by Becky Hefty | Mar 25, 2016 | Uncategorized
Holy Work
by Amy Lindstrom
I remember looking in my husband’s eyes as we sat across from one another at a local restaurant. I had called a meeting. I had a lot on my mind.
I was fighting my way through the sadness of an empty nest, looking for new meaning and purpose. I knew I needed more and I wanted to “finish well.” I had deep fear that my last productive decades would be spent going out for lunch with friends, sharing photos of grand babies, scrap-booking and reading an occasional book. It wouldn’t be enough.
“Give me a few more years,” Paul said. So I did. I waited a few more years, finding more meaning than I’d anticipated. I finished a master’s degree in Christian counseling ministry. I was involved in mentoring younger women and mothers, counseling, praying, leading small groups, teaching. Still, I knew there was more. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was going to look like or how it would happen, but my soul longed for adventure, depth, more of Jesus and a community of others that longed for the same things.
Finally, God interven
ed and some rearranging began to happen in our lives. Some was good, some was difficult. Paul submitted to the changes, remembering the agreement he made across the table that winter day.
It was time for an adventure with Jesus. Depth, growth, challenge, pain, revelation, surrender; all of these were part of the MBI Crossroads DTS we participated in during the spring of 2014. Not even two years ago! Amazing, considering all that has happened since then. It was as if the waters of labor broke and the real me was birthed from a struggle I didn’t understand at the time.
Like many of you, I knew there was more in me than the world would want me to believe; more than what I saw so many in my generation settling for. I knew all of the experiences, failures, pain, loving and sacrifice I’d lived through was training that made me fit for a work that was somehow holy.
Yes, holy.
Holy is defined as: consecrated to God; set apart for the service of God. I knew the coming decades of my life were to be set apart in a way that was different from those now past. Motherhood and teaching had been services that were sacred in their own particular ways. But, I knew something was waiting that was different.
Looking back at the past 24 months, I find it amazing to see what the Lord has done with the days and weeks and months now in my rearview mirror. I’m blessed to have seen many of my life-long dreams reach their fullness. Some I had even protected from utterance in my prayers. There have been times when I was filled with doubt and painfully stretched, but the adventure I began in my Crossroads DTS has become a whirlwind of adventure, growth and delightful surprises.
Last January, I traveled to Mazatlan, Mexico, where I was a mission builder for 10 days. I went there in a desperate attempt to remind myself that God was working on a plan, ordering my steps, and there was something else to come after my CDTS. I went with small expectations, not knowing what would happen, just willing to serve in a warm and beautiful place. What happened was immeasurably more than all I asked or imagined (Ephesians 3:20). I worked in hospitality and housekeeping, something I knew a little about. But the Lord gave me grace and favor, opening doors so I could also use my education and experience to lead a time of intercession and minister to staff and students through prayer, counseling and teaching. Those younger than me sought my wisdom, knowledge and friendship. They welcomed me as a valuable blessing to their community. This was the encouragement I needed to expand my YWAM training in order to use my experience in counseling ministry to bless YWAMers.
In April of 2015, I attend
ed a secondary school in Kona, Hawaii: Foundations of Counseling Ministry. This has opened further doors for me to use my master’s degree in YWAM. I completed three months of outreach over the fall and winter, ministering in Scandinavia and campuses in my home state of Wisconsin. Paul and I traveled to Mazatlan, Mexico, again where I taught, ministered, counseled and participated in local outreach. He assisted with campus projects and helped build a house with Homes of Hope. In future months, I will continue teaching, counseling and ministering to those who long to expand the kingdom but are hindered by the pain and wounds of life.
This is what I have learned since my adventure with YWAM began:
- Although the Y in YWAM stands for youth, the younger generation is hungry for the wisdom and experience that my generation has to give. Having lacked a God-like love as children, many still crave the care and nurture of those older than themselves; spiritual mothers and fathers to accept, mentor and cheer. God is a God of the generations. He desires to join the generations together in bonds of love and unity. Yes, they really want us, need us, and we are still part of the story!
- There is a real community available to us; a big family that loves us as we are and welcomes the chance to do life with us. There is a belonging that is unique to the Body of Christ, where we are able to transcend differences in cultures, colors, languages, age and gender. Yes, there is a community where we can belong!
