources to explore your calling.

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

29

PIONEER REFLECTION

LAMBS AMONG WOLVES:

RE-READING LUKE 10

Feeling awkward about judgement?

James Butler, pioneer MA lecturer and assistant coordinator at CMS, re-reads a classic mission passage and reimagines the scene from the bottom up.

T

he mission of the 70 in Luke 10 is regularly used to understand mission and being sent, but this as a model for our mission feels somewhat problematic. I’m happy with the sending, the not taking much, the speaking of peace and the receiving of hospitality, but there has always been something about the way judgement is dished out at the end which has unsettled me.

The response I’ve often had to that question is that judgement will come to those who reject Jesus whether I’m comfortable with it or not. My response has been that the people didn’t necessarily reject Jesus, they just weren’t interested in the two people turning up.

THE NEED TO RE-READ However, reading this again, in the light of an increased focus on issues of race and colonialism across all areas of society, I begin to see that this passage might need re-reading.

Of course, the word “mission” has really only come about since the Jesuits, and later in Protestantism, with the modern missionary movement started by William Carey. Mission is being sent; in these cases, sent to the far corners of the world to tell the 30

“heathen” about Jesus.

I realise that subconsciously this is the lens through which I have read this passage; the powerful arriving in a place, expecting to be heard and handing out judgement to those who won’t listen.

But, reading it again, I found a different lens gives a very different picture.

NOBODIES AND MISFITS Jesus collected together a bunch of nobodies and misfits as his followers. The people who were following him didn’t really expect to have authority. They didn’t expect anyone to listen. They were poor and marginalised as they went to these towns; “lambs amongst wolves” (v.3). They turned up to see how they were received.

They brought peace, and waited to see whether peace was offered in return. Would these towns feel too self-important to welcome them, to listen to what they said, to take seriously their message, to act generously towards them?

And I turned to the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. The judgement was given and they were surprised to find that they had met Jesus in the poor, hungry and naked and it was on this basis that they were judged.

The tables, then, are flipped.

THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 1

SURPRISE MESSENGERS This probably isn’t a story of the rich and powerful turning up, expecting to be listened to, and calling down judgement when they are not. Maybe it is a story of the poor, marginalised and excluded with a radical message of peace to those who are powerful.

Perhaps, even, that through the poor and marginalised, the Kingdom of God has come near to them (v.9).

The judgement then comes on the powerful, the self-righteous, the ones who think they know it all already and don’t need to listen.

The 70 aren’t the powerful church, the 70 are the ragamuffin group, the lambs among wolves, who have taken Jesus’ message seriously and have come to remind the powerful that there is a different way. This would suggest that mission is about recognising and receiving the surprise messengers that Jesus sent.

And I find myself asking again, how am I doing at noticing these “missionaries” from God? Am I too absorbed in my own ideas of God to be turned around by someone else’s message of peace from Jesus?

Or am I able to welcome them, and offer peace in return?

19–23 JULY 2021 PIONEER MISSION LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Prayerlines M 19 JULY // OXFORD

PIONEER ZOOM

DAY 2021

Please join us for a virtual open day on

MONDAY 21 JUNE 2021 Courses designed by pioneers, for pioneers Now including new MA route focusing on African Christian Diaspora Qualifications offered include Certificate, Diploma, BA, MA and DTh. We also train ordinands in the Church of England in partnership with Ripon College Cuddesdon.

For more details or to book, go to pioneer.churchmissionsociety.org

A curate in the Church of England, pioneer Joanna Allen is passionate about seeing God’s church alive in the Spirit and alert to his missional call. Pray for Joanna as she spends time with people beyond churches and strives to see God’s Kingdom grow in the forgotten places.

T 20 JULY // CORNWALL Pioneer ordinand Benjamin Hudd and his family are committed to being friends to their community in Stithians, loving their neighbours and simply being themselves. Having started a new spiritual community on Zoom, please pray for wisdom for how to proceed as face-to-face gatherings begin.

W 21 JULY // OXFORD Pioneer Jonathan Hutchison and his wife Tara are part of the international leadership team at Watoto Child Care Ministries, a ministry that brings hope and healing to vulnerable women and children in Uganda and South Sudan.

Pray for them as they settle into UK life with their three small children.

Th 22 JULY // GLOUCESTER

E SAV E TH E DAT

AFRICA CONFERENCE 8–10 OCTOBER 2021

More info coming soon at churchmissionsociety.org/events

Pioneer ordinand Lucy Barbour and her team are committed to supporting their village community to live well in body, mind and spirit. Pray for Lucy and the team’s online courses and classes to help build relationships within the community, support people’s wellbeing and meet them where they are in their faith.

F 23 JULY // KINGSTON Please pray for SpiritSpace, a growing online international event (see article overleaf). Mission partner Andrea Campanale asks for prayer that she and the team can continue to grow the network they are engaging with and that people will encounter Jesus and pursue a 31 relationship with him.

FEATURE STORY

GOD AT WORK BEHIND THE SCREENS WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 24–25 July

JOYFUL SHARING

By Ian Adams, mission spirituality adviser for Church Mission Society This weekend focus links to the article From the Garden (page 26).

