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Written by Jewel Showalter
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Monday, 11 January 2010 13:59 |
“The World Missions Institute was an incredible time of seeing God move among us,” said the EMM co-director for the WMI and area representative for Indonesia. “God’s flow in the sessions was evident. Teachers came and went, sharing teachings without knowing what others had said, but what they said flowed so well with what had gone before. Truly God was reinforcing his messages and truths.”
From rousing early morning gymnastics together, to late night prayer sessions for unreached peoples, 64 Indonesians, Chinese, and North Americans trained for missions together in an Indonesian World Missions Institute (WMI), November 9-21, 2009.
PIPKA, the mission agency of GKMI Mennonites in Indonesia, together with Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM), collaborated to plan a two week intensive missions course held at the Samadi Maranatha Retreat Center, in the mountainous town of Berastagi in northern Sumatra.
The Chinese participants in the WMI were members of the “Back to Jerusalem” missionary arm of the unregistered churches of China. The North Americans were members of a Youth Evangelism Service (YES) team that is spending eight months studying and serving in Java.
Eleven speakers from five different countries taught 47 sessions on topics such as biblical foundations for missions, history of missions, the gospel and world religions, cross-cultural communication, and spiritual formation.
Many found a teaching on “Intimacy with God: hearing the mission heart of God,” by a long-term EMM worker in the country, to be a highlight. During a time of listening prayer that followed the session, many testified that they felt God calling them to serve in places like Indonesia, India, Pakistan, or Tibet.
One woman said that her church is so small she wondered what she could do. But God spoke to her heart and said, “I can do great things with those who are willing.”
After the WMI ended, planners noted that the success of the event will only be fully realized when some of the participants are sent out as missionaries. As in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest field.”
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