Millions May-Aug 2014

May – Aug 2014

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News A Personal Call

Together for the Gospel Stories from Vietnam

Missional Characters Children on a Mission

Bringing hope to hard places

We serve the church and seek to bring the gospel to all the peoples of East Asia. We help place Christians with professional skills in China and other Asian countries, and share the love of Christ with East Asians worldwide.

Through God’s grace we aim to see an indigenous, biblical churchplanting movement in each people group of East Asia, evangelising their own people and reaching out in mission to other peoples.

From The Editor Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour.

– Ecclesiastes 4 v9

The bible exalts partnership.

The results are greater than the sum of their parts. As in life so it is in mission. If you go it alone who will pick you up when you fall? What happens when your knowledge runs out? When taking the gospel to East Asians who better to draw alongside than the churches of local believers. No one person or organisation can achieve the Great Commission, it requires the power of working together.

Chris Watts Editor – chris.watts@omfmail.com

AUSTRALIA 18-20 Oxford Street Epping New South Wales 2121 Tel +61 2 9868 4777 Fax +61 2 9868 5743 au@omfmail.com

MALAYSIA 3a Jalan Nipah Off Jalan Ampang 55000 Kuala Lumpur Tel +60 3 4257 4263 Fax +60 3 4251 4313 my.cd@omfmail.com

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INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 2 Cluny Road Singapore 259570 Tel +65 6319 4550 Fax +65 6472 2398 ihq@omfmail.com www.omf.org

Design: sparks-studio.com Print: www.printd.com.au

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Together for the Gospel The changing needs of East Asia

A Personal Call My name’s Levi and I’m a missionary

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The Shape of Things to Come 5 areas shaping OMFs engagement in mission

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Stories from Vietnam The Foreign Religion & Granny's Great Commision

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Children on a Mission 5 ideas for engaging children Missional Characters Introducing Priscilla

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News Selected snippets from OMF's work with East Asians around the world.

Project 2015

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Members of the UK mobilisation and communications team recently met with Lester Manley to discuss projects for the coming 2015 celebrations. One idea arising from the meeting was creating a resource pack for churches, including videos and Bible studies about mission. Nadine Woods has offered to be UK Project 2015 co-ordinator. The communications team has also recently made contact with a Christian animator to bring some early CIM & OMF stories to life. Please pray as we continue to make plans and produce material throughout 2014.

Two years on

In May 2012 we heard that Keith and Joyce Wood were about to start working with the diaspora team. Two years on and we get the chance to catch up with them again and see how prayers have been answered.

‘Since joining the Diaspora Ministries Field, life has been encouraging and faith stretching. A few months after joining we agreed to take on the leadership of our European Diaspora Cluster of 25 OMF members and 24 co-workers (volunteers) across four countries.

Alongside this and other admin roles we value our contact with academic visitors from China who attend English Corner in Manchester. We have enjoyed getting to know over 150 scholars through English teaching, outings, holidays, Bible study and arranging a home stay for over 50 in the church where we were married. God is good – and we are seeing Him at work. Visiting a recently returned family in China and hearing them talk of their new and growing faith makes sowing seed all the more worthwhile!’

Please continue to pray for Keith and Joyce Wood along with the whole diaspora ministry team as they seek to bring the gospel to East Asians in the UK and Europe.

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小孩也宣教

Children on a Mission 5 ideas for engaging children with mission in East Asia. With summer holidays on the horizon, why not spend some time getting your children thinking about the wider world? We hope these ideas will not only bring a new challenge to the family but will open up opportunities to talk about mission with your children.

1. Try your hand at some Chinese characters

In Chinese, there are more than 50,000 characters. By the time you leave school, you will know how to use the 26 letters of our alphabet. In China, when leaving primary school, you'd be expected to have memorised 5000!

Whilst some characters are just a few lines, some of them are very complicated. Why not try for yourself?

