CONNECTIONS
News from Converge MidAtlantic
March 2010 - Vol 4, Issue 2
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| Greetings!
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 Sandi and I recently returned from an amazing 2 week vision trip to Thailand and Tokyo with 20 other leaders from Converge. We were
honestly blown away at what God is doing in these places. We learned a lot about ways that
members of our Converge MidAtlantic churches can be involved in short or longer
term missions in Thailand, The Philippines, and Japan. Here's a little overview of what we
saw! |
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Santisuk English School in Bangkok, Thailand
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 This school, which teaches conversational
English to Thai adults, is an awesome door of opportunity to reach young
professional, mostly of the Buddhist religion, men and women for Christ. It is a fantastic opportunity for
Converge MidAtlantic members to be involved in short term missions. The school was founded by Converge
missionaries Steve and Nopaluk Cable, nearly 20 years ago. Over the course of these years, over 8,000
Thai students have studied at the school. As a result of the school, over 100 people have made faith commitments
to Christ, and Peace Community Fellowship Church has been planted. Other church
plants are now being started in communities near Bangkok as a result of
extensions of the Santisuk school. Missionary Steve Cable's passion is to share the gospel with as many
Thai people as possible, and to promote hands on short term mission
opportunities for people in the U.S. What a fantastic ministry!
Sandi and I had an opportunity to meet many of the current
students and to hear their stories of coming to faith in Christ. We also had an opportunity to help
teach a class and then we spent a full day in spiritual conversations with
students as we traveled on a sightseeing excursion. It was the first time (that I can remember) sharing Christ
with someone of the Buddhist faith.
Converge MidAtlantic church members can get
involved in helping to teach English and build relationships with these non
Christian students. A fine tuned curriculum is available. There is no special training needed.
Young or old can be involved (actually older people are highly revered in the
Thai culture). The cost to travel
and stay in Bangkok is very reasonable. Short termers are asked to spend one month as a teacher in the school (you
teach for four hours, Monday-Thursday). We hope to mobilize teams to travel to Bangkok and serve in the school
in the near future!
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Urban Poor Church Planting in Bangkok
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 Our Converge leadership team also heard amazing
stories of transformation happening in several urban poor communities in
Bangkok through the church planting ministry of Converge missionaries Kevin and
Cynthia Walton. Ministry in these
urban poor communities involves innovative strategies such as building
relationships with community leaders, becoming a community organizer, helping
people to set up small businesses, and organizing small house churches in these
urban communities. Multiple house
churches have been planted, and more are in the process of being birthed.
The personnel need for this strategic movement is for some
Christ followers to give 3-5 years to live in an urban community. The Waltons have been leading this
movement for nearly 20 years. They
provide the training, coaching, and support structure in concert with Thai
leaders who are being raised up. U.S. Christ followers who are in their 20s and 30s, and probably those
who are single are the best candidates for involvement. Again, in the coming months, we'd like
to communicate more about this ministry to our MidAtlantic churches. Who knows what God might do in our
midst!
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Filipino missionaries being sent all over Asia
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 Sometimes we think that America is the center of
the world and the center of the spiritual world. We think that we know all there is to know about missions, and
that missionary work starts and ends with us in the U.S. Well, we saw something that
dramatically changed our perspective on missions!
Through the 20 year impact of Converge missionaries, Dennis
and Melody Nordine, 23 Filipino missionaries have been trained and have been
sent out to various places all over Asia. These young Filipinos have more zeal and passion for Jesus than most
Christians I have ever met. They
are willing to adapt to difficult situations and places, and are making a huge
impact in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and even China. What is so amazing, is that these
Filipino workers are able to enter into some countries that U.S. workers cannot
get into. God has opened doors of
opportunity through this developing army of missionaries from the Philippines.
One way we discovered we can be involved in this mission's
movement, is through financial support. It actually costs a lot less to send out these Filipino missionaries
than it does to send out a U.S. missionary. Several of us from the Converge leadership team committed to
share the need for financial support for these missionaries with our churches
and constituents back in the U.S. Sandi and I plan to talk about this more in the future as well. We'd love to see some of the mission support
from our churches go to help support this awesome army of missionaries!
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Japan - a difficult field, yet a place where we can help
|  At the end of our 2 week journey,
Sandi and I spent 4 days in Tokyo, visiting several of our Converge
missionaries in this world's largest city (34 million people). We also spent some quality time with
some key Japanese Baptist leaders - our Converge counterparts there in
Japan. We saw evidences of God at
work in wonderful ways. Yes,
churches are small, but we have over 60 Converge churches in Japan. And they welcome partnership with U.S.
leaders and churches.
Some of the ways we could be involved in partnering with our
brothers and sisters in Tokyo include: sister church partnerships much like we
are doing in Ukraine, leadership development for lay leaders in the churches,
evangelism training for Japanese believers, and coaching of pastors and leaders
through resources like the ReTooling ministry and NCD consultations. The leaders of the church in Japan are
hungry to see their churches grow and reach their people for Jesus. What a fantastic opportunity to work
together for Kingdom growth.
Sandi and I would love to see some of our Converge
MidAtlantic churches get involved in Japan. It's a wide open mission field. Watch for info on more detail in the coming months. Let us know also of any interest you
may have!
This trip helped all of us see that we are honestly engaged
in one mission worldwide. What we
do here in the MidAtlantic region of the U.S. is the same thing we do in
Bangkok, in China, and in Tokyo. We are all about making a difference in communities through multiplying
leaders and churches that are transforming their communities for Jesus. Of course, we want to do this
together. And yes, we can do much
more for the Kingdom together than we can do alone.
Some of the specific follow up action ideas that Sandi and I
discussed, which could involve leaders and members of our churches include:
Organizing a short term trip to Thailand to
teach in the Santisuk English School. As mentioned above, the preferred length of stay to teach would be one
month.
Organizing a Pastor's Vision trip, maybe for
7-10 days, to introduce pastors or key lay leaders from our District to the
ministry and opportunities in Thailand.
Church or individual financial partnership with
the Filipino missionary movement.
Exploring potential partnerships with some
Japanese churches like sistering, leadership development, evangelism training,
coaching, etc. This could also
involve a team from our District traveling to Japan for 7-10 days.
Thanks for praying for us as we journeyed into this mission
endeavor. Please continue to pray
and seek God with us as we seek to transform our world for Christ.
Yours in Jesus,
Dan and Sandi Peterson
P.S. You can see a full collage of pictures from this trip on
Facebook, and on our CMA website.
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Mideast Baptist Conference
20 E. McKinley Way, Poland, Ohio 44514 · 330-757-7970 · convergemidatlantic.com
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