Outreach Stories

by Rob Weingartner

In less than two weeks I will be in Oryol, Russia, serving as one of the teachers in a training program for Baptist pastors. In Russia, The Outreach Foundation works with partners in both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptist Churches. Because we remember Jesus’ prayer in John 17, Outreach often finds itself working across denominational boundaries and barriers. Jesus prayed, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

by Jeff Ritchie

This week a friend and former missionary to Ethiopia launched his first book. It is Paradox Lost: Rediscovering the Mystery of God, by Richard Hansen. This volume is serious reading but is well worth the purchase. However, today’s blog is not a review of Paradox Lost.

I met Richard and Marilyn Hansen in Ethiopia where they taught and served the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both were dedicated workers serving the Ethiopians from several denominations who were studying in this graduate institution. I could tell that they were making a difference at EGST which itself is greatly impacting the Christian Movement in Ethiopia. But today’s blog is not about the impact of servant leaders like the Hansens.

by Marilyn Borst

We have often heard it said that “You are known by the company you keep.” Come to find out, Proverbs 13:20 has a more pointed version: “He that walks with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools will be destroyed.”

by Jeff Ritchie

When my family and I returned from our first term of missionary service in 1984, the extended Ritchie family had a wonderful reunion at a Presbyterian conference center in North Carolina. Not only would we have a reunion, but there would also be a wedding! My youngest brother was getting married, and the reunion thus took on a new dimension. Great joy abounded as the Ritchie family reunited, and as our family was joined by marriage to a new family.

Singing has been an important part of my spiritual life since childhood. I often tell people that I can remember only one sermon I heard growing up, but I can still sing the words of the anthems our choirs sang. Those anthems, the hymns during worship, and the responsive readings of the Psalms which we did each Sunday—contributed immensely to my spiritual formation.

by Jeff Ritchie

What is the center of your world? What is the place from where your thoughts, words, and actions radiate out? I have been thinking about this as an American Christian who is part of a ministry that connects people in our country with the church throughout the world.

by Jeff Ritchie

It was my privilege to travel to China last month for the twenty-fourth time in my life. My traveling companion was the Rev. Choon Shik Lim, Regional Liaison for East Asia for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Choon and I have been friends for over thirty years, and it was the fourth time we had visited China together. 

by Rob Weingartner

When George Shultz was Secretary of State during the Reagan administration, he kept a large globe in his office. When newly appointed ambassadors had an interview with him and when ambassadors returning from their posts for their first visit with him were leaving his office, Shultz would test them. He would ask them to go over to the globe and identify their country. They would go over, spin the globe, and put their finger on the country to which they were sent.

by Rob Weingartner

A number of years ago I had the privilege of traveling to India with my friends and mentors Bill Young and the late Harold Kurtz, each of whom led the work of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship for a time. One of the places where we visited with partners was the state of Bihar. Bihar was, and some say still is, the poorest and most corrupt state in India, a place that used to be called the Graveyard of Missions. It is 80% rural and 80% illiterate.

by Jeff Ritchie

This week I leave for a two-week trip to China. In a blog last year I mentioned the impact on my life of the Rev. Bao, Jia Yuan, one of the servant leaders of the Church in China. Today I would like to share some other testimonies of Chinese Christians. They are my offering to God in gratitude for thirty years of interaction with China, and especially, with Chinese Christians.

by Rob Weingartner

In 1870 after the death of two children, after sending his remaining two kids back to England, after the death of a newborn, after the death of his wife and in the midst of rebellion and war, Hudson Taylor wrote from China, "We did not come to China because the missionary work here was either safe or easy, but because He had called us. We did not enter upon our present positions under a guarantee of human protection, but relying on the promise of His presence. The accidents of ease or difficulty, of man's approval or disapproval, in no wise affect our duty. Should circumstances arise involving us in what may seem special danger, we shall have grace, I trust, to manifest the depth and reality of our confidence in Him, and by faithfulness to our call to prove we are followers of the Good Shepherd who did not flee from death itself..."