See if you can write the phrase ‘God is love’ (shen shi ai). This activity is a great way of better understanding some of the challenges missionaries face as they land in the country they will serve. Worksheet available to download from omf.org/uk/writingchinese

3. Send a parcel to a mission partner

In the days of 24-hour news, social media and email, actually receiving post is something most people relish. It's pretty tricky to send someone their favourite UK chocolate via email, so why not make up a package and send it to a missionary you know or support at church?

Things to include: • a photo of you and your family • a letter giving them an update on school, holidays, church and family • a tasty treat that will remind them of home • a magazine or small gift for the children

4. Create Asian paper craft

The list of things you can make with a humble sheet of paper is limited only by your imagination.

Why not have a go at some Asian paper craft, whether it's a mouse, a Chinese lantern or even a durian? Find tutorials here: go.omf.org/omfpaper

5. Have an Asian evening God (Shen)

is (shi)

2. Make and eat Asian flags

love (ai)

Make or buy some plain rectangular biscuits and try recreating flags from across East Asia using icing.

Then enjoy eating your delicious creations. In case you haven't committed Asian flags to memory, visit: go.omf.org/flagbiscuits. Why not take some time to learn a few facts about the countries whose flags you are eating?

Pick a country and have a themed evening – try to include some food eaten in that country (find a local restaurant or takeaway if you’re not confident to make it yourself). Maybe have some games or a quiz and take time to pray for your mission partners in that country.

Share your activities

Have you enjoyed any of these activities? Why not take a photo and share it with us on our Facebook page?

facebook.com/omfinternational

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Levi Booth ‘Hi, my name’s Levi and I’m a missionary. I like good coffee, bad action movies, and sports. I hate Marmite. And I love Japan. I’ve been there four times now and in May I will head back long-term.'

My aim is simple. To make disciples of Jesus, who can make disciples of Jesus. In Japan.

In other words, I hope to spend the rest of my life training and encouraging Japanese Christians to do church planting.

At university I got involved with outreach to international students. I met students from all around the world, but I found myself specifically drawn to Japanese students.

One day I was invited to an OMF conference.

We were told a ton of information about the church in Asia and I have forgotten all of it… except for one statistic; in Japan the number of students who are Christians is 0.001%. That number lit a fire in my belly that has never been extinguished.

Skip ahead a bit and a ginger kid is stepping onto a plane to spend a year helping with student ministry in Japan. I figured that after a year I would know whether I should consider long-term mission in Japan.

It turns out I only needed a few months. Very quickly I fell in love with Japan: the natural beauty, the food, the people, yes, even the language. Did I mention the food?

At the same time I saw first-hand what I had heard about. The 0.001% turned into names and faces: students struggling to be faithful to their Saviour in universities with only one or two other Christians.

They faced pressure from family to renounce their faith, job prospects that would place them in towns without a church, and a culture that was so enmeshed in Shinto and Buddhism that their friends told them, with a straight face, ‘I can’t become a Christian, because I’m Japanese.’

The needs were huge – and I had come to love Japan – but I still struggled to make a decision about the future.

Name Age Heroes Next up

Levi Booth 30 years old Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan 2 years of language study

I was still unsure as to whether Japan was the right place for me long-term. I hadn’t picked up the language as quickly as I had hoped. I wasn’t sure whether I would really make any impact there.

I wanted a clear call from God. So I prayed and prayed and prayed. I wanted a dream, a vision, a voice.

Something, anything to confirm this sense of calling.

Eventually I realised I had the wrong focus. I was thinking about my need for a call. But what if I focused instead on what Japan needed? Japan needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, that much is clear. More specifically it needs people to go and share that life-changing gospel message.

I had received a call. Not in a dream or vision, but in real life. In Acts 16 we read about how Paul had a vision of a man urging him to go to Macedonia and help them. Paul concluded that God was calling him to preach the gospel in Macedonia. When I was getting ready to leave Japan I had more than one Japanese Christian asking me to come back and continue to work with them to preach the gospel. If a vision of a man calling out was enough to cause Paul to change course, how could I ignore the direct call from my Japanese brothers and sisters?

