Can missions really have a positive impact on diplomacy? Dr. Phil Dow, Head of School at Black Forest Academy, shares about his research and personal experience with faithful missionaries whose impact expanded beyond what they could have imagined.

• Phil's book, Accidental Diplomats: American Missions and the Cold War in Africa
• Special Providence by Walter Russell Mead
• "I've grown up within the missionary community; I have a passion for seeing that work thrive, seeing God honored through the Great Commission around the world. Missions was everywhere around me."
• "The history books actually have a lot to do with people's misconceptions."
• "When I looked around the peers of my parents, the work that they were doing, what I saw was people that were there not getting wealthy, not in with the rich and powerful, not politically powerful or aiming for that, so the reality was very, very different from the stereotype."
• "They were going truly to the ends of the earth. And so, if they were going for wealth and power and influence, they went to the wrong places."
• "These missionaries went out to share their faith and to love their neighbor, and not to do that at the center of political power, and yet they end up having a massive influence."
• "How in the world did they have such a huge influence? The answer is really because they simply were doing the work that God had called them to."
• "Christianity as a global faith has been a twentieth century story, and that is intimately connected to the story of evangelical missions, and Africa is the most obvious glaring example of that."
• "It was because they didn't care about political power that they were so influential. It's because they were simply being obedient to God's calling on their lives that they were trusted because they weren't seen as manipulating or power hungry."
• "What excites me is the future of the Global South in the Great Commission."
• "I'm optimistic about the continuing role of the US and Canada and countries that have been traditional sending countries to continue to play a role, even if it looks a little different than it did thirty, forty, or fifty years ago."

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: A crawling baby and an office full of plants
• Heather: New mug from a Germany pottery market
• Phil: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Weekly Spotlight: Black Forest Academy

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