Mission Progress Report

This past week, the steering group of what we simply refer to at Refuge as the Spring Missions Event began planning this year’s version. We are quick to not call it a “missions conference” as that implies big-ness and this is a decidedly small-scale occurrence as those things go. But having said that this (now) annual happening – called “For the Glory of the Name” the last two years – has been catalytic in the life of our fellowship in creating a greater vision and awareness of the work Jesus still calls his disciples to.

Some of us helped Dave....

“Missions” – as the word is understood in churches like Refuge in the Charismatic/evangelical tradition – has been a regular part of our fellowship since before I got here. Under my predecessor, John Tuttle, our fellowship made a commitment to tithe 10% of our annual income to mission work (I don't know percentage-wise how we're doing today but most years its close – or more if you count all the mission money that flows through our small coffers). What’s more, the proximity of the YWAM-Northwood campus has nearly insured that there has been a regular flow of individuals who have either attended or joined our fellowship over the years who are committed to extending the Gospel to the uttermost part of the realm. And when you foster relationship with people who have dedicated their lives to “going”, often you end up coming alongside them to help in what they do simply because they’re your friends. Dave and Pam Innerebner, serving on the Lac Coutre Oreilles Reservation about an hour and a half north of here, are a case in point. Dave was a YWAM staffer when he began attending CFGT in the early 90s and as he has pursued his calling to serve the First Nations people, some of us have helped him in stints whether it’s been joining him in outreach, assisting him build “the Lodge” on the grounds of what is now the YWAM-Discovery campus or the biannual wood-cutting events one of the guys from Refuge organizes. For many years in November, CFGT would host our annual “reenactment” of the first Thanksgiving as Dave and his tribe of First Nation folk would come down off the Rez for turkey dinner with all the fixins'. And some years, it even led to dancing. At the turn of the 21^st Century, we helped found and establish The Garage, our local youth center. And just a few years ago we joined a couple of other local fellowships in our area to open The Well International, a ministry in nearby Barron committed to reaching out to the small but growing Somali refugee population there (see Same time next year). All this to say that Refuge has been involved in mission and mission work for some time.

In 2010, the first year of “For the Glory of the Name”, Duane and Lois Pederson (See The essence of discipleship), on an extended sabbatical leave from the YWAM Crossroads Discipleship Training School they lead in Baguio, Philippines, were part of the planning group. As I recall, Renee and I met out at their cabin on Loon Lake east of New Auburn, and it was Duane, in fact, who was the inspiration for the title of our event. “We don't go in search of adventure. We go because he calls. We go for the glory of the Name,” is an approximate facsimile of Duanespeak. Duane, a former farmer and pastor, has a very practical, no-nonsense approach to missions. He and Lois have been serving cross-culturally overseas since the early 90s and are spiritual parents of many pastors and ministry leaders in the Far East. And so going is fun and includes adventure but ultimately the matter is about obedience that flows out of love for the God who has saved them. A promoter Duane is not and so whenever they return from their life on the Pacific Rim he never regales us with inspiring missionary tales out of principle – his humility forbids him from doing such. So, the only way to really get a grasp of the impact of their response to God's call is to go there and see for yourself (In '03 and '04, two small teams from CFGT did just that. And last year I taught a week at their CDTS and then Randy and I joined Duane and a few others who traveled up “into the bush” to spend a week with the Agta, Filipino aboriginals who live in far northeastern Luzon). In any case, our small planning group seized upon the next best thing from going there: we would invite all those we currently support either financially or regularly in prayer to come together for a weekend of intentional relationship building and strengthening.

