And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
- Matthew 28:18-20
What's new this week
Ryan Shaw from the Global Mission Mobilization Initiative shares with us about the temptation to pursue spectacular ministry results can actually damage our mobilization efforts.
new for you
From SIM: "they look like Ethiopians"(opens in new tab)
Ethiopian couple Iaka and Liya offer a wonderful example of how God has used SIM’s Faithful Witness initiative in amazing ways.
They are part of the Faithful Witness team serving the Fulani people in Nigeria. The Fulani are the largest nomadic people group in the world and have had a very complicated and adversarial relationship with Christians historically.
Iaka, Liya, and their family have been serving in this community for three years. They were sent by the East Africa Sending Office in Ethiopia and have since developed trusting relationships with local Fulani village leaders, established a women’s ministry through Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, and have even distributed audio Bibles.
SIM’s East Africa Sending Office Director, Seble, recently shared how unexpected cultural and ethnic ties between Ethiopian and Fulani people have created new opportunities for relationships.
Missionary profile – Ezekiel Jako(opens in new tab)
While on a trip to the USA, a church in Canada invited me to go over and speak. I applied for a five-day visa – and instead, I got a 10-year visa! A friend and fellow missionary quipped, “Ezekiel, you have a Canadian 10-year visa; go serve the Lord!”
But I didn’t feel called to be a missionary in Canada. Besides, I didn’t know anyone who’d host me. So I took my pre-planned five-day trip and returned home. But the Lord worked in my heart and confirmed my calling through other brethren. Two years later, I embarked on my journey as a missionary in Canada. I have been serving as the City Director with International Students Ministry for three years now.
But my journey as a missionary started many years ago as a teenager when I accepted the Lord as my Saviour during a Christian Union weekend rally. I knew I wanted to serve God,but I didn’t know how or where.
Missionary profile – Georgina Takundwa(opens in new tab)
My heart is for the unreached nation of the Somalis. I have lived among least reached communities in many places. My focus has been on Somali communities, wherever they are—from Zambia to Djibouti to communities in Cape Town and Jo-burg, SA.
On one of my mission trips, we travelled by bus from Harare in Zimbabwe to Mombasa, Nairobi and then further north. It took us a week on this trip on the road. The mission seed had been planted in my heart a few years earlier, and I reached Somali communities wherever they were.
I’m now working with Operation Mobilization (OM) as a People Care Officer in Zimbabwe. I take care of all the details needed for a missionary to go and thrive in the mission field. I focus on the spiritual, mental and physical well-being of the missionaries. I also train pastors on how to care for missionaries.
Missionary profile – Victor Bajah(opens in new tab)
I’m a missionary involved in short-term missions and in training pastors in systematic theology, pastoral theology, and missions. My organisation, Grace for the Heart of Africa, has trained more than 500 pastors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2018.
I have travelled to the Congo twice a year since 2020, and I stay for one month each time. Sometimes pastors come from as far as Kenya, Malawi, and Burundi. We partner with local pastors as well. My wife is an integral part of the trips, although she hasn’t been able to go with us yet, she holds us in prayers. Her hearts breaks for the kids in Congo.
My love and desire for missions was stirred when, as a journalism and communication graduate, I subscribed to the Christian and Missionary Alliance magazine. As I read stories of unreached people groups, I felt compelled to do something. One thing I learned from Alliance Life Magazine was door-to-door evangelism.
Missionary profile – Kassum and Assita Balbone(opens in new tab)
Growing up in one of Abidjan’s most difficult and dangerous areas, we were young, obstinate, insolent, and Muslim. That once young stubborn boy is now a missionary and a mobilizer in Burkina Faso doing research awareness, mobilization, church planting, discipleship, and training.
Life was tough in a foreign country on a meager watchman’s salary. One afternoon, a young man met us and started talking about Jesus. The Lord captured my brother, who was the worst among us, and changed his life. He no longer argued with our parents, didn’t beat me like before, and even stopped climbing over our neighbour’s wall to steal things.
I wanted to know what happened to my brother, so I started following him. I noticed he was speaking to others about Jesus, and within no time, I, too, was converted. It was shameful for my dad—it looked like he couldn’t control his children.
Missionary profile – Lindani and Nombuso Mazibuko(opens in new tab)
I was a new believer on a short-term mission trip to Switzerland when I felt the Lord asking me to serve Him fully in missions. I was scared of the financial aspect after learning that I’d not be getting a salary for this work. Therefore, I made a decision not to get married. I knew what I was getting myself into, and I didn’t want someone else’s child to suffer because of my choices. One year later, I met a Zulu girl who was also ready to suffer for the Lord, and we were okay to suffer together.
My wife, Nombuso, and I are now mobilizers and trainers with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We travel, recruit, and mobilize people for our regions and the world. We also recruit for YWAM, and we are not suffering.
