Feeling a tug on our hearts, we began pushing on doors to see if God was calling us to missions. One of the doors we walked through was the New Wineskins conference in Fall 2019. We went seeking to confirm God’s call.

My experience at Uncommon Grounds Cafe, a ministry of Church Army, was rewarding in an unexpected way.

The Greenhouse movement named Walk Across the Street came from an actual crossing of a street. Many of you have heard the story of how Pastor Michael Wright and I met. I literally walked from Cornerstone Oak Park Church to True Freedom’s service in the school across the street, and a friendship—and a movement—began.

My family and I are preparing to be sent overseas in the coming weeks, and as we travel around the country, sharing our calling with anyone who will listen, we are again presented with an opportunity to “remember.”

Rev. Bernard Bisoke Balikenga is the Provincial Youth Coordinator of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When Bisoke traveled to the U.S. in September 2019 for the New Wineskins Global Mission Conference and again in January 2020 to attend leadership conferences, Holy Trinity Anglican Church Windermere in Charleston, SC, was fortunate to be his host.

Martha, 42 years old, had been living in the unreached area (K) of the Punjab Province in Pakistan, with her husband and two daughters. With the husband working in the brick kilns, it had been difficult for them to manage their daily lives and family, but then Martha’s life completely changed as she got the sudden news of her husband’s death in 2019.

Two things got us interested in ministry to and among Muslims. One, studying church history and learning that so many of the places that were key in the early days—Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Antioch, Carthage—are almost entirely Muslim today. Two, I took a stripped-down version of a great course, Perspectives in World Missions, and learned that a large portion of the world’s Muslims do not have access to the gospel or a local Christian community.

Antioch, a cosmopolitan city, a place to go for a great party and shady deals. Yet it is this city, where there were no moral boundaries, that the truth of Christ was shared with both Jews and Greeks. It is here that the followers of Christ were first called Christians.

Though our food distribution project is now dwindling, ministry opportunities, which emerged from it, are just beginning. Meet Speciose, age 68, who bore eight children. Only one of her children is still alive today, a daughter named Olive, age 30.

As I hopelessly sat at the conference that night feeling like everything in my life was continuing to fall apart, I exasperatingly asked God, Why did You even bring me here?

I first went to the mission field in the summer of 2013, to the same Middle Eastern country to which I hope to return in just a few months.

When we talk about missional leadership, we aren’t just talking about generically “good” leadership, or your church having a mission statement. We’re saying something quite specific. I want to try and spell that out…

Almost 20 years after the publication of Missional Church by Darrell L. Guder, there is a lot of misunderstanding and misuse surrounding the term missional. But the missional movement generated by Guder and his colleagues is substantive, and I’d like to give the authors of the book a fresh hearing.

Back in September, John and I went to a New Wineskins conference, which is a global mission conference held every three years.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected seemingly the entire world in unprecedented ways. It’s easy to get caught up in how it has impacted our individual lives, or the lives of our families, or the lives of our loved ones. As followers of Jesus, though, we need to always be mindful of our neighbors…

This ministry update letter was sent to us by Alison Barfoot, a missionary partner, on April 9, 2020 and is being shared with her permission.

How might we, as Christians, be a visible presence to the communities where we live? Aside from checking in our neighbors, family and friends, what might we do to share the love of Jesus with others? As followers of Jesus we are people of HOPE! We have good news to share even if we too may feel anxious or afraid.

When I went to school in Austin, Texas in the 1990’s, there was a bumper sticker that said “Question Reality”. That always tickled me, and I continue to question reality today.

Each year, during or on Good Friday, churches and congregations around the world take up offerings for the work of Christ Church in Jerusalem. The offerings we receive underwrite the ministry of our Mercy Fund, which is used by Christ Church throughout the year to relieve suffering of many kinds.

What is it like to return to my passport country? Going out after 14 days of quarantine, it feels like a twilight zone experience.