I wonder if you have a “to do” list? I often have things I want to tick off each day and get a sense of satisfaction from this. Recently, I’ve been praying and reflecting on a “to be” list. What would I like to encourage within myself and my interactions with others?

by Alastair Bateman, CEO

One thing I aspire to is “to be curious”. To adopt a mindset of enquiry rather than judgmental opinion. I see this as a behaviour I adopt when I’m at my best – but when feeling pressured, it’s amazing how easy it is to produce a snap judgment rather than asking deeper questions.

It’s not just curiosity with others; I also aim to be more curious about my reactions. To hit the “pause button” when I notice my emotions and to ask Jesus what might be happening. Sometimes I might just be tired. But other times, especially if a pattern emerges, pausing and asking questions can be a window into something deeper, where I might need healing from the Holy Spirit.

It strikes me that we live in a world that encourages quick, emotional reactions – technology and media industries know how to press our buttons in ways that lead to division, rather than expanding our understanding. And with increasingly polarised views in the world, we in mission need to be ever more intentional at seeking first to understand before wanting to be understood ourselves.

My predecessor 50 years ago, John V Taylor, recognised this when he wrote that at the heart of mission is a need to “come as a stranger with everything to learn again”. How often we prefer to be “knowers” rather than “learners”! But we need to be connected, humble and curious.

Living in anxious times can block our pursuit of curiosity – neuroscience tells us you cannot be anxious and curious simultaneously. Amid constant change, we crave definitive answers. But what if we can’t immediately know the answers and need to trust God in that discomfort?

I recently saw someone on Twitter say: “That kind of calm and non-anxious presence that absorbs dissonance while remaining self-regulated is increasingly scarce and attractive. This is one of the key things Christians need to be known for moving forward: quiet, calm curiosity.”*

I’m reminded that in the Gospels, Jesus asks dozens of questions. Do we have the courage to be curious, with Jesus?

So why not practise hitting the pause button with me? Attempt to replace judgment with curiosity. My colleague Naomi is fond of saying, “more curious, less furious”. Ask if this is something Jesus wants you to be.

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Owen was on the streets, taking drugs and rejected by family. His story could have been similar to that of many young men in Honduras: drawn into gangs, crime and destruction.

But today Owen is studying at university and running a barbers’ shop with CMS mission partners Lindsey and Steve Poulson, who work with children and young people at risk.

Here Owen and Steve tell Owen’s story…

My name is Owen. I am from Honduras. I’m 24 years old and I’m the owner of Barbería Marquez Alas.

Rejection

I grew up in a disintegrated family and I was rejected by my mother. That was really hard and I decided to go to the streets.

God gave me the gift of being a good student. Despite being on the streets, taking drugs and doing very bad things, I still got very good exam results. That meant I could join a project where I could live in a children’s home here in Talanga, a town north of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

When I went into the children’s home, my family wanted nothing to do with me. For the 13 years I lived there, neither my mum nor my dad, nor any of my family, visited me. And that really was hurtful, because I wanted them to see that I was not a failure.

Steve: I met Owen as a teenager when he was living in the children’s home. Owen had lots of difficulties growing up, but he’s always been very responsible and willing to work. A few years ago, he started to learn to cut hair and practised on me. I went through a couple of years with pretty bad haircuts. But now, it’s got much better.

I realised that having my hair cut by Owen was a great opportunity to chat with him, so that ended up being our times of mentoring. We would come together every couple of weeks or every month – he would cut my hair and I would hear about his life.

Switching off from God

Owen: I always heard about Jesus. When I was a small child, my uncle and aunt would take me to church and Sunday School. I also joined a Bible study group for children. About four years ago I left the children’s home, and with it the safe bubble where I’d grown up. I started to spend time with people I had met at school and they weren’t necessarily a good influence.

My life completely changed. I started going out to parties, spending time with women and doing things that didn’t honour God. Although I was able to work, I would still go out at the weekends and abuse my body. I knew it wasn’t pleasing to God, so I sort of switched off that part of my life.

Steve: When Owen left the children’s home, I was still able to go and get my hair cut by him, so we stayed in contact. I had always said, “Why don’t you come and join us and start your business, your barbers’ shop, with Proyecto Alas [the project Lindsey and Steve work with]?”