Duane sharing at Refuge

In that, we feel, we were successful. Duane and Lois were on furlough, Dave and Pam came down off the Rez, Wade and Jessica Copland, the young California couple directing The Well (as well as Paul & Keri, another couple who were working with the Coplands at the time) came over from Barron, Tom and Lisa (YWAM-Northwood staffers who for several years running have lead small teams to northern Thailand as part of a DTS outreach) drove into town and even Don, the Director of the Chetek Youth Center Project (a.k.a., “The Garage”) were all on hand on that Friday night to share a brief synopsis of their ministry following an ethnic meal made of selections from each of the countries where they serve. The next afternoon, our ministry team assembled out at the River House just outside of Chetek and spent all afternoon and into the early evening ministering and praying over each couple. We had presumed it would only take a few hours and then we would enjoy a cook-out by the river but every couple were in need of ministry and that became the order of the day. On Sunday morning, Duane shared and challenged Refuge to a greater commitment to the Great Commission and living lives for “the glory of the Name.”

Crew Chief Dennis at Copland's house

Much came out of that first event. Relationships were, indeed, strengthened and some people who live very sacrificially were encouraged in the pursuit of their calling. Randy, whose heart was being stirred by a little book he had read while elk hunting in Colorado the fall before (Radical by David Platt), was “volunteered” to mc the Friday night gathering and surprised us all with the energy and passion which he brought to the task that evening. And last, but not least, during the Saturday ministry time, Jessica from The Well had shared a very practical need that weighed heavily on her: the roof of their house leaked and there was no money to fix it. Jon, a man in the building business and one of our deacons, heard that and the next day informed me that our small fellowship was to take that on. A few months later, while we were on sabbatical leave, that is exactly what happened. Their roof was replaced courtesy of generous donations of labor, equipment and money from people from our fellowship and a handful of others.

Focused on the Horn

As I detailed in an earlier post (see "Go to Africa!"), I was a bit surprised when Randy (who of his own volition had moved from just pitching in to actually help plan the event) and Renee and Kari felt persuaded that our focus for the 2011 event was to be Africa, specifically the nine countries around the Horn – Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan (which had yet to be divided into North and South Sudan), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djoubouti and Egypt). We had no one there that our fellowship was in any kind of longstanding relationship with but if Africa was where we were supposed to draw our attention to, then it only made sense to find an African to speak to us. We found our Egyptian friend, Akram, but ultimately God found us a man to share with us his burden for his native country – Uganda – and sent him providentially our way just before our mini-missions conference was about to begin.

Maria stood in for all of us

On Friday night, we sat down to an African smorgasbord of falafel, sambusa, koshari and katayes and lots of rice. LeAnne led us in an African praise song sung in Swahili. And both Akram and Pastor John shared briefly of what was going on in their particular country. In the months leading up to the missions event, the planning group had asked for volunteers to “adopt” one of the nine countries for the weekend and every one was spoken for. On Saturday night, those who had adopted a country were responsible to present a list of prayer points to aid in our evening of intercession. None of us on the planning group were prepared for how seriously people took their assignment. Many prepared power point presentations and a few had created some things on poster board. The sharing alone lasted for an hour and a half and we all had a good laugh when Pastor John shared that he had learned things about Uganda he had never known before! On Sunday morning, Maria, a German woman with dual citizenship who is a part of us, asked if she could stand in the place of the European countries who in the 19^th Century had colonized much of Africa and ask John's forgiveness for the exploitation that was done often in the name of Christendom. Pastor John was sincerely touched by this act of representative repentance. Later, in his rich Lugandan accent, he invited us to come to Uganda and “...serve the Lord!”

Our MC

Just like the first edition much has come about in part because of “For the Glory of the Name 2.” Most significantly, two weeks from today five of us from Refuge will be flying to Uganda to, among other things, visit Pastor John at his fellowship (Another group – four from Refuge, two from Chetek Alliance – flew out today bound for Kenya for a week before they head up to Israel for another 10 days). But looking closer at the make-up of this year's planning group is also revealing. As I mentioned earlier, two years ago Renee suggested we ask her husband, Randy, to MC the event, last year he helped plan it and this year he is the leader of Team Uganda. Renee went from encouraging those who serve in missions to going out and buying her passport and now eagerly preparing to leave with her husband on her first “out-of-the-country” missions journey.

