Cross-Cultural Mission

visionnetwork partner Missions Interlink have highlighted in their July bulletin a 10-minute missions video resource available on YouTube.
The creative team at Willow Creek created A Thousand Questions for use in the final session of their 2008 Leadership Summit.
This video could be very useful for raising awareness and even mobilising people for missions.
Check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiNBmNl88Pk Or click below to watch a low-resolution version of the video. JavaScript is disabled!To display this content, you need a JavaScript capable browser.Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Try to imagine not having the Bible in your language! Believers who have never read the Bible in anything but their own language find it very difficult to experience the feelings of those doing so for the first time: people who after years of reading Scripture in their second language, with all the doubts, questions and incomplete understanding that brings, now hear God speaking in their mother tongue. These people's delight, joy and astonishment are rolled up together in the cry, so often heard at the launch of a new translation, "God speaks my language!" For approximately 350 million people worldwide, the Bible is a book that only comes in someone else's language. National Bible Sunday this year is being marked on July 19, when Bible Society will highlight the importance of Bible translation. Of the 6,909 languages spoken in the world, fewer than half have any portion of the Bible. There are 451 languages that have a full Bible, 13 more than last year, and 1,185 have a full New Testament. Translation is a long and very complex process and it won't be until about the 2070s that a project has at least begun in every language. There were 71 new translation projects begun this year. In New Zealand, three translation projects are under way: the Tokelau Bible, the reformatted Maori Bible and the contemporary Maori Bible. Bible Society has produced a range of resources to help Christians understand the translation process and why it is so important to Christian mission. A free...

The Call2All Congress early this month in Hong Kong, was organised by about 17 of the world's largest mission agencies, which is estimated to represent about 85 per cent of the world's missions force. David Hall, the director of visionnetwork's New Zealand partner Missions Interlink who attended the conference, commented: "I may be wrong, but my guess is that history will likely record this as the launch of the Chinese missions movement. He said others expressed similar thoughts: Just as the UK served as the catalyst for North American missions, so today Korea - which sends out more missionaries than any other country apart from the United States - is serving as the catalyst to ignite a missions movement from China. "Who knows the long-term impact this could have around the world in the years to come?!" Mr Hall said. More than half of the 3000 ministry leaders from more than 100 countries who attended the congress were Chinese, with over one-third from mainland China.
Call2All President Mark Anderson said there is a growing sense among Christian leaders that God is calling the Chinese church to take a new place in world missions.
"I believe we are going to see the destiny of the Chinese church moving into a new phase. Great numbers of Chinese missionaries will help lead the way in the next phase of world missions." The congress focused on prayer movements; reaching unengaged unreached peoples; the oral Bible (two-thirds of the world's unreached cannot be effectively...

NZAID's key focus statement has shifted from ‘poverty alleviation' to ‘sustainable economic growth' as a result of its merge back into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The shift in focus that has resulted from the merge has caused some concern from more than 20 NGOs, including visionnetwork, Micah Challenge, TEAR Fund, World Vision, The Leprosy Mission and Christian World Service, who had campaigned to oppose the merge. Their opposition centres on concern that the aims of the two government arms are quite different. As Paul Thompson, national co-ordinator of Micah Challenge, pointed out: "MFAT make decisions based on knowledge of how to improve trade with other countries, which is exactly the kind of thinking needed for Foreign Affairs and Trade, but is simply not the way of thinking that is needed when making decisions regarding what will help countries in need. Government relationships and economic trading cannot be considered over effective aid, saving lives and restoring dignity. Both are necessary departments of the New Zealand Government, both are quite different." However, in a statement at the Micah Challenge website, Mr Thompson said that perhaps the Government did listen to some of the protests. "Although NZAID is merged back into the ministry, we are assured that it will not be the same as in the days before its establishment. NZAID will continue to exist as an organisation within MFAT, with specialist staff, its own budget, and its own priorities...

Last Friday I attended the Daystar breakfast and launch of Hudson Deane's book "Good and Faithful".  This is a book containing up-to-date research on issues of care and support for missionaries - an area which is often not well handled.  The first person I mentioned the book to (a young missionary on furlow heading back overseas soon) shared a personal experience wihch could have been lifted straight out of the pages of Hudson's book. If you have an experience you'd like to share, please post a comment below. NB - please be careful in your comments. Names of people and organisations should generally not be used in this sort of context - especially if you are sharing a negative experience.  

The Micah Challenge is a worldwide Church-based initiative to encourage governments to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). New Zealand was among 187 signatory countries that committed, in 2000, to reach these goals by 2015. If met the MDGs will reduce poverty in the poorest countries by 50 percent, they include eradication of extreme poverty, universal primary education, and reducing child mortality.