Nancy Marshall teaching in Belize

Rearview Reflections: Nancy Marshall

March 1, 2022

“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 wasn’t worried about failing or disappointing anyone because I knew God was telling me to trust him. Somehow this would work out. I was sure,” Nancy Marshall writes.

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Eberly family in 1976

Eight Lessons from a Lifetime in Mission

March 1, 2022

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.

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Aaron Kauffman

From the President: Gentle Boldness

February 28, 2022

“A key mentor of mine has been the Anabaptist missiologist, David W. Shenk,” Aaron Kauffman writes. “David and his wife Grace were missionaries in East Africa in the 1960s and ’70s before returning to Lancaster, Pa., where they helped to revitalize my home congregation. David 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.”

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Worker profile: Lydia Musselman

December 3, 2021

In addition to the many ways that they share life with each other at 264 OSH, Lydia also 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.

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Call to Prayer: Lord, Teach Us to Pray!

December 3, 2021

“In God’s kingdom we are born anew to multiply, and 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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Moving Towards Multiplication

December 2, 2021

“Moving towards multiplication takes time, energy and patient trust in the One who makes the harvest,” Mike Metzler writes. “Yet multiplication is also simple. J.R. Briggs, a church planter who is ministering near my hometown in Lansdale, Pa., caught my attention with this statement: ‘All of us are missionaries disguised as good neighbors.’ His words resonate with me.”

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Engage. Establish. Equip. Empower.

December 2, 2021

As a discipler with Every Nation Campus and partner in mentoring a number of VMMissions tranSend interns, Carlin Kreider uses four principles:

  1. Every person is valuable to God.
  2. Every church, campus ministry, and small group can grow.
  3. Every minister should prepare others to minister.
  4. Every disciple should make disciples.
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God’s Arithmetic

December 2, 2021

Life Enrichment Church (LEC), a network of house churches in a forgotten rural corner of Thailand, was planted with the vision of multiplication in the late 1990s. How might God reach this impoverished, minimally educated corner of the country? Those first pioneer missionaries mounted their motorcycles, braving heat and dust – or monsoons and mud – to spread seed broadly, looking for the few who would respond.

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A Call to Shkodër

December 2, 2021

“We must make disciples for the kingdom of God,” Rafael Tartari writes. “We are not setting goals for our own convenience, according to our own agenda. This is not something we choose to do. It is something for which God has chosen us!”

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Aaron M. Kauffman

From the President: Patient Ferment

December 2, 2021

I celebrate the move in Christian missions toward indigenous leadership and simple approaches to discipleship that can easily multiply among new believers. It is a welcome change from models that foster unhealthy dependency on foreign workers. Yet I also have some caution, especially when the emphasis is on speed and numbers.

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Worker profile: Norma Teles

July 16, 2021

Norma is the director of the Joshua Center, which provides a safe place for Roma children and encourages the participation of the family, helping them to be involved in positive ways with their children’s development. She also connects regularly through a girls club with girls aged 9-19 and with a group of mothers.

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Call to Prayer: The Honor of Co-Laboring

July 15, 2021

“God really does want to teach us to pray,” Ruth writes. “Prayer has become much more than something that we ‘should’ do. It is something we desire and enjoy, something that feels like a great honor.”

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Our Family Rediscovers Sabbath

July 13, 2021

“In December 2019, [my wife] Theresa suggested that we begin a few faith rhythms as a family, mostly concerning Sabbath. We’ve job-shared and worked bi-vocationally these last several years and at times it has been difficult to stop and disengage and receive God’s rest,” Seth writes. Learn what difference these changes made in their family.

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Together for a Purpose

July 9, 2021

In both marriage and the church, God brings together people who have different gifts and ways of perceiving the world in order to build communities that provide a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven. Tyler and Kendra draw on varied gifts to strengthen their ministry together.

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Journeys Into Marriage and Mission

July 9, 2021

Married couples have the opportunity to experience the sometimes seamless, sometimes arduous path toward being of one heart. To learn more about how God has helped achieve this in the lives of two women serving in overseas ministry, Laura Campbell and Laura Green share ways God has used marriage and mission to reshape their priorities.

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Aaron M. Kauffman

Stronger Together

June 29, 2021

Partnership is one of our deeply held values at Virginia Mennonite Missions. First, we partner with the church in mission. This year alone, we have joined hands with 92 churches as they added their people, prayers and funds to the task of making Christ known among the nations. We can do more together than we ever can on our own.

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Worker Profile: Anna Renfro

May 4, 2021

Anna’s assignment in Mannheim, Germany, is to support the ministries of Dave and Rebekka Stutzman as well as to serve at a local refugee center called Friedenshaus. Most of her time is spent in the afterschool youth program Kinderreich in nearby Heidelberg.

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Call to Prayer: Life Lessons

May 4, 2021

“With our two-month-old fourth daughter in arms, we went through our training. It was all a blur, with the exception of one so very important word that God spoke to me while I was fetching something from our parked car. It stopped me in my tracks. ‘You think you are doing this for me. No, I am doing this for you,'” Carol writes.

