testimonial

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

Letter from North Africa

/ Ari Rocklin

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from weeping to joy in the Maghreb

I’m reading a letter, a real paper letter from an envelope with 
a stamp from UK. Remember those? It’s written on green paper. It’s from a tentmaker serving in North Africa.

About half way through, I am barely able to see the writing as tears fill my eyes and run down my cheeks.  I ask my wife to read it to figure out who it is from.

A year earlier

A year before this letter finds me in southern Europe speaking at a missions center and spending downtime with short term teamers heading into North Africa. As we eat our evening meal on the roof of the building with a view over the Med, we can faintly see the mountains of North Africa. Indeed our prayer times are often on this rooftop and we always face those mountains.

Someone interrupts to ask if I can go to the port and pick up a worker arriving on 
a ship from NA. It is dark by the time I arrive at the port, and people are already walking out of the customs office. How am I supposed to know what the person looks like? I look at each passenger closely from the curb, hoping for some sign or hint.

Eventually no more people come out. I get ready to leave, but take one more look and then I see him—a lonely young man, dragging his duffel bag on the ground behind him, eyes cast downward, seemingly unaware of anything around him. There is a tremendous sadness on his face as he walks up to the car and throws his bag into the trunk. Without a word, he gets into the car and we start the drive back to the center. Eventually he simply asks me if I could take him to the travel agency first thing the next day so he can buy a ticket to fly home as soon as possible. I promise to do that right after breakfast.

Before retiring, we end up sitting on the roof in the darkness, sipping tea in silence. He sighs in silence and it seems like a good time to be silent with those who are silent. Eventually he begins pouring out his pain.

We walk to our rooms in the early morning hours, but before Nate steps into his room he asks for assurance that I will take him to the travel agency after breakfast.

At breakfast his stories of defeat continue with gruesome details of people spitting his way as he walks to buy food. If he goes to a coffee shop, people move away from him which is so unusual for this hospitable culture.

Nate suggests we go to the travel agency after lunch instead. We head to the beach where he continues his story.

He has been teaching English in a small city about 200 km from the capital city of this NA nation. Living alone in a primitive dorm room with no heat in winter and no air conditioning in summer. Although his young students and boss appreciated his teaching, the suspicions by the locals was so strong that no friendships were being made. He shares increasingly sadder stories of his life in this remote city. I feel a wave of sadness and despair come over me.

After lunch with the team, Nate suggests we postpone going to the travel agency until the next morning.

Three days come and go. Mostly I listen to Nate’s stories. Debriefing is just a fancy word for listening.

On the fourth morning while having breakfast Nate informs me that he is returning that day to North Africa. His love for the people in his community and desire to see them know Jesus is so strong, that against all my best advice not to return so soon, he insists on returning.

Before he heads to the ferry, we all gather on the rooftop with Nate to pray for 
his community and ask for a spiritual breakthrough and safety. It is one of those memorable prayer meetings.

I watch Nate with a spring in his step and joy on his face, now with his duffel bag on his shoulder, walk briskly back to the ship that will take him back to the people he loves.

One year later

My wife hands me the letter and says, this is from Nate. He was using an alias in the letter that had been hand carried to the UK and mailed from there due to security issues.

The letter is a testament of God’s faithfulness in the life of a young man driven by the love of Jesus to go to the unreached. When Nate returned to his work and life, the spiritual atmosphere had changed tremendously. People welcomed him back with open arms and in the course of his first year back, a house church started from the families of his students.

Today, Nate is back in his home country in Europe, mobilizing new tentmakers. 
The house church he left behind is thriving and is now a part of a network of house churches in this one majority religion country.

              Psalm 126:5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

The lesson is that it took years of hardship, with no visible signs of success, and then in God’s time, the seeds planted during the those unfruitful years finally sprouted and multiplied.