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Recent Posts from the Mumena Team

Friday, February 17, 2006

Davis Missionary Journey: Strategy Formation


The beginnings of a new work are notoriously slow especially in Africa. A whirlwind of activity getting there is followed by a lull not unlike the wait after planting a field. Not being the most patient person in the world, I have found solace from one of our former Missions mentors, Gailyn Van Rheenan. In a recent series of reports he has e-mailed detailing he and his wife's new ministry in church planting within the U.S., Gailyn makes the point that strategy should flow from theological reflection. In busy ministry, time for theological reflection can often be sidelined for "getting the job done" in our production-geared culture. Sondra and I are trying to take advantage of this quite time here in Solwezi to seek the will of God as it relates to our strategy formation for this new mission. Where do we start? What are the definitions? How do we present ourselves? What systems do we put in place, and how are those systems going to operate? What policies of ministry will address the needs before us while avoiding the known pit-falls of past strategies? What is our "end-game"?
As we go through this process, we hope to share these insights (and certainly mistakes) with you through our journal. We would appreciate your prayers as we reflect and depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."
Ecclesiastes 7:8 KJV

Traveling in the slow lane for now,
Brian, Sondra, Noah, and Bryson

Pictured below: Reflecting theologically with some of the Congolese.
reflect.jpg


Thursday, February 9, 2006

Davis Missionary Journey: What Timing!


October 2004
"What's your 'show stoppers'?" asked our missions chairman at Hillcrest church of Christ, our overseeing congregation, as they worked to determine where God was calling them (and thus where they would be sending us next). "Plumbing and teammates" replied Sondra.


March 2005
Research shows that plumbing exists in all 5 of the possible sites for a new mission point... still no teammates.


April 22, 2005, 4:30p.m.
E-mail from Hillcrest: elders have decided on the Zambian Mumena project along the Congo and Angolan borders... still no teammates.


April 22, 2005, 8:12p.m.
E-mail from Cedar Hill church of Christ: had read of the new team formation in Doyle Kee's "French World Missions" periodical; interested in supporting one or two families for a new church planting team mission.


March 2005
Don and Rita Boyd - Sondra's parents, our former teammates in Cape Town, and experienced Zambian missionaries - agree to join the team for a 5 year period... plumbing and teammates!


"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?"
Job 39:1-2 NIV


Thankful for God's timing,
Brian, Sondra, Noah, and Bryson


Pictured below: Don and Rita Boyd, who just arrived safely to join the team in Zambia.
BoydFamily.JPG