Stories of Mission

From Brazil to Albania

Called to Albania as a mission worker 25 years ago, Norma’s ministry has made a generational impact. “We can see how the power of the word of God can transform anyone who receives it, and how that transformation brings hope, not only to individuals, but also to the community,” she writes.

From Everywhere to Everyone

Many are now being sent from the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, places formerly viewed as mission fields. VMMissions has been living into this shifting reality in many ways. Currently, a third of VMMissions workers come from the Majority World.

The Whole Church to the Whole World

God’s primary strategy for reaching the world remains the church, everyday followers of Jesus like you and me. To my joy and utter astonishment, that church now includes believers from every continent on the globe, and most of the world’s known people groups.

Worker Profile: Joy M. (name changed)

Joy (name changed) serves on the Launch Team in Central Asia, where she is studying the local language and culture and teaches middle and high school science part-time at an international school. She sees her role as integral in the spiritual formation of these students with whom she has the privilege of developing relationships.

Anowar (name changed) with a wooden toy in the process of being made.

The Story of Squirrel Toys

When Anowar’s uncle was forced out of his ancestral Muslim village because he now followed Jesus, he wondered how he could help his uncle find work. Anowar had two young daughters of his own and wanted his kids to develop creativity. The idea was born to create quality wooden toys, and the business, organized around B4T principles, took off.

Call to Prayer: Reflecting Christ in Relationships

We want to reflect Christ in our lives here; that is the most important aspect of our vision for our work in this Central Asian country. Our Muslim neighbors are often outwardly religious, but there are often underlying longings. Prayer helps us connect with what is below the surface.

Business as Gospel Opportunity

Seeing business as a tool for transformation allows for a holistic approach in an authentic manner as relationships are built and cultivated over time. We believe that business is a great venue for spreading the knowledge of Christ and what it means to follow him through ongoing relationships.

Work as Worship and Blessing

The Business for Transformation (B4T) that I will be joining in Central Asia is part of a bigger network with a vision to use agricultural businesses in Central Asia to empower national believers to live in rural areas and make disciples through business connections.

Central Asia city where German Mennonites lived.

An Impact for Generations

I would like to see business enterprises in Central Asia that make a long-term economic, social, and spiritual impact. Part of what drives me is creating legitimate roles for Christians to be able to live in Muslim communities as salt and light, and business is a way to be become that blessing.

Workplace Witness

I have never served in business, but my experience as a teacher gives me a window into what it is like to have a genuine and readily understood role in a cross-cultural context. This is only one of many reasons we have embraced the Business for Transformation (B4T) movement.

Worker Profile: Nathan and Anya Stan (and J. and D.)

It is now our generation’s turn to serve others in areas where the gospel is almost unknown. We are glad to follow God’s calling and to partner with VMMissions in this calling. Now we are part of the Launch Team in one of the post-Soviet countries in Central Asia.

VMMissions worker Raleigh, with his son Robbie (names changed) sings and plays his guitar. Courtesy photo

Call to Prayer: Music as Prayer

Recently I was driving alone to the airport and decided to sing prayers rather than think or speak them. I was surprised how much more real my praises and petitions felt to me as I expressed them in this way. The words felt enlivened by the Spirit of God groaning within me, connecting me with the Father God.

Planting Kingdom Seeds

My husband Skip and I have often said that our saying “yes” to going to an unreached people group was like stepping into a river that swept us along in its powerful current. Within a few months of saying “yes,” we were a family of six, with four-month-old Noelle in arms, on the other side of the world in Thailand.

View of the slum community in Southeast Asia. Courtesy photo by Anita Rahma

Do You Want a Puppy?

“Reaching unreached people groups demands more than what is easy or comfortable,” writes Anita Rahma. To reach Muslim neighbors and remove barriers to the gospel, her family uses contextual language and lifestyle to connect. For them, it means choosing to surrender some things they have a “right” to.

Ambassadors to the Unreached

VMMissions increasingly partners with churches in the global south, the majority Christian world, as they send workers to live and work among UPGs as ambassadors of the gospel. Many of these sent ones continue to work in the professions they practiced in their passport nations.

Striving for Greater Balance

This year the concept of “unreached people groups” turns 50 years old. The idea of UPGs is not new, but it is relatively new for VMMissions to make UPGs a priority in our work. Currently, the percentage of workers we support who are serving UPGs is 43%.

