Missions

At Work in the World

International Missions JOINING JESUS IN PRAYER

Our culture is not very interested in “the long game.” 1 If some activity does not appear to meet a perceived immediate need in life, our society is not deeply engaged in it. Daily focus has succumbed to an innate primacy of seeing personally perceived needs met first before others are considered. The nature of that orientation has infiltrated our faith experience, and we may be surprised at the degree to which those cultural attitudes shape our Christian practices of prayer. It tug...

ERDO SUPPORTING OUR GLOBAL FAMILY

The first time I encountered poverty, it was not a special day. I didn’t smell, taste, see, touch or hear anything out of the ordinary. Yet, for the first time, I realized how small my view of the world was. Throwing my backpack across the floor as I ran up the stairs, I was immediately stopped by my mom. I sighed in annoyance. Without a word, she handed me a photo of a girl. “This is your new sister,” she said. Recognizing my confusion, she told me that the girl in the photo...

Mission Canada A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MISSION CANADA

In a recent pandemic lament, a pastor shared his dismay and distress concerning those he was entrusted to lead. “I am flying blind,” he said. “About a third of our congregation are engaging online, following on social media, connecting with neighbours, participating in an online small group, and investing financially. A second group have less engagement, give sporadically, and are watching online at their convenience. But I am deeply troubled by those with no engagement (that w...

International Missions RACE, POWER AND VOICE

The year 2020 brought new vocabulary to our lexicon that we never imagined necessary. Adding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the name George Floyd became symbolic of many things, but primarily of race, power and voice. Tucked away in Asia when the protests were most intense, I was tempted to disengage, treating the crisis as an intractable North American problem. Thoughtful global worker feedback made that impossible to do. The summer is long past, but the issues haven’t changed. (In fact, by mo...

Mission Canada AN OASIS IN A CONCRETE JUNGLE

Decades ago, when one felt “called” to the mission field, the pull was most often to a distant land. As a young girl, I recall hearing stories of Mark and Huldah Buntain and their ministry to the poor in Calcutta, India. In my teenage years, church services included times where PAOC missionaries would visit and share what God was doing in Africa, India and Central America. I would return home after those mission services and go straight to my Encyclopaedia Britannica books to check o...

ERDO CHILD SPONSORSHIP

Each morning, Ayisha’s father would leave the house to find work. He was a day labourer and took sporadic jobs to provide for his wife and children. Eight-year-old Ayisha and her 16-year-old brother had a place to live and food to eat because their father found enough work. Village of Hope (VOH) Africa and ERDO help the family with school fees, and the children are receiving an education through child sponsorship. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Zimbabwe in early 2020, families were told to...

Mission Canada CLOSED DOORS, OPEN HEARTS

The PAOC is a Fellowship of churches as well as a sending agency to the world and to our own nation. Mission Canada, our national mission agency, has five priorities that guide our missional efforts in Canada. Two of these priorities include reaching those in our urban centres and in various cultural language groups. As a welcoming nation to those immigrating from other countries, our urban centres are growing and diversifying. Some of the amazing churches that make up our Fellowship are smaller...

ERDO ELEVATING AND ALLEVIATING

“God elevates and alleviates,” said PAOC global worker Matthew Price, speaking with ERDO early this summer through Facebook Live. Matthew and Amber Price have been living in Thailand for the past four years. Amber is the director of Impact School of Missions (ISM) and focuses on leadership development. Matthew works with ERDO as the national director for ChildCARE Plus (CCP) Thailand. He oversees 17 staff across three out of four regions in Thailand, where 461 sponsored children are ...

International Missions A COSTLY FAITH

As evangelical Christians, we often speak of our personal faith. We ourselves made the decision to follow Christ, so it is indeed personal. But what else might we have assumed it means or does not mean for us individually? Is this faith something we think we own? And does that mean we get to define its impact upon our own lives? Or is the precious gift of this Christian faith something given to us with a set of parameters defined by Jesus, wherein the promised transformation is tied to the embra...

International Missions MISSIONS AND THE CHURCH

Thinking of increasing your own missional impact, or not sure of what steps you can take? I recently interviewed Aaron Mix-Ross, executive pastor at Heartland, a Church Connected in Mississauga, Ont., so he could share his recent experience of taking a short-term mission team to Colombia. His perspective may help to answer some of your questions. Q: “We value growth through missions and evangelism” is listed as one of the “Core Values” on your church’s website. Ho...