So why Japan? There are two simple answers to that question: Christ calls us to preach the gospel to all nations.

Japanese Christians called me to work with the church in Japan.

Watch and share Levi’s Story

https://vimeo.com/85936761

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共 に福音 のために

Together for the Gospel In his January Billions Directions article, Peter Rowan explained his thoughts on how OMF and the church should respond to the changing needs of East Asia.

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TIM TOOLS

Peter used the examples of Timothy and Apollos as model workers, rather than of pioneers like Paul.

Since then we have caught up with Tim Walker, a mission worker in Japan. During their first term with OMF Tim and his wife Miho have been working in partnership with a Japanese pastor, and trying to follow the example of Timothy and Apollos.

Could you give us short insight into your ministry in Japan?

For our first term with OMF Japan we served in Nanae Evangelical Christian Church alongside Pastor Kimura. A large part of that was about training – both by involvement and observation. We experienced various ministries including children's and youth work, English teaching as an evangelistic outreach, and evangelism in the community.

Why do you think partnership with the existing Japanese church and pastors is important?

In Japan it can be relatively easy for cross-cultural workers to make contact with people and have opportunities to introduce them to Jesus for the first time, in a way it often isn't for Japanese Christians themselves. But of course, the best place for new Japanese

believers is in the Japanese church, which can, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:12, equip them for works of service in their own cultural context.

So I believe it is very important for missionaries to partner with the Japanese church, because by doing so we can combine our strengths to further the Kingdom in Japan. Also, foreign missionaries have an outsider's perspective that can, when humbly offered, be a great help to the Japanese church.

Were there any difficulties you faced?

Since missionaries had been leaders of the church since its earliest stages, there was sometimes an expectation that they would go on giving direction and making key decisions. It was a learning curve for the church to adjust to their very first Japanese pastor leading them, with missionaries serving under the pastor.

For us, it was quite hard when the pastor asked us not to start a new ministry that we would like to have begun. But we realised that he had his own reasons for that and we weren’t there to insist on our own way and had to set aside some of our cherished ideas.

Japan Nayoro Sapporo

Population 127 million Christianity 0.5% Evangelical Christian and in decline OMF ministries Church planting & evangelism, work among the Tsunami affected people and working alongside established Japanese churches.

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What would you tell someone considering cross-cultural partnership?

I think humility is key. It’s vital that you respect their ways of being Christ's Church – even where it is very different from what you’re used to in your own country.

Being quick to point out what you believe to be wrong with the national church or wider culture will work against true partnership.

The cross-cultural worker has to be a permanent student of the culture, always open to learning something new.

You may need to submit to the correction of a national leader or believer.

It’s good to remember that mission workers come and go, but the local church will remain by God's grace until Christ returns.

What are your hopes as you partner with the Japanese church?

We're involved in the first stages of a new churchplanting work, serving alongside Japanese church leaders. Our hope is that we’ll be able to strike a good

balance between what we believe we can offer to the work and what the Japanese leaders would like us to do. We hope to be a true help and not a hindrance to its growth as a genuinely Japanese church.

Do you see this kind of ministry as the natural progression for missions as a whole?

Yes. It is wonderful when God's people from very different cultural backgrounds come together and partner in mission as co-labourers in the harvest field; it can be a powerful witness to the world.

When we partner well together we bring glory to the God we serve, whose mission is to reconcile a sinful and divided world to himself through Christ.

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的東 西 來 的 形 狀

The Shape of Things to Come As we approach our 150th anniversary in 2015, we need to be thinking about our strategic contribution to mission in East Asia and how to engage the UK church in that task. Given the realities of East Asia today, here are five areas I think should shape OMF UK’s engagement in mission.

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1 Partnering with national churches in East Asia.

The starting point for thinking about the strategic ministry priorities of OMF (UK) is the growing maturity of the national churches in East Asia. Are we prepared to partner with and serve under the national churches? As an international body we recently affirmed ‘the importance of intentionally seeking input, ideas, and critique from leaders of national churches into Field discussions and decisions regarding strategy.’ In addition to partnering with national churches, there’s the growing necessity of working with likeminded mission organisations. There are currently 5,000 foreign mission agencies worldwide. Surely we can do more together.

