Goers and Senders—Partners in Global Mission
I just finished reading through the book of Deuteronomy, and I’m again struck by how many times the people of Israel are instructed to “remember.” Remember where you came from! Remember how God has delivered you from your enemies! Remember the land He has promised to give you! My family and I are preparing to be sent overseas in the coming weeks, and as we travel around the country, sharing our calling with anyone who will listen, we are again presented with an opportunity to “remember.”
Abby and I (Luke) could not have grown up more differently. She spent much of her formative years somewhere between Ft. Worth, Texas and Moscow, Russia where her parents served as cross-cultural workers (CCWs) for almost nineteen years. In contrast, I spent the first twenty years of my life in a rural paper town in the mountains of western North Carolina surrounded by three generations of family. Think “Walton’s Mountain.” In His own time and way, God began to impress upon us a burden for the unreached of this world, people groups who will never have the opportunity to respond to the life-changing power of the Gospel because there is no one to tell them. Without a steady stream of visiting Baptist missionaries, faithful laypeople, and even a great-uncle in his “Sunday-best” bib overalls speaking into our lives, it may have taken a lot longer for our calling to take shape. Nevertheless, at the respective ages of fourteen and eighteen, Abby and I knew without a doubt that we were supposed to “Go.”
Unfortunately, it would take several more years before we found each other at seminary and continued on our journey together, but in the meantime, the Lord was laying the groundwork for the pursuit we find ourselves in today. After graduating from college, Abby signed up for a two-year term in North Africa working among an unreached, unengaged people group (UUPG). In terms of climate and culture, North Africa is a far cry from Moscow! Abby recounts first seeing the job description and her heart breaking over the fact that out of three million people, there were only ten known believers among this people group…and none of them women. She describes her time there as being “difficult” with the harshness of the environment and the prevalence of overt spiritual warfare. However, almost in the same breath she also says that she “felt the Lord’s pleasure” recognizing that “this is what [she] was created to do.”
As for me, I was fortunate to have opportunities to serve short-term mostly in the Far East and Alaska. While those experiences certainly shaped my understanding of missions and fueled my enthusiasm to finish seminary, I didn’t realize that I was being influenced in subtler, might I say, more “ordinary” ways. I was employed as a school maintenance man and found myself doing everything from painting student apartments to eradicating the campus library of its bat infestation in the attic. For those first few years, I was often side-by-side with a dear friend/coworker who was mysteriously making the jump from Baptist life to the Anglican way. I was fascinated by the books he was reading and the conversations he was having…ways of thinking, speaking, and participating in the Christian life that were familiar yet somehow “different.” Little did I know that many years later the Lord would use this friendship among the bats and buckets of paint to open the door for our family to join the Anglican tradition too!
The culmination of our collective experience came together at the New Wineskins conference in 2019. As we traversed the hillside with our four small children in tow, we were blessed to be introduced to Anglican Frontier Missions. We were received so graciously and, by the end of the conference, had already decided that THIS was the organization we wanted to work alongside. Throughout the remainder of the conference, we were desperately praying that the Lord would show us the place and people group He was calling us to serve.
Our breakthrough came the morning after the conference ended when Abby received an unexpected message from her former field supervisors in North Africa. She had not heard from them in eight years, and most of the CCWs she had worked alongside had been kicked out of the country years ago. To our surprise and delight, they shared with us how the country was beginning to open back up again. As we timidly filled our Baptist brethren in on the details of our journey to Anglicanism, they excitedly responded, “That’s great! You should really look into this organization called Anglican Frontier Missions!” It really is a small world. They went on to describe the ways in which being Anglican will allow us to connect with the local church and actually have a stable, legitimate visa platform to be in this otherwise restricted country as open religious workers. These were opportunities we didn’t know existed until that conversation!
We are now in our final phase of preparation to be sent out by the Anglican Church here and received by the local Anglican diocese there. We will simultaneously be involved in both the ministry of the local church and the new work among the same unreached people group Abby served almost eleven years ago! Last month we stood before our sending church and, together, renewed and affirmed our commitment to the mission of God, that the nations would hear and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord! As AFM and our local church family held us up to the Lord in prayer, I remembered that we are partners in this mission together. Whether you are “senders” or “sent ones,” remember that we have been invited into a work that is so much bigger than ourselves. Much like a tree, the roots and branches grow together in tandem. One does not flourish without the support of the other. Such is the relationship between the local church and those they raise up and send out. Be encouraged…and remember to remember.
“Luke” is an AFM Cross-Cultural Worker. To financially partner with Luke and Abby, or other AFM CCW’s click here.