INTERNATIONAL UPDATE OCTOBER 2007OM InternationalDownload as PDF (~210KB)OM International Update, October 2007 Dear prayer partners, As I write this update I am on my way to the board meeting of IBS-STL. Please pray for its president, Keith Danby, who has been in this post for six months. There is a very close relationship between IBS-STL and OM in various parts of the world, and our Associate International Coordinator Francois Vosloo is working with their global leadership team to make this partnership as effective for the Kingdom as possible. Ships In a few days I will be at our ships' international board meeting. As you know, huge issues face the ship ministry at this time. Please pray for wisdom for the board and the Executive Leadership Team, particularly the Chief Executive, Bernd GŸlker. Many people joined OM through our August intake conference expecting to spend most of the coming year sailing with Logos Hope. Because of delays, some of this year will now be spent on board, but stationary in Kiel, Germany as work continues. Please pray for grace and maturity to respond to this change. REDELIVERY There is still much to be done to prepare the ship for sailing. The focus is now on meeting the requirements for the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate (PSSC) survey. To allow time for this process (4-6weeks), Brodotrogir shipyard has graciously agreed to allow the Logos Hope to remain berthed at the shipyard with only minor costs. Kiel, Germany (100 km N of Hamburg) will be the location for the final oufit of Logos Hope. The berth is ideally located in the centre of Kiel. The outfit works (mainly internal furnishings) are expected to take up to six months. Volunteer help is needed and visitors will be welcome. Logos II sailed to Kiel on 19 September.
Uruguay: I have recently returned from there and agreed with the board and our Field Leader, Siegfried Klassen, that it is time to move towards a change of leadership. Siegfried has led the work of OM Uruguay for many years, but needs now to concentrate on the very large Eagles Wings project which I believe can become a significant blessing for the church in that country and the southern nations of Latin America. Thank God for the development of OM over the years and the very substantial impact which has been made in the nation. Pray for this time of transition for Siegfried and his wife, Yvonne, and for the search for the next leader for our work there. Mozambique: In one village a man was widowed and, according to tribal custom and superstition, isolated from the community which refused to associate him for six months following his bereavement as they believed doing so would result in their own deaths. Elias, who returned from the OM Bible School last year a changed man, felt compassion for him and was determined to eat with the widower despite tradition. The two ate from the same plate and drank from the same cup; people stood by waiting for Elias to die. When they saw that Elias had not died after even a month, three people gave their lives to the Lord. Pray for courage for the team to see further superstitions broken.
Austria: On 15 September OM officially handed over field leadership from Frank Hinkelmann to Philipp Eschbach. Pray that Austrian believers will get more involved with the ministry. Norway: Together with others, OM hosts four prayer meetings for the Muslim world during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. (September 13, 20, 27 and October 4th). Our hope is that more local people will start building relationships with their Muslim neighbours. Denmark: On October 1, Andrew Berghamar will take over as field leader. He is married to Sara and they have four children. The family has been involved in a church plant in a suburb of Copenhagen. Andrew began in OM Denmark 1 June; the family spent most of August on Logos II in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Russia: At the end of June a church team from Georgia, USA, joined 18 members of the Good News Church and 26 non-Christians for a week-long family camp. During the week, the American Christians taught English three hours a day. There was time for playing games together, a carnival one afternoon and evening meetings each night on the theme of friendship, which were followed by discussions on spiritual issues. The team was amazed at how quickly everyone bonded. Team leader Keith Haywood reported, "One man went to the Orthodox Church when he got home to repent and promise God that he will stop drinking, smoking and cursing. Another lady was visibly moved by the gospel and love shown to her by the team members. She is very close to the Kingdom." All of the unbelievers at the camp want to continue meeting and reading the Bible together. Keith continued, "Our team was greatly impacted. For a few it was their first overseas missions trip. Everyone wants to do this again." Spain: The end of September sees major change when Pedro Arbalat will stand down from leadership after 18 years. Pedro and Antonia will take a sabbatical period and then continue in a preaching, teaching and training ministry in the Spanish-speaking world. There has been much change in the work in Spain during Pedro's leadership with a very strong emphasis on church planting in the most untouched areas of Spain. David Greenlee will become Field Leader for one year and work with the board to find the next leader for our work in this nation of great need and opportunity.