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God Says, “You Are Adequate”

May 4, 2021

John David Thacker, VMMissions’ most recently appointed church planter, has heard God’s call to plant an Anabaptist peace church in Charleston, W.Va. A particular word of affirmation from the Lord has been a significant encouragement to him during this challenging season of relocation.

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Celebrating God’s Faithfulness

April 30, 2021

When civil war broke out in El Salvador, it brought years of suffering and fear for Alfonso and his family. They endured brutal violence and saw loved ones, friends and neighbors die or go missing. On three occasions, Alfonso felt bullets passing near him but his life was spared. “I cried out to God, praying Psalms 91 and 23 as I ran for my life. I knew that God was preserving my life for a purpose,” he writes.

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Called Out of the Fire

April 30, 2021

When Yosiah met Anita and Tina, two young women from the U.S. who were visiting his church, they shared how the Lord had called them to come live and serve in a slum community in the city of his birth. This testimony a turning point for Yosiah, and then a large fire broke out in the slum community. He skipped work for a week and helped with the fire response, and this ended up showing him the path that the Lord wanted for his life.

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An Invitation That Leads to Life

April 30, 2021

“Upon meeting an older worker in our early days in North Africa, I was proud to hear him say, ‘God called a lot of talented, intelligent people to do this work.’ I was then stunned as he finished, ‘…but they said no. So here we are.’ The real invitation does not often feel glamorous. The real invitation looks like faithfulness,” Opal writes.

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Worker profile: J. and M. W.

April 23, 2021

M. is teaching English Language Learning for elementary students and is mentoring a student teacher. J. is Business Developer for transformational educational businesses, mentors leadership teams to develop sustainable witness, and is helping to start a new preschool.

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Call to Prayer: The Posture of Persistent Hope

April 23, 2021

In his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson wrote, “The spiritual atmosphere in which we live erodes faith, dissipates hope and corrupts love.” In the face of the louder voices and the evening news, our job is to vigorously hold on to the hope that God will fulfill his purposes, not by might, not by strength, but by his Spirit!

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God At Work in Winston-Salem

April 23, 2021

We met Selenny and her son Cristian through Gladys, who is a member of our church. As his teacher assistant, Gladys sensed that Cristian needed extra support with his school work and reached out to us as a church for help. We began to build a relationship with them both. Soon, both Selenny and Cristian gave their lives to Jesus.

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Aaron M. Kauffman

The Costly Call of Christ

April 23, 2021

When we heed the Lord’s call, we never know where we’ll end up. There will be sacrifice and hardship. But there will also be unspeakable joy. Like countless generations of sojourners before us, may we have the courage to say yes to God’s call.

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God At Work in Bari, Italy

April 23, 2021

“We have had opportunities to meet people who are beginning to be attentive to the truth of the word of God. We can see a change in their thinking and habits because they have begun to read the word or listen to preaching. Serving our God allows us to experience an eternal purpose to our days. We are neither bored nor fruitless!” writes former tranSender Fabrizio Perfetti.

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The Hope to Create Community

March 30, 2021

Since her assignment began in the fall, Vicki Barnes has seen a deep yearning among students for friendship, especially after months of social distancing, periods of isolation, and not meeting new people. Her hope is that God will use her to help students on campus grow in their conviction of who God has called them to be and what God calls them to do.

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The Tragedy of Addiction

March 30, 2021

D.J. Mitchell has been in recovery for over 35 years. “I owe a debt of gratitude for the grace and mercy I’ve been given. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, we were saved by grace to do good works. Part of my recovery is committing to doing for others what was done for me,” he writes.

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A Glimpse of Hope in Germany

March 30, 2021

“If we gain hope from God’s nearness, then being near to others is a way we can incarnationally share that hope with others. Particularly in troubling times, when the world seems upside down, we have a chance to practice presence with people,” David Stutzman writes.

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VMMissions Joins Hurricane Relief Ministry in Honduras

March 9, 2021

In November 2020, Honduras and other Central American countries were devastated by two major back-to-back hurricanes, Eta and Iota. VMMissions started a Honduras Hurricane Relief Fund to participate with the Honduran effort by providing funds and supplies.

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Board and Staff Participate in Racial and Cultural Sensitivity Training

March 9, 2021

On October 24 and November 6, 2020, VMMissions board and staff members participated in a two-part training on racial and cultural sensitivity facilitated by Alicia Manning, an educator, consultant, and member of Calvary Community Church (C3) in Hampton, Va.

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Aaron Kauffman

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

March 5, 2021

Where does hope come from? From optimism about the future? From careful planning to manage the unknown? From confidence in human ingenuity, wealth or strength? These can be temptations for all of us. Yet Scripture tells us that God alone is the source of our hope.

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Worker Profile: Tyler and Kendra Yoder

November 2, 2020

We are planting Garden City Church, where we seek the wholeness of Southside Richmond, Va., by focusing on reconciliation, maturity, and multiplication. We see that lasting and effective discipleship happens in smaller groups, so our primary focus is on house churches, while we still desire to meet as a corporate body to celebrate God and his work in the city and in our lives.

