Episodes
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S6E1 - In this powerful episode of Heart of Mission, we sit down with Mila who has been serving in the Middle East for the past six years. Mila shares the challenges, blessings, and lessons learned from her time working among refugees in a region deeply affected by conflict. Through her work as both a medical professional and a disciple-maker, she has gained a unique perspective on the intersection of faith, suffering, and compassion.
In a Muslim-majority region, Mila has learned to guide people through Bible stories and engage them in a journey that starts with curiosity and moves toward a life of faith. We learn about Ruth and Naomi, two Muslim women, with whom Mila has been able to read the Bible and what it looks like see God at work amongst Muslim women and their families. Mila talks about the cultural challenge of weakness and vulnerability being viewed as shameful, but how they also lie at the heart of the gospel and need to be shared! Suffering and grief are all around Mila, yet through it she has remained hopeful, believing that God is at work even in the darkest of places calling for a life of dependence.
Links:
Sign-up to partner with Mila through prayer or financial giving by going to https://cms.org.au/missionaries/miqq
If you are interested in serving with or supporting CMS find out more at www.cms.org.au.
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"Once upon a time..." Stories are a staple part of childhood; whether true or made up, they capture and grow our imaginations and bring joy and - at times - challenges to our worldview. The Bible itself is full of stories that contribute to the overarching story of God in action in our world. How can missionaries tell this better story effectively? Is it a necessary skill for evangelism?
David Williams is Director of Training and Development for CMS at St Andrew’s Hall, in Melbourne, where missionaries attend a six-month training course before being sent out. One of the components of the training course is in Bible Storytelling.
Bible Storytelling is powerful and accessible; able to reach people with limited literacy and with a preference for oral learning (think watching a Youtube instructional video rather than reading a manual!). The best Bible Storytellers, says David, tell stories in a way that’s “simple, accurate, and memorable”. They can then transition from the story to a conversation.
And it’s not just a helpful skill on the overseas mission field – with Australians become less and less familiar with Bible stories, and less and less curious about God – Bible storytelling has enormous potential to pique interest and curiosity for someone with a secular background.
Resources mentioned:
Telling the Gospel through Story – Christine Dillon
Reimagining Apologetics – Justin Bailey
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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Missing episodes?
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S5E6-Frances Cook first arrived in Chile in 1988 with little theological education, and no Spanish whatsoever. Now, 35 years later, she is on her final Home Assignment as a CMS missionary. For many of those years she was teaching the at the Anglican Diocese Centre of Pastoral Studies (CEP) where she has seen whole generations of clergy pass through to be trained. From humble beginnings, the CEP has brought unity in the Chilean Anglican church and laid a foundation for bible-based ministry.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S5E5-Ten years is a long time. So, how do our missionaries stay supported for the long-term? How do we know what opportunities there are across the world so we can place missionaries? Well, it’s because every year our missionaries have an in-person pastoral visit from their Regional Mission Director who spends time on the ground supporting missionaries but also having eyes and ears for what is going on locally. Today we draw back the curtain on the agency support our missionaries are given.
Micah Taylor was a missionary kid, he went on to serve with his own family as a missionary and now, after all that experience, is a is a CMS Regional Mission Director. His role key to helping missionaries stay on location long-term as they face many complex personal and ministry situations. Micah gets to see the local ministry context, share in the joys and frustrations of ministry on location and help find resources and care when missionaries need it. While mission work can be lonely, missionaries with CMS, are not alone.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S5E4 - God is at work in the Middle East and L has been part of that story for decades. Nearly 40 years ago, he and his wife packed up their lives and the kids and stepped out in faith and obedience to head to the Middle East. L has seen how God opens doors and hearts to bring people to himself in some of the most gospel poor and restricted places in the world.
When they returned to Australia, L and his wife then became a teachers and mentors at St Andrew’s Hall (CMS’s training facility) to train up the next generation of missionaries for cross cultural ministry. And now ... he’s headed back to the Middle East. This time by himself, after the passing of his wife, to join a team who are bringing healing, care and hope to refugees. L is using his years of experience and time in retirement to serve and to keep pushing those doors open to see where God is working.
