Agora is the Greek word for market place, forum, where people gathered for dialogue, discussions, sharing information or just for being together (Acts 17.17). The Mission Commission staff is launching a monthly newsletter, called Agora , directed primarily to the MC Associates but also sent to other mission leaders and available on the MC web page. Agora is an open forum for the MC Associates, MC Task Forces and Networks as a complement to the magazine Connections . Brief texts and news for publication in Agora can be sent to our office in Brazil:bekstrom@worldevangelical.org
From June 18-24, the MC met in the Cape Town area for SA06—a global summit on select mission issues, with 310 women and men, younger and older, from Global South and North, representing a great diversity of ministries. This is the first time we had met as a global body in Africa, and had sensed that we needed to be more involved in the missional work in and from this great continent. God in his own timing has provided this opportunity with the signs of a Kairos moment.
The MC convenes a global consultation every three years for mutual encouragement, growth in our understanding of the missional enterprise around the globe, dealing with global issues and challenges, planning our joint work and strategies, and to become better equipped for our work. These consultations are issues-centered events with a strong training and planning component. While plenary sessions focus on various global issues, all of our networks and task forces intentionally engaged in their own equipping and planning activities.
This was also our first convocation since completing the retooling process we have recently undertaken as a WEA commission. We convened from a broader spectrum of associates, a greater number of docked entities, and opened the agenda in new ways. The program attempted to balance plenary sessions with ample time for the 15 working teams. We enjoyed “open space” to meet and greet, to network and share, to eat and pray.
We were deeply challenged by some specific sessions, especially the expositions by Bishop Zac David Niringiye of Uganda, South Africans Dr. and Mrs. Elijah Mahlangu on the HIV/AIDS crisis and response, and Valdir Steuernagel of Brazil on wholistic mission.
Midweek we celebrate the leadership transition. After 20 years at the helm of the MC, Bill Taylor handed over to Bertil Ekström the direction of Mission Commission. K Rajendran chaired the service, Rose Dowsett spoke on leadership change, and David Tai-Woong Lee led the dedication and charge. Bill has now assumed a new role as Global Ambassador for both the MC and WEA.
Two books manuscripts were finalized at SA06: “Integral Ministry Training: Design and Evaluation, edited by Rob Brynjolfson and Jon Lewis; and “Worth Keeping: Global Perspectives on Best Practice in Missionary Retention”, edited by Rob Hay. The first book should be released in November and the second in January 2007.
We continue to pray for the 15 working teams and their ongoing vision and outcomes. Check out http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.com/commissions/mc/mc_southafrica/ and listen to Zac's five teaching sessions. You might also want to visit the MC site at http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.com/commissions/mc/ . Finally, be sure that you subscribe to “Connections: the Journal of the WEA Mission Commission”, with more information at http://www.initialmedia.com/africa/WEA%20CONNECTIONS.doc .
Bill Taylor, MC Global Ambassador
David Ruiz (Guatemala) is the newest fulltime staff member of the WEA Mission Commission. After some months of conversation and prayer, he was formerly invited by the new Executive Director and presented in the MC consultation in South Africa in June of this year.
Since 2000, David has been International President of COMIBAM International (The Ibero-American Missionary Cooperation), and from 1996-2000 he was COMIBAM's Executive Director. He continues as International Coordinator for The Great Commission Roundtable (GCR), a forum that has convened some of the larger and more representative networks and mission organizations at regional, functional and international levels around the globe. In his COMIBAM role he was a member of the Global Leadership Council of the Mission Commission. Prior to that he served for 11 years as Pastor at Centro Biblico El Camino, an interdenominational church in Guatemala City. During those years, he played an active role in the development of the Guatemalan National Missionary Movement, and became the National Coordinator. He is one of the founders of the Missions Education Centre for Central America –CEMCA- the first centre for cross cultural studies in Guatemala. In 1996 he left the pastorate to serve full time in COMIBAM's min istry. His personal training was as a business administrator with 14 years of experience in the private sector of his country and Central America. David is married to Dora Amalia and they live in Guatemala City with their three children, Andrea (19), David (17) and Ilia Marcela (15).
