Our Missions Calling

  1. Slide 3 Intro – 5 facets of missions – Rev. 21:1-7
    1. God’s Mission
      1. Slide 4 God – Trinity – Starts in the heart of God. God’s desire is to reconcile humanity and the entire visible and invisible world back to Himself.  His plan is to redeem, restore and make all things new. Gen 3:15, Gen. 12:1-3, John 3:16-17, Eph. 1:9-10, Col. 1:15-20, Rev. 21:5
      2. Slide 5 Abraham & Israel -God calls Abraham and from Him forms Israel so that through Him all people’s will be blessed. The blessing the world needs is a revelation of the goodness and holiness of God so that they will be drawn to return to Him.  We might refer to this as the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord. Israel struggles to live this out but ultimately gives birth to the Messiah who will faithfully complete this mission. Gen. 12:1-3, Hab. 2:14, Ex. 34, Isa. 6, Isa. 2:1-4, Isa. 11:1-10
  • Slide 6 Jesus – The Father sends Jesus to be His representative and His means of reconciliation for all peoples and also for the entire cosmos back to Himself. Jesus becomes the one through Him all things are made new. God accomplishes this through the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit. The activity of Jesus focusses primarily on people, but we see in scripture that this has cosmic implications. Mark 1:14-15, John 3:16-17, Eph. 1:9-10, Col. 1:15-20 ,Rom. 8:19-22, Rev. 20-22, 1 Cor. 15:3 ff
  1. Slide 7 Holy Spirit – God sends the Holy Spirit to be the witness to Jesus who will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and to create, indwell and empower the church to be His new creation people, a cell of His kingdom and witnesses to Jesus. John 14:15-17, 26; 15:26-27; 16:7-15; Acts 2. John 20:21-23, John 14:12-13
  2. Slide 8 Church – God sends the church, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, into the world to testify to the coming (and already present) kingdom of God and to bear witness to Jesus as the one whom the Father has appointed to save and reconcile humanity and the entire creation. Matt. 28-18-20, John 20:21-23, Acts 2:1-41; 3:11-26; 4:7-12; Col. 1:19-20; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1
  1. Slide 9 The Church’s mission (as embedded in God’s mission)
    1. Our gathered existence is a sign of the eternal kingdom that has already arrived in the present. If we do nothing else, we are already a signpost of what is coming. Eph. 3:4-11; 1 Cor. 14:23-25; Php. 1:17-30
      1. The new humanity should wait for the coming age, but God acts in the middle of history to reveal what is coming.
      2. The world often doesn’t know what they are looking at. John 1:5 (Jn. 1:10) (overcome/understand), 1 Cor. 14:23-25
    2. Slide 10 Our scattered existence allows us to represent Christ in word and deed in our various workplaces, schools, clubs, and neighborhoods. 1 Pet. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:15
      1. Peter Parzer – sharing the gospel with businessmen.
  • Slide 11 Our corporate missional activity to reveal the Kingdom of God in word and deed to our local community. Acts. 1:8;
    1. Hamilton City Bible Distribution
  1. Slide 12 Our corporate missions activity to reach the ends of the earth with the gospel of the Kingdom. Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8
  1. Ukraine Report
    1. Stop number 1 – Romania
      1. In Romania
        1. Slides 13, 14, 15 Housing – rented 13 apartments and a larger house to provide housing for 95 refugees.  Some of them have found work
        2. Slides 16, Food – they purchase food and make food bags for the refugees for breakfast and dinner. They rented some storefronts in the middle of the apartments and built a commercial kitchen and a dining room to feed everyone lunch very day in order to provide community and an opportunity for relationship building and friendship evangelism.
        3. Their team was working sometimes 16 hours a day shopping for food, making food bags and cooking and cleaning up lunch. Once they were able to start hosting teams (which required buying and renting a couple multi story houses) they were able to host teams that are able to shoulder much of this work-load.  Our team was able to provide some much-needed relief in the kitchen and food bag distribution as well as get out to some gypsy/Roma villages and minister there as well.
      2. In Ukraine
        1. Slides 17,18,19 Sending 2 semi-trucks a month to 2 different cities ($50,000-$60,000 per truck) filled with food.
        2. Slide 20, 21 (video) Homes of Hope – built 100 homes near Kyiv. 150 volunteers from 10 different nations
  • Future
    1. Planning to train and send a team to the south of Ukraine to pioneer a new YWAM base that will be part of the rebuilding of the nation. Probably using Homes of Hope and engaging in other ministry.
  1. Stop number 2 – Ternopil Ukraine
    1. Slides 22, 23 – Situation
      1. 600 miles from the front line
      2. Not in the direct line of fire
      3. Significant location between Kyiv and Lviv for housing and helping refugees fleeing the war.
    2. For many months they were working around the clock to house 135 refugees per night.
  • The churches banded together to open 15 refugee housing centers for 3100 people per night. 24 hour call center people could call and someone would go pick them up wherever they were and take them to housing.
  1. Situation now – The waves of refugees have died down. Many are now housed in apartments.  YWAM and others are involved in distributing food to them.
    1. Slide 24 People in Ukraine go about their daily lives
  2. At the base itself there were about 21 young people who were refugees from the war. Some Christian and some not.  They ran a DTS for them and 6 have now joined staff.
  3. Slides 25, 26 Our team was able to join in feeding refugees, working with a group of non-Christian youth that the Ukrainian ywamers have been investing in, ministering in a children’s hospital and serving in drug rehab and homeless shelters.  They were also able to go to Odessa where they worked with a church that has a powerful ministry to drug addicts and homeless.  They have a “warming tent” they have set up in the city center and run feeding programs as well.  Our team was able to be extra hands and feet and served in various aspects of the ministry there.
  • Slide 27 – Of the YWAMers I met there, 1 couple moved from Argentina as missionaries to Ukraine. The husband has just returned from a trip to the front lines to deliver aid and supplies to residents still living there as well as soldiers. 1 man was pioneering a new base in Mariupol and had to evacuate and has landed there while deciding what to do next. Sasha is looking to the future and is building a ministry around world view and bringing reformation to society.
  1. Take aways
    1. Over 4 million refugees in and from Ukraine.
    2. The church is alive and well and continuing to reach out and serve, even amidst the harsh conditions.
  • Part of our missions calling can be to cover them and strengthen them with prayer.
  1. Slide 28 – Prayer
    1. For the war to end
    2. For the war to stay contained and not spread.
    3. For the many refugees to find new homes and be able to settle in new places.
    4. For strength for the laborers who are serving and ministering.
    5. For many more teams and volunteers to go and help.
    6. For the ongoing funding needed to sustain the relief efforts.
    7. For God to take full advantage of all of this suffering to draw many thousands to Himself.