Find out more about supporting L at www.cms.org.au/missionaries/l
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
Resource mentioned: Tom and Joann Doyle “Women Who Risk”
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S5E3 - Kylie Zietsch is the Women’s Dean and member of the teaching staff at Johannesburg Bible College (JBC) in South Africa. She opens our eyes to the ministry and lives of women training at JBC. Women who have a profound impact to bring healing and hope to their communities and who are serving God in extraordinary ways.
Kylie never saw herself as an academic, but with a background in teaching and a love for people and ministry done well in context, she has found her place at JBC. She shows us how deeply practical theological education is and how God meets people where they are at and uses them for His kingdom purposes.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
To partner with Kylie go to https://www.cms.org.au/missionaries/zietschk
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S5E2 - The Jacobsons love Cambodia – they have been many times over the past 10 years. What started as visiting missionary friends for five weeks turned into many regular visits with their kids. Now Maurice and Amanda are long-term CMS missionaries at a rural bible college in the north of Cambodia. This Tasmanian farming couple have traded in cold grassy pastures for humid rice paddies. But their heart to see the gospel grow and ability to come alongside and serve has remained the same.
Elim Bible College is a low literacy bible college discipling and growing young people in both the Bible and sustainable farming practices. Join us as Maurice and Amanda share why they kept going back to Cambodia, give us insight into the effects of the Pol Pot regime on Christianity and farming, and tell us how students are reaching their communities to build the local church.
Find out more about supporting Maurice & Amanda at www.cms.org.au/missionaries/jacobsonma
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S5E1 - Welcome back to season 5! We are kicking off with someone who is a ‘not yet’ missionary. M is currently studying at St Andrews Hall, CMS’s mission training facility in Melbourne, to go and serve in a secure location among Muslim peoples. M has a heart for the gospel-poor and speaks candidly about his journey into mission, singleness, risk and potential danger and how God has encouraged him along the way.
Amongst the uncertainty of location and what ministry and mission will look like M shows us what it means to walk in step with God and his leading. In the location M is seeking to go relationships and trust can take a long-time to form. Find out how M’s training is preparing him for the long-term and how he is goes out, not alone, but in the care of CMS and in partnership with many.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
To partner with M go to https://www.cms.org.au/missionaries/maxs
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S4E6 - T works with some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Children, orphaned, and with disabilities in an Asian country that has not historically had any provision or place for them. It’s been a 20 year journey for T - being a voice and advocate for the most vulnerable at a systemic level, a trainer and teacher as a team has developed, and quite literally the hands of Jesus as T has nurtured and cared for so many children. God’s heart for the vulnerable and forgotten people of this world shines through T and her husband, D’s, work in both Asia and Australia.
There is so much to learn from T as she shares her personal experiences as well as how the gospel has shaped her life and mission. T has seen God do the seemingly impossible to change the lives of these incredibly loved but vulnerable kids.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S4E5 - A foundational experience in Greg’s faith and ministry was the months he spent in his 20s living in a remote Aboriginal community in central Arnhem Land. He was there to study traditional Aboriginal music as he pursued a career in music therapy. But he also encountered a community alive in the Spirit and fervent in worship as they met every night to share testimonies, read the bible, sing and pray. God was at work in the Top End and Greg wanted to join in.
Greg has an immense amount of personal and ministry history working with Aboriginal churches and communities as well as supporting the development of Christian leaders. Many communities have their own rich Christian identity, but are gospel fragile, as they lack resourcing and consistent support. Join Greg as he talks about his passion to see the Aboriginal church thrive and build on the foundations of gospel growth.
