Category: missions

Categories
adoption missions

Adoption is the World Mission | Jeremy Haskins

I just read the post below from Jeremy Haskins, and all I can say is amen.  This is an excellent articulation of the mission of the church to declare the gospel to all peoples that they might be adopted into the family of God, and to demonstrate that spiritual adoption through earthly adoption.  Here is an excerpt:

Let me be clear, preaching the gospel brings about eternal salvation to those who hear and believe. The only hope for the over 6,000 unreached people groups around the world is that churches would be planted and reproduced through the proclamation that salvation is in no other name but the name of Jesus. God’s mission will not be completed primarily through families adopting orphans from around the world, but through world mission efforts. And yet, a commitment to join God on mission should cause us to be like God on mission.

Our mission work declares that we believe the gospel transcends our culture. Adoption declares that we believe the gospel transcends our flesh and blood. As former Gentiles, we work to see the nations represented in our congregation. As former orphans, we work together to see former rescued orphans in our families. This is the wisdom of God displayed in missions. It is the same wisdom displayed through adoption.

via Adoption is the world mission « so that we might receive adoption.

Categories
missions personal

Benefit for Missionaries to Sudan

Local Austinites – please consider supporting my friends Jonathan and Lauren Ramirez as they pursue God’s call to work with the Didinga people in Sudan!

sudan

Ramirez Sudan Benefit Night @ Dominican Joe

Friday, September 11th, 2009, 7:00 – 11:00PM

Music Performances by: Aaron Ivey and Aaron Peace

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Armed with wide eyes and a desire to learn more about worldwide injustice, Jonathan Ramirez made his first trip to Sudan in the Spring of 2006. He had found an American missionary who knew about a Sudanese pastor and his wife that were church planting in the remote hills of Southern Sudan among the Didinga tribe. Told to bring a tent and a head lamp, Jonathan trekked to Sudan to meet pastor William Laku and his pioneering wife, Eunice. The purity of the land and the people captured Jonathan’s heart as he witnessed God’s Spirit moving among a people group that had been ravaged by 50 years of civil war. He knew the only reason he wanted to come home was to get married before returning to the Didinga long term. So, he boldly wrote an email home to Lauren declaring his intentions to marry her and serve in Sudan as missionaries. The two were married in November 2006 and took a belated honeymoon to East Africa in the Spring of 2007 so that Lauren could see the land she would one day call home.

The past three years have been an important time for the Ramirez’s as they have established their marriage, found a sending church community in Austin, joined the Africa Inland Mission long term team, attended missionary training and raised support. They had the privilege of leading a team to Sudan last summer in order to reproduce themselves as advocates for Sudan back in the States and cast a vision to friends and family for the future. A new home and new family await them among the Didinga tribe as they look forward to serving alongside of William and Eunice Laku as church planters in South Sudan.

Please join the Ramirez’s Friday, September 11th as they raise awareness about the country of Sudan and seek support for their call to the Didinga people. The night will highlight the call on Jonathan and Lauren, the town of Nagishot, the country of Sudan, missions opportunities, photography, music by Aaron Ivey and Aaron Peace, and more… all to benefit Jonathan and Lauren as they prepare to depart on September 22nd as long term missionaries in Nagishot, South Sudan.

For more on the event, click here.

For more information on Jonathan and Lauren, check out their blog.

Categories
books college ministry missions

Buy a Book, Support a Mission

makbooks

College Students: As you are preparing for you return to campus and your fall classes, inevitably you are going to purchase your textbooks. Makarios, one of our partnering organizations in the Dominican Republic, has set up a site where you can purchase your books through Amazon and they receive a percentage of the proceeds.

Friends: If you have books you’d like to purchase from Amazon, please consider using the link below, as a portion of the proceeds will go to our ministry partners in the Dominican Republic, Makarios.

http://makbooks.org/

Books cost exactly the same (new or used) as they would on Amazon, so you can get a great deal on your books and support our friends in the DR!

Categories
college ministry missions

The Need is the Call | North Africa

Some of our students from The Austin Stone have been instrumental in making the video below…maybe you are the person they’re looking for?

Categories
christianity college ministry missions theology

Calling | TheResurgence

I thought about posting an excerpt the following post, but it’s short and you should just read the whole thing.

The Confusing Language of “Calling,” Part 1 | TheResurgence

This goes in line with what I wrote in an earlier post commenting on Passivity in the Church. The root of passivity in the Christian walk I think is the lack of identity as God’s called and sent people. As a college minister, I frequently hear questions about calling to a job/life decision–“should I be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer? What am I called to do?”–which are all significant questions.

I have found, however, that students predominantly have exchanged the idea of basic obedience to our effectual calling and new identity as Christians with their specific vocation to a job.  The result has been that, more often than not, a job is THE determining factor in how an individuals life is oriented.

This isn’t a student’s fault, however, but in many ways the result of cultural syncretism with the American dream.  We (myself included) often cannot see outside of our own culture to understand that our personal vocation is fundamentally subservient to the call to global discipleship (Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 24:14), and therefore don’t orient our lives toward God’s purposes.

What if this generation of students asked the question “how can I obey God with my gifts and skills to reach panta ta ethne, or all the people groups?” rather than injecting God into their life trajectory?  The call to discipleship is most often a radical departure from the plan we have for ourselves, and requires asking a fundamentally different set of questions.

I pray this generation would be the one who understand their identity, asks questions based on that identity, and obeys God radically to the ends of the earth!