Focus

One of the most encouraging components of Carissa Sherer’s time in Guatemala has been the recurring affirmation she has felt from the Lord in being there now, particularly in this season in the ministry.

For Michael Clancy, Nick* was more than a person to work with: he was a friend who was growing in his relationship with Jesus, even while using drugs, which Michael hated and Nick knew very clearly that Michael did. It was here that Michael was able to walk with Nick in-between the cracks. In an area where a program wouldn’t be able to work, Michael saw an opportunity.

We’re excited to be launching a new course on Radix called The Foundations of Christian Leadership. It will be a hybrid-format course beginning on September 19 — with weekly self-study modules and biweekly video calls. This course will offer a biblical look at Christian leadership focused on three key components: Character, Knowledge, and Skill. Register now at radixtraining.org/foundations.

“We believe the same!” Lea’s friend energetically interjected with a smile and a tap on her desk to reinforce the point. The almost weekly refrain sometimes felt like an indictment that Lea had failed miserably in communicating the basics of her faith.

The image of the overflowing cup comes from the days of David and was a symbol of invitation, welcome, or dismissal. If a host kept the cup full, the guests knew they were welcome. If the cup was empty, not refilled, the host was indicating it was time for the guests to leave. However, if the host really enjoyed the company, he would fill the cup until overflowing and let it spill over the rim, saturating the table.

EMM’s discipleship coach, Dave Houser, has a photo hanging in his office. It’s one of his favorite pictures of himself. He’s riding a yak in front of a mountain. Traveling to that remote area was a dream in Dave’s heart. He had heard it was one of the most unreached places in the world, and he began to pray for the people there to know Jesus. When Dave got the opportunity to go, he started telling people that he was going to ride a yak while he was there.

Finding the lost sheep, coins, or children is so critical to God that he will go out of his way to find them. We are invited into this mission to join God in his work of reconciling all of creation to himself. This is why sharing the good news of Jesus with the least-reached people of the world is so critical to EMM’s work.

When Skip and Carol Tobin and André and Karen Provost and their families first moved to Det Udom in the spring of 1995, there were no known Isaan believers in the region. From the beginning, the team was committed to a contextualized house church planting approach among the rural villages of this primarily rice farming community.

In October of 1990, a group of townspeople and religious leaders voiced their opposition to the first baptism of believers in Lucre, Peru, by resorting to stone-throwing and threats. Surprisingly, two of the initial stone throwers later joined the first Mennonite church in Peru.

After 1979, EMM connected to a Mennonite church in Metapan, northern El Salvador, which was home to displaced individuals who had become Mennonites while residing in Honduras. In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans migrated to Honduras as their homeland's arable land was taken over for sugar plantations.