by Marilyn Borst

I could hear those words echoing in the back of my mind as I read a letter from a young Christian student living in Kirkuk, Iraq. Sinan’s family had been displaced when ISIS brought its reign of terror into Mosul, where they lived, in June of 2014, destroying churches and marking the houses of Christians who would subsequently be given a choice: convert to Islam, remain a Christian and pay an impossibly large fine or die by the sword. Their flight of fear would lead them to Qaraqosh and then to Erbil. This young engineering student wanted to resume his studies and the University of Kirkuk would accept him…and hundreds of mostly-Christian students like him… but there was no housing available. The Archbishop of Chaldean Catholic Church in Kirkuk came up with a bold plan...

by Jeff Ritchie

In last week’s blog, The Outreach Foundation’s Executive Director Rob Weingartner gave us two fundamental truths about every single person in the world:
1. Every person we meet has been created in the image of God. 
2. Jesus Christ died for that person.
To live, speak and act in the light of these foundational realities will indeed change us and impact others.

This week I would like to share another perspective-shaping principle for mission. 

by Rob Weingartner

When I sit down at my desk each morning, I turn to a devotional book entitled “Grace Notes” that is a compilation of daily readings taken from the writings of Philip Yancey. In our performance-driven, merit-based, consumer-driven, appearances-obsessed society, Yancey’s reflections typically remind me that this work I do is not about me. It is about the good news of Jesus Christ, about the Gospel. The life of faith is possible because God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. This action of God on our behalf is introduced well in Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

by Jeff Ritchie

When I served as a missionary in South Korea in the 1980s, my last assignment was in the office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. We opened each day with staff devotions. I still remember one of those devotional times which took place at the beginning of a new year.

The Bible passage read that day was Psalm 90, especially focusing on verses 12-15: “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom…. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us….” As the worship leader spoke, I thought it was a rather somber way to begin a new year. “Life is short and full of trouble,” says the Psalmist. “Bad things are going to happen, so Lord, give us wisdom to know how to navigate the struggles, and please give us some reasons each day to rejoice and be glad.” Not very sanguine is it? But it is both realistic and hopeful.

by Jeff Ritchie

A few weeks ago I watched my 6 year-old grandson, Alex, work on a machine he had made with his new science kit. He connected different-sized metal pieces to each other on a board, hooked them to a battery, and the result was sound and light. The “thing” worked! Not content with simply following the instructions to assemble his machine correctly, Alex then proceeded to experiment on his contraption. He moved pieces around to see if the sounds and lights still came on. He attached wires to different terminals to see if the connection was still there. Sometimes his changes worked; sometimes they didn’t. I could tell his mind was racing by the rapidity with which his fingers worked.

As I looked at my grandson and his venturous spirit, I thought, how creative our children and young people can be in God’s mission if we give them a chance. They need a little education through exposure to the needs of the world – in our own country and globally. They need to be inspired through our teaching and our personal participation in God’s mission. But then we need to let them dream and give them opportunities to turn those dreams into realities.

A wall of children awaited us on the steps of the church! Sunday School had finished that Friday morning and the pastor, Rev. Isaac Estanfanous, had asked them to stay and greet us. I have no idea how long they had been waiting, but we were re-energized by their enthusiasm – and truth be told, we needed that, because this was the 12th church we had visited in the past seven days. As we made the 75 minute drive from dense and chaotic Cairo and were approaching this spacious and well-planned “new city” called Tenth of Ramadan, I had wondered if there could be anything here that could move us after having already seen so many of the vibrant ministry sites of the Synod of the Nile. I need not have worried because, as had been the case for each church and every one of the 20+ Presbyterian pastors with whom we had met, there was no shortage of vision and energy here to see Christ made known in this particular 3,000 square meters in this most ancient of lands.

by Rob Weingartner

The most respected man in Eta, an outcaste village that I visited a decade ago in the Uttar Pradesh state of India, was the village elder. For years he let people worship, but he refused to allow the 500 people of the village to be baptized. Everyone respected his order. The Presbyterian pastors faithfully visited and held services each week. One night, the elder dreamed that he was responsible for preventing the salvation of his people. His heart had been hardened against the Christian faith. In his dream he heard Jesus say, “Why are you keeping your people from me?”  

Now, as an elderly man near the end of his life, the dream helped Sadhu Maharaj to realize the wrong that he had done. In a panic upon awakening from his dream, he traveled quickly to where church leaders were to request that a pastor come immediately to baptize all his people.