Collaborative Mission Initiatives - July 2020 Update
God's Mission in Unexpected Times and Unexpected Ways
The Outreach Foundation has over thirty-six global partners. Many of them have a vision for mission beyond their borders, but they need connections. Collaborative Mission Initiatives help global partners engage in kingdom work together.
"There is no social distancing for the Holy Spirit." With those words, Outreach's Coordinator for Iranian Ministries, Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, explains how the work of God in the world carries on despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are some of the initiatives that Outreach has participated in:
· Our friends at the Amity Foundation in Nanjing, China, an independent organization founded by Chinese Christians with collaboration from Presbyterians in the United States, have focused on providing equipment including thousands of ordinary disposable masks, N95 and KN95 masks, goggles, medical face shields, medical examination gloves, and protective suits. They have also supplied 5 high-flow respiratory humidification treatment devices and 23 ventilators for relief efforts in 18 countries including Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. Amity Hong Kong is currently partnering with a Christian organization in Nepal where young children and the elderly in locked-down villages have been suffering from food shortages for over three months and are resorting to eating bark and roots of plants. More than 1,000 people have committed suicide during the past months. The partnership is bringing food packages (rice, beans, etc.) to families in these villages near the border with India.
· Given the devastating outbreak of COVID-19 in Brazil, Mexico, and other Latin American countries, the region has been called the new epicenter of the pandemic. In the midst of it all, Rev. Silvio del Campo (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians) and Fernando Jensen (Reformed Church in America) have started a weekly global prayer meeting in Spanish via Zoom. The gathering has included pastors and leaders in more than 12 Latin American countries as well as countries as far away as Mali and South Korea. Partners and friends of The Outreach Foundation from Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica have also been participating. The gatherings have been retransmitted live via Facebook as well as by radio stations in Argentina and Chile. For information on how to join in, please contact Silvio at pastorsilvio@dunellenpres.org.
· Pastor Chris of the Protestant Church in China (CCC/TSPM) shared with us that expanded use of the internet has increased the opportunities for churches in that country to develop new and deeper connections with Mandarin-speaking Christians in many parts of the world. These relationships have served as great encouragement as Christians in China represent a small minority and they have created new and exciting forms of collaboration in God's kingdom.
· Our partners in the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico have postponed sending the Melo Peña family to serve as missionaries to Chad, a majority Muslim country. We had the pleasure of introducing the family to friends in the United States and other countries as they strengthened their command of the French language and developed their prayer and financial support base to prepare to plant churches and translate the Bible among some of the least churched ethnic groups in Chad.
Our friend Rev. Paulo Feniman, a minister of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil who is also the president of the Brazilian Association of Transcultural Missions (AMTB, for its initials in Portuguese) wrote a very timely article entitled "The Pandemic and the Missionary Work." Reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mission involvement of people in his country, Paulo states, "God's mission, although many people want to argue to the contrary, will not change. Most of the 7,000 missionaries of organizations affiliated with the AMTB have remained in their places of service during the pandemic.”
These are times of significant change. Still, The Outreach Foundation firmly believes that true partnership acknowledges that mission is God's own initiative, and the Church in other parts of the world plays a crucial role in it. Your contributions to Collaborative Mission Initiatives helps enable us to facilitate strategic connections between Christians in different countries that will take the message of Christ to more places and in more ways than any of us could ever do during such a time as this.
Read more about Collaborative Mission Initiatives HERE.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts totaling $15,000 to support these mission partnerships. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.