Stories of Mission

Call to Prayer: Joining God’s Heart for Mission

Prayer is a fundamental underpinning of how we partner with God to engage in our small part of the great gospel task. As followers of Jesus pray together, the Holy Spirit enables us to see the grand reality of God’s plan for the restoration for humanity, and to see the immediate needs of the people right in front of us.

God Helps Us Speak the Message

Receiving the call to go to another place implies many changes and a lot of learning in unfamiliar areas, such as language, culture, and food. All of this can become overwhelming,” David and Marta write. “But we can be filled with encouragement and hope knowing that the Lord will be with us.”

God’s Mission Is Bigger Than Mine

“God’s mission is bigger than mine,” church planter Juan José Lagos writes. “That allows me to join his story and his mission rather than carrying the burden of accomplishing it all on my own strength. This is how we must see ourselves as we follow the call of God our Father who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.”

God’s Heart Is for Reconciliation

God leading this mission helps me acknowledge that he doesn’t need us to accomplish his plans, but rather, God invites us to partner with him. Personally, this demolishes any ounce of pride in my heart that tries to make disciples without Christ’s partnership. This also allows me to rest in the fact that I don’t have to be in control.

God’s Mission Has a Church

Our church history is shaped by the legacy of Christendom: the church aligning with political power to protect and maintain our position in society. This is vastly different from understanding the church being shaped as a missionary church whose calling is to be embedded as “sent ones” in our own societies.

David Gingerich Named Director of Partner Development

David Gingerich has assumed a new leadership role as Director of Partner Development, focusing on fundraising, donor cultivation and church relations. “I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to nurture and grow relationships with our community of partners,” David writes.

Doxological Mission

God’s mission is first and foremost about the pursuit of God’s glory. It includes us, but it is not primarily about our needs, ambitions or hopes. God’s burning desire is for all of creation to know God’s glory and to give him the praise he deserves so that we might enjoy him together forever.

Bridge Builders

What if the God of the universe did not wait for us to bridge the gap between us—and I’m staking my life on the belief that it is—then we have a message that everyone deserves to hear. And they deserve to hear it in the cultural idiom that will make sense to them.

Slum neighborhood fire in Southeast Asia in 2020

Whose Voice Are We Listening To?

Anita (name changed), serving in a slum in Indonesia, writes, “It is lovely when we have attainable rhythms and goals to keep us healthy and measure “success” clearly. But on the mission field, so often this seems impossible. Much of our energy is spent just surviving in a different culture, language, and religious context. And it can feel impossible to measure.”

Success Requires Transformation

“In my four years on the VMMissions Board of Directors, I have found that our vision statement serves as a beautiful and life-giving objective,” Paul Yoder, board chair, writes. “The verb “envisions” speaks to the “picture” that we are painting. Three scriptures have recently been helping me more fully “envision” success in God’s kingdom.

Success Can Rise Out of Failure

Anne (name changed) shares an experience that illustrates her struggle with success. “How could people in our own faith community act so vengefully and with so little consideration for their children’s faith?” she writes. “Just when I rejoice at how much fruit is resulting from my ministry, things fall apart. I could easily name ten other situations like this.”

Success Is Doing What Pleases the Lord

“My own definition of success has to run deeper than just a sense of accomplishment, or I’m not going to make it very far,” Nathan Carr writes. “Early in my ministry I fell into that trap of thinking I was the one who had to make things happen. I put everything on my own shoulders, and it wore me out. I was forced to face the reality that I could only give them so much.”

Success Is the Outflow of Abiding

Joyel writes, “We can see there’s something so special about creation being with our creator. The outflow of abiding and being with God is the fruit that we bear that not only benefits us, but those around us. We’re constantly approached with opportunities to remain distracted, in bondage, and lost. But even then, God is faithful to redirect us back to him.”

Call to Prayer: Praying Together Is Success

“My teammate and I stood soberly looking at each other—wives and mothers with parallel journeys across those seven years together,” Carol Tobin writes. “Both of us had struggled and endured, but because we struggled in vastly different ways, each was always a frustrating enigma to the other. ‘Was it worth it?’ we asked. But it wasn’t a question we were prepared to answer.”

Worker Profile: Ken Wettig

Ken serves as the initiator and director of a youth discipleship program called SLAQ (Servant Leader Quest), which seeks to raise up diverse cohorts among the next generation of serving leaders in the way of Jesus through outdoor adventures, community service, and “crucial conversations.”

Faithfulness + Patience = Fruitfulness

I confess I feel some discomfort with measuring “success” in missions. Depth of transformation is not an easy thing to quantify, nor do we often see immediate results. Perhaps the key is faithful witness combined with patient trust in the Lord of the harvest.