Proyecto Alas

Lindsey and Steve Poulson work in mentoring, creating safe spaces for at-risk children and young people to grow. They explain what Proyecto Alas is all about:

“Gang violence, corruption and poverty affect many Honduran young people. Many experience trauma at home and have few opportunities to change their circumstances. They feel abandoned to make a life for themselves and seek belonging in the only place they can think of – the street.

“Proyecto Alas started as a mentoring programme for children and young people. We bring together a consistent and caring adult with a child or young person, and that adult walks alongside them. There’s so much research showing even just an hour a week one to one in this positive environment can really make a difference.

“Proyecto Alas has grown and now includes an education programme for children to get homework help, a psychologist who provides support and a youth group at the weekends.

“We’ve also started businesses, such as Owen’s barbers’ shop and a cafe, that bring in support for the project and provide employment opportunities for the teenagers as they get older. Through employing people in our businesses, we’re able to give them a dignified way of helping themselves. It’s really exciting to see coffee shop staff, for example, paying for their own education.”

Sick of it all

Owen: There came a point when I realised I was sick of this monotonous life. I went into a time of very deep depression, and I tried to just finish it all. I started praying again because I was sick of what my life was turning into. And I started searching for God again.

One morning I woke up crying, feeling terrible. I said to God, “I don’t want this anymore… God, what do you want for my life?” The Lord gave me the opportunity to start receiving discipleship. And also to be part of the barbers’ shop project.

Steve: At the beginning of 2022 Owen was in a really low place. One day he called because he was losing his job and his home. We managed to arrange a place to stay, and we worked together towards opening the barbers’ shop.

While all of that was going on, we were getting to spend more time with Owen. He was coming to prayer meetings at our house and at one of those he re-dedicated his life to the Lord. There was a 180-degree change in his life. From searching for meaning in drugs and a whole host of things he shouldn’t be doing, he started seeking Jesus.

180-degree change

Owen: Over the past year, there’s been a big change in me emotionally. I realised that even though I was going out to parties, it was something I didn’t want. I was hiding a hole in my heart. When I stopped going out, I was able to stop filling that hole with things that really weren’t healthy for me. I am very thankful to God that I’ve gone at least six months with no alcohol and no drugs.

God has given me the strength to keep going every day, get up every day and never give up.

Although I didn’t grow up with my father or mother, God always put people around me. And thanks to God, those people have helped me to grow spiritually and through my education. Now whenever I wake up, I say, “God, may your will be done today. I want to follow you.” And when I go to sleep, I say “thank you”.

“It’s amazing to
see how Owen
is really taking
charge of his
own life under
the guidance of
the Lord….”

Lindsey and Steve Poulson,
mission partners in Honduras

Passing it on

Steve: Owen is now an example for our other children and youth. He’s been through what they are going through. So it’s great to see him studying social work at university Monday to Thursday and then Friday to Sunday running the barbers’ shop.

Jesus has changed Owen amazingly. It’s not been easy. It’s been a long journey with many ups and downs. But we know we need to just keep going. Never give up. Jesus never gave up on me. So why should we give up on Owen and the other young people we work with?

Owen: I’d like to serve as an example for the kids [at Proyecto Alas] and be a help to them. Because it might not be easy, but asking for help from God and just keeping on going every day makes it worth it.

I don’t just want to be an example of someone who’s graduated and has their own business. I want them to see that I’m someone who serves the Lord. Because everything that I have has been given to me by God.

Recently I got a tattoo on my leg saying “I just didn’t give up,” because Jesus has always been there and he didn’t give up on me.

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In 2023, thanks to faithful, generous supporters, two beloved CMS-started projects in Africa and Asia are celebrating two decades of mission among people at the edges.

Neema Crafts in Iringa, Tanzania, began in 2003 with three deaf men making stationery from elephant dung – they were taught this craft by mission partner Susie Hart.

Susie and her husband Andy had been in Tanzania a short time when Susie noticed how disabled people were stigmatised and ostracised.

Working with the Diocese of Ruaha, she helped show the local community that people with disabilities matter to God.

