A friend recently asked us: “What do you do as missionaries?” Great question! Since you may be wondering the same thing, here’s our quick answer: Right now, you are partners with us in equipping young Bible school students at a refugee camp, providing more accessible theological education to oral learners through brand new initiatives in two countries, helping Christian workers use business tools to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to pressing social problems, and mentoring the next generation of cross-cultural mission workers.
Equipping young leaders at the Kawthoolei Baptist Bible School and College at a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border. Earlier this month I (Ann) taught Christian Conflict Transformation to 64 4th year students. Please pray for God’s guidance as they serve in local churches (see “Mercy” in the photo) and pursue further studies (see “Truth”) in the face of uncertainty caused by a 6-decade civil war in their home country.
How can we bless our neighbours in a non-Christian context? I recently led a workshop on Integral Evangelism for alumni and faculty of the Asho Chin Theological Seminary (Myanmar). We reflected on God’s design and purpose for the church, the role of the pastor, and talked about creative, practical ways to reach out to those who have never met Jesus (see photo below - can you find me?).
Secret agents of peace - wherever we are. When I (Bruce) asked a group of 10 year olds at our church here in Wellington, “Where in the world is God’s peace [shalom] especially needed today?” their answers surprised me: “Syria, Afghanistan, the US, Russia, Indonesia.” Then I surprised them: “Did you know that there are followers of Jesus in each of those countries? And we’re all called to be secret agents of God’s peace wherever we are? Isn’t that awesome?”
These are just a couple of the ministries we (and you!) are engaged in at the request of Baptist partners in the Asia Pacific region. We would love to hear how your church family is equipping the “Next Gen” - your stories will inspire us and we’ll share them with our partners in this region!
ဘုရားသခင်၏ကျေးဇူးတော်အားဖြင
(“By God’s grace” in Burmese),
Ann & Bruce
Dr. Marian’s Message
I was a missionary doctor in India for 38 years. Why? Because a Christian leader asked me in my senior year of college: “Marian, do you suppose that God wants you to do something special for Him?” I had never even thought of that before! After agonising prayer I knew that instead of being a research chemist, God wanted me to be a medical missionary.
After many years of training, I was commissioned a missionary doctor to India. It was in India that I was able to help raise up and train young Indian Christians to be outstanding leaders—some now serving in the remotest parts of the world.
We should all be active in raising up the next generation of Christian leaders to shine God’s light wherever they are, whatever they do. Let’s do all we can to get the thousands of young Christians worldwide to look beyond the street or village where they live, and beyond Facebook.com, and train them to be Christian leaders at home or in other parts of the world.
A number of our American Baptist missionaries today are involved in raising up and training the next generation of Christian leaders, including Ann and Bruce. Praise God!
*Dr. Marian Boehr serves as Pastor Emeritus for our Missionary Partnership Team
