
6 minute read
Curt Miller, missions pastor
The Psalmist reminds us: Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.
Psalm 77:13-14
To see the Lord at work is refreshing. To join him in that work is life-giving. As the pastoral liaison to the Board of Missions as well as the Evangelism and Culture Impact Committee, I count it a privilege to see how the Lord is using the people of College Church to steward resources and to make an impact for the sake of the gospel. It is an honor to work alongside a great staff and volunteer team in this effort.
During this past season, our team prayed, planned and executed projects such as the new missions wall in the fireside area outside the Sanctuary, the fall Faith and Culture series and the hosting of a group of Ukrainian pastors to explore our pastoral residency program with the goal of launching their own such program.
Other projects were less planned and more urgent such as the immediate response to the invasion of Ukraine the same week we hosted our new Ukrainian pastor friends. Prayer gatherings were quickly pulled together. A webpage for updates was created. An ongoing prayer group was formed. For both the planned and the unplanned, we marvel at the works of the Lord, and as we join in that work, our hearts are filled with joy.
LOOKING BACK
Here’s a recap of the last year.
LOCALLY
• The Evangelism and Culture Impact Committee administered financial support to five evangelists and three partner organizations.
• The Sanctity of Life Task Force engaged the congregation with pro-life news and events and mobilized around 60 people who participated in the annual March for Life Chicago in January.
• Two book groups gathered last fall to discuss the book Confronting Injustice without Compromising the Truth by Thaddeus J. Williams.
• You once again gave generously for the Outreach Community Center’s Christmas Store.
• Parents, grandparents, teachers and school administrators joined us for a weekend Faith & Culture Seminar, “Faith, Freedom and Schools,” in partnership with National School Project (now Decision Point).
• A number of Christianity Explored groups or individual meetings were launched in the past year, with some group participants coming to faith in Christ.
GLOBALLY
• The Board of Missions administered financial support to 93 career missionary units*, six mid-term and three short-term units, 13 partner seminaries and 10 local and international organizations. God used you to channel both financial and non-financial support to over 40 countries. Our Missions & Community Outreach Guide lists supported evangelists, missionaries, seminaries and ministry partner organizations. * A unit is defined as a single individual, couple or family.
• $54,334.78 was distributed to our missionaries for Missionary Christmas and $35,977.86 to support three Thanksgiving Eve Offering projects.
• We partnered with the Immanuel Myanmar Church (IMC) to host Bible studies, to witness the baptism of several of their youth in our Sanctuary’s baptismal pool and for our monthly Multi-Nations Fellowship. College Church missionary Emmanuel Tahear helped plant IMC.
• We partnered with the local Vietnamese church and the Burmese church for the International Thanksgiving Celebration.
• We began hosting a weekly Chinese fellowship in our building.
• We were privileged to host 47 missionaries and 13 missionary kids at the Missions & Community Outreach festival in October 2021. This was our largest group in the past seven years.
• We re-launched the All Nations Adult Community in partnership with our discipleship ministry.
• We launched the Missions Hub, a quiet workspace for missionaries on home assignment.
• We continued ministries such as the Missionary Preparation Program, monthly GO! Meetings, the Multi-Nations Fellowship and the International Thanksgiving Celebration to offer you opportunities to learn, prepare and engage with the world around us.
• Prioritizing the needs of our missionary families, a task force continues to build, and improve upon, a more comprehensive and intentional flow of care for individuals, couples and families on the field and in the States.
In addition, because you gave generously and sacrificially, College Church supported the following ministry projects in the past fiscal year:
• Rental of a townhome at Missionary Furlough Homes to house eight families for short-term visits
• 25 ministry scholarships for the 20s group, missionaries and missionary kids to participate in missions conferences and retreats
• Scholarships for local Spanish youth to attend an evangelistic youth camp in Spain
• Scholarships for local Spanish youth and volunteer leaders to attend a missions-related conference in Spain
• Persian ministry in London
• Theological training for Urdu speaking churches in the U.S.
• Disability training workshops in Africa
• Translation of Greek textbooks into Spanish, theological books into Vietnamese, and evangelistic training materials into Turkish
• Outreach to children and parents at an English- German day camp in Austria and a moms and tots program in Istanbul
• Community development projects in a war-torn Middle Eastern country, a physical shelter project in Israel, and food vouchers in Lebanon
• Soccer outreach to religious non-Christians in Kenya
• School library books in the Dominican Republic, along with benevolence funds for national coaches and camp participants
• Spanish Bibles in the Dominican Republic, and an audio Scripture/worship music project in an East Asian country
• International student ministry activities in Wheaton, along with student ministry and evangelistic activities at College of DuPage and IIT
• Support for training global Christian authors and publishers in Hungary
• Assistance for Ukrainian refugees in Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and surrounding countries in Eurasia
LOOKING FORWARD
In the next fiscal year, we are praying, planning and hoping to execute the following, locally and globally:
• Moving forward with our goal of planting multiple churches by 2030
• Partnering together with Decision Point (formerly National School Project)
• Commissioning new missionary units (some have already been approved by the Board of Missions)
• Sending a team (or teams) to serve Ukrainian refugees in Eastern Europe
• Relaunching STAMP and World Impact (high school) teams (postponed because of COVID)
• Hosting new training on evangelism, cultural topics and missions
• Hosting the second in the Faith and Culture Series, the 2022 Missions and Community Outreach Festival and the International Thanksgiving Celebration.
We expect that the Holy Spirit will move in unexpected ways, leading us to become involved in opportunities that are not currently on our radar. We want to be sensitive to his leading and reliant upon his authoritative Word in all we do. Thank you for your ongoing generosity, both financially and in the giving of your lives in service.