GPBC Blog

I am so thankful to be representing the global partners in this week's newsletter.

As I reflect on our community's unique and wondrous quality of generosity, I am astounded by how deeply it is rooted in love and care.

From the conception of our faith community, global missions have been a valued and treasured way we have participated in God’s mission in this world. Through different seasons of our community, many highs and lows, we have been faithful to this calling. Each of our many mission directors have cultivated this legacy the Father has put in our hands in their own unique ways with their distinct gifts, which have richly blessed us.

We have also had values that have been continuous; care, pastoral concern, vision/rest for those we have supported. This goes well beyond the important task of financial giving and has become a legacy of something much deeper and more profound.

We see the brothers, sisters, and children we send as members of our family, and we stand behind them in every way we are able.

It is unique how our community loves our global partners. You may have heard me say this on several occasions, but care, concern, and connection are unfortunately not qualities most missionaries experience from their home communities or sending communities. For most missionaries, interacting with their sending communities is a stressful interaction marked by their need to perform, get enough “saves”, or have the quantitative and qualitative data to confirm to the church that their investment is being utilized with maximum returns. In a shocking extreme of this, the mom of a family we were extremely close to in South Africa was diagnosed with breast cancer. A family of four, with two small children, you can imagine the extreme stress and anxiety this family was facing. Upon communicating this to their church community, they were told they needed to “drop them” as missionaries because they would “no longer be effective on the field." That family could not go home as her treatment had already started in Cape Town.

This extreme example is a flashlight to the overwhelming opposite spirit of how Greater Portland Bible Church functions.

Several years ago I found myself in compassion fatigue, frustrated with myself for not being able to metabolize the pain and suffering we were surrounded by and unable to be present to those I sought to serve. Oliver and I came to the Global Partner Ministry Team looking for feedback and wisdom. I was looking for help “getting back to work.”

Instead of the strategies I was looking for, the missions board responded with compassion, care and wisdom to encourage me to take time and rest as a direct act of rebellion against the lie of productivity as our personal value.

Thus is a prime account of what makes our legacy unlike anything I have ever experienced as a missionary, nor any missionary I have ever met along the way.

I am sure by the time this is sent out we will have heard many remarkable stories of how our global partners have worked with God to create His goodness, beauty, and make truth come alive around the world.

So I will speak to you as one of your global partners and say thank you. Thank you for being a place of safety, of connection, and a community of peace.

You are so very loved and appreciated.

May God’s blessing be upon you.