Mission Canada NEWCOMERS IN OUR CITIES

“I want this assurance of salvation also …” These were the words that Ahmed, a Syrian newcomer, said to me during Eid al-Adha. It is during this holiday that he and his family visit friends, eat delicious foods, and wear new clothes. Eid is a time when an animal is slaughtered to commemorate Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram instead of his son. As I sat in a home with a group of Syrian men, I explained that Abraham’s sacrifice points to another Lamb that was slaughtere...

ERDO THE HUNGER PANDEMIC

Every year, ERDO assists thousands of people suffering from food insecurity who are unable to access proper nutrition due to drought, conflict or displacement. The COVID-19 pandemic struck an already vulnerable world, doubling the number of people facing acute hunger worldwide. Clearly, access to food has never been more important. ERDO is regularly in touch with our team on the ground: PAOC global workers, local churches, and other partners who are helping us respond to this growing food cris...

ERDO BIRTHING HOPE

Akot escaped South Sudan on foot. She walked for over two weeks, hiding from rebels before arriving at the Uganda border. She was tired, hungry and all alone. Akot is a 76-year-old grandmother who now lives in Rhino Refugee Camp. In the camp, ERDO runs a feeding program together with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank as well as a psychosocial program to care for refugees after and during trauma. Weeks after Akot arrived, I visited the camp as ERDO’s director of programs. Speaking with Akot, I ...

International Missions OUR VISION AND MISSION

Brian Stiller’s thoughtful reflections on his fruitful legacy caught my attention. Asked to leave some important advice for leaders today, he surprised me with what he called the “essence” or “central factor” that was the “primary learning principle which took hold and helped direct what I did.” He described this leadership principle as the responsibility to carefully build “sustainable ministries around vision and mission.” Now in my 14th ...

Mission Canada OPENING OUR HEARTS

In 2020 I pray that God will grant you One Connection So you can better understand our One Context As God unifies our One Church To offer the hope of Jesus to each One Canadian Who is wanting to receive it. ONE CONNECTION It was 11:30 p.m. and I was exhausted. I was juggling the high school math classroom with pastoring and was in the midst of planning two major outreach events. I was about to fall into bed when my phone rang. As an unknown number flashed across my screen, I wanted to shove ...

ERDO WORDS FOR WATER

What would happen if you could create a bridge between people who need water in Zimbabwe and children who need to know Scripture? We can all agree that it would be a transformative moment. That is the vision of Anne McCaffrey—the kind of vision that impacts lives. Providing water and Scripture are two of Anne McCaffrey’s passions, and she found a way to champion both. McCaffrey, a hospital chaplain, put out a challenge to the 29 children in her extended family. For each set of verses...

Mission Canada SERVING THE NATIONS

We have greatly enjoyed the smiling faces of international students in our home for over three decades of campus ministry. They are friendly, gracious and inquisitive. I fondly remember David, who stayed with us during Christmas. David was from Africa and was fascinated by our family tradition of building puzzles over the holidays. He stayed up until 3:30 a.m. to fit the last puzzle piece in! We also discovered that David’s dream after graduation was going back to Africa to help develop su...

International Missions DEEP AND WIDE

On the riverbanks of the dry and desert-like Sabi River of Southern Zimbabwe, you can find some incredible trees. When green, the Musasa tree can provide enough shade for an entire school assembly looking for relief from the blazing sun. At first, you wonder how the tree can be so fruitful in such a dry wasteland. Then you remember that its roots go deep into the soil and find the water that flows beneath the surface of the dry riverbed. The height and width of the tree’s lush green leaves...

Mission Canada REACHING OUT TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

“Churchy” was the name I was given in high school by my drama teacher, Mrs. Small. Later on she said to me, “Churchy, we need someone like you in our high school. We need someone who can sit and listen to students who are going through things. Someone who can be there for them. I’m going to talk to our principal, and we are going to set something up.” She started a conversation about having me in to speak to her high school, a public high school in Quebec, as a moti...

ERDO THE ULTIMATE GIFT AT CHRISTMAS

We sat down and spoke through a translator. I asked her what her name was. She said, “My name is Jessica, I am 20 years old, and I have two children. I have a six-year-old and a two-year-old.” I spent time with five young women that day and listened to their stories. I was heartbroken hearing so many stories similar to Jessica’s. Stories of women who dropped out of school so their other siblings could get an education. Stories of young women who were forced by their families t...