tentmakers

Reflections from the youngest student at a GO Equipped TENTmaking Course

/ Ari Rocklin

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 A New Calling Tugging On My Heart.

Near the end of last May, my father and I traveled some twenty-five hours by airplane and bus to reach the city of Bergen in Norway. When we finally arrived at the building where the course was being held, I was exhausted but excited for things to begin.

  Amazingly people had come from 20 countries 
  to this course that was full past capacity.

Why was I there? To learn about becoming a tentmaker – someone who works abroad to share about God’s word, using a work visa to enter countries that are otherwise closed to traditional missionaries.

They follow the example of the apostle Paul, the original tentmaker, and support themselves with their jobs rather than relying on donations from home. They also work to plant small house churches that will remain in the country even when they eventually leave.

Over four days of information-packed sessions, taught by some very talented speakers, I learned more and more about God and His will for His children, and the world around me. It was an eye-opening experience for me in many ways. Even though, at 16, I was the youngest person ever to take the course, I still found it perfectly applicable and understandable, not to mention fascinating.

The rest of the students were of a wide variety of ages, cultures, and backgrounds, yet we got to know one another as good friends. We came together from every continent with a desire to learn and God’s voice echoing in our ears, which helped to create a very positive atmosphere throughout.

Of course, ten hours a day in any classroom is a challenge, and the difference in time zones didn’t help me, but I kept in mind that the course is specifically designed to fit into the schedule of the average working person. In any case, the knowledge I gained from it was certainly worth the effort. I walked away from this experience with a new perspective on things, and a new calling tugging on my heart. I now feel that God plans to send me, perhaps as an English teacher, and, come next September, I will begin working towards that goal in college.

I strongly urge anyone reading this, regardless of age or identity, to look further into the GO Equipped course.

I can safely say that it will make a difference in the way you see things – and it may even change your future in the way it did mine.

M.R.
Canada

They brought the Gospel to most of the world.

/ Steinar Opheim

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Steinar Opheim

If you haven’t done so already, you should absolutely plan to celebrate this month’s great mission anniversary.

Innovative, generous and fearless. These are three keywords that international mission leaders use when they are asked to describe the American mission movement.

A cold winter morning in February 1812 the brig named “Caravan” set sail from Salem just outside Boston. Onboard were Ann Hasseltine and Adoniram Judson. They had married just a few days before. Now they were on their way to India to share the gospel.  Little did they know that they were to become pioneers in a fast growing, American mission movement that would bring the good news about Jesus Christ to millions of people around the world.

One hundred years after the Judsons embarked on the Caravan, the US had become the greatest sending nation in the world, a position it has kept ever since. According to Operation World the US today has approximately 95,000 missionaries. India follows a few steps behind whereas South Korea is number three.

Pioneering spirit

– The immigrants who founded the US were pioneers. They were willing to take chances and to move into the unknown. This pioneering spirit is still alive in the US today, says one mission leader TMB. Asked him to explain why the US has become the number one nation in evangelical mission.

Missiology professor Tormod Engelsviken underlines that the US is a superpower in many arenas. Thus it is common for people to have global visions.

– In addition, a big share of the people living in the US have a Christian faith. This has meant a lot for the Christians all over the world. We can only imagine what the situation could have been if the world’s strongest superpower had had other ideological or religious roots, he comments.

The US´ leading role in the world mission has also brought some tensions and challenges. Leaders TMB have spoken to say that American missionaries some places have shown little cultural sensitivity. Money coming from the US has also caused unhealthy dependency in the mission work in some places.

High price

A great number of American missionaries have paid a high price for their calling to bring the gospel to new places. That was also the case for Ann Hasseltine and Adoniram Judson. They were not allowed to settle in India as they had planned. Instead they moved on to Burma. One of their three children died before birth. The other two passed away before they were one year old. After 13 years in Burma Ann Hasseltine Judson died of smallpox. Her husband was imprisoned for 17 months under harsh conditions during the Anglo-Burmese war from 1824-1826 because he was accused of being a spy. In spite of challenges and suffering he stayed on in his ministry until he died in 1850.

Because of their faith and willingness to sacrifice, the lives of Ann Hasseltine and Adoniram Judson have become models for other American missionaries.

– The future is as bright as the promises of God, stated Adoniram Judson when the couple arrived in Burma the first time and got a glimpse of all the Buddhist temples in the nation. Today Burma has 4,5 million Christians, and several Burmese churches have sent out tentmakers and missionaries to bring the gospel to new places.

The four questions tentmakers are asked

/ Ari Rocklin

Ari J. Rocklin

The four most common  questions that expatriate workers are asked by neighbors, coworkers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and those they come in contact with are:

  1. What is your name?
  2. What do you do here?
  3. Where are you from?
  4. Do you believe in God?

Everyone can answer the first three questions in a few short minutes, perhaps even without thinking about it too much. The fourth question requires thought, preparation, sensitivity, gentleness, respect, divine inspiration and a time out. 
Check out Peter’s advice on this – 1 Peter 3:15,16.

Paul the tentmaker from Tarsus

In one short, to the point sentence, we learn much about Paul. Having established his persona and reason for being, we can assume that he then began passionately sharing his faith in ever creative ways.

How you answer the fourth question will either open the door for future faith discussion or perhaps close the door to potential friendships that lead to faith talks. It is vital that we get it right, we only have one chance to make that critical first introduction of our faith. If it were up to me, I would make every future tentmaker spend at least 100 hours preparing themselves for this one question. It is that important. Getting that answer wrong could raise suspicion and make you an object of unwanted attention or it could simply set the foundation for future dialogue and perhaps even give you status as a man/woman of God.

For those of you considering tentmaking business as mission, or those of you out there already doing it, I urge you to do some homework so you will have the best possible answer to question number four.

 181 new house churches planted by tentmakers

/ Steinar Opheim

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Steinar Opheim

African tentmakers who have gone through the tentmaking course developed by Global Opportunities and Tent have started at least 181 new prayer groups and house churches the past six years.

According to detailed reports presented by Africa-director Tiowa Diarra in Tentmakers International (TI), 3,751 persons have now gone through a limited version of the GO Equipped TENTmaking course. The course participants have reached out to 15,100 people with the gospel and 181 new, Christian fellowships have been started.

– We are still missing reports from several nations, so the real numbers of people being reached and fellowships being started is even higher than this, says Tiowa Diarra.

He has been a leading figure in the African tentmaking movement that has been emerging the past six years. In 2004 he made connections with Global Opportunities European sister agency, Tent, in order to arrange a tentmaking course in his home country Mali. Since then the development of the movement has been like an adventure. In 2007 Mali hosted the first ever All Africa Tentmaking conference with participants from 17 nations. The second All Africa Tentmaking conference was held in Cameroon last summer. At present TI has national representatives in the majority of the African nations. The tentmaking course has been recorded in both French and English and is now distributed on DVDs to the national leaders in the movement.

– The tentmaking strategy is a good fit for the churches in Africa. Through tentmaking even churches that have small resources can take part in the worldwide misson task, says Tiowa Diarra.

He is now making plans for a third All Africa Tentmaking conference that will be held in Tanzania in 2013.

– By arranging these international events in different parts of the continent, we can introduce even more people to the tentmaking idea, says Tiowa Diarra.