Today, Neema has trained and employed more than 100 disabled people in craftmaking, hospitality and other industries and their products are treasured around the world.

Neema is increasingly locally led, as CMS mission partners Ben and Katy Ray, who succeeded the Harts, have relocated and placed Neema in the capable hands of Diana Nzagi, Erick Moshi and mission associates Hannah and Joseph Adams.

Jigsaw Kids Ministries in Manila, the Philippines, also started small, with mission partners Kate and Tim Lee spreading out some toys on their living room floor for local children to play with.

It has grown to multiple centres providing education, Bible clubs and fun activities for hundreds of children living in poverty.

Having handed over Jigsaw leadership to CMS local partners a few years ago, Tim Lee continues to support and advise the ministry from Cumbria.

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The post Neema and Jigsaw: 20 years at the edges appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

After five years of overseas service, returning mission partners Phil and Sylvie Good reflect on their expectations and the reality of their time in the Middle East and North Africa.

When we felt called to mission partner service, we knew it would involve laying down some things, including a more conventional retirement life of travel and leisure.

We knew we’d be laying down a sense of home and belonging to a place. Yet we felt a deep desire to offer up our administrative gifts to join in God’s mission.

As it turned out, we actually had to lay aside our gifts, too.

Beirut beginnings

As we discerned with CMS where God was calling us, “refugee” was an important word. So, we set off to Beirut, Lebanon, to partner with organisations working with Syrian refugees.

Initially, we were based at Life Center Church in a slum area, which provides a lot of practical help for refugees. We anticipated helping with administration, supporting the delivery of various programmes and making things more efficient. Once there, we had to face the reality that our priority of efficiency wasn’t the project’s biggest need.

We realised that what was actually needed was childcare, to support women accessing and providing the refugee services. So, we set up a space with toys and were blessed by being able to connect with families who longed for community.

We then worked with Resurrection Church Beirut (RCB) – this was a context with greater resources but also great need, serving over a thousand Syrian refugees.

During the time we served with RCB, the huge explosion at the port in Beirut on 4 August 2020 happened. We worked with RCB to provide relief, and Phil helped with fundraising to support the work of clearing up and rebuilding.

God’s lead and local need

As the fundraising for the clean-up came to an end, we relocated to northern Lebanon to work with CMS local partners Emil and Reem Bourizk, who run a school for refugee children. We were able to help them convert a nearby unfinished house into a school building, so they could move the school out of their home.

Managing this project was hugely rewarding, and we saw the school expand to offer education to more children. But after the building was complete, once again we knew that our strengths were not what was needed – so we laid them down and sought God’s next steps.

Since then, we have spent a brief time in north Africa, connected with an organisation equipping Christians from a Muslim background for discipleship, supported media ministry SAT-7 with fundraising and been involved with creation care organisation A Rocha Lebanon.

Presence over projects

Throughout our mission journey, we found that the core of our work was being present – and that for all our administrative skills, being with people was of greatest value.

Yet while we could say we were “supporting refugees”, we were really walking through life with our newfound friends and learning from them. These refugee friends had lost homes, possessions and relationships, but had met Jesus and said that they were glad they came to Lebanon because meeting Jesus is worth it all.

Our friends also helped us learn the local language and taught Sylvie to make makdous, a traditional food made from aubergines. We saw that only ever receiving saps at people’s dignity and self-respect, so us coming in our weakness to learn became a gift, as much as our skills were.

We loved spending time in the homes of those who have heard the gospel. Sylvie regularly gathered together with a group of women, some who have met Jesus and others who were journeying, as they spent time crafting, drinking coffee and reading and discussing the Gospels.

We visited refugee camps – and in so doing laid down any sense of taking the lead, as our language skills meant being guided by local colleagues. And there we spent time sitting in a temporary home with friends, seeing God working with everyone differently. What went on in those spaces was more important than any project plan, than the things we had to lay aside for the sake of knowing Jesus.

In walking with friends there are challenges – we have had to accept where we can change things and where we cannot. We could be a bridge some of the time between refugee friends and others, but we couldn’t remove all prejudice. We have to humbly accept where God can work and we cannot.

