Different Challenges
This
is my second short term mission and my first as a leader. Trying to encourage my friends and contacts to join me on the team I naturally approached the people who I thought would be most suitable i.e. mature, experienced christians who I knew had a heart for mission and Gods work overseas.
What I didn't envisage was a team including 3 teenagers, aged 14-17, and one, my son, of 22. However God has a habit of knowing who the right people are to carry out his plans. I was tremendously impressed by the way the team worked together, planned and prepared and served one another in many ways.
Our team preparation involved a series of evening meetings over several weeks working through the ‘Going Prepared’ teaching materials and also preparing some drama, testimonies and teaching aids to take with us. This served as a great team building exercise and I would recommend this method of team preparation to anyone.
The team took part in evangelism, prayer ministry, showing the Jesus film, Schools evangelism in the form of mass outdoor assemblies, church services, teaching, friendship evangelism, seeing the work at the christian training centre, the orphan feeding program and the building of the mercy boat. All of the areas involved different challenges.
We were able to serve with and assist, seeing the work for first hand, of the field coordinators Theuns and Karin Englebrecht and experiencing the conditions in which they work in discipling christians, churches and pastors in Gods work and word. The work mixes spiritual, physical, compassionate and educational needs of people who are desperate for Gods love and are living in some of the world poorest and under privileged areas.
I found the experience very rewarding in being able to share in the work of a missionary in a third world country. It certainly does open ones eyes into how missionaries give up their comfortable lifestyles in order to serve others in the call of God.
I am also involved in helping the board of trustees at MVGB in carrying out its planning oversight and administration duties. Going on a short term mission again helped me to see the wider picture of the work of Missionary Ventures around the world and to help the organisation keep its eyes and ears fixed on what God would have us do. We also learnt how important it is to give support and encouragement to the missionaries in the field who work in difficult conditions throughout the world.
The challenge for me now is to decide how I can best convey their message to friends, contacts and local churches to encourage more people to invest some of their time and money in serving God in short term missions overseas.
Many of us felt ill prepared and unqualified to share Gods love with the local people. We learnt that all is needed is a willing heart and a desire for God to ‘send me’.
Alan Bolton