GOINGS AND COMINGS June – July, 2009

Ali Arhab – June 23

One of the most remarkable WEC missionaries I have met is Ali Arhab, an Algerian who came to faith in Christ through a vision of Jesus. He now directs a satellite TV ministry (CNA ministry - www.cna-sat.org) that broadcasts the gospel out of France into North Africa in indigenous languages. When I found out that he would be in the US for meetings, I arranged a morning event with missions leaders in the Washington, DC area at Vienna Presbyterian Church. It is wonderful to see people’s reaction to news of how hundreds of thousands of Muslims are turning to faith in Jesus.

Ali speaking at the meeting

The Journey Deepens Retreat – June 26-28 (WEC Headquarters)

It started summer 2008 in Dallas when I bumped into John McVay, a friend of WEC who founded this retreat ministry. It is basically conceived as a follow-up from something like a Perspectives Course where people feel called to do something with missions but are not sure of the next step. The Journey Deepens has retreats all over the US (CA, GA, IL, TX, etc) EXCEPT for the Northeast, so John and I worked through the proposal to host it at WEC’s headquarters. This took some doing since there are not too many times of the year where we can host an extra 50 people!

So after much sweat and preparation, WEC hosted this retreat with 41 participants and 13 missionary mentors. The schedule was like the following: Large group meeting listening to a message, followed by a half an hour of private time with the Lord to process the message, then small groups that were led by two seasoned missionaries who guided sharing and worked through any questions the 8-10 people had. This was repeated Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning! Saturday afternoon was free to make appointments, to chat or to rest. I had the joy of talking with several people. God was so good to put all of us together.

The Journey Deepens – group photo

One of the small groups which met at our apartment

(Lee) My journey with God was deepened, too! I was incredibly blessed to listen to some of these precious people who want to give themselves to whatever God wanted- to go, to stay (pray and support) or to mobilize others to get involved! To have played a small part of this weekend was a joy and a privilege.

I (David) dealt with many of the organization aspects. None of the musically gifted staff at WEC were available for leading music, but a wonderful young worship leader from a local church did a great job (with French Horn, of course). Even the food was a cross-cultural experience with Kore

an food for lunch from a local church. Supper featured the real deal Philly cheesesteak. The WEC staff did a terrific job of helping out with many seemingly “little” jobs that made a big difference.

The participants were incredibly diverse – ages ranged from 19 to 62, coming from Massachusetts to Georgia to Colorado and an equally diverse ethnic background. Yes, we plan to do it again next year. You can find out more about this ministry at www.thejourneydeepens.com. A number of people have since expressed an interest in serving with WEC.

WEC Canada conference – July 1-8

Hamilton, Ontario (Lee)

Every year, the annual WEC Canada conference has a representative from the US Sending base. For a number of reasons, we were asked to go this time. What a blessing to get to know more of our WEC family. There were about 40 i

n attendance and most of them I had never met before. However there was one gal who was our field leader in Ivory Coast and a family who had spent 4 months at Camp Hill three years ago. It was great to catch up with them.

I had the privilege of giving a 6 hour seminar on Managing Conflict on Multicultural Teams. I asked the Lord to give me some creative ways to share the information. Six hours of listening is neither fun nor productive. I asked for their participation on different issues, we broke up into groups and had time with the Lord individually and collectively. If you care to have an insight into other cultural mindsets read the book: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb by Eric Law (Chinese American). It’s short and practical!

Sunday afternoon was a free time so we were taken to Niagara Falls which was only 45 minutes away from Hamilton. I got to use my new telephoto lens that someone gave me! I was able to get close ups of the terrific powerful water falling over the cliffs.

David also made some presentations about WEC USA and worked with the Canadian mobilization team. One thing he loved about the Canadian staff is that they have 3 very good pianists which made worship very refreshing. He participated every morning.

ETHNOMUSICOLOWHAT?

Wake Forest, NC July 20-29 (David)

We are talking about ethnomusicology (how different peoples do music). Life has its funny turns. I have a master’s in both music and theology, but have never put the two together. WEC International is a large organization – over 1,800 workers – and among the many things we do is music and missions, or in my favorite words, worship in the heart music of a people.

One WEC ‘product’ that has had high appreciation is our audio CD of indigenous worship mu

sic entitled ‘Many Voices One Song.’ I would estimate that we have given out 5,000 copies of this CD. We are now with a new and improved version with more user-friendly data interface with materials about the songs (translations, information about the country of origin) as well as information on WEC. The CD will be at the same time an audio CD of worship music. (Yes, they are FREE and should be available at the end of August.)

As I have noticed a significant amount of interest in indigenous worship among students all over the US, I started looking into how WEC USA can offer opportunities in this discipline. As I discussed this with the international level leaders of this ministry, it became apparent that someone on this side of the pond would have to develop skills in ethnomusicology. I have already scheduled my leading a ethnomusicological team to do research on worship in Senegal for June, 2010.

All of this is to say that for the next 10 days, I will be taking a course in ethnomusicology at Southeastern Seminary. It was unbelievable that this course fell at a time when my schedule was clear. To find out more about the course, go to http://www.sebts.edu/news-resources/conferences/ethnodox.aspx. Lee will stay up at the WEC headquarters during this time.

Antananarivo, Madagascar – February 2010

I believe that we mentioned that Lydia has also joined the Foreign Service. She found out last June that she will serve in Madagascar starting in February. She is currently taking courses for her diplomatic services and will then study French for 6 months before she leaves next February. By the way, Chansonette has been in Venezuela for about two months and is getting settled in. She should have all of her shipped goods by now.