"This is Our Tribe!" by Global mobilization Network

We are delighted to have Ivy in the studio with Ray today. Having involved in several missions with Operation Mobilization (OM) including traveling with the OM ship (LogosHope) and a South African mission discipleship training, Ivy has found her heart in Africa. Petite yet with a bold voice, Ivy shares confidently of her experiences being in the field in Zambia, and how her college study in journalism has supported her work in missions. To “think of your audience” is a great tip from Ivy when creating social media content. Ivy saw the potential and vibrancy of people in Africa above all cultural and communication barriers and continues to serve her 4th year in Zambia.

Ivy’s story brought to mind an encouragement from a God-fearing elderly person I met. This person told me that “you will NEVER regret walking in the perfect will of God”. The roles that God puts us in may be very different, but when you start living that life of obedience it rewards and fuels us with joy.

About our special guest
Ivy Chiu, a young Taiwanese lady who has been involved with global missions since graduated from University. Majored in Journalism, she has been maximizing her expertise during her time serving overseas, using social media as a means to mobilize more people to explore God's work around the world.
On her own blog, she introduced herself - "previously a city girl rushing into the Taipei metro everyday, now enjoys walking around beautiful villages at Lake Tanganyika, Zambia. She likes to listen to people's stories and write newsletters (really a rare species). Her dream is to become the shortest giant in the world." Let's keep it that way. 

In the studio today, we have Pastor Henry Lee from Korea. He is a father, an avid cyclist, director of Frontiers Korea and chair of Mission Korea. Despite having studied, married and served as mission pastor in America, Pastor Lee heeded God’s calling for him to return to his homeland, Korea to commence mission mobilization within the young people.

He shares how mission mobilization came about in the history of Korea, that the gospel was indigenous to Korea before missionaries came into the country. Mission-Korea conferences and the Campus Crusade have seen an exponential increase in college students giving their lives to God and willing to be sent overseas for missions. However, modern day Korea has seen a reduction in sending of missionaries. Pastor Lee discusses how more work is to be done to ensure the ‘quality’ of missionaries sent out, emphasizing cross-cultural missions to be likened to taking on the local persons’ identity and culture rather than enforcing our own ways on others.

As Christ’s followers, we hear of this again and again, but it is never enough to emphasize the three fundamentals - knowing the love of God, devoting to the word of God, spending time in prayer.

About our special guest:
Henry Lee, the director of Frontiers in Korea since 2004. He has been the exec. member of Ethne and Mission Korea since 2006. He used to serve in Dagestan for 6 years before getting seriously involved in mission mobilization in Korea. His passion is to see God’s kingdom to be expanded among Muslims.

Crossing-cultures, sharing resources, growing together. This is indeed our global tribe. In this first episode of “This is your tribe”, we are delighted to have Allan Matamoros, our Chairman, in the studio with Ray.

Having spent 28 years serving amongst our Muslim friends, Allan’s passion and vigor as he shares his experiences is palpable. This comes from an overflow of a daily relationship with Jesus. Allan dedicated his youth to various missions including in Latin America, Pakistan and Kenya. It is no wonder Allan repeatedly encourages young people to innovatively step into missions. Three visions close to his heart: regions, new generations, global meeting points. Finally, we also learn of practical tips that had sustained Allan whilst he juggled the different ‘hats’ of life.

About the guest:
Allan Matamoros lives in the Middle East with his wife Patricia and his teenage family.
Allan has worked during the last 25 years serving/leading Latin American missionary agencies deploying church planting and holistic missional teams in the Muslim World. He has served as the Director of FEDEMEC (The Costa Rican Evangelical Missions Federation); as member of the COMIBAM executive team, he is the Chairman of Vision 5:9 and just finished 12 years as the International Director of PMI (Pueblos Musulmanes Internacional).Recently Allan became the Middle East & North Africa Director for PARTNERS International, a ministry devoted to work alongside with local and national ministries among the unreached nations (ethne) of the world.

Born of Córdoba, Argentina, came to the Lord through the Catholic church at 14 years old, and yet breaking through cultural and denominational backgrounds to serve the ‘Kingdom’ of God. German was reminded of the parable of the feast in Luke 14 – where people of all societal levels were invited to the feast. It is an inclusive kingdom. There are no excuses- we are called to “collaborate, communicate and cooperate” such is the vision behind GMN.

Pastor German Ricca's mission-mobilizing path commenced when he was moved by a visiting Moroccan missionary who used his musical skills to serve the Lord. He speaks of his journey from working with the poor and homeless in urban Argentinian missions (Cry for the city) to being director of mobilizing missions. He emphasized the ‘kingdom’ mindset when coming to missions in that we are only Jesus’ stewards. We should not boast or be set on our own organizational ways.

However, church/organizational cultures remain the biggest barriers of mission-mobilizing. We hear of how German addresses the hidden agendas present behind many so-called ‘collaborations’. He urges the viewers to return to the roots of the gospel through discipleship, through being a local church with a global relevance, and through cultural intelligence.

About the special guest:
German Ricca was born and raised in Cordoba City, Argentina. He is married to his sweetheart Karina and they have two children, Firoella and Giuliano! His encounter with Jesus at the age of 15 dramatically changed his life. Sensing a call from God for pastoral and mission ministry in 1996, German has served as a pastor for 20 years. In 2010 German launched a mission organization called Christ for the City which is focused on urban missions in the northern regions of Argentina. For more than 15 years German has been travelling internationally preaching, teaching and mobilizing the Church for missions. He is the Mobilization Director for COMIBAM International, member of the Global Leadership Team for Mentorlink, and member of the Mobilization Task Force member for VISIONS 5:9. He was appointed to the Executive Leadership Team of GMN in 2021. German is currently enrolled in a Master’s program in Global Organizational Leadership at Bakke Graduate University.

Reference
Official website for COMIBAM https://www.comibam.org/es/
Facebook page for COMIBAM https://www.facebook.com/COMIBAM/
COMIBAM representa hoy una gran parte del movimiento misionero iberoamericano.