I grew up in a Christian home, but none of us was born again. I dropped out of university due to financial constraints, and soon, I got a job.
Missionary profile – Thabang and Tshenolo Selemala(opens in new tab)
When I was two years old, my parents separated. I spent my childhood oscillating between relatives. I took odd jobs after school and became a master of many. Then Christ found me and gave me the best job ever —a missionary and a mobilizer. I’m now serving with my wife as a missionary in Southern Africa.
While living with my grandma, a man visited to share the gospel with her. I raised my hands when he made an altar call—but I didn’t understand salvation. In middle school, I got saved for the final time, but I was always under the conviction that I couldn’t go to heaven because of the sins I had committed.
Years later, while working as a Geologist Assistant in a Mining Exploration project, a man who used to sell Bibles from his red car trunk talked to me about the assurance of salvation. He gave me a Bible; that was the last time I talked myself out of salvation again.
Missionary profile – Bolaji Sholoton(opens in new tab)
I was born in a nominal Muslim home and would occasionally accompany my friends to their churches. I had many opportunities to become a Christian, but I didn’t want to. Eventually, the Lord captured my heart.
Today, I’m a missionary showing others how they, too, can become children of God. Every year, I’d make a New Year’s resolution: to get closer to God.
However, the resolution would not live to see the end of February. Towards the end of 1997, I decided that I would no longer have short-lived New Year’s resolutions. On Christmas Eve, I went to a church I knew and gave my life to Christ. My friends followed up on me to ensure I didn’t fall away from the faith. A missionary came to the church to mobilize for missions and gave us cassettes about missions. I listened to those cassettes for 6 months, and I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. My church was not mission-minded.
From The Lausanne Movement: From ‘What Do You Have?’ to ‘What Will You Leave Behind?’(opens in new tab)
For decades, if we’re honest, for centuries, Africa has been considered a continent waiting to receive what wealthy countries have to give: the good news of Jesus, financial resources, discipleship materials, leadership training, imported solutions to its problems.
Open the glossy ministry brochures. Read the email campaigns. Watch the donor videos. And you will see a remarkably consistent narrative: Africa receives. The Global North sends. Africa learns. The Global North teaches. Africa needs. The Global North provides.
Sadly, this pattern extends beyond fundraising appeals into the resources created to help churches grow in stewardship and generosity. Ministries based in the Global North develop generosity curricula then they invite African
Missionary profile – Rev. Faith Mugera(opens in new tab)
Immediately after graduating college as a twenty-three-year-old girl, I was asked to consider interning at the Nairobi Chapel, and I accepted. When I completed my internship, I didn’t want anything else to do with ‘full-time ministry.’ I was done and dusted.
Later, I packed my bags and went to the United States to do a master’s degree in Non-Profit Management, my other passion. When I returned home, God found me again; it was the right time. I couldn’t run.
I’m now working as a pastor at Nairobi Chapel. I initially started in the social justice space. Nairobi Chapel seeks to see spiritual transformation happening alongside social transformation. We have communities around us that are broken, underserved and poor. I’ve been mobilizing the Church to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I’m also in charge of our church’s Global Partnerships.
Missionary profile – Manoa and Vola Ratovona(opens in new tab)
As an introverted, quiet, easy-to-forget middle child, I was the least likely candidate to be a missions mobilizer. I was much more focused on education. I studied Economics, became a school teacher, and later, a university lecturer. But now, I’m working with Africa Inland Mission (AIM), mobilizing the Church in Madagascar and encouraging them to be more involved in missions. I’m the Director for AIM in Madagascar.
I grew up in church—my parents were students’ ministry workers with Union des Groupes Bibliques de Madagascar (UGBM). (This is the French equivalent of Fellowship of Christian Unions [FOCUS] and [IFES]).
I was conscious of the idea of salvation, but it dawned on me that I wasn’t saved. I knew I needed to surrender to Christ fully. After high school, I was sad that I had not shared the gospel with any of my classmates, and now they had gone out to the world without hearing about salvation—at least not from me.
Missionary profile – Gilbert Oigo(opens in new tab)
I’m a former street boy and gang leader who’s now reaching out to street families and gangs in my community. I help in trainings and run a mentorship to street families thrice a week. We teach the Word of God and help people recover from addictions and the street life that almost cost me my life.
Something tragic happened when I was age seven. The woman I thought was my mom revealed to me that she wasn’t my mom. She was my grandma, and my mom had died when I was a baby. Unfortunately, she too died soon after this confession. I was sent to live with my auntie and uncle in Nairobi.
Life with my uncle was unbearable. He was unkind and abusive – physically and verbally. When I couldn’t take the cruelty anymore, I ran way. I ended up in the city with the street boys, and my life on the streets of Nairobi and later, Mombasa began.