Bike Shenandoah Celebrates 25th Annual Ride

Eighty-four participants in the 25th anniversary Bike Shenandoah ride hit the road on September 17, raising money for six local organizations including VMMissions. The event was a resounding success, raising approximately $28,000.

Carol Tobin, VMMissions Mission Advocate, Retires

On August 31, Carol Tobin retired from her staff role as Mission Advocate and Transforming Content Editor. Though her formal role has ended, she will continue in volunteer roles for VMMissions, including helping to coordinate the upcoming Perspectives course and local missions recruitment efforts.

Worker Profile: Hannah Shultz

Hannah’s assignment is to disciple children in local Spanish-speaking churches in the way of Jesus through word and song. She partners with congregations, teaches piano and violin, and shares biblical truths to build and nurture faith in kids.

Mission Training Center

Excitement builds as an existing barn on the property is renovated into a space for training, meeting, and community events. Taking a storage barn and transforming it into a training center will give it a new purpose for a new generation of missional leaders.

Business for Transformation

VMMissions is blessing communities through kingdom business through a subsidiary board of business experts who find and coach partners, vet plans, monitor progress, and makes loans to new and growing enterprises. Christian-led businesses can create just employment and sustainable economic growth even as they invite spiritual transformation through the gospel.

Global Church Planting

VMMissions is mobilizing church planters from around the globe to the places where the gospel is needed most. The following profiles feature the first recipients of the Global Church Planting grant. What an opportunity to join God in launching this new generation of global church planters!

Explore God’s Heart for Justice on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Border Perspective, a VMMissions E³ Collective, is an immersive and educational service learning trip that will offer participants a first-hand connection with immigrant leaders serving families on the U.S.–Mexico border.

Perspectives Course Coming Back to Harrisonburg Early Next Year

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course is offered next spring (held on Tuesday evenings, January 3 to May 2, 2023) in Harrisonburg. The 15-week course is heartily endorsed by a broad spectrum of evangelical denominations, ministries, and mission agencies.

Catching the Wave

Launching a campaign in the middle of a pandemic has been a venture of faith. We asked God, “Where are you leading us as we enter our second century of ministry?” The clear response was to continue sharing new life in Jesus Christ with all people, especially those who haven’t heard.

Watch: A Church of Many Cultures Celebration Service

Watch the Church of Many Cultures Celebration as VMMissions celebrated nearing the end of a campaign raising $3 million for new initiatives through a service of worship and commissioning new workers. The service was held as part of Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly at Zion Mennonite Church, Broadway, Va.

Teams Putt Around in Support of Missions

Putt Fore Missions was a great way to connect with those who support the vision of VMMissions to strive toward a Spirit-led church of many cultures. It was a hot evening on the greens at Mulligan’s Golf Center in Harrisonburg as twenty teams of four enjoyed a friendly competition in pursuit of the “green jacket t-shirts” awarded to our top golfers in four age categories.

What Do Motorcycles Have to Do With Mission?

An idea that started at Powhatan Mennonite Church ten years ago has now raised nearly $115,000 to support the mission of VMMissions to “equip the church to share new life in Christ with neighbors near and far.” And this year’s tenth anniversary ride broke records, including the amount raised for missions!

VMMissions Celebrates 30 Years of Involvement in Albania

As many persons gather June 18-19 in Albania to celebrate 30 years of Guri i Themelit Church, and 10 years of Lezha Academic Center in Lezhë, Albania, learn more about the long involvement of VMMissions in Albania.

The Gospel is for Everyone

We launched A Church of Many Cultures in 2021 with the goal of raising $3 million for three new areas of ministry: Business for Transformation, Global Church Planting, and a Mission Training Center. I am happy to share that as of this month, we have raised nearly $2.7 million.

Worker profile: Andressa Coutinho

Andressa’s assignment consists of cultural and linguistic learning as well as support of the church planting ministry of Albanian leaders and VMMissions workers Rafael and Solange Tartari, currently serving in northern Albania in the city of Shkodër.

Call to Prayer: Reminding Ourselves of God’s Future

“It is good that we remind ourselves of God’s future…So often, our prayers reflect our present sorrows, weariness and broken hopes. Our God wants to hear those things, for he cares deeply about us. But, God also wants to speak to us about what he wants to do,” Ruthy writes.

The Ultimate Adventure Story

“I want this next generation to embrace the challenge leveled at all of humanity in the life of Christ: the challenge that those who wish to be the greatest must be the servant of all,” Ken Wettig writes. “My hope is that SLAQ would be an invitation for young people to be apprenticed to the one person in human history whose Spirit is still present with us today: Jesus of Nazareth.”