Germany: Over 3000 teens and leaders from across Europe took part in Contagious, the TeenStreet congress from July 28-August 4. Studying the life of Nehemiah, teens discovered how they can be contagious as they love Jesus and reflect Him in their world. On the final day, all TeenStreet participants went into Oldenburg city centre using a wide range of creative ways to share and demonstrate the love of Jesus. Teens handed out water bottles reflecting the 'water of life', ran an art exhibition, wrote Bible verses on the ground using pavement chalks and challenged local people to swap something for a copy of the Bible. OM Austria wrote, "Our 60 Austrian teens came back thrilled with their many new experiences".
Albania: Twenty-five artists from nine countries took part in outreach using their talents to celebrate and share the love of God. For two weeks, each artist on the team (dancers, painters, photographers, musicians, performers and more) found ways to do that on the streets, in local parks and through workshops and concerts. One group went to a children's hospital where they painted a colourful mural on the bare walls of the entrance hall. "It was delightful to see the fearful eyes of the children light up as they came in and saw the bright colours," shared one team member. Three team members prayed with children and their parents, leaving behind gifts of sweets, art cards, Bible stories and Gospel tracts. "In one room, the father was an obvious sceptic who nevertheless gave his permission to pray. By the end, he had tears in his eyes," Pat wrote. "It was a beautiful experience to go room to room, watch fear and oppression give way to peace, see eyes light up, smiles replace frowns and colour come back into cheeks. "I felt the body temperature drop dramatically in one boy as I held his hand; this boy had been in Christian camp the week before. The parents were profusely grateful and kissed and thanked us. We strongly sensed God's desire to heal and his love for the children and a strong atmosphere of peace replacing fear." AIDSlink: A team of five had a fantastic time at TeenStreet Germany. Over 3,000 teens learnt about HIV and AIDS. A highlight was how the teens responded to Christopher Yuan who shared his story about living with HIV (www.christopheryuan.com). We conducted a survey on knowledge, attitudes and risk, and were shocked that over 18% of respondents thought there was a cure for AIDS. The survey also indicated that some teens practicing high-risk behaviour thought they were not at risk of infection. Clearly there is a lot of room for education. It was encouraging that most teens displayed non-judgmental attitudes towards people living with HIV. They also enthusiastically and sacrificially gave towards HIV/AIDS ministry amongst children and youth. October 23-26 the AIDSLink steering committee and others will be meeting in Atlanta, USA. Please pray for these key meetings. We want to brainstorm, strategise and plan so that OM can scale up its response to HIV and AIDS.
UK: Teams working with Turning Point built bridges of friendship with people from all over the world, including the Middle East and North Africa, during summer outreach. Through email and the internet, these relationships continue to grow and develop. In eight weeks of outreach, participants talked with hundreds of people and distributed over 11,000 pieces of Gospel literature and DVDs. "I was able to share the Gospel with a lady who had never heard about Jesus before!" shared Mark from England. "She was glad to receive a New Testament and Jesus video."