Great Community Give Raises More Than $20K

On April 17, VMMissions participated in the Great Community Give, a dedicated giving day for nonprofit organizations in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia. The net total was $20,250, representing 135% of the goal of $15,000.

Worker Profile: Joyel Allen

Joyel serves as a campus missionary to Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia, where she shares the gospel with students and disciples them. She serves with Every Nation Campus, in partnership with VMMissions.

Call to Prayer: Praying for Direction

Prayer isn’t something that I just do before I relate to people. Prayer means carrying something with you all the time. Without it, nothing happens. I need someone to show me the way. How will I minister without the Holy Spirit showing me the way?

The Multiplying Impact of Testimonies

If we are taking Jesus’ command seriously to make disciples of all nations, then strategies that produce multiplication are worth pursuing. One of these strategies is through sharing our own testimony.

Planting a Church Using the Four Fields

A simple tool has helped our church focus on kingdom work, emphasizing empowering others to make disciples. We believe that this is fruitful when used along with the power of God’s word, the obedience of his servants and the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

Momentum of the Movement

Disciple-making movements can’t always be fast because discipleship is a marathon, not a sprint. While working for momentum in evangelism, we must keep our focus on the quality of our discipleship. The emphasis remains on faithfully drawing near to Christ, rather than reporting a snazzy number.

Why a Disciple-making Movement?

VMMissions has shifted from traditional mission models to the multiplication-oriented model of disciple-making movements. Starting small, investing in and equipping the faithful few takes time, patience, and faith. But in the end it produces deeper and greater fruit.

Back to Basics

Global Christians are not just the hapless victims of Western expansion. They are active recipients of new life in Jesus, who makes himself at home in every culture and restores people in all their beautiful diversity to the kaleidoscope image of God they were created to bear.

Worker Profile: Adam & Elise Sauder

Adam and Elise (names changed) serve with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. They help staff six-month discipleship schools for young adults, which is followed by an “outreach” phase to South Asia.

Call to Prayer: Renewal Starts With Prayer

A resourcing network that David Stutzman works with in Germany has hosted a prayer month for three years now. David writes, “There is something about prayer, as a church, that helps us see the spiritual landscape around us and bring into words God’s movement among us.”

Partnerships Enhance Jail Ministries

Skip Tobin writes about prison ministry in the local jail in Harrisonburg, Va. “This is a relatively new field for us at VMMissions. We have the privilege of supporting what God is doing across denominational lines as we pray together and work in a field that is not far away but at our very doorsteps.”

A Long-term Vision of Renewal

Instead of going out to make as many new disciples as possible, SLAQ (Servant Leader Quest) takes a handful of youth and provides an opportunity for them to become particularly strong disciples, something SLAQ intern Devin Stipe appreciates.

Reimagining Our Mission

“Our main resource for spreading the gospel is people, but it is the Spirit who is at work in the lives of those we engage with the gospel,” writes Solange Tartari, serving in Shkodër, Albania. “All we can do is be clear about our role and purpose in God’s reconciling work in the world.”

New Expressions of Ancient Practices

As an innovative expression of mission, The Soil and The Seed Project Director Seth Crissman writes that an ongoing posture of learning can change preconceived ideas about what mission and being “sent” looks like. We can then join in God’s work in the world in new and beautiful ways.”

The Mission Imagination

How is the Holy Spirit continuing to lead us into new horizons in mission today? I’ll name just two. First, the “receivers” of mission have become the senders. Second, the mission field has come home. How is VMMissions responding? By leveraging our resources to get behind what God is doing.

New believers prepare for baptism at Iglesia Shalom, Waynesboro, VA

Thank You for Sharing the Hope of Jesus

VMMissions is thankful for God’s provision and the generosity of our supporters, resulting in exceeding our goal by $10,000, raising a total of $200,025. This is the second highest year-to-date total in the last 16 years!

North Africa earthquake damage. Photo by alyaoum24 via Wikipedia

VMMissions Launches North Africa Earthquake Relief Fund

Our hearts are broken for the people of North Africa who recently suffered a catastrophic earthquake. In a time of staggering loss and critical need, let’s join in prayer for comfort and hope in the midst of grief.

Worker Profile: Kate Miller

Kate (not her real name) is a computer programmer for a U.S. company that is partnered with a company in Central Asia as business for transformation (B4T). She is working with the office in Central Asia to help strengthen the relationship between the two companies, and lives with a local family.