Learning at the edges

Five years ago, we knew that we wanted to connect with God and to know Jesus more. But our mission partner experience involved more laying down and also more growth and blessing than we could have anticipated.

We don’t come back having “fixed” anything, or having vastly improved efficiency. Instead we were involved in working with God to support people whose lives have more important needs than that, who need to know Jesus is there for them wherever they find themselves.

We have discovered that our gifts can be valuable, but our presence even more so. And we have seen that Jesus never gives up on precious people, even when the world forgets about them.

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Could God be calling you on an adventure to follow Jesus to the edges in mission? We’d love to chat!

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New into his role as Britain Hub movement leader, Johnny Sertin is inspired by meeting up with CMS people in mission

• A community shed/warehouse set up to support vulnerable men through the medium of carpentry and woodwork.
• A craft workshop constructed in a beautiful space in a reclaimed building as a safe environment for vulnerable women to meet and share.
• Chaplaincy on a children’s ward for those with very serious conditions, caring for the doctors and nurses alongside the children, and making beauty out of dark and challenging times.
• Endeavours from Yorkshire to Cornwall working with asylum seekers, marginalised women and young people who are trapped in social care systems.

These are just a few mission morsels of the smorgasbord I’ve seen or heard about as I have spent a fair bit of the year travelling around Britain, connecting with people and places and seeing CMS work behind the scenes.

As I’m relatively new in this role, I have yet to visit all our pioneers and partners, but this is some of what I have found so far.

Signs of life

With our mission partners there is a community of people who genuinely embody the pioneering practice of CMS.

It strikes me they are authentically living out a vision of exploring a post-Christian context and what mission with and for people at the edges looks like, particularly with people living in poverty or displacement and with young people.

Some partners have previous experience working overseas in difficult contexts and they now bring learned wisdom and knowledge to their local communities.

There are others working from the UK but with a more international feel, such as the incredible work going on to challenge and advocate against female genital mutilation in Africa.

Hallmarks of transformation

There is so much to be thankful for and each person in mission is a great sign of how the Church in a post-Christian Britain can discover and repurpose her sense of call. I am reminded of Jesus’ response to John checking he was the one:

“Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Luke 7:22

While not taking this in its literal sense, what I’ve observed bears the hallmarks of what transformation looks like when people encounter the generosity that makes itself known in a special way in Jesus.

Those deemed as surplus to requirements, bottom-feeders or pariahs in social status become the witness of a different economy of grace. And this is only the beginning. Enabled to contribute, they become the leaders of their communities.

This was played out before me during a June event held in Birmingham.

Its intention was to gather pioneers to inquire where the future lies, discerning what the Spirit is up to and the perennial question of discipleship: “What shall we do now?”

This was a rich and captivating day in the company of wonderful people and a guest of honour, US activist and author Shane Claiborne.

However, it was the context of where the gathering took place that made it most intriguing.

Coordinated chaos

Held at Newbigin House, where CMS partners with Seedbeds, the URC and the Congregational Federation in supporting and training pioneers, the place demonstrated what incarnational life looks like in an urban priority neighbourhood.

Within this house and the Lodge (a reclaimed Methodist church) there was a hive of activity.

People of all backgrounds and needs participated in serving lunch, fixing bicycles, making music, blacksmithing and walking the resident alpacas, to name but a few things happening!

It was coordinated chaos at its very best and the buzz and camaraderie were palpable.

Finding freedom

I am often struck by the response of John Dominic Crossan when asked what Jesus’ ministry was essentially about. He replied that there were two drivers to his life and work: free healing and an open table.

Freedom is a key needle for the mission pioneer’s compass, pointing them towards their true north, and an open table is a way and symbol of this freedom being expressed and shared in an egalitarian, non-judgmental setting.

It is both inspiring and sobering to work with such people in mission.

If it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, I wonder if this is best discovered not in lofty towers of privilege, but in high-rise buildings and desecrated landscapes where a bunch of less advantaged people embrace the invitation to participate and reclaim their agency to create beauty from ashes, oil of joy from mourning and praise from heaviness.

Now that is a song of redemption worth listening to.

