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Stories of Mission

Explore mission themes in our quarterly magazine as workers tell stories of making disciples in the way of Christ.

Stay informed of all the latest VMMissions news.

Deaf young people enjoy VBS in Belize

Every summer our church has a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program primarily for Deaf people ages 10 and up, including hearing siblings in that age range who want to come. This year, we had 14 or 15 participants each day from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nancy Marshall helps VBS participants make a framed verse…

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Prayer is the greatest role for Ministry Support Teams

In Acts 2, we find a description of church in its most fundamental form: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and…

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Grace Mennonite’s mission to the Philippines

Over thirty years ago, Larry Vitor, a young, hopeful Filipino pastor picked up an article written by Pastor Richard Early, and he decided to write a letter requesting that Richard be his prayer partner. Richard wrote him back, and this journey began. Richard is now pastoring a growing community church, Grace Mennonite Fellowship, in Lacey…

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Will our faith have children?

[The LORD] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:5-6 Outside of Europe and North America, the church…

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Ending on a high note

It was so rewarding for us to have “our children” sing for and with the EMHS choir. The ending benediction in which the children came out to the choir circle and joined hands had special meaning, as their benediction words were directed to the gypsy children they had played with all afternoon. As goodbyes were…

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New tranSenders commissioned for service

Members of the new tranSend class were commissioned in a meaningful time of worship at On Sunny Slope Farm, near Dayton, Va., on July 17. Peter Eberly, lead pastor of Eastside Church, spoke both challenge and encouragement based on Isaiah 42. The Ears to the Ground Family led worship. Everyone enjoyed a beautiful summer evening…

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How we make disciples in the way of Christ

In his devotional reflections for the recent VMM Board meeting, Harold Miller, Trissels Mennonite Church pastor, reflected on the way that the Kingdom comes. Reading the story of Judas, Harold pointed out that most often, we interpret this story as a betrayal; we assume that Judas was trying to sabotage the coming Kingdom. However, when…

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Group enriched by exploration of evangelism at Exponential

Aaron Kauffman, president of Virginia Mennonite Missions, and Marvin Lorenzana, VMM Racial/Ethnic Ministries Coach, took a team of people from Virginia Conference to Exponential East 2014. This annual church planters conference held in Orlando, Fla., draws more than 5,000 mission-minded folks from across the country. Aaron Kauffman shares these summary statements about what evangelism is,…

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Partnership as mission

A few months ago I had the opportunity to hear César García, General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, speak about the role of North American mission agencies in the global church. García comes from the Mennonite Brethren Church of Colombia, a church birthed through the mission efforts of North Americans. When someone asked him whether…

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Nancy Marshall ordained for pastoral ministry in Belize

The van bounces through the dusty streets of Orange Walk Town, empty except for Nancy Marshall and me. Nancy is the pastor of Jesus’ Deaf Church in this small town in the Central American country of Belize. On this Saturday evening, we are returning home after dropping off several men and boys from the “Boyz…

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Building outward-oriented networks of discipleship

When we began exploring what it would mean to help develop a network project, we knew that we had a lot of learning to do. Since moving to Bammental in the fall of 2012, we have spent a good deal of time making connections, building relationships, and learning from young people about their experiences in…

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Good Samaritan opportunities

Our family moved to Kosovo in August of 2013. We are in the “culture, language and relationship building phase” of our time here. Because of our infancy in our language acquisition, our ability to communicate with the locals is fairly limited. Our actions are the loudest and clearest voice we have. We live in a…

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