Surprised by the Word: the World Mission Conference Comes to the Dakotas
“The chains which started out as symbols of bondage and brokenness became transformed as symbols of connectedness in Christ’s love and service.” With these words, Rev. Dr. Reid Trulson, Executive Director of International Ministries (IM), encapsulated a profound mission conference experience.
The power and inspiration that have come to represent the IM World Mission Conference came to our own backyard Sept. 14-16, 2007. Hosted by FBC Sioux Falls, attendees were treated with engaging exposure to more than a dozen IM missionaries and a number of world-wide ministries under the IM umbrella. The conference theme was “Surprised by the Word: Mission and the Unscripted God”and was visualized through chains and Christ’s cross.
We began with hearing stories of people struggling with the pains of brokenness in many parts of the world. Chains representing their pain were laid on the arms of a wooden cross. We were also urged to think of the broken places in our own lives. Charles Jones, IM Director for Europe, Middle East, and N. Africa, noted, “Each link in the chain reminds us of our brokenness and our fractured existence before God. The cross also reminds us of the freedom Christ has for us.” He prayed, “God, You who made Friday ‘Good,’ make us channels of blessing in our broken world, our broken nation, in our broken churches, and in our broken families.”
We were humbled by Rev. Michelle Bradley quoting a parishioner from the Church of Hope, SD Women’s Prison, as a group of inmates prayed for IM/ABCD missionary Susan Linderman’s work among trafficked women in Bulgaria: “From this place of broken women, may our prayers reach out to the broken women to whom Susan ministers.”
There were so many excellent missionary-led workshops on Saturday morning and afternoon that attendees couldn’t get to every one. But full access to missionaries and their work was accommodated by boxed lunch talks during the Saturday and Sunday lunch hours. Later in the afternoon, conferees could participate in several “Mission in Motion” workshops covering: strange foods missionaries eat, the differing ways Christian faith expresses itself around the world, youth group games from Japan, a school bag assembly project from Church World Service, a presentation of IM’s Xtreme Team, and the STEP Walk. Participants in the STEP Walk each covered 2.5 miles and raised just over $1,000 for the Student Tuition Expense Program which helps children around the world with basic education costs.
Through Saturday and into Sunday we heard of the kinds of chains made by “Christ connections” between people and ministries around the world. When Rev. Dr. Adalia Schellinger-Gutierrez, of Tijuana, Mexico, led the Bible Study on Luke 24 and the women at the resurrection, she noted that God had a sense to humor in appearing to women whom no one would believe. She compared those women to the women who come to Deborah House, homeless, often with children, and emotionally and physically abused. She took away our excuses to serving Christ and being linked in a chain of connection when she said, “There is one thing all the Deborah House women have in common: Every single woman now wants to serve others. Having spent a healing time at Deborah House, they are now ready to bless others. They say, ‘With all my limitations, I want to give to God. God will use my limitations.’”
Reid Trulson brought the discoveries of the weekend together when he preached from John 20 on Thomas touching the wounds in Christ’s hand. He remembered from the beginning of the weekend the chains of human sin bondage and Christ holding that sin on the cross noting, “The wounds of Christ are here and now, not just 2,000 years ago. …God not only wants to heal wounds ‘over there,’ but also here in this country, this city, and in this sanctuary.” He urged us to engage in being vital links in a chain of love and service that touches the wounds of people everywhere. He lifted up the transformation of lives that always comes with this kind of service, “In touching the wounds, we have come to know God in a different way. Our entire being changes.” Finally, he challenged us, “We can be like Thomas and dare to reach out and touch the wounds of Christ and that will transform us.”
This inspiring weekend was woven with repeating images of brokenness and blessedness, reminding us all that our broken lives can join the chain of God-transformed lives which bless every person touched.