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Call to Prayer: Seeing Beyond the Barriers

November 2, 2020

Jesus says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9a). So when the enemy tries to tempt me to focus on the barriers, I pray for eyes to be opened to see the compelling beauty of Jesus shining into our world with arms wide open, causing all to run to him.

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Walls Come Down in Lezhë

November 2, 2020

Too often we find that the beliefs and rationalizations that our hearts have built have actually come to imprison and isolate us from God and others. These are walls we are to “demolish,” as the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 10:4-5. Indeed, some long-standing walls are falling in Lezhë, Albania.

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AJ Mosley

We Listen and Learn

November 2, 2020

It has been said that “the church is like the eye. It has a little black in it and a little white in it, and without both, we cannot see.” Because of our distinctive demographic, we are in place to help the church see the plight or privilege of their brothers and sisters more clearly. By doing so, we gain a more robust understanding of the gospel.

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Jason Showalter

Shaken Beyond the Walls

November 2, 2020

We’re faced with opportunities for repentance, generosity and bold witness as ambassadors of God’s reconciliation through Christ. May we be shaken by that indwelling presence beyond our walls and to new places of repentance, healing and bold witness.

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Eyes Open on a Ripening Harvest

November 2, 2020

Like many people during this time of COVID-19, I have found myself at a loss for what to do or say. But sharing the Bible stories with my coworkers after studying them through a Discovery Bible Study format has changed my way of relating. We, with the light of Christ, can transform obstacles into opportunities for the glory of God.

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Barriers and Breakthroughs

November 2, 2020

This latest season of COVID-19 has been a time of very visible limitations. Many activities such as visiting local believers, getting to know our neighbors, and enjoying worship times with others all halted, just like most of the world. All these limitations have pushed us to wonder what God is up to. Was God still moving?

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My Coins Count

My Coins Count Raises Over $11,000

November 2, 2020

VMMissions and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) cooperated this year to channel My Coins Count funds to help some of the most vulnerable people during the global COVID-19 crisis. Gifts through My Coins Count are supporting VMMissions’ continuing response to needs arising in the communities where our workers and partners live and serve.

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Karen Yoder

Karen Yoder Hired as Ministry Support Coach and Global Assistant

November 2, 2020

This summer, VMMissions hired Karen Yoder as the new Ministry Support Coach and Global Assistant. In these roles she resources Ministry Support Teams and lends administrative support to Jason Showalter and the Global Team.

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A Bridge Between Former Inmates and the Church

November 2, 2020

VMMissions worker and jail chaplain, Jason Wagner, is happy to announce the launching of a new initiative of care for persons released from incarceration. He has begun a partnership to build bridges between former inmates and the church. He acknowledges that it is complicated to walk with people in hard situations and churches are often ill equipped to do this.

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Aaron Kauffman

Love Tears Down Walls

October 29, 2020

A vital truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ: love tears down walls. And it was love that led John Perkins to tear down the wall of a formerly segregated health clinic in Mendenhall, Mississippi. As Perkins puts it, “God’s love and justice come together in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and we can’t be about one and not the other. They’re inextricably connected.”

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Worker Profile: Dan and Mary Hess

July 21, 2020

We serve in the city of Lezhë and the town of Milot, Albania. Our focus is building relationships to lead many to Jesus. We are involved in children’s ministry, discipling new believers and training emerging leaders. Having served in Albania from 2001 to 2005, we feel blessed to have the privilege of living in Albania once again.

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Call to Prayer: Cherishing What God Speaks

July 21, 2020

We are in the process of moving into a new home. I realized that in our 14 years of our marriage, we have moved 14 times, not to mention all the transitions each time we came back to the States for home ministry assignments! I wondered sorrowfully how that reality has impacted our children. Then God brought me comfort by reminding me that we have not only survived all of this transition, but have been able to thrive.

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Prepared in Cusco for Service in Virginia

July 21, 2020

My identity and understanding of the world and the gospel are forever changed by the opportunity I had to grow up as a TCK in Cusco, Peru. I remember an empowering conversation with my mother before leaving for Peru, where I was given a say in this decision to move. Making this choice at age seven deepened the degree to which I took on the role of “missionary.”

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Itzel-Sanchez

A World United Under God’s Love

July 21, 2020

God’s love and grace have shaped my identity as his child. I have had the blessing of serving on a few mission trips and have also assisted in after-school tutoring. I realize now that the fire to serve others was sparked as others invested in me and my community. I strive to see others as God sees us—as one body of Christ, as being equal.

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Back Home

July 17, 2020

A poem by Anna (not her real name), a TCK who grew up in Central and West Asia.

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For Different Seasons Blow Different Winds

July 17, 2020

I am an American, a TCK, a young adult, etc. But oftentimes it seems that we blot out our most important identification, our foundation: we are children of God. With this fact in mind, suddenly, the fact that I am a TCK no longer seems to weigh on me. I will encounter misunderstandings because of it, of course, but I have a greater purpose and longing that my heart seeks after.

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