A ministry of ligaments
We are all familiar with Paul’s metaphor in his letters of the church being a body, and it is common to talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. A number of years ago, we noticed one part that doesn’t usually get attention: the ligaments. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul urges believers to make sure they are holding fast to “the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow” (Colossians 2:19, emphasis added). And in Ephesians he writes, “We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:15-16, emphasis added).
Photo by Nino Liverani on Unsplash
We’ve realized that our ministry is that of ligaments—we help the rest of the body stay connected, be equipped and grow. We feel called to train and mentor cross-cultural workers, often by connecting them to believers in other parts of the world. In this way, we contribute to EMC’s efforts to expand its training of EMC-administered workers.
One way this is happening is through our connections with Mission Prep, an organization preparing and serving workers from Canada. For several years now, we have been a part of Mission Prep training events (both virtual and in-person), but now we have invited EMC workers to a pre-field workshop in the summer. Our hope is that they will come away equipped for fruitful ministry.
More recently, Gabi travelled to Europe in January to teach language and culture learning to a group of Latin American workers preparing for cross-cultural service with the organization Eagles of Peace. This was one part of a three-month internship, and the goal was to give them tools to adjust to another culture and connect intentionally. Over the past seven years, we have trained Latinos and Latinas in this context, and four teams are now working in the Balkans, and one in Ethiopia. We also invited an EMC family working in Europe to attend. At the end of the week, they were encouraged that now they had the tools to learn an immigrant language and connect more deeply with those they want to reach.
We’ve realized that our ministry is that of ligaments—we help the rest of the body stay connected, be equipped and grow. We feel called to train and mentor cross-cultural workers, often by connecting them to believers in other parts of the world.
About Ethiopia, Calvin has a long-running relationship with the Kale Heywet Church, the largest Protestant denomination in the country. Besides contributing to an extensive ESL ministry, Calvin has also connected Eagles of Peace to Kale Heywet, who wants to send hundreds of cross-cultural workers to serve in neighbouring countries. Eagles of Peace is now planning a Missions Congress, to take place in Ethiopia in the spring. The hope is to mobilize Ethiopians and give them tools to spur their own members into missions. If all that sounds confusing, it’s because that is the world we are in now—believers from everywhere preparing to serve everywhere. Missions is now truly global.
Of course, one of the challenges of such a stretchy ministry is to over-stretch, so pray for wisdom for our own family as we navigate connecting different parts of the body, while remaining connected to Jesus, our Head, and to each other within our family.