The work of OM's teams in relief and development can often be hindered by lack of key personnel such as bookkeepers who can manage finances for teams, especially across Western and Central Asia (e.g. Turkey and the 'stans' of the former Soviet Union). Pray for God to raise up people with skills in bookkeeping and accounting who will serve in this region of the world. Bangladesh: At the end of July, the Jamuna River burst its banks and flooded a huge area of low-lying land. Thanks to the generous response to the Flood Relief Project food items are being distributed to 4850 families. During the second stage, rice seeds will be provided to farmers, and in the third, rehabilitation for those who have lost or damaged homes. One aid worker's description of a day of relief effort: "Leaving behind the major rivers and smaller tributaries, our boat started to cross rice fields and roads. The entire area was submerged in water. We followed the line of electric wires for over 40 minutes, until we reached our relief distribution centre, a local high school. Like any surviving farms in this area, the school was an island in a vast expanse of water. "It is easy to reduce disasters to statistics: over one third of the country submerged, over five million rendered homeless, one and a half million acres of crops destroyed. But the true measure of the damage is to look into these
We continue to see tremendous growth in the Good Shepherd Community Church Movement in numbers of churches, quality of pastors, and strength of faith of new believers. In 2007, we will see at least 200 new churches added. We now have four years of regional pastors' seminar curriculum developed and being implemented in all nine GSCC regions. We are in the first phase of church building construction for 100 of our largest congregations. Above all, many people are coming to know Christ personally. Binky, a 24-year-old woman from Punjab was married to an abusive alcoholic as a teenager, and her husband abandoned her and their infant son to run away with Binky's own sister. She returned to live with her mother, shattered and without hope. A GSCC church planting team offered her hope in Christ. She said, "I believed that there is no one who will stand by me and care for me. I had no hope. But now I know that God is there to help me. I am going to surrender my life to him and no longer worry about my future or my son's future." She and her family now attend one of the many Good Shepherd Community Churches in Punjab state. Continue to pray for our churches and teams who still operate with enthusiasm in the midst of threats and persecution.
Your brother in Christ, Peter Maiden ---------------------- Are we pushing younger leaders too soon? I am greatly encouraged at the prominence that the issue of emerging leaders is receiving within OM, and among Christians worldwide.This is a key issue in the Lausanne Movement and its Leadership Development working group on which I serve. We have a key focus on identifying and empowering emerging leaders1. I am also involved with a Leadership Development Forum in South Africa which has as one of its main goals the identifying and mentoring of younger leaders. OM's Joshua Initiative2 is a growing effort to develop our emerging leaders. Recently we had Joshua Initiative meetings for about thirty younger leaders in Southern Africa. The quality of these men and women was exceptional. In OM I am also greatly encouraged at the prominence that mentoring is receiving. It seems that, though informal mentoring has been taking place since OM's inception, we are becoming more intentional about it. Too far, too soon I have, however, recently heard of cases of younger leaders who have gone through very difficult times. This leads me to wonder if we sometimes, in our effort to utilize and promote younger leaders, push them into responsible leadership roles too soon. Let me give an example. A young South African high school graduate joined OM South Africa's six-month training programme. After completing the programme in excellent fashion, he joined an international team. Because of his exceptional qualities, he was soon invited into a leadership role where he had occasion to interact with leaders in that community at a high level. On his return to South Africa, a change was noticed in his behaviour which, under normal circumstances, may simply have been ascribed to re-entry challenges, the pressures anyone faces on returning to their home country. However, it became clear both to his parents and his local church leaders that he was increasingly critical of the local church and was not open to receive input from his parents or others around him with whom he previously had good relationships. His parents' feelings were that he was pushed into leadership too soon. Unanswered questions This young man's story, together with other examples I have come across, has prompted me to ask several questions. How likely are such younger leaders to become bigheaded and find it difficult to handle power suddenly thrust upon them, as in the case cited earlier? This young man became accustomed to interacting with leaders at a high level but, on coming back to his local church, found it a challenge to reintegrate with others. Do we sometimes promote younger leaders to the 'A' team without them having first played in the 'B' and 'C' teams which would have given them enough exposure and experience? Look at the positive The positive side to pushing younger leaders is that we give them opportunity that they may otherwise not easily receive. We also affirm their potential. We need to entrust younger leaders with appropriate responsibility but, in doing so, we need to ensure that: No doubt it is incumbent upon us to develop today the leaders we need tomorrow. Let us do it, however, in a way that enables them to flourish and, hopefully, be in it for the long haul. ---------------------------- OM International ¥ Peter Maiden, International Co-ordinator Credit: OM International
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