- God is challenging my generation to surrender the selfishness of a retirement focused on pleasure; to use the blessings of our age and resources to benefit the kingdom. Yes, we really have much more to give than we realize!
- It is never too late to heal, find purpose, dream dreams, discover what else is inside of us. God has never stopped dreaming dreams for us and he has not forgotten the things he has whispered into our hearts, the promises he has made. Yes, he is faithful to finish what he started in each of us (Philippians 1:6)!
- God knows us. He knows exactly what we bring to his kingdom and the best place to set us. He knows every detail of our joys, talents, knowledge, and if we follow, he will place us exactly where we can most brightly shine for him. That may be behind a bulldozer, in a kitchen, playing with orphans, painting a sign or praying with the brokenhearted. He alone knows where we fit and the time of our arrival. Yes, we can trust him!
Be encouraged today! The Father is not finished with me or you. Perhaps, like myself, you can find YOUR place with YWAM and MBI. Perhaps you, too, will begin with a Crossroads Discipleship Training School. God may have another road for you to travel. But I am certain that however the Father chooses to do it, there is still meaningful purpose and growth awaiting you. Change and adventure are both exhilarating and terrifying at times. But to me, the alternative is even more frightening. God is good, trustworthy and faithful. Lean into ALL that he has for you.
by Becky Hefty | Feb 9, 2016 | Connections Article
MBI’s primary focus is connecting Christians with frontline missions, which typically means YWAM ministries. But sometimes our staff stretches our boundaries in God-sized ways, and we knew our readers would love to hear and perhaps be part of this unfolding story:
Gregg Scott knows that clean, available water is life’s most basic need. As part of MBI’s field staff, he has devoted himself to helping people in emerging nations supply themselves with this precious commodity using appropriate, sustainable technology tailored to their needs and abilities.
Since 1996 Gregg has served wit
h the Bali Appropriate Technology Institute (BATI), helping Indonesians cultivate local water supplies. In 2014, he was contacted by Father Hugo Lungu, an African priest from southwestern Tanzania serving small Catholic parishes in Central Montana. At Lungu’s invitation, Gregg accompanied the priest to his home village of Mwanamanga to conduct a water survey. There he found 8000 people with virtually no water except for what could be drawn from four barely-working wells by way of hand pumps. Three other pumps sat useless, including one serving 450 school children, forcing them to haul buckets of water to school for drinking and flushing toilets. Village women carried five-gallon buckets of “pure” water on their heads from open-pit, untreated wells.
Although Gregg wasn’t in Mwanamanga to work, like many mission builders, he says he just couldn’t walk away without doing something. Selecting three young village men willing to learn a new trade and take responsibility, Gregg set about making simple repairs and training the men to do the same. He has since made two other trips to continue that training.
“Our initial efforts were relief,” Gregg says, “but the long-term goal is community development so the village becomes self-sustaining. I have to be sure the people can and will do it; relief without the goal of development is nothing but a crutch, and that passes a welfare mentality on to other generations. I promote two things: there must be no corruption and no leaks in the pumps. I tell them corruption is like a leak, and it runs everything down. Water leaks are also a type of corruption that takes resources away from the people. If I can get them to learn these things, I feel I’ve done something.”
Gregg’s three “boys,” his pump maintenance crew, are a significant part of the community development plan. Along with a local engineer, Gregg is training these men, giving them as much responsibility as possible and taking care not to do anything for them they could do themselves. “It’s all about relationship. I was calling the shots and teaching,” he says, “but giving them choices to make that made them think they were doing it.” The crew repaired the old pumps, and Gregg taught them how to put in new pumps because he couldn’t stay to help. “The day after I left, they called to say they had installed the first pump—by themselves—and within a week had three in. I had to trust them to do it, and they did a great job without me. They were learning to be leaders!”
“I’ve had inquiries from four other villages,” Gregg says, “but I’ve had to turn them down for now. The need is huge. I could spend a lifetime there, so my goal is to find others to take over for me, to train one village so that it can train another. But each will need some funding from the West for the infrastructure (I tell them, however, if they don’t do the right thing with the money, I won’t come back).”