Contact Greg through the Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory webpage www.ntanglican.org.au or email [email protected]
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S4E4 - The average student in Argentina takes 8-9 years to graduate. Unlike the sprint of most uni ministries of only 3-4 years, Martin and Julie Field have been able to see God at work, disciple and minister with students for a significant portion of their young adult life. While the Catholic church in Argentina in is decline and evangelical Christianity is on the rise, but it has not been without its own conflict and political confusion. This is a real challenge for cross-cultural ministry to navigate where you long to see the local church and leadership take on its own unique Christ-centered identity, but you also want rich theological truths to not be compromised.
When gospel ministry and deep relationships hurt how do you trust God and remain faithful? Martin shares the complexity of walking with a ministry in conflict and how Jesus provided a way forward during this for both his family and the uni ministry.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S4E3 - With over 30 years in South Asia, Bruce and Libby have seen closed doors open through fervent, persistent prayer.
They have been privileged to witness three decades of incredible growth through discipleship and prayer.
Bruce and Libby have also witnessed that changing shape of mission from expats leading hospitals and NGO’s to locals now in leadership positions. Bruce expanded his training from the medical field as a GP to include a Masters of Divinity so that he could support the local church by mentoring and discipleship of key leaders in the church.
The key to Bruce and Libby’s longevity has been their openness to seek God’s leading on where to go, what to do, and how long to go for, all while their character and growth in Jesus shapes their witness to non-Christians around them.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S4E2 - “The gospel is the greatest thing we can give.” Adam and Avril were given a real sense of God’s calling to cross-cultural mission after a short-term medical mission trip to Bolivia early in their marriage. They then set the trajectory of serving in the Spanish speaking world while studying at Bible College, maybe South America? Spain? … No! God put on their hearts Madagascar, the tiny East African island nation which has seen a revival with thousands coming to Christ.
With so many young Christians and churches there are many threats to the gospel and the health of the church in Madagascar – poverty, drought, Islam, animism … So, Adam and Avril seek to go and serve by helping to encourage and develop godly, biblically-sound local leadership to grow this generation of Malagasy Christians and the next.
Join us for season 4 and hear how God is working through faithful Christians for His kingdom purposes in Madagascar … and beyond.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S4E1 - Amongst the action of God transforming lives and the world is where Arthur and Tamie Davis found themselves in Tanzanian university ministry. After 10 ½ years in Tanzania they share how mission has been an immense privilege, expanding their own faith and worldview, and giving God the opportunity to bring about rich relationships and opportunities for gospel growth.
Arthur reflects on how partnering long-term with TAFES leaders meant he could work with them towards making student ministry sustainable and effective in new ways. While Tamie was able to complete her PhD on TAFES women and their theology and has rich insight into the deep faith and sophisticated theology of African Christianity.
Other topics they cover are:
- Tolerating ambiguity when working cross-culturally
- Understanding the prosperity gospel and poverty
- Paying attention to how the Holy Spirit is working
- Their amazing journey into mission
- God’s empowerment and provision for them and their children over the past 10 years
Join us for the start of season 4 and hear how God is working through faithful Christians for His kingdom purposes in Tanzania … and beyond.
Acronyms
ES – Evangelical Students (local student group)
AFES – Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students
IFES – International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
TAFES – Tanzanian Fellowship of Evangelical Students
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E6 - How do we work our way through different faith backgrounds to the truth that sets us free? How do we hold out hope and share our faith without descending into arguments? How do we overcome our own ideas of what a conversion experience should look like and actually enter into, not one or two, but years of conversations?
Richard Shumack lives in Sydney and is the Director for the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.
Richard has lived and worked for many years among Muslim communities where he developed his passion for helping Christians and Muslims speak constructively about faith and who Jesus is. Richard shares from his own personal experiences of engaging cross-culturally with Muslims in Australia. Where our secular friends are unable to articulate spiritual things, this is not the case for many of our Muslim neighbours who are willing to have deep conversations about their lived faith and listen to your faith too.
As we listen to Richard’s wisdom and love for Muslim people may we all be challenged to take the next step in our conversations.