Take part

Are you keen to join in with what God is doing at the edges in your community, but not sure where to start? Check out CMS Pioneer Mission Training.

Pioneer Mission Training

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Piriyo, a young man in north-east DR Congo, struggled to move around or do much more than sit on a mat outside his hut. Told he had “cancer of the feet” he was referred to a palliative care team whose vision is that no one should be forgotten.

Piriyo was in his mid 20s in 2020 when a local health centre referred him to the palliative care team that is part of the medical service in the Diocese of Aru.

One member of the team was palliative care doctor Patricia Wyard, who, along with her husband Peter, has just retired as a CMS mission partner after five years in Aru.

Patricia has been working to improve the local hospital’s general level of healthcare as well as leading the palliative care team, and Peter has spent his time teaching students preparing for ministry.

Making inroads in palliative care

Aru’s palliative care team was made up of Patricia, two nurses, a chaplain and an administrator.

Although certainly needed, palliative care is not a widespread service in DRC, and the Aru team (now continuing their work without Patricia) is likely the only rural palliative care team in the country.

They are committed to their cause. Patricia says, “Patients are the golden thread in the tapestry of all we do to learn, to teach and to connect far and wide for the purpose of improving palliative care provision.”

The team takes as its motto “Personne de côté”, no one cast aside – they do not give up walking alongside patients and caring for them through to the end of their lives.

Clearly, one small team can’t help everyone, but they make a difference in the lives of the patients they can help. One of those patients was Piriyo.

A local man took Patricia and one of her colleagues, nurse Anguyi, to meet Piriyo and see where he lived, an hour and a half away from Aru by motorbike.

Meeting Piriyo

Piriyo lived with his mother and siblings. His illness had made it difficult to move – he could get around by shuffling along on one hand and one foot on two flip flops, but this limited his ability to work as well as to visit friends and make the best of his life. He spent most of his time sitting on a reed mat outside his hut.

Piriyo had taken on the role of head of his family, as his father had left to start another family and someone needed to look after his mother and younger siblings. To support the family, Piriyo bought petrol and sold it on in little bottles.

He was the only person in his village with a secondary school education and also the only one who could understand French, the official language of DR Congo (and Belgian Patricia’s second language).

Despite his illness, Piriyo persevered in teaching Sunday school from his hut.

On closer examination of what the health centre had called “cancer”, Patricia and Anguyi determined that Piriyo most likely had a fungal disease affecting his feet and one of his hands, and there were some symptoms that could indicate leprosy. In any case, Piriyo was in a lot of pain.

Being Jesus to Piriyo

From this point on, the team visited Piriyo regularly. He couldn’t really afford morphine, so the palliative care team paid for simple painkillers to keep his morphine requirements as low as possible.

The team also prayed with Piriyo each time they visited, as they do with all their patients. Sometimes, Patricia would read to him in his hut from a French Bible.

When asked about what he needed most, Piriyo requested a wheelchair so he could visit his friends. Patricia and the team brought an old wheelchair for him to try, though lack of help from his family limited how he could use it so at the next visit, Piriyo was still sitting on a mat outside.

Patricia and the team continued to visit and do what they could for him, letting him know that he was not forgotten and sharing the love of Jesus simply by being present.

Nearing the end

On one of Patricia’s last visits, she prayed through Romans 8 with Piriyo: nothing can separate us from the love of God.

The last time Patricia saw him, he was very ill. His feet were badly infected, he had a hacking cough and he was even thinner than he had been. He could not get comfortable on his reed mat.

The team prescribed and paid for antibiotics, but Piriyo continued to deteriorate.

In August last year, Piriyo died. As is traditional, he was buried near his family’s huts.

After he had died, Patricia and Anguyi visited his mother. Sitting on the reed mat by his grave, arm in arm with Patricia, Piriyo’s mother wept bitterly. Her firstborn son was gone and the situation for her and her remaining children was dire.

A few months later, when Patricia and Anguyi were on their way to visit another patient, they crossed paths with Piriyo’s mother as she was walking to the market. She wanted them to stop so she could give each of them a hug – she was truly grateful for what they had done for her son.