A Vision for Creating Community

People around us are longing for community, but they are not turning to the church. This has been our challenge over the course of the past few years. But in a poor and immigrant-dense part of Mannheim, our Villa experimentis bursting at the seams with life.

What God Sees For Central Asia

“We sense that we are on the brink of a breakthrough that God wants to bring to this region,” Em says. “For me there is exhilaration edged with nervous anticipation. For Jay there is vigorous and contagious confidence, a beautiful sense of clarity as to what we are to be doing.”

A Church That Stays Standing

Steve and Laura Campbell’s hope has been to plant Christ as the seed so that a Montenegrin church can grow. “We have worked for the Lord, not for people. This has been both rewarding and intensely draining. We are only responsible for pointing people to God,” they write.

VMMissions Opens New Category for ‘Marketplace Workers’

The “marketplace worker” category supports and equips believers to “live out God’s kingdom in every sphere of life.” This category enables persons employed in trades or professions to receive coaching toward fruitful ministry in the workplace.

Putting on God’s Glasses

In leading a 103-year-old mission agency, I confess it can be hard to see where we’re headed sometimes. We do our best to craft careful plans. But to see the present clearly and make sense of it, it helps me to put on the lenses of God’s future.

Douglas Senior, Beloved Leader in Jamaica Mennonite Church, Dies at 75

Pastor Senior made a great contribution to the development and significant ministry of the Maranatha School for the Deaf in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. He was known for his warm personality, integrity, prayer life, dignified yet commanding presence, and strong Christian faith.

Seeds are Bursting Forth with New Life

Patience is hard. We see a broken world in need of Christ and want change to happen right now. But seeds lie dormant for a long time before springing to life. Thank you for providing the support that allows our ministries to bear lasting fruit for God’s kingdom.

Worker profile: Nathan Carr

Nathan is serving in prison ministry, involved in reaching out to men like himself—helping to draw them out of addiction towards Christ. He can see the joy in the men he relates to when they surrender to Jesus, because he knows the new life that lies ahead for them.

Call to Prayer: Discovering Parallels with the Past

An Indian believer gave Ruthy and her teammates a church history book describing mission work that had began happening across northern India in the late 1800s and workers who dedicated the majority of their lives there. “What a gift to read their prayer list!” she writes.

Sentness is a Life Sentence

“We’ve learned to pay attention when a God-given “holy restlessness” emerges within us,” Lee and Peg Martin write. “During these times, we pray for alertness to new doors God might be opening, while seeking to be steady and faithful in our present calling.”

Diomedes and a men's group in the Dominican Republic.

A Change of Focus, Not of Call

When the most vulnerable and broken people in La Vega, Dominican Republic, came to Christ, Diomedes Franco would refer them to the nearest church to be nurtured, but then he realized that those churches were not ready to disciple people with such brokenness.

Prayer of blessing on the Good children, Kenya.

Rearview Reflections: Clair Good

“As a young missionary, I was full of zeal to save the ‘unreached’ Maasai of Kenya. I assumed they knew nothing of God,” Clair Good writes. “With great conviction and enthusiasm, I offered answers to questions the people I was trying to reach were not even asking. I was met with resistance and had little success.”

Rearview Reflections: Nancy Marshall

“I went to Orange Walk, Belize, in 2005 with a clear call from God to start a church among the Deaf. The only problem was that I had no idea how to do that. I knew God was telling me to trust him. Somehow this would work out. I was sure,” Nancy Marshall writes.

The Eberly family enjoys an outing in 1976.

Eight Lessons from a Lifetime in Mission

Fifty-two years after Willard and Eva Eberly were called to serve in Italy, they look back on key lessons they learned. “Our basic mission philosophy and methodology was modeling, discipling and equipping believers in every aspect of Christian living,” they write.

Gentle Boldness

A key mentor of mine has been the Anabaptist missiologist, David W. Shenk. He encouraged me to explore my own call to mission as an adolescent. Even after I moved away, he made it a priority to meet with me for breakfast whenever I was back in town.

Worker profile: Lydia Musselman

Lydia leads discipleship groups, weekly prayer on the campuses of EMU and JMU, and Bible studies with women from both universities, nurturing cross-cultural connection and watering their souls with the living water.

Praying for workers at the 2021 Worker Retreat

Call to Prayer: Lord, Teach Us to Pray!

“Luke’s gospel has been teaching us that multiplication is preceded by prayer,” Lizzette Hernandez writes. “So in response to the Spirit’s invitation, we have been meeting once a month for the last year to pray. As we’ve come together, God has done new things.”

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