Richard’s book ‘Jesus through Muslim Eyes’ explores this further.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E5 - Chris and Grace Adams didn’t have to go far to get to another country that, despite its geographical proximity to Australia, is deeply under-resourced in the gospel and many other ways. While the people of Timor-Leste are spiritual, it’s a spirituality that is full of uncertainty, and can result in financial ruin as well as spiritual poverty. There are many Jesuses in Timor Leste, however not many people know Jesus of the Bible. Ten years ago, Chris and Grace made a deliberate decision to live in Timor Leste because, even though it’s one of our nearest neighbours, not many missionaries were there.
Their decision has meant that more people have been equipped to preach, teach and handle God’s Word wisely, and Bible translation has gone from floundering to flourishing.
You can partner with Chris and Grace through prayer or financially - click here.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E4 - Anna is passionate about sharing Christ’s love and lordship over this world through creation care. She is on the cusp of going to Kenya for her first term on the mission field. Kenya is not an unfamiliar place; she grew up there watching and helping her missionary parents. So, she has seen firsthand the intersection between community poverty and environmental decline and is set to work with a local Christian ministry that seeks to educate and restore land and water resources. This is an amazing opportunity to point people to the Lord of creation and the eternal hope and care found in Him through meeting real and practical needs.
Anna also speaks candidly about her transition back to Australia as a missionary kid and journey to working out her own identity and relationship with God. She is no stranger to feeling like an outsider and wondering what culture she fits into yet in God’s kindness he has shown her all the resources he has given her to reach others.
You can partner with Anna through prayer or financially - click here.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E3 - Today’s episode comes from a live interview that took place at Top End Global, a CMS SANT global mission conference in Darwin. We hear from Marlene and James, two Aboriginal teachers at Nungalinya College in Darwin, helping to equip and encourage Aboriginal Christian students to walk in faith and in God’s word.
Marlene and James are a powerful witness to God’s work in Aboriginal communities. Hear them talk about the blessing and challenges of how they live as Christians in their own community and culture while also navigating white Australia.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting www.cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E2 - God is already powerfully at work in Africa – after all Africa is currently the centre of global Christianity. The challenge for the African church is to match gospel growth with enough godly, faithful, and well-equipped leaders to disciple this generation and be prepared for the next. Mike and Karen Roe want to be part of this movement and do this by serving in theological education at George Whitefield College in South Africa. They have a heart to train and disciple leaders who love Jesus and are soundly rooted in God’s word.
Hear Mike share about being a theological lecturer in a multicultural college and Karen share about her passion for upskilling theological teachers in adult education. They are careful to point out that the African church doesn’t need the West, but we can ask God how He would have us serve with the skills and resources he has given us. This is humble and vulnerable mission.
You can partner with Mike and Karen through prayer or financially - click here.
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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S3E1 - Steven and Sandra Parsons have served in Japan for 26 years! They have a lot to share about their love for Japanese people and culture. Japan is one of the least reached people groups in the world: less than 0.5% identify as Christian, local churches are small, and it can take someone 10 years to decide to follow Jesus. It is in this context that Steven and Sandra have worked faithfully alongside Japanese Christians and other missionaries to develop local ministry and have seen the Holy Spirit at work.
Steven explores how from the outside Japan appears affluent, well-educated and has embraced many things from the West, but at its heart it is Eastern, and people yearn for meaning. Japanese people hold strong convictions about their Japanese identity and religious traditions (even if they don’t believe in them), and so, it seems to many that to follow Christ is to reject being Japanese. Yet young people are coming to Christ. Churches are developing their own cultural identity, worship, and programs to reach their friends and neighbours with the good news of Jesus. Sandra and Steven have learnt a lot about trusting God when growth is slow and how obedience to God’s calling gives us strength and conviction when obstacles have come their way.
You can partner with Sandra and Steven through prayer or financially - click here for more information. https://www.cms.org.au/missionaries/steven-and-sandra-parsons/
Find out more about how CMS can help your church partner in global mission by visiting cms.org.au and selecting your local branch.
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