With 15 years of mission experience, David's main role in the MC will focus on developing national and regional mission movements and the network of mission leaders from the global South. In September 2006 he and his wife will live in the UK for a year of missiological studies at All Nations Christian College.
Younoussa Djao ( Ivory Coast) has also been invited to serve in the MC as the Coordinator of the African Vision Project with special focus on the Francophone countries. Younoussa will dedicate part time to this function alongside his work with City Team International.
Younoussa was born into a Fulani, Muslim home. He came to faith during his university studies. He is married with Alphonsine and they have three children. Since 1989, both have ministered in Sub-Saharan Africa. After a ministry of church planting amongst Muslims in Cote d'Ivoire, they both earned their Master of Theology degree from Bangui Evangelical School of Theology, in Central Africa Republic. Younoussa has served with INTERDEV and today is City Team Ministries International's regional coordinator for Francophone Western and Central Africa. They are also associate missionaries with SIM-Côte d'Ivoire. He is MANI regional coordinator for Francophone West Africa, a member of the Interdev Partners Associate team and a member of WEA/MC Exco.
Early during SA06 Kelly O'Donnell stepped down from his positions of leadership, first as coordinator for member care, and also as a member of the Leadership Team for Member Care. The MC leadership has appointed and empowered a four-person leadership team to move ahead vigorously in the realm of member care. Those four are a representative team coming from South Africa, India, Germany/China, and the United States: Harry Hoffman (Germany/China, and contact person), Marina Prinz of South Africa, Larrie Gardiner of USA/SIL, and Pramila Rajendran of India. Harry also assumes administration of the member care website. This team will serve at least for a year as we seek the wisest ways forward in the MC-guided Global Member Care Network leadership.
For the past twenty years we have witnessed a very unique event: The awakening of the Ibero-American church towards world missions. Nowadays, more than 8,000 Ibero-American missionaries are working cross culturally. Each month, more than three million dollars ($3,000,000.00) are raised by their supporting churches and sent to them. Thousands of candidates continue working to fulfill the requirements to serve on the field and many more pastors continue to guide their churches as they strive to go to the ends of the earth.
>From the very beginning COMIBAM Internacional has played a key role in this process. In 1987, when the I Ibero-American Missions Congress (COMIBAM 87) was convened in Sao Paulo, Brazil, more than 3100 church leaders gathered to listen a clear and convincing Macedonian call. Many of them heard the challenge of evangelizing the Muslim world for the first time. Ten years later, during the II Ibero-American Missions Congress (COMIBAM 97) in Acapulco, Mexico, a similar number of leaders met to evaluate their performance as a sending base. Participants had the opportunity to listen to the testimonies of missionaries who spoke about the process they had to endure to reach the field. Local church leaders also shared their views on how the “sending to them” could be improved in order to help establish a stronger local church.
As we prepare for The III Ibero-American Missions Congress (COMIBAM 2006) Next November 2006, God has confirmed the need to bring together a limited number of pastors and leaders to examine the “field-fruit” and review what the true challenges of our missions force are, in a world searching for unity, marred by suffering, where extreme poverty is the norm and martyrdom is an every day possibility. This event will take place in Granada, Spain, November 13-17, 2006. We plan to have 1500 participants along with 300 missionaries and foster an exchange of knowledge, experience and information which will renovate and significantly improve our Movement. It will be a historic milestone. Out of this collective analysis, we expect to strengthen and multiply our church-planting and disciple-making endeavors.
For additional information and special invitation please write to presidencia@comibam.org .After a year in the UK, the Ekstr öm family is back in Brazil. The address is:
Bertil Ekström – Executive Director
Caixa Postal 7017, 13076-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil. Telephone: (55) 19.32555190 (office) and (55) 19.91747325 (mobile). E-mail: bekstrom@worldevangelical.org