Gregg’s approach to the people of Mwanamanga has had a profound impact. He lives in the village whenever he is there and has a keen eye for their needs. He makes the women and girls giggle when he hauls water—traditionally a woman’s job. He gave a pair of shoes to an older man, of which the man was exceedingly proud. In a culture where respect for elders is obligatory, Gregg is approachable and has fun with the young men. When asked once what Americans like to eat, he had difficulty explaining hamburgers, so he made them for his friends (from sausage provided by nuns at the convent). After dinner, a man named Sampson, tears in his eyes, addressed Gregg for twenty minutes, saying: “White people don’t come stay in the village with us. You came and stayed.…”
It turns out there was more than just a need for clean water in Mwanamanga. Once again, Gregg found he couldn’t walk away without doing something about what he saw: a man lying on a mat, crippled by cerebral palsy; people dragging themselves along, their knees wrapped in rags—all because there are no crutches or wheelchairs to be had. These and other medical supplies are virtually non-existent, even in the clinics and hospitals, because corruption bleeds off such resources.
Prior to his time in Tanzania, Gregg collected donated medical supplies and equipment to send where they would be most needed. If he could get shipping containers, he knew he could send these necessities to the Tanzanian villages. The local Veteran’s Administration donated crutches and wheelchairs as well as other devices for the disabled.* Then a friend donated 4×40-foot insulated shipping containers—one per year for four years—which could go on to have a second life as either rodent- and heat-free storage for the villagers’ maize or as a workshop for the village maintenance crew.
But there is only so much one person can do. “I’m still involved in Indonesia, but this ministry in Tanzania has become bigger than I imagined. It’s only going to continue if I can get a team put together quickly and raise about $100,000 a year to be able to go from village to village.” Currently, Gregg works alone on all the logistics and funds his time on the ground in Tanzania out of his own pocket—a strain on any missionary’s budget. To make a real difference for Tanzanians, he needs a home team to tackle everything from fundraising to correspondence; from sorting supplies to managing a website and social media. Until then, he is one man against a mountain.
You are invited to help Gregg provide training, clean water, and aid for the disabled in Tanzanian villages. Donations may be made online at www.missionbuilders.org, or checks can be made payable to MBI—including a separate note that reads Tanzania Water Project—and sent to PO Box 406, Lakeside, MT 59922. Contact MBI at 406.285.8525 about hands-on opportunities.
*Gregg gratefully acknowledges the various Catholic parishes in Kalispell and Central Montana, the Rotary Club of Kalispell, the Veterans Administration, personal supporters, MBI staff and all the folks who have given so much and so selflessly toward this project.
by Becky Hefty | Feb 9, 2016 | Letter from the Director
It will all work out. It always does. God will not be moved.
I’m especially encouraged for some reason. Could it be our new granddaughter, who brings smiles and laughter in the middle of a busy day? Or could it be the afterglow of prayer and intercession for the nations and the world, filling me with faith that God is moving on every continent to bring about revival? Can you see Him sowing His mercy and grace amid the political theater, Islamic fascism and crackpot dictators threatening the world with destruction?
When the world gives us every reason to wring our hands and pull our hair in anxiety and fear, God gives us hope. “And now this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).
What does hope occasionally look like?
Let us introduce you to Gregg Scott, another of our MBI heroes who ‘just shows up’ and gets the job done. Despite personal pain and injury, this New Zealander-turned-American ‘Grizzly Adams’ sort of character has pressed on through many challenges over the years, taking friends like us along for the journey. We’re grateful for the glimpse of heaven he reveals through simple acts of kindness toward us and others, like gathering equipment for the disabled in Tanzania and giving YWAM Lakeside Montana DTS students the opportunity to be part of the blessing (see photo above and read our blog post titled Double Vision).
In this thing called the Church, the Body of Christ, we realize we are all on a journey of discovery together and that we can actually learn from each other. I pray you who are reading this have true friends who exhibit the deep, abiding love Jesus gives us through people like Gregg and his bride, Alison. We all may not be fully-funded, as the world would have us strive to be, but we are all the richer for friends who selflessly offer help by just showing up. It’s what Mission Builders around the world do every day, and it’s a great community to belong to!
Look for your opportunity through our website – or come join us in the next Crossroads DTS.
by Becky Hefty | Jan 25, 2016 | Uncategorized
You may already be connected to Mission Builders International. Perhaps you love the idea of lifting the arms of those in long-term missions. Or maybe you support a friend or family member in such efforts. Or is it that your curiosity has been piqued by missions? Whatever your reason, this letter could confirm what already resonates in your heart, or it could be God’s nudge for you to go for it!
