VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 8/4/06)-Nearly 500 people gathered at Green Lake, Wisc, from Saturday, July 29 to Friday, Aug. 4 to receive information and inspiration at International Ministries' (IM) annual World Mission Conference.
With a theme of "Surprised by Prayer: Mission and the Untamed God," attendees experienced God at work in prayer, preaching, worship, and workshops led by 32 missionaries, IM staff, and 13 partners or other special guests from around the world.
Acting Executive Director Rev. Charles Jones said, "This year, our conference truly lived out its theme. This event from the planning to the execution was bathed in prayer. And our untamed God responded in ways that surprised us with both blessings and challenges from our missionaries, partners, and staff." Jones continued, "The workshops, Bible studies, worship, and other activities have all provoked a sense of greater sacrifice to remain committed and focused on the global impact American Baptists have through International Ministries."
"There were many rich and spiritually gratifying moments during this WMC, and participants and presenters will take away many useful tools to help them in their various ministries," said Dr. Leo Thorne, Associate General Secretary of American Baptist Churches (ABC). Thorne, who leads Mission Resource Development for the denomination, added "The week was truly inspirational, and IM represented Christ and ABC's mission and ministry very well."
The conference has highlighted the surprises of God as career missionaries and their national partners in various countries work to share God's word and do good works in substantive ways. Missionaries from countries as diverse as Belgium, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nicaragua, Japan, and Thailand, as well as partners from Hong Kong and Jamaica told stories of how God has surprised in mission. In one particularly moving moment, a Brazilian international guest shared his experiences of working with an indigenous people group in a remote part of the Amazon. He made six trips, with several members of the team he was travelling with dying each time, before he effectively made contact with the people group. He persevered despite being forced to go on alone, suffering from malaria, and being tied to a post for 40 days.
Although other sessions were not so dramatic in their outcomes, they were equally surprising. Malkhaz Songulashvili, bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Republic of Georgia, shared in a moving sermon on Sunday how members of his Cathedral Baptist Church decided during one Christmas to support Muslims from Chechnya, who were refugees in Georgia, despite a long history of Chechen atrocities against Georgians. Songulashvili also surprised American Baptists with his culturally relevant and contextually reclaimed forms of Orthodox worship among Georgian Baptists, leading attendees in communion and an anointing service.
"When Bishop Malkaz spoke of 'truth-ing,' he gave us all the insight that there is a 'doing' dimension to truth," said Thorne.
Another surprise was the ability of IM to bring in Dr. Martin Accad, academic dean of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, to the conference. Accad has been stranded in the U.S. since conflict and war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in mid-July, with Lebanon being caught up in the conflict.
"From a human perspective there is no hope, but this is the strength of what we can do in Christ," Accad said, adding he desired to provide another perspective to the Western church and called for Baptists and the universal church to be engaged in the current conflict.
Accad said he hopes American and other Western Christians will change some of their theological and Biblical views as they are challenged to minister to those who are hurt in the war. "American Christians have taken food and mattresses and covers, and have provided entertainment and times of worship and sharing with the very people their own government is calling terrorists, and that is what I mean by demonstrating love to conventional enemies. That is one of the most positive things that could happen," said Accad.
Young adults also played an active role in this year's conference, leading worship one night and sharing testimonies from two Xtreme Team trips to Bolivia and Brazil. Xtreme Team, which is a month-long mission immersion experience for young adults ages 19 to 29, took more than a dozen young adults, alumni leaders, and career missionaries into remote areas of the two South American countries. The teams were exposed to the lives of people living in garbage dumps, those forced into prostitution, or people living in remote areas that are almost impossible to reach.
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/