Piriyo may have left this earth, but his memory is treasured. He was an example to all in his lifestyle, his love for his family and his determination to keep teaching Sunday school despite his illness.

Jesus didn’t give up on Piriyo in his final challenging years, and Piriyo didn’t give up on living out and sharing his faith.

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Artist and art teacher Sarah Carney curated an exhibition as part of Fringe Arts Bath‘s festival in June 2023, inviting people to experience ‘awe and wonder’ and reflect on the God who creates. It was three years in the making from vision to reality in a tiny, beautiful church just outside Bath.

I studied for the CMS Certificate in Pioneer Mission back in 2020 as part of the first cohort of students [in Bath and Wells diocese]. The course allowed God to work in me and remind me of my creativity that through life’s circumstances had been supressed.

I found that each module gave me the opportunity to express my ‘outcome’ through an artistic expression. This time revived in me this lost life-giving passion to create.

As the course was coming to an end, I had a picture of an art exhibition in which I saw people having stimulating conversations around God’s Spirit and the possibility of something more that gives that feeling of awe and wonder.

It was alive and rich and I felt that this was a way God wanted to use me, in the curation of making this vision a reality.

For several years and through many channels this was considered to no avail, but always the vision was kept alive.

In Ephesians 3 we read God can do anything – far more than you could ever imagine or request in your wildest dreams!

So it was, by surprise, a number of years after the original vision that the exhibition was able to come into being. In God’s time and as God planned, far greater than I could have imagined.

By complete coincidence I viewed a site online which asked, ‘Do you have an idea to curate an art exhibition: apply here.’ Well I did and this was through the Fringe Arts Bath festival which takes place annually. It felt like gold to receive this opportunity that was far beyond my expectation as far as who the exhibition would reach and the support I would get.

The call out for artists spread far and wide with submissions coming in from Germany, Australia and Italy as well as local artists too. It was exciting to see the response.

It was an important part of the vision to have a range of work that showed amateur and professionals’ work alongside one another. Local to us is the Swallow charity which supports adults with learning needs. The group have an art club and they were invited to submit their work. A few local church members also felt brave enough to submit their work too.

It was so wonderful to be able to encourage people’s creativity and celebrate their work. In the end there were 140 submissions and I was then in the privileged position to select 26 artists from as wide a range of disciplines as possible.

Once the artists were selected I started to build relationships through visiting artists in their studios. As time went on I created an Instagram page which showcased the artists who would be shown in the exhibition.

Through email communication with the artists I collaborated and supported them in the vision. There was always an openness, trust and joy surrounding the exhibition.

When it came to the installation of the artworks it really was truly rewarding, as each artist brought their precious beautifully crafted work and placed it in the church. Each piece just looked perfect and the vision was complete.

The exhibition was very well received with 242 people visiting and having the opportunity to slow down and experience something different in a spiritual space.

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After decades of loving service in northern Argentina, mission partners Catherine Le Tissier and Nick Drayson shared poignant farewells at recent celebration events.

On 7 May a farewell service was held at Cristo el Señor church in Salta, northern Argentina, to thank and celebrate Nick Drayson, retiring from his role as Bishop of Northern Argentina and as Primate of the Anglican Church of South America, and his wife Catherine Le Tissier, who has led the AMARE women’s movement in the diocese and wider province.

Friends and colleagues gathered from across the Chaco region, including people from all the indigenous people groups with whom Catherine and Nick have lived and worked.

As well as marking the 14 years that Nick has served as diocesan bishop, the celebration looked further back across the more than 50 years since Nick first responded to God’s call to serve in Latin America. Among the people groups represented were the Chorote, among whom Nick worked as a linguist back in 1976 (playing a key role in the publication of the New Testament in Chorote in 1997).

Nick’s sermon on “Glory, Gratitude and Service” from 2 Corinthians 4 was greatly appreciated. And after singing together old songs and hymns, the event was rounded off by singing “Happy Birthday” to Nick (who was also turning 70) in the different languages represented, as well as presenting him with a cake.

Those present prayed for Catherine and Nick, as well as sharing food, fond memories and farewells.

Catherine commented: “It was a marvellous occasion – love and gifts and kind words just showered on us! We felt very humbled and so blessed.”

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