I spent five years longing to know God more in a safe and set-apart season of my life. I remember talking, for the umpteenth time, of my desires to my good friend, Melisa, who’d spent years in YWAM, living in the Middle East. She had something I didn’t—a maturity and well-roundedness—but more than that, a heart able to expand toward people and places in a way mine couldn’t. I told her once more, “I want what you have!” In a moment I’ll never forget, Melisa pounded her fist emphatically on the coffee shop table and said, “Then you just need to GO!”
Go? Me? Oh no, no, no. That’s not possible. I’ve already established myself in a career. I’d have to quit my job! That’s a lot to ask of me financially too. How in the world could I afford to do that? I’m pretty involved in my local church; how can I be released from my commitments? What about insurance? Rent? Leaving family and friends? And the clincher: YWAM is for those “young pups.” I’m too old!
Now, with a humble and knowing smile, I’m writing this on my last full day of outreach in Romania. For the first time in my walk with Christ, I didn’t allow fears and my over-analytical brain to define my desires or my future. Months ago, I took a leap of faith and declared, “I’m going to Montana!” I finally allowed God to be Himself. When I cut through the tethers of human understanding, the poison of people-pleasing, and my anxiety over many things, He showed me places of freedom and provision I’d only dreamed of.
How has a Crossroads Discipleship Training School changed my life? I received precious revelation about God’s character and grace, missions, evangelism and relationships. I surrounded myself with people who love Jesus and who encouraged me in how God has fashioned me. I was sharpened by different life perspectives, cultures, personalities and life situations.
Ups? Most definitely. Downs? You betcha. In fact, if you were to part the grass-is-always-greener curtain on anything in life, in time you would see—the ordinary. Did I just kill the mood? I certainly don’t want to paint a bleak picture. But as I read Romans 12 this past week, I recognized the beauty of the common dirt my Jesus walked on daily as He sojourned on earth, and the apostle Paul’s loving encouragement to do likewise.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Recognize what He wants from you, and respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, which drags you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you. A DTS enables you to embrace the everyday, ordinary life and to place all that you think, believe and are, at Jesus’ feet as a “living sacrifice.” As you do this, you allow Him to open your heart and eyes to people, places and experiences you never wo
uld have before.
At a Crossroads DTS (for those 30+), you can continue the journey of life-long learning and discipleship. It’s a season of receiving without apology, working out frustrations you’ve had and lies you’ve believed for years, making new and lasting relationships with other believers, gaining a heart for things that never before crossed your mind, wrestling through the hard questions of life and seeing God take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
What would a Crossroads Discipleship Training School do for you? Only God can answer that. Just go for it! –Anna Patton
MBI’s next CDTS begins April 4, 2016. Visit www.missionbuilders.org for details and fill out the online CDTS application. For a photo tour of Anna’s 2014 outreach to Romania, visit the YWAM Mission Builders International Inc. Facebook page and view the photo album.
by Becky Hefty | Nov 16, 2015 | Letter from the Director
I have a growing expectancy that God is about to bring significant breakthroughs to a world of chaos, hatred and despair. My optimism is fed, in part, by meeting and working with young, Jesus-loving leaders like our new friends at YWAM Bend, Oregon, and others like them in dozens of locations around the world.
I personally may not have what it takes to bring dramatic change to the world and make it more like heaven on earth; but I can, and do, pray that the One who transforms the world continues to raise up his army of workers to fill his fields, white with the harvest of the lost.
That’s why I love what we (the Mission Builders International team) are able to do: recruit, place and encourage volunteers to work alongside Youth With A Mission missionaries around the world. YWAMers are not necessarily God’s answer to all the world’s problems. But, usually, they are willing workers who pray, listen for God’s voice and respond in obedience to do what so many are not doing: loving the unlovely, the forgotten, the broken, the outcast.
Mission Builders International is about connecting you with the harvest through all kinds of opportunities, whether you volunteer your construction skills to build housing for YWAMers in Kona, Hawaii; teach students to know God and make Him known in South Africa (or MBI’s Crossroads DTS here in Montana); cook in a YWAM kitchen in Grimerud, Norway; help raise the funds to feed orphans, or buy books to feed the souls of prisoners throughout the U.S.
The needs are great and the laborers are few, and whether you pray, send, or go this year or next, we invite your partnership with MBI to help us do what we cannot do alone.
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