2 Mobilising people with the theological and biblical tools to work with the new churches in East Asia.

In a 1992 edition of East Asia’s Millions, Bong Rin Ro said ‘It is my firm conviction that the chief service of Western missionaries is to train Asian Christians in Asia, so that these nationals can reach their own people on the grassroots level with the gospel.’

This must be done in the context of a partnership in which an authentic interchange happens – offering our best while humbly learning and being enriched from the rest.

Peter Rowan

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Mobilise people for the work places of East Asia.

Historically, most cross-cultural mission has been done by ordinary Christians on the move from one country to another, taking the gospel with them into work places and communities they let Christ be seen and heard from their lives. Taking jobs in the work places of East Asia is important for three reasons: (a) so that missionaries can significantly fund themselves and not be reliant on mission agencies and finance from their sending context; (b) working in a professional capacity gives credibility and provides a clear identity; (c) being employed demonstrates whole-life discipleship. If we want to encourage indigenous mission movements, we need to see beyond the professional missionary and mission agency and overcome the secular-sacred divide, which has been ‘a major obstacle to the mobilisation of all God’s people in the mission of God’ (Cape Town Commitment).

Mobilise people for the cities of East Asia.

By 2050 some 70 per cent of the world’s population, about 6.3 billion people, will be living in cities. The significance of this becomes more important when we define urbanisation in terms of a city’s ‘ecological footprint’ – meaning the social, geographical, economic and cultural impact that a city has beyond its geographical boundary. The speed of urbanisation in China is staggering: ‘If current trends hold, China’s urban population will hit one billion mark by 2030… By 2050, China will have 221 cities with one million-plus inhabitants’ (Jonathan Watts). East Asia’s cities will see tremendous growth over the next 25 years. Living and working in them will be challenging and costly, especially when one considers the shocking levels of air pollution. As an organisation, we need to do more in developing our theology of urban mission because, as one writer puts it, ‘being urban will be the challenge of the twenty-first century’ (Andrew Davey).

By 2050...

6.3 billion

people will be

living in cities

5 Embrace a more integral understanding of mission.

Integral mission is about connecting word, deed and character in making the good news of Jesus known. Sometimes in churches and mission organisations there can be an unhelpful divide between, say, church planters and professionals, between what is seen to be primary ministry and secondary.

Many professionals serving in mission feel they are labeled as ‘second class mission partners’. The reality is that professionals serving in medical work, poverty relief or in a range of other areas are deeply committed to the totality of what God has called the church to do in mission. There is a breadth to our ministries in OMF that isn’t sufficiently recognised and which we, as an organisation, don’t articulate well enough under an integral understanding of mission.

If you’d like to explore the possibility of getting involved in one of these areas in particular, or if you’d like to comment on any of these five areas, then please get in touch. uk.nd@omfmail.com

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Những câu chuyện ở Việt Nam

Stories from Vietnam For more than 1000 years, Vietnam was heavily influenced by the traditions, culture and religion of China. Confucian ideology, Taoism and Buddhism became prevalent and remain so.

The Foreign Religion

When the Christian faith came to Vietnam it began to challenge some family traditions. Most families practiced ancestral worship and some believers tried to continue, in addition to following Christ.

This remains the biggest hindrance for the Vietnamese when it comes to putting their faith in Christ – worshipping one God. People who choose to do this are seen as having no love and respect for their parents, grandparents and ancestors. Some agree with the teachings of the Bible; but stopping ancestral worship is a big obstacle. It’s like an insult to the family.

For many, Christianity is a foreign religion. The Vietnamese say that Christianity is an American religion and that Buddhism is the national religion.

They are more open to other oriental religions as they think we’re of the same mind.

If people hear the name of Jesus, some turn away. They’re ready to study other religious books but not the Bible, as the name Jesus feels alien to them.