Mary Magdalene responds to Jesus’ instruction to go and to say what she has seen and heard. She goes to the disciples – as the first witness to the resurrection – and shares the joyful and astonishing story. I have seen the Lord!

In your prayers you might like to imagine the contexts in which you will be today. How might you share the joyful story of your own encounters with the risen Jesus? What words might you say, what actions might you take?

Risen Jesus, Help me today to live and share with joy your resurrection life.

Enable me to find the words and the actions through which you may be encountered by those whom I will meet.

Amen

Email: ian.adams@ 32 churchmissionsociety.org

32

Over the last year, despite the restrictions in place, mission partner Andrea Campanale has seen new opportunities develop to meet with spiritual seekers – including a new international community starting from scratch.

A

s well as teaching on the CMS Pioneer Mission Leadership Training course, I seek to connect with those who would call themselves “spiritual but not religious”. This has taken me to Mind, Body, Spirit events and to local fairs, but in summer 2020 I was invited to an event on a different scale.

BURNING MAN Started in 1986, Burning Man is an annual event held since 1998 at Black Rock City, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada. It derives its name from its culmination, the symbolic burning of a large

wooden effigy, referred to as “The Man”, that occurs on the Saturday evening before Labor Day. “Once considered an underground gathering for bohemians and free spirits of all stripes, Burning Man has since evolved into a destination for social media influencers, celebrities and the Silicon Valley elite” (NPR). In 2019 it was attended by 78,850 people.

In 2020 for the first time it happened virtually, from 31 August to 6 September.

I was part of a team of Jesus followers in the UK and US who provided reflections, workshops and one-to-one prayer encounters. I had the privilege of doing Ruach card readings with participants. Ruach cards

The tree of life has become a powerful metaphor for the SpiritSpace community (image copyright Evie Mowbray 2021)

use a biblical interpretation of imagery from nature to offer some divinely inspired insight. The last card has a verse of Scripture on it and is prayed as a blessing for those willing to receive.

I always find it amazing and a huge privilege to listen, be able to bring a word of encouragement and pray for those who are so open to hearing from the Spirit of God. Through the wonders of technology, I had spiritual conversations with folk from New York, Colorado, Washington, Florida and California, as well as some in the UK!

ONLINE OPPORTUNITIES Encouraged by the conversations we had at Burning Man, and aware of a real openness to exploring spirituality, the team felt there was a place for a new collaboration.

On Sunday 1 November 2020, the first regular SpiritSpace gathering took place. It is an online creative collaboration for those who might describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, creating a space for spiritual seekers to experience Jesusinspired art, meditations and prayer ministry. (You can find out more at inspiritspace.net) It is led by Colin Brice of Eden People in Guildford, Dee Cunniffe, Came to Believe Recovery USA and UK, and Hope Deifell from North Carolina, with Simon Tierney, a former CMS pioneer student, and I as part of the team.

As the SpiritSpace team, we now bring together contributions from artists, poets and musicians at 8–10pm (UK time) on the first Sunday of each month. An image of the Tree of Life has become a powerful metaphor for what we are seeking to achieve. In the main Zoom room, themes such as bridges, fire and light, and streams in the wasteland have been pursued.

These provide wonderful opportunities for creatives to produce resources that are appropriate for this audience, while still being authentically Christian. (You can see them on the SpiritSpace Camp YouTube channel.) There is also the option of small group or one-to-one encounters in breakout rooms. These include dream sensing, inner healing, body blessing and Ruach card readings.

We’ve had videos that brought Scripture to us, leading to a discussion about hope and the sharing of different people’s experience of journeying towards greater self acceptance and wholeness. A recent meditation using the image of a flash flood functioned as a confession and then another of the team sang a gentle song of praise and gratitude, which we were encouraged to join in with as we became familiar with it.

GROWING COMMUNITY Around 30–40 people now interact with us over the two hours and we are beginning to

see some people come back time after time who really feel part of the community we are building. There are folk in Australia and France who regularly attend, as well as from all over the US and UK. One visitor commented, “I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the entire SpiritSpace family. I cannot even imagine the amount of time, planning and energy required to provide the healing and love that all of you give to us. It is my third time here. I come here because I feel completely accepted for who I am. My colleagues, family members and most friends have difficulty incorporating spirituality into the splendor of life; I feel limited in what I can share with them. I also come here for hope, inspiration, insight, awareness, healing, discernment, kindness, generosity and compassion.

I also come here for empowerment and it is my hope that I can return the same with each person I interact with, continuing to expand the tree of life.”

For a number of years, I’ve been thinking about using the format of a worship service contextualised for the people I’m seeking to reach out to with the love of God. At our last SpiritSpace event I really felt like we were beginning to achieve that. We are not trying to force this. Rather, we are seeking to prayerfully discern together where the Spirit wants to lead us. We are sensitive and kind, allowing God to meet people and touch them where they need it most. What is remarkable is that the screen is no barrier to that at all!

JOIN

Do you have a dream of connecting to a community that doesn’t do church? Find out about pioneer training at Church Mission Society at pioneer.churchmissionsociety.org

THE C A LL – S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

33

26–30 JULY 2021

Prayerlines M 26 JULY // BRAZIL Brazil has been hit hard by COVID-19, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and knock-on effects throughout society.

