Foreign Missions have always been an integral part of the purpose of the Church, as embodied in the words of Christ to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In the beginning, this commission was seen as going out and preaching the Gospel, but as the Church has grown in its understanding of the harvest field to which is has been sent, this quickly expanded to all manner of ministries, from medical help to education to economic development and training, all to the purpose of touching both the physical and spiritual sides of the people we are pointing toward Christ.
In addition, as the world has grown more and more dependent on technology, so the Church has learned to use technology in its mission. Printing presses made it possible to physically hand people the printed Word of God. Christian radio reaches deep into areas where it is physically or politically impossible to travel. Aircraft have made it possible to reach deep into remote areas of the globe, to contact people groups which have been isolated for hundreds of years.
As the complexity of our understanding of this Mission has grown, so to has the realization that missionaries to not work in a vacuum. Missionaries no longer hop on a ship and sail off on their own to the dark shores of Asia or Africa. A system of support and services had grown up around people going out on the field, much as a military operation depends on a vast infrastructure of people and services to support the individual troops crawling through the mud on the "front lines." Missionaries need both the spiritual and practical support of a "home team," providing everything from recruiting to education, training, financial book-keeping, communications, prayer, encouragement, coordination, strategic direction and a host of other services.
Computers and Information Technology have taken an increasingly important role in this support structure, just as they have in the rest of society. Computers and digital communication technologies have taken on a key role in shrinking the world. At one time, when a missionary sailed off to a foreign field, it was often the last time that their family heard from them. At best, letters could take months to circle the globe, if they reached home at all. Today, with email and blogs and VoIP, communication is practically instantaneous. A missionary's support and prayer team can know of his or her victories, as well as their trials and struggles, in almost real-time. Strategy teams back in a missions headquarters can coordinate rapid responses to international disasters such as floods or earthquakes, reaching out with the hands of Jesus to people who desperately need not only the Good News, but a meal and a safe place to spend the night.
The USA Headquarters for Operation Mobilization is one such center of operations, providing a launching point for hundreds of both short term and long term missionaries, and ensuring that they have both the spiritual and technical support for the work that they are doing. The headquarters provides logistics and coordination, tracking of donors, office support, HR services (payroll, accounting, health care, etc.), communications such as newsletters and bulletins, as well as Technology and Multi-media.
I have had a long association with the OM USA Headquarters, first through friendship with several of the people sent out from Grace Covenant Church to work full time at the headquarters. I have worked for many years with the former head of the IT department, Ron Tenny, first by helping with small tasks, communicating remotely by email and phone, and then starting about ten years ago, spending a week of vacation each Summer to go down to the Atlanta office to work on short, high priority projects. All this time, the clear direction from God has been to act on the "input" side of the financial equation, earning a substantial income from my professional positions here in Rochester, and then funneling a substantial portion of that income to others who were God's hands and feet in the field. However, about three years ago, Sue and I made the decision to start taking the necessary steps to leave our positions here and join with the OM USA team there full time. There have been several "mountains" in the way of this move, such as financial responsibilities, but one by one, these mountains have been, "cast into the sea."
Our role at the OM USA Headquarters will be primarily focused on using my skills in computer technology, network administration, as well as doing whatever else the Lord may put in our path, to support the members of Operation Mobilization as they minister God's Grace across the globe. I will be serving in the computer department:
- Building secure, reliable, scalable computer networks.
- Providing consulting to other smaller offices around the world.
- Building and maintaining hardware (networks, computers, servers).
- Training and helping a broad user community in all aspects of their use of computers and technology.
- Building and maintaining software systems, especially as they relate to communications (email, word processing and office systems).
Of course, entering that kind of environment is to step into the possibility of serving the Lord in an endless variety of ways, as there are often opportunities to go on short term projects or special assignments, however our attitude is to be used by the Lord in any way He sees fit. There is a constant stream of ministry workers who go through that office on a regular basis, moving on and off of the field, and all of these need a place to stay for a while, and more likely than not, fixes and updates to their computers and laptops!
At this point, almost all of our other obstacles have been overcome, except for our monthly support. We still need a team of people who will stand with us, both in prayer and encouragement, as well as financially, committing to support us on a regular (monthly?) basis. Since my assignment at Xerox has ended, this now allows me to dedicate more time contacting potential partners, to share with them our vision of working full time with OM, and to present the opportunity of partnering in our ministry.
This is both a scary and an exciting time, but also a time when we really need to learn what it means to depend on the Lord and His provision, and His guidance. This is a dream that has been a long time in coming, but which is finally beginning to take shape.
Sue was busy too...