Call to Prayer: Sowing Seeds in the Dust

Sarah Schoenhals, serving among the Isaan people in Thailand, writes, “It’s a lot easier to pray when we’re buoyed by seeing tangible results! And yet, so often, the results we seek are not immediate, nor the kind of results we imagined.”

Worker Support on the Ground

Partnering with workers on the field gives Ministry Support Team (MST) members the opportunity to share in what God is doing. It was especially meaningful for MST member Pam Lehman to visit VMMissions workers Dan and Mary Hess in their ministry location of Milot, Albania.

There’s More to Mission Than Going

Praying for and contributing financially to the work of mission is also a response to God’s call. This backbone of support is essential for VMMissions to exist and do its best to train, send, equip, support, and encourage people as they serve near or far.

Pilgrims on the Silk Road

“Sometimes it was painful to say goodbye to move to another place, leaving dear brothers and sisters behind,” writes Paulo (name changed), a worker in Central Asia. “But it was also like turning to a new page in a book. And that is how the story of our pilgrimage continues, in this vast land along the Silk Road.”

Bible study on the farm, Timberville, VA

Mission on the Farm

Marketplace Worker Ben Yutzy knew he was being called to be a missionary. “I began by asking Jesus, where are you sending me?” he writes. “The workplace was obviously where I spent the most time, and after I asked that question, it became the obvious choice. Jesus gave me eyes to see my coworkers with compassion and in great need of the gospel.”

2024 Perspectives Course Offered in Harrisonburg

Learn about God’s heart for mission and your part in the story. Save the dates for the next Perspectives course, with classes each Wednesday evening from January 10 to May 1, 2024, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church.

Riders Hit the Road to Support VMMissions

Thirty-nine riders from 18 churches came together from across Virginia to spend a beautiful weekend riding in the 11th annual Motorcycle for Missions event, raising over $14,000 towards the Mission Fund, which helps VMMissions recruit, equip, send, and support workers all over the world.

What’s a Missionary?

We invest in the faith formation. We build meaningful relationships with our neighbors and others. We pray for those far from God and look for opportunities to share the hope we have. We support missionaries financially and pray for them. These are things all Christians can do as participants in God’s mission.

VMMissions Awarded $1.2M Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. for The Soil and The Seed Project

Virginia Mennonite Missions has received a grant of $1,222,766 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support and expand the work of The Soil and The Seed Project, a faith formation project based in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Worker Profile: Rissa Martin

Rissa serves at Agape Home, a Christian-run orphanage located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she had volunteered several times before returning as a VMMissions worker. She coordinates with incoming volunteers, teaches English in a Montessori Preschool, and manages the website and social media.

Call to Prayer: Living the Lord’s Prayer

The greatest shame in Isaan culture is to die without friends gathering, without the monks chanting their blessings. This is what Ying’s family expected. But members of the local church showed up and stayed with the family until the ceremonies were completed. Ying’s relatives were powerfully impacted.

Being On Mission Through Our Prayers

“Sending and receiving mission workers undoubtedly brings us closer to the global community,” Elena Buckwalter de Satalaya writes. “However, it is just as important, if not even more so, to pray for the global church and the people and communities it reaches.”

The Impact of Ministry Collaboration

“Our ministry of church planting, pastoring, and gospel outreach has been deeply impacted by partnerships that God has brought together,” Veronica Sanchez writes. “We know that God is on mission in the Waynesboro, Va., community where we have planted a new community of faith.”

The Beauty of the Body of Christ

Churches across denominational lines have come together to support reaching the local Arabic-speaking community in Harrisonburg, Va. “What has blessed and stretched my faith has been the “unity amidst diversity” that I have seen expressed in [VMMissions worker] Yacoub’s team,” Pastor Blake Wood writes.

Mission Is a Partnership

“Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection is often the focal point of his purpose on earth, and for good reason,” Shawn Green writes. “But we shouldn’t overlook or miss the countless bits of perfect knowledge that Jesus taught and shared as he walked among his followers, and with which we are invited to align our hearts and immerse our souls in God’s goodness and mercy.”

Moving Together in Mission

A few years ago while recovering from surgery I picked up a book gathering dust on my shelf called In His Image. I found the combination of medical insight, missionary zeal and biblical wisdom to be fascinating and moving at the same time, especially fitting to read while my own body healed.

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