Early on in my tentmaking mobilization career most opportunities to share about it came without warning or time for preparation.

The first time was when I attended a missions conference, Onådda Folket (unreached peoples) in Gothenburg Sweden. I had been sent there to observe and learn how they promoted tentmaking. Before the conference started, I met with the tentmaker track coordinators and speakers for lunch.

We all worked together to setup the room for sixteen people, complete with a Ramlösa sparkling water bottles and bananas for every seat.

So many people!

As people started coming into the room, I sat in the back delighted that so many had chosen this track. Too late we realized that there was only standing room and yet people were still trying to get into the classroom. The crowd grew to 90 people so we had to move the session outside into the entrance hall area. People had to sit on the floor as there were no chairs.

The organizer of the seminar looked at me in despair and said: “We think it is best if you do the talking since you are the only one who has been a tentmaker”. I tried protesting but was simply told: “You’ve got this!”

With no notes, over heads or power point, I stepped up to the plate and gave it my best shot. The seminar was repeated in the afternoon and another 60 people came, sat on the floor, and heard about the opportunities of using one’s profession as mission, most for the first time.

Summer Holidays

We were on summer holidays in Norway to visit with friends we had met during our years as tentmakers in Asia. They were teachers at Bjerkely Folkehøyskole in a small village named Arneberg. I had accidentally learned about a weekend tentmaking seminar taking place at this very school and looked forward to attending. Thirty-six people had registered and were coming from various parts of Norway. Four teachers had been lined up to do the teaching.

An hour before the opening session, the de facto leader of the Norwegian tentmaker movement and one of the main speakers, Berit Helgøy Kloster took me aside to say that due to a national airline strike, the three other teachers would not be coming. She herself had received an urgent message to return home immediately that night. As I wondered how the seminar weekend would turn out without any speakers, she turned to me and said: “You’ve got this.”

Right about that time, an active tentmaker serving in North Africa walked into the room and between the two of us we designed a new curriculum for the seminar working on it into the early hours. He had also come to learn, not to teach. We were all too aware of the tremendous responsibility of being the only two speakers for this seminar.

With the direction and inspiration of the holy spirit and much to our surprise, we were able to provide a well-received seminar.

A Call to Mobilize

On a personal level, it was also to be the start of a decade-long commitment to being a part of the Norwegian tentmaker movement. That commitment led to an invitation to the launch of Tent Norway two years later. Today, that organization has launched multiple national tentmaking groups and continues to grow.

P.S. If you are a returned tentmaker and have considered becoming a tentmaker mobilizer, mentor and trainer there is a trainers retreat coming up. Keep checking www.tentmaking.today/events  or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tentmakingtoday/

By Ari Rocklin