Missions
Quick insight – Missions and translation
If you want a quick insight into missions and translation, take 5 minutes right now and zip on over to Voice In The Desert. The title is Nine ways to carry your briefcase to work, and it talks about…well, I’ll let you check it out for yourself. Voice In The Desert is one of the Missionary Blogs at My Missionary Blogs.
Phil and Brian’s DVD trip
Two of our co-workers, Phil and Brian, are leaving today for a trip through Mexico and Honduras. They will be partnering with RightNow.org to do filming for a DVD, to give people on the outside a vision for what God is doing and what needs to be done in these countries.
Of course, we talk a lot about Mexico here, but if you want some insight into Honduras, why not visit the web pages of some missionaries there?
For example, Tim and Donna Wright at the Honduras Bible Seminary. Tim and Donna host a lot of American work teams as a part of their ministry. And then there’s Mark and Michelle Fittz. Mark came from an architectural background, and so among other things they are providing architectural and construction services to Honduran churches.
Anyway, if you want to be involved please pray for Phil and Brian, that the Lord would lead them and give them insight into what His vision is for these countries, so that the vision can be passed around the world.
CAM’s new vision statement
Looking to further define where we’re heading, our mission hammered out a vision statement which was recently approved by the CAM board.
Now everyone on our support team (those who pray for us, or give of their time or money, or encourage us, etc) are familiar with CAM’s mission statement from our Ministry Vision Brochure:
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And of course the motto of CAM Mexico, which is:
Change the Nation
Reach the World
These remain the same, and I think they say a lot about who CAM is and what CAM has been for the past 115 years. The vision statement is something different – a more specific view of the direction CAM is headed. Here it is:
Those of you who have seen our “target” presentation will already have an idea how our team in Mexico fits in to the big picture. In areas like Central Mexico and Spain, where there are very few believers, church planting must remain a priority. These are some of the less-reached areas of the world. But the end goal is not simply to make churches. Jesus told us to make disciples – and disciples by their very nature are reproducing.
The missions vision among Mexican Christians and Christians throughout Central America is growing. Multi-national teams are already being sent to reach those peoples who otherwise would never hear the Gospel in their lifetime. Our passion must extend beyond Mexico to other countries and peoples who need to be reached. Those at CAM, and other missions and churches around the world are working together to reach a common goal.
Considering our use of the target in our presentation, it’s interesting that the leadership at CAM chose an arrow to express our new vision statement. How cool is that? Here it is:
The diagram shows how God’s power (the bow string) is released through the help of the larger team – those who pray, who provide resources, and so on. The feathers on the arrow are those who support the actual disciple-makers (of course we’re all disciple makers, but some do this in a more direct way). These people may teach missionary kids or do administration or provide leadership. The shaft of the arrow shows all the things that are needed in Kingdom building, leading to that “reproduction” – sending out more missionaries who can reach those who don’t know the Lord.
This arrow would hit the centre of our target – that one individual or family that needs to know the truth. All of us who know the Lord are a part of it. The Spirit gives us the power and direction. May we let Him use us today!
Kingdom of Heaven
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Many of you have heard about or have seen the new movie Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom. I haven’t seen it, and have no plans to at this point, but I did want to briefly mention it here. In the 2000 Years of Missions Seminar that we offer to churches, I do talk a little about the Crusades. It is a challenge to understand what really went on, and why many devout Christians were swept into the kind of thinking that led to this non-missionary venture.
Having not seen the film, I’ll leave the commentary to others. Christian History magazine put out an article entitled In Search of the Real Balian, which can give you some information on who the movie’s main character really was, and what he might have really thought.
David Wayne, a fellow blogger (actually, a fellow jolly blogger) has some helpful thoughts on the movie here. One of the things he discusses is the portrayal of Christians in Hollywood movies. He argues that Hollywood actually has this in common with the Bible, which often shows the “people of God” at their very worst.
The problem comes I think when what we would consider good qualities are still portrayed as outmoded or silly. The feeling comes across that Christians are always this way, or that by their very nature they’re stupid and generally against what any thinking person would be for.
Not that we should expect the world to portray Christians in a good light, of course! Remember John 15:19 – we’re not of the world, so it’s natural for the world to hate us. When honest criticism comes from the world, we still should listen, and take what they have to say seriously. When they hate us just because we belong to Christ, because we obey Him or because we try to show love – that’s when we should praise the Lord, that we can suffer as He did.
But I’m getting away from the movie itself. I’m sure there’s lots more to say – the Crusades are such a hot topic. Feel free to leave your comments about the movie or about anything else that I’ve said.
Missionary blogs – the return
The missionary blogs are back. You’ll see a link to them on the right hand side of this page, right under the voting booth (have you voted yet?). The blog links were mysteriously deleted, but I think I got most of them back, so it’s up and running again.
My Missionary Blogs [link no longer available – visit Missionary-Blogs.com] is an eclectic group of missionaries working all over the world. It’s an ever growing, ever changing list. If you want to get a glimpse of what’s happening in the world, check it out.
To avoid losing them all again, I may in the future list a few of them here. In the mean time, you can always read them by clicking the link, or if you have a news reader you can subscribe to the news feed of this blog, and the collection of missionary blogs.