Stories of Mission

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.

Ruthy and her teammates didn’t think much about missionaries who may have been in “Metal City” before them, until an Indian believer gave them a church history book describing work that had happened across northern India more than a century before. “We read about the first workers who came in the late 1800s and dedicated the majority of their lives to serving there. What a gift to read their prayer list!” she writes.

“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.”

When people came to Christ through the ministry of “Building Healthy Families,” a program working with the most vulnerable and broken people in La Vega, Dominican Republic, Diomedes Franco used to refer them to the church closest to them to be nurtured. “But we realized that churches were not ready to disciple people with such brokenness. We felt that God was challenging us to refocus on pastoral work, discipling and equipping the people God had given us to care for. This is not a change of calling but of focus,” he writes.

“As a young missionary, I was full of zeal to save the “unreached” Maasai of Kenya. I assumed they knew nothing of God,” VMMissions board member 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 in convincing people to follow my religious views.”

“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.

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.