Mission partners ask, “Please pray especially as extreme poverty is on the rise – for the church to know how to best respond.”

T 27 JULY // BOLIVIA Andrew and Lisa Peart, working to strengthen communities, see people flourish and further God’s Kingdom in Santa Cruz, are thankful that CMS-Africa’s Financial Freedom for Families course has now been translated into Spanish. Please pray for willing and able people to lead the course with them.

W 28 JULY // PERU Pat Blanchard has recently returned to Lima and her work with over 100 children with disabilities and their families through Shalom Ministries. After an extended time in the UK, pray for Pat as she settles back in and listens to what God is telling her to do.

Th 29 JULY // HONDURAS Pray for Steve Poulson and the team at Street Kids Direct as they look for the best way forward for young people they mentor who have missed a year of schooling.

Pray for understanding, committed teachers who can help young people get back into education.

F 30 JULY // ARGENTINA Now Primate of the Anglican Church of South America, Nick Drayson and wife Catherine Le Tissier ask for prayer for good relationships among the bishops and their spouses as they work together and prepare for the Lambeth Conference 34year. next

COMMUNITY NEWS CHURCH MISSION SOCIETY STAFF AND PEOPLE IN MISSION CHANGES CMS STAFF CHANGES WELCOME TO:

Joanna Frith, supporter care assistant (February) Alison Boulton, assistant undergraduate programmes coordinator and lecturer, (March) Julie Jones, church relations officer, (April)

CHANGES:

Leanne Saint, church mission project manager, returned from maternity leave (March) Gilberto Da Silva returned to main role as vocational recruitment officer (April)

PEOPLE IN MISSION CHANGES MISSION PARTNERS ENDING SERVICE: Rachel Ullmer has ended service after eight years in Pakistan, training and resourcing teachers in Christian schools. This was Rachel’s second period in Pakistan where, all told, she has actually served for 14 years.

Debora and Levi Santana, with Nicolas and Olivia, have ended service after three years in Goiania,

Brazil, where they reached out to those on the edges of society.

NEW MISSION PARTNERS: Jen and Kevin Cable will go as soon as travel restrictions permit to serve in Jaffa, Israel, where Kevin will reopen and be vicar of St Peter’s Church, which was closed in 1948, and also initiate Mission to Seafarers work in Jaffa port.

NEW MISSION ASSOCIATES: Melita and Stephen Gordon (Malawi) Louise Barclay Johnson (Belgium) Carolyn and Mark Gilmore (Uruguay) Jahnn Cooper and Araceli Moya (Chile) Elaine and Mark Watson (Nepal) Sue Bird (Malawi) Ann Saunders (India) Myrtle Martin (Peru) At the end of December we learned the sad news that mission associate Cliff Bergdahl had died. Cliff had ministered for many years in London, reaching out into schools and prisons and discipling young Christians.

WEEKEND FOCUS Saturday–Sunday 31 July – 1 August

SEND US A PRAYER We invite you to write to us with a prayer request and we will count it our privilege to pray for you: info@ churchmissionsociety.org

10

13

34

4

9

31

CMS PEOPLE ALSO WORK IN SENSITIVE LOCATIONS IN:

18

17

3

The call in action

48

33

5

Central Asia Middle East North Africa South East Asia

1

40

2

8

30

12

16

39

11

38

36

27

47

37

24

44

21

46

23

22

15

42

32

29

41

45

19

7

26

43

20

35

churchmissionsociety.org/pim

25

14

To find out more about our people in mission go to:

6

28

PLACES WHERE WE ARE PUTTING OUR CALL INTO ACTION 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

Argentina Belgium Bolivia Brazil Britain Burundi Cambodia Central African Republic Chile Colombia Czech Republic DR Congo Ecuador Egypt Ethiopia Germany Guatemala Honduras India Indonesia Israel/Palestine Jordan Kenya Lebanon Malawi Malaysia Mozambique Moldova Nepal Netherlands Nigeria Pakistan Paraguay Peru Philippines Romania Rwanda South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Uganda Ukraine Uruguay

LET’S COME TWO-GETHER FOR MISSION! This year, CMS is celebrating 222 years of helping people discover the lifechanging message of the gospel. stone – and To celebrate this mile have been the many people who mission – please alongside us in God’s on your own ng ki ta by y rt pa e th in jo e!

FUNdraising challeng o-gether with This summer, come tw urch to raise d ch your friends, family an d have fun too! money for mission an ard to seeing We are so looking forw lenges you the creative 222 chal come up with.

YOU COULD: Get your best church bakers to bake and sell 222 cakes Walk 22.2 miles Host a 22.2 minute art or exerci se

class Complete a 22.2 hour Bible rea ding relay!

Do anything else around the number 222

THE ONLY LIMIT IS YOUR IMAGINATION!

To find out more, and to order your fundraising pack, go to: churchmissionsociety.org/twogetherformission 36

Or to speak to a member of the team about your ideas, email fun@churchmissionsociety.org or call 01865 787521.