Estamos Juntos | We Are in This Together
Revelation 7:9-10
9 After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”
How do we reach every nation, tribe, people, and language? We do this together, led by the Holy Spirit, sending from every part of the body of Christ, to those who have not yet heard. In this way, not only will people of every ethnicity receive the gospel, but they will also be mobilized to be generous givers of the gospel as well. Some people groups will be more effective at reaching cultures that are more similar to their own, and others are geographically closer to unreached groups. By mobilizing from the whole body of Christ, we are bringing the most difficult-to-reach areas of the world within reach of the Gospel.
I have just returned from the Anglican Diocese of João Pessoa, Brazil, and I saw firsthand their answer to this calling. We have an apprentice from Rolecall serving there, Jonathan, and they have not only welcomed him but are training him up to be part of their church-planting strategy. During my field visit with him, I was invited to worship with them at their Diocesan Synod, to see the outreach they do through their Compassion Project, and to take part in their mission school. It was just incredible! The impact they are having on the local community cannot be measured, yet it can be seen so clearly. It was a great blessing to hear firsthand how lives have been changed through this ministry. The Diocese has extended its reach by starting a year-long Anglican Missions School, and it has taken off and is filled with students from the next generation. They have sent out both long-term and short-term missionaries, and they are preparing to send more. As a Diocese, they provide their training, their care while in the field, their ongoing coaching, and their financial oversight and support. Instead of holding onto their best and their brightest, Bishop Márcio Meira has called them to be sent out in missions and church planting, giving their very best to the Great Commission.
As we met with their mission leadership, it was clear that God was weaving our hearts together, and we began to envision how we could work together. In the mission class, the students’ willingness to sacrifice, to leave where they have been comfortable, and give all they have to go and serve in missions was like a shining beacon, just beautiful. The students are studying hard and working hard, and the leadership is pouring their lives out for them.
So, now what? As part of our effort to increasingly diversify and support the globalization of missionaries from the next generation, we are planning to collaborate in launching an Advance Team combined from both Brazil and the US next June. It will take a great deal of work on both our parts, but we are excited to see whether this is one way we can support each other as we raise up the next generation of cross-cultural workers. It seems a bit crazy, yet it also seems right in line with all that God has been doing.
Our first Advance Team to Japan is preparing to head out in June. They will be doing John the Baptist type work, going ahead and preparing the way for long-term workers that will be sent to Japan from our partner agencies. The team will function as a research and spiritual preparation pipeline, providing our partner agencies with on-the-ground insight while forming young leaders in cross-cultural discernment and innovation. They will be doing prayer walking and spiritual engagement, ethnographic and generational research, listening prayer, and cultural immersion, and all the while, looking for bridges and open doors for the Gospel. We are in discernment with our partner agencies and the leadership in Brazil as we decide on where we will be sending an Advance Team in June 2027.
Seeing the way Brazil is already sending workers into the world was such an encouragement, and imagining new ways we can partner together in mission is truly inspiring. Sharing of resources and networks of connections strengthens all of us and increases what we can do. Yet, the most important part is that this is how God designed it. The day of Pentecost points us in the right direction, where people from every people group not only heard the Gospel but then went out into the world bringing what they had heard with them. Believers sent out from every part of the Body of Christ, enabling us to go to those that are farthest and hardest to reach, bringing the hope of Jesus into the darkest places. I know other Dioceses and Provinces around the world are also responding to God’s great mission, and I cannot wait to hear and see all that they are doing. Estamos juntos, we are in this together.
Sheryl Curbow Shaw
“You have the Bible in your language?” This question, in the middle of the mountain jungles of the Philippines, at 20 years old, changed the course of my life. I have been going to and sending to unreached people groups ever since. Working with the next generation and missions has been the calling of my life. It has taken me to incredible places and enabled me to work with heroes, all around the world, giving all they have for the sake of the Gospel, and I have learned so much from them.
