Rise to the Challenge! 200 years … and beyond!

These are the words and images on the front and back of this year’s 2014 World Mission Conference tee shirts.

They are key words of an event that allowed me (and my mother) to meet old friends and make new ones!

200 years: IM extended many invitations to come to this party  – to all its missionaries, Valley Forge Staff, Special Assistants, and over 100 International Partners - to celebrate God’s faithfulness to IM for 200 years!

Meeting old friends … at the World Mission Conference.  One very special moment for me was when my mother was able to come for a couple of days.  She was thrilled to meet her old friends, the Nepalis whom she knew from her many travels to Nepal.  

It truly was exciting for me to have three of the Nepali colleagues, whom Bucky and I have known for so many years, be in my country – meeting them on this side of the world. 

In the midst of all the excitement of the week, my Nepali colleagues and I led an engagement session about Nepal. Each one of the leaders shared their own very personal different story of how God led in their lives bringing them into a personal relationship with Him.  They shared how God is now working through the ministries each of them represent. Then, my old friends were able to make new friends, during this session and at Country Table Talks with conferees during lunches. 

Making new friends … at the World Mission Conference.  Another very special moment for my mother and me was making a new friend from Poland, Mateusz Wichary, the President of the Polish Baptist Church.  Meeting him, IM is excited, as a new partnership with the Baptist Union of Poland was formed. Exciting for me, as both of my father’s parents were Polish. 

Old friends – from Nepal, the land in which I’ve lived for many years.  

New friend – from Poland, the land of my great grandparents. 

…and beyond: IM’s over 100 invited international partners came together to help shape the future of IM's work and to learn from and encourage one another's ministries. Participants of the WMC also had a chance to engage in the process of discerning God’s call for IM as it enters its the third century of ministry.

 Rise to the Challenge: Not only the theme for the WMC, but also for this fall’s World Mission Offering.  Your gifts to the WMO support partner relationships around the world – old partnerships and new ones.  Your gifts of the WMO support the vital work of IM’s global personnel serving around the world.

Thank you for your support of the World Mission Offering.

Carole Sydnor