4 minute read
Missions Pastor Curt Miller
Curt Miller
As the people of Israel were getting ready to enter the promised land, Moses reminded them of where they had been—God brought them miraculously out of Egypt and provided for all their needs through years in the desert— using God’s past faithfulness to remind them of the guarantee of his future faithfulness. This annual report allows us a similar moment of reflection as we affirm that God’s faithfulness provides the solid foundation for all our lives.
God at Work Now
God’s faithfulness to our church remained steadfast through an unusual year. When everything shut down last March, we moved midweek prayer meeting to Zoom and continue to gather every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in this way. It is always a joy to hear an update from ministry partners and to lift their work and our church up to the Lord in prayer. It is clear that God’s work around the world has not stopped, even in shutdowns. This has been quite the year for our global family, and I encourage you to read the report from Brad Bailey, our Board of Missions chair.
The Lord also continues to raise up more people to go and to grow in their love for missions. Currently we are helping to equip over a dozen individuals through our missions preparation program. These candidates seek to understand both broadly and deeply God’s plan for the nations and for themselves. If you are interested in learning more, we invite you to reach out to the missions office.
We’ve seen God’s goodness as well through our Multi Nations Fellowship event, which meets the last Saturday of every month. This event is designed to reach out to immigrants and connect them to College Church. Missionary Emmanuel Tahear has helped to organize testimonies, devotionals and musicians to lead our time together. Consistently this gathering has been an encouragement to many and is growing. We started a year-and-a-half ago with a handful of people, and now have over forty individuals, representing a variety of churches and individuals from over a dozen countries.
Through the Ages
We also celebrate God’s goodness in the lives of our missionaries who retired this year. Dorothy Forsberg has given her life to translating the Bible into the Yom language for the people of Benin in West Africa. We are thrilled to say that this project has been completed, and the Yom people now have God’s Word in their heart language! Jim and Beth Tebbe have also retired, after serving as missionaries with College Church for 23 years. They served with InterVarsity, and most recently, at Forman Christian College. As Beth shared in the service on March 21, “We really believe that God so loved his world that he gave his Son that whoever believes in him would have eternal life, and we’re doing one tiny little part [toward making that known].” Praise God for Dorothy and the Tebbes who answered God’s call on their lives and pray for them in this next season.
Looking Forward
As we look to this next year, we want to emphasize prayer and missionary care. Soon, we’ll be rolling out new geographically focused prayer groups. Our desire is for each of our missionaries, in each region of the world, to be consistently prayed for by name each month. More information about these prayer groups will be found online and in the monthly Connections.
We continue to expand our emphasis on caring well for our missionaries. In the spring of 2020, we launched virtual fellowship groups for our missionaries. This monthly online experience allows College Church global workers the opportunity to connect with each other, to share their own experiences and to pray for needs in our global family.
In addition, in the fall of 2020, we began a partnership with One Another Ministries to help us develop a church-based missionary care structure and to increase our capacity of care for our missionaries. This work is expanding, and we are looking for faithful College Church
individuals to love and serve our global missionary family through short-term housing, transportation to and from airports and helping to orient them to Wheaton or their children to local schools.
Locally and Globally
As surely as God is working globally, he is also working locally. Our five evangelists have been busy connecting with others through their ministry at college campuses, in prisons, in Chicago and at Midway Airport. Our local partner organizations have supported education, saved the precious lives of the unborn, helped women out of human trafficking and supported local immigrants. The reports by Ashley Glaze and Richard Howard share in more detail how God is at work through our Culture Impact and Evangelism Committees.
Praise God for his faithfulness. He is our solid rock, despite the storms of life. Praise him for working in and through our church this last year, and in years past. Please continue to pray for his blessing and protection upon our workers here and around the world.