By Son, a 25-year-old from Hanoi

Prayer Please pray that every Vietnamese person meets a believer with an authentic relationship with the Lord. Please pray that believers have sensitivity when witnessing to the Vietnamese, but also have the boldness to challenge when needed.

Granny’s Great Commission

As part of our training, Bible school students have to visit other provinces to tell them about Jesus. In July 2013 I went on a trip to the Highlands. There I met an amazing 76 year old woman, who turned to Christ in 2004.

She was illiterate, but wanted to read the Bible.

She prayed to God for this and He did a miracle for her. She started to be able to read, short words at first, and step-by-step was able to read longer words and now she can read the entire Bible.

She has many sons and daughters, and through her, more than 100 relatives have put their faith in Jesus. She has evangelised whole families within her wider family. For example, her son, his wife and their eight children all believe in God. Every month, she goes on a short mission trip throughout the Highlands.

She wants to go to the middle of Vietnam and has been desperately praying for an opportunity. She’s even willing to travel by motorbike. She is weak and thin, but a fiery spirit of evangelism is burning Please pray for protection inside her. When the youth of Vietnamese Christians at our church talk about in rural provinces, her and her boundless where believers often energy, we are challenged. face greater scrutiny

By Anh, a 21-year-old and persecution by local Christian living in Hanoi authorities. Please pray that local Christians are given the resources to witness.

Prayer

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宣教 人物

Missional Characters – Introducing Priscilla Prisca (or Priscilla) and her husband Aquila were close friends of Paul and were some of the first members of the Christian Church. Paul's letters record their long friendship from first meeting to the bitter farewell not long before his death.

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We are introduced to Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18. We hear how they came to meet Paul and read of them teaching Apollos, an influential scholar.

In Romans 16, they return to Rome and, in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and to Timothy, we read of fond greetings and farewells between them and Paul.

Although there are only a handful of references to Priscilla in the New Testament, a lot can be gleaned about her and her husband, their lives and ministry.

Take some time to read: Acts 18 (making note of: v 2–3 , v18 and v26), Romans 16: 3–4, 1 Corinthians 16: 19, 2 Timothy 4: 19.

Cathy Steed

Questions

1. What can we learn about Priscilla and Aquila’s knowledge of the gospel from this verse?

– Is there anything we can learn from the way that Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos? Acts 18: 26 – How did Paul’s friendship with Priscilla and Aquila start?

2. What characteristics did Priscilla and Aquila display that made Paul speak fondly of them? Acts 18: 18, 2 Timothy 4: 19, Acts 18: 2–3, Romans 16: 3–4, 1 Corinthians 16: 19

3. What was Priscilla and Aquila’s profession, and how did it play a part in their ministry? Acts 18: 2–3, Romans 16: 3–4 – What are some modern day ‘tent-making’ ministries? Are there other ways we can reflect this model of ministry in Asia or the UK? 4. What sacrifices did Priscilla and Aquila make for the sake of the gospel and the church? Romans 16: 3–5, 1 Corinthians 16: 19

What an encouragement to us that scripture records the ministry of Priscilla and Aquila. Whilst they moved to various cities, working together for their livelihood, they held fast to the word of God, leading and supporting other believers and the church. They were bold enough to take an eloquent and learned man aside to expound from scripture what was lacking in his teaching.

Both were tentmakers by profession and used this to support their ministry.

They humbly served the Lord, whether starting a church in their home or enabling others to become leaders. Priscilla and Aquila’s consistent desire to establish local churches, wherever they lived, is a testimony to the importance of the parts of the body of Christ working together for the kingdom.

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China's Cities: A Prayer Guide for Urban China What is God's heartbeat for China's cities?

Thirty years ago, 80 per cent of people in China lived in rural areas.

Today, more than half the Chinese population lives in urban areas.

These stories reveal the power of God that is already pulsing through the metropolises, yet they are also stories of longing, desperation and pain among China's urban dwellers. May these accounts move and burden you to pray for China to experience the grace and love of Christ and bow to his lordship.

For more information or to purchase, contact your local OMF office.