On November 8-10, a group from GCC was at the Global Missions Conference of the Presbyterian Church in America. This conference occurs once every three years, and this year had some 2,500 or so participants. Our group included Fleming and Peggy Straughan, Carol Hill, Kristin Eppard, Lucy Birchfield, Ariel Mellott and your correspondent, Don Ward. It was especially exciting to have our three teenagers with us to watch them catch the fire for God’s work in the world.
The rest of the team attended a pre-conference event on mercy ministry, which featured the ministry of International Justice Mission and their work in freeing people from slavery and oppression in Jesus’ name. During that pre-conference time, I met with various people involved in missions in Japan as we seek to coordinate the teams in Japan, and develop cooperation among the senders here in the USA.
The Spirit Moves
The theme of the Global Missions Conference was “The Spirit Moves”. The main talks and seminars helped us understand the ways the Holy Spirit is moving in the world today, as well as the ways that we can align ourselves with His work both here in our hometowns, and across the globe.
Each of the four major services had the joyous Indelible Grace leading worship. Much of their music features the church’s great hymns set in a more modern context. The worship times were awe-inspiring!
Each service also featured videos on various mission works and opportunities both here and overseas. The PCA campus ministry RUF (Reformed University Ministries) had an opportunity to share some of their work, including their ministry to international students. Joseph Kim, whom our GCC Japan 2012 team met while in Japan, was featured regarding his efforts to reach Osaka, Japan through starting a new college as a base for church-planting.
The main speakers were on point and encouraging. MTW director Paul Kooistra reminded us that the Christian life is a battle - an appropriate talk for missions and missionaries. Giotis Kantartzis (of the First Evangelical Greek Church of Athens) preached a marvelous sermon on Paul’s ministry in Athens from Acts 17. We saw there that the Holy Spirit often overrules our plans. We learned that Paul didn’t intend to reach Athens, but was waiting for his ministry team to join him. That talk was the highlight of the conference in my view. RUF director Rod Mays unpacked the healing of the leper in Mark’s gospel, while Ravi Zacharias inspired and challenged us from the book of Daniel.
Japan: hearing the heartache and the hope
The Lord has given me a focus in missions on the nation of Japan. Japan is the second largest unreached people group in the world. Only 0.22 percent of people attend church. It is materially prosperous but spiritually needy. It has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. I was blessed to meet some Japanese pastors who came over for the conference. While there are some strides being made, the Japanese church is struggling with the passing of a generation of her church leaders, while few younger ministers come forward to replace them. This highlights the importance of ministries like Genesis International College and Christ Bible Institute that seeks to train leaders for the coming generations.
The progress of the gospel through MTW Japan is obvious. Churches are multiplying, and the number of teams working across Japan has grown dramatically over the past few decades. The tragedy of the tsunami of March 2011 has opened doors for Christian kindness that is leading to professions of faith, and the planting of churches in the earthquake region.
Global-Local
A phrase that was used multiple times over the weekend was “global-local”. One seminar stressed this by showing the irony of churches that send mission trips to Mexico, while never engaging the Mexicans who live around us. Living in a global city such as Charlottesville, it makes sense that we should find ways to engage people around us from other countries. In some cases, these international people come from countries legally closed to missionary work. Through friendship and hospitality, we can learn from international guests in our community, and offer the gospel and the love of Christ to them.
Several of the seminars talked about having relationships with our neighbors which build bridges for the gospel of Jesus Christ. One seminar discussed focusing on three friends who are “pre-Christian”, and focusing prayer efforts together on those friends. Then as we build friendships with our neighbors and co-workers, and bring those networks together for various occasions (not necessarily church), there can be great opportunities to relate our faith in a helpful way.
Great Stories
We heard many great stories about how God is working in the world. Be sure to ask Fleming and Peggy, Carol, Kristin, Ariel and Lucy to tell you their favorite stories of the conference. Here are a couple of mine:
The Iranian leader in Athens: Giotis Kantartzis told the story of an Iranian man in Athens who is leading many Iranians to faith in Christ. He started out knowing very little about Jesus Christ. While traveling abroad, a friend gave him a copy of the Bible. He had little interest in it, but politely put it in his luggage. When traveling back to Iran, the police questioned him extensively about it, and put in him jail for bringing it into the country. Once he got out, he began to wonder what was so dangerous about this book. When traveling abroad he got another copy of the Bible and began to read it. He came to faith in Jesus Christ. He is now pastoring Iranians living abroad.
The restored marriage in Berlin: The MTW Berlin team led a seminar on reaching friends for Christ. A man on the Berlin team was having a meal with a pre-Christian friend and offered to pray for anything going on in his life. The man asked for him to pray for his divorce to be final. Instead he offered to pray for healing in the man’s marriage, and began to explain why this would be his prayer. Through the missionary’s prayer and influence, the marriage has indeed been restored.
The church in Vietnam: There is a church growing in Vietnam, though under great persecution and trial. I was impressed with the faithfulness under suffering of the leaders of the church in Vietnam. There is great need and opportunity there. MTW is working with local leaders by offering them theological training and other resources to help train pastors and church leaders.
Seeing old friends: My last impression of the conference was of the joy of seeing various old friends, including MTW missionaries. Some of you may remember Randy and Cathy Berger. They were founding members of GCC and are thriving in their local church in the Raleigh area. They enjoyed connecting with our group at the conference. I was blessed to run into seven people from South Dayton Presbyterian Church, the church I pastored in Dayton, Ohio from 1989-97. It was very encouraging to see they have maintained their interest in missions.
We purchased a data stick with all the MTW Conference talks. We can make those available to any interested. Would you like to be involved in our church’s efforts to reach our world with the gospel of Jesus? Come to the missions committee meeting at 8:15am THIS coming Sunday!
In Him,
Don