Jon, who has been supportive of the mission event from the get-go has moved from observer/cheerleader to making a commitment to accompany Dennis whenever a wood-cutting crew heads north to Discovery or accompanying his wife to help serve a hot meal at the Benjamin House Shelter in Rice Lake, Barron County's only homeless shelter. He announced one night at one of the several Africa meetings we held following “For the Glory of the Name 2” that he had moved from “I'll never go to Africa” to “I'd better not say I'll never go.” Melissa, who has spiritual gifts of service and hospitality that get especially agitated around food, began a soup kitchen last year after God spoke to her at a leadership retreat we held. It began in the basement of Refuge with about 18-24 people attending once a week. About mid-year, after some consultations with some folks at Chetek United Methodist who had a similar dream, they officially combined efforts at their place this past fall and the result was synergistic: now regularly 60-70 people show up on Wednesday and Thursday night to sit down and enjoy a good hot meal.

The Meal in Common

And I haven't even mentioned Sheryl, the civil engineer from Refuge who feels compelled to step away from her fledgling new company and her very busy family and accompany us on our journey to Uganda or Troy, Tina, Cody and Sarah who shared this past Sunday that the reason they are going to Kenya is “that our heart might be broken by the things that break God's heart.” These are the résumés of disciples who are beginning to see what Jesus sees and are prepared to go where he leads whether that means across the yard or across the ocean. One trip may be more inexpensive than the other but each is fraught with its own kind of peril and ripe with opportunity to change the world one heart at a time. 

Be there soon...

 

"GO TO AFRICA!"

My freshman year of Bible college, five of us shared a house about a mile or so from the campus of Christian Life College in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Four of us lived upstairs and another lived in the basement in a make-shift room. Underneath the steps leading down to the basement, we constructed something of a prayer-closet that had a light, a chair, and a piece of carpet to kneel on. I may have used it once or twice but Bob used it on a regular basis. Up near the ceiling directly above where Bob would pray was an air vent that came from one of the upstairs bedrooms. The temptation was just too much to resist and so frequently, when I could hear Bob praying in the prayer closet, I would cup my hands, and in the most God-like sounding voice I could muster I would speak into the upstairs register, “Bob,...go to Africa...” It was good for a laugh or two at Bob's expense but all these years later my sins have found me out for a little over a month from now I'll be getting on an airplane and going there myself. Yes, I'm going to Africa and staying in the Republic of Uganda for 10 days.

Lillie (with a couple of her former "boys" in 1999) filled me with many tales from her life in Africa

How did this come about? Well, this is a story about a year or more in the making. For the last two years our fellowship has hosted a spring missions event that we call For the Glory of the Name. The first year we held it we focused on strengthening and encouraging the individuals we presently support monthly in mission. But last year about this time when the steering group began to pray and plan the event they felt led to focus on Africa. When I first arrived in Chetek back in 1991, we had two senior citizens in our congregation then who in their youth had served in Liberia, West Africa. One was living in a nursing home and due to complications from a stroke could no longer speak and another was a wonderfully eccentric, old woman who regaled me with story after story of her life in Africa. But since her passing, the only contact we have had with that continent has been primarily through The Well International, the local ministry we helped establish in neighboring Barron that reaches out to Somali refugees. We presently support no one serving in Africa but the group felt led to direct their efforts there.

