Posts Tagged ‘Mission’

Introducing Interserve

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

“The rates of maternal and infant mortality in this country are horrific: 1 child in 10 dies before the age of five, and 1 mother in 8 can expect to die of a complication during pregnancy or delivery.  What makes it worse is the fact that they say that God has “written” this for them, so there is no hope of improvement or change.  The clinic and health education programmes that we run are a response to the physical needs of the people but our goal is also to address their spiritual needs.  I frequently pray with patients and try to bring a conversation about Jesus into as many consultations as possible.  When we were walking around the shanty town recently one member of our team felt called to pray for physical needs in people around us, and several were healed of longstanding pains in their hands or necks, and one women suffering from a kidney infection said that she felt the presence of “a heavenly being” when she received prayer in Jesus’ name.”

InterserveThese words, written by an Interserve Partner serving in one of the most strongly Muslim countries in the Arabian peninsula, are representative of the way that God has used Interserve since its beginnings in British India in 1852: a concern for both physical and spiritual needs, and a determination to address both in the name of Jesus.  This “wholistic” ministry, and this commitment to serve Jesus in some of the hardest countries in the world, have characterised the work of Interserve for over 150 years.  Interserve now works in all the countries of Asia and the Arab World and has been working among Asian people groups across England and Wales for over 25 years.  The countries in which Interserve works are the least evangelised on earth: several are effectively 100% Muslim, many have no indigenous church, and several are suffering from the effects of war, famine, and political turmoil.  Christian outreach is often opposed, sometimes violently.  Yet we feel that God has called us to this work in order to see “lives and communities transformed through encounter with Jesus Christ”.

Ian Morris, Interserve’s regional manager for the north of England, says: “Mission is an important element of church life. As part of the world church we have much to offer; we just don’t realise it yet . I see my role as assisting the church where I can to help them engage in the mission process, whether that be overseas or over here.”
For more information, go to www.interserveonline.org.uk

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Non-Traditional Missionary

Friday, July 4th, 2008

We first met Sian in Newslink two years ago (July-August 2006) when she had given up being a ‘traditional missionary’ and was working among Somali and Afghan women in Southall, London. In her latest letter, Sian told us:

‘I have been really blessed to have had some friends staying with me over the past few days. While they are at home [in the UK] for the moment, they are hoping to go back to Afghanistan, and loved visiting Southall and seeing the colours and the Asian atmosphere of our high street. We also ate at the Kabul restaurant, which serves traditional Afghan cuisine, and we reminisced about the food we have eaten!

Sian

‘This was all particularly poignant for me, as I will be leaving CMS in the autumn after 10 years. So I won’t be returning overseas to live, although I do hope to visit Afghanistan once again to see my former work colleagues and friends.’

Having been a ‘traditional missionary’, then a not-so-traditional one, does this mean that Sian has stopped caring about the Third World and wants to concentrate on life here?

‘Rubbish!’ is the robust response: ‘I still care passionately about what happens in the third world, and I’d like to focus on peace building activities. [Since working in London, Sian has been completing an MA in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University] Violent conflict within states has increased since the fall of the iron curtain, and this is in great part a legacy of first world intervention. I may choose to live in the first world, but I want to continue to work in a way that has a positive impact on the developing world as well.’

So, Sian, there are no plans to stop being a missionary, then?

‘The Anglican church has 5 marks of mission: one is about proclaiming the Good news, one is about discipling believers, two are about helping people and society more generally, and one is about caring for creation. Mission is –always has been – much more than “preaching to the heathen,” it involves expressing the incarnational love of Jesus wherever and to whomever we meet. I’ll still be part of this great mission wherever I live.’

As Sian moves on – and uses her new learning – we pray for her; and for CMS as they seek to find the right person to continue the work on Southall.

If you want to know more about the work of CMS (and A Rocha, who also work in Southall) see www.cms-uk.org and www.arocha.org.uk

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Development Matters Here, Too

Saturday, July 1st, 2006

My wife and I have known Sian for ten years now, and we have just enjoyed a brief visit from our missionary friend. She currently divides her time between teaching English to groups of Somali and Afghan women; and … working as a park keeper – not quite what you would think of as ‘missionary work’.

Sian

Sian has been a ‘traditional’ missionary (see photo): for six years, she worked cross-culturally in Asia, seeking to help those whose lives had been blighted by disasters; whether natural or man-made. However, when she came home eighteen months ago, the Church Mission Society offered her this posting. But how could she be a mission partner in Britain’s capital city? ‘Very easily’ she says, ‘Southall is 90% BME.’ In other words, by far the majority of the people who now live there come from the Black and Minority Ethic communities: so their faith and culture are often very different from what most of us might recognise as ‘British’. Often Sian deals with women who have had to flee hardship and persecution, but whose problems aren’t over as they find it hard living here. As she says: ‘The women have different English abilities, but I have been really excited to be able to help the Afghan ladies in particular cope with some of the bureaucracy of life in the UK, and it has been heartening to see their language ability improve.’

But as park keeper? Actually, Sian is the director of the A Rocha ‘Living Waterways’ Project. A Rocha is a Christian Organisation that believes the Bible tells us we have a God-given responsibility to care for the earth He created. Sian and her team help run a local park with nature conservation, hedgerow planting and the like. They also go into schools teaching pupils about the environment and doing assemblies.

One question Sian is asked is ‘how does this become mission?’ Her answer is simple: ‘Mission isn’t just Bible-bashing, it never has been, but it is about reaching the whole person. A Rocha is a holistic organisation, and in such a cross-cultural place as Southall, we have wonderful opportunities to reach members of the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu populations with talk of how we see care for our world as part of our Christian concern for them and their world.’

If you want to know more about the work of CMS and A Rocha, see www.cms-uk.org and www.arocha.org.uk

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