The menu from our ethnic dinner

One of the logical ideas that arose out of brainstorming for this event was the hope that we could find someone from Africa to share about his work and, ultimately, invite us to go there. We ran to ground every contact we had and save for our mutual friend, Akram, who hails from Egypt and at the time was serving at the local YWAM campus outside of Chetek, we came up empty. Two weeks before the event was set to begin in mid-April, we had our Friday night ethnic dinner planned, our Saturday evening worship and intercession set ready to go and Akram willing to share on Friday night and Sunday morning (if needed). But then on the Monday before For the Glory of the Name was set to begin on that Friday I got a phone call. “Hello, Pastor Jeff. This is Pastor John Lutayaa from Uganda. Do you remember me?” In 2008, following our National Convention that had been held in Minneapolis that year, John had stayed at our home for a long weekend and had shared at Refuge. At that time he was involved, among other things, with aiding orphans and a couple families from our fellowship began to support his work there. Last year Chicago was the host sight for the convention and John had flown in about a month ahead of time in hopes of connecting with several people he knows here. “I am looking for accommodations and I'm wondering if you know anyone in Chicago where I might find lodging?” While I know a few guys there I simply asked him what he had planned for the coming weekend. When he mentioned he had nothing set yet I suggested I put him on a Greyhound Bus so that he could share at our missions event. This sounded like a plan to him and this is how a man from Africa ended up at our missions event a few days later just as we had hoped all along. On Sunday morning he shared the message and said to us in his wonderful Lugandan accent, “I want to invite all of you to come to Africa and work for the Lord!” I wanted an Acts 16 “Come over and help us”-kinda moment and in my estimation this came pretty close.

Pastor John from Uganda inviting us to GO to Africa

Bishop Success ministering at Focus

A few weeks later, Warren Heckman, my former pastor who at that time was residing in the Twin Cities, called me checking to see if I had an opening on a Wednesday night in early May for a bishop from Nigeria to share at our fellowship. I didn't even pray about it but immediately extended the invitation. And that's how Bishop Success, another man from Africa, ended up sharing at Focus as well as inviting us to come to Africa. He was adamant, in fact, that I come and see him (but I think he is that way with all American pastors he meets.)

Pastor Josiah of Liberia

A few weeks later I received a phone call from Pastor Josiah who serves in Liberia, West Africa. Like John, he, too, has ministered at Refuge before and on account of the national convention was in the States looking for preaching opportunities. We scheduled him for mid-June and so for the third month in a row we had yet another man from Africa stand before us and extend to us an invitation to go to Africa and serve the Lord there. Perhaps God was saying something to us?

Last summer and into fall those from our fellowship who were feeling the tug or the interest in such a journey met regularly to pray and talk about going. At one gathering we heard from Stephanie, a girl from our fellowship who in early 2011, as part of her DTS outreach had made ministry stops in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. At another I read some things a friend of mine who serves in Kenya at a graduate school of theology had sent me about coming and ministering in Africa. Randy, one of the key planners of the missions event, had sent an email to a Ugandan pastor that someone we knew had recommended we contact and had received a positive reply welcoming us to come and see them. But as fall crept on we met less consistently and the original group of about a dozen individuals who had expressed some kind of interest in going following the missions event had been paired down to just a handful. By late December, it looked like our invitation had grown cold and our African missions journey had been delivered still-born.

But right before our friends the Pedersons, who serve in the Philippines (see The essence of discipleship), returned to their work in Baguio, they had dinner with Randy and Renee that rekindled their fire and set things in motion again. Heeding Duane's counsel, Randy contacted a YWAM campus outside of Kampala and inquired about the possibilities of a small team from the U.S. staying at their facility and serving as our hosts. They readily agreed. Renee was approached by one of her co-workers who expressed interest in going and Randy once again gently button-holed me. And then just this past Sunday morning Sheryl, a fellow-member of Refuge, approached Renee and wondered if she might come along, too. Two nights ago it became official: a ticket with my name on it awaits me at O'Hare International when we leave in early March.

So, now I'm going to Africa. Just what are we going to do there? That remains to be seen. Obviously, we hope to connect with some of the ministries we have already had some contact with. We are already awaiting replies from several emails we have sent out notifying them of our soon coming. Clearly, this trip is a work in progress. But it doesn't feel forced or driven by a sense of obligation to any pronouncement we made at the missions event last year. Rather it feels like its the natural development of a sense of leading that caused our planning group to focus its efforts on what was once called “the Dark Continent.” And if he is leading us there then in time it will be clear just what it is he has in mind for us to do.

We will be staying in the general vicinity of the headwaters of the Nile