Awassa, Ethiopia – The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) hosted the 16th annual meeting of the International Missions Association (IMA) in Awassa, Ethiopia, September 18-26, 2012, on the beautiful shores of Lake Awassa. 

The IMA consists of 22 Anabaptist groups dedicated to fellowship, prayer and fasting, information sharing, resourcing, and partnership for global mission, especially in places where the church is weak or nonexistent. Eighty percent of the IMA members also belong to Mennonite World Conference (MWC).

MKC chose Awassa for the 2012 meetings because it is a large regional center on its growing southern edge. The largest Anabaptist communion in the world, MKC has more than 230,000 baptized members in 726 local churches and 846 new church plants.

IMA President Yesaya Abdi from PIPKA, the mission arm of the Muria Synod of Indonesia (GKMI), opened the meetings with a meditation on Ezekiel 47:1-5, “Moving by the Spirit.”

“Entering into Jesus’ ministry is not about what we do for him but allowing him to do what he wants through us,” said Abdi as he spoke about being ankle deep in the river of God. Moments later, he spoke of being knee deep in the river and simultaneously distributed a prayer booklet containing significant facts about each of the 54 countries of Africa. He challenged the 48 international participants to pray for Africa throughout the meetings.

But he didn’t stop there. In describing what it means to be waist deep in the river, Abdi told the story of someone who was being discouraged from giving too sacrificially. In response the person pleaded, “Please give me the chance to feel the hurt of giving!”

Moved by the sacrificial giving of others, the Indonesians brought a computer to donate to the Tanzanian Mennonite Church whose offices had recently been burglarized – even though PIPKA also needed a new computer.

Yemiru Tilahun, director of missions for MKC, challenged the group to be compelled by the Holy Spirit rather than by their cultures, past experiences, busy schedules, the people around them, finances, or the contexts in which they find themselves.

“Culture is often more powerful than Jesus,” he said. “That’s why many of you are hesitating to eat injera [Ethiopian flat bread]! But the Holy Spirit is always compelling us to be free from our culture.”

The next day there was a noticeable rise in the consumption of injera!

Special features of the IMA annual meetings are the Holy Spirit in Mission Conference (HSIM) short-term ministry trips to mission locations in the hosting country, and strategic conversations for partnership and best practice in mission.

Local MKC leaders had planned a series of seven public evangelistic rallies as part of the HSIM Conference. The mayor of Awassa gave permission to hold the rallies in the large central sports arena, and at the final meeting it was estimated that more than 4,000 people were in attendance. One hundred forty people came to faith in Jesus during the rallies.

Henry Mulandi, director of African Christian Mission International (ACMI) of Kenya, spoke in the first evening rally. Mulandi noted that the Ethiopian word injera sounds like “the way” in his Kenyan Swahili. “Let’s feast on ‘the way!’” he said, using John 14:6 – Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.

In the final rally, hundreds of people danced with abandon in praise to God. The meeting could hardly be stopped as the fervent praise went on and on. Choir B, an MKC choir from Addis Ababa which has served the church since 1973, led the worship.

“These meetings are not a flash in the pan,” said Tilahun Beyene, coordinator of the IMA and former MKC church leader. “IMA energizes the church for mission wherever we meet, and Awassa is no exception. Local leaders are already making plans for future public rallies.

Outside the large rallies, the Awassa meetings also gave birth to stimulating reflection. Nelson Okanya, EMM president with roots in Kenya, called the group to reflect on the relationship between mission and church. “As a mission entity, how do you relate with the local church? The North American church is trying to re-discover its missional soul. Is there a way for a mission agency to help with that rediscovery?”

Relation of church and mission

Okanya’s questions led to vigorous discussion about the mission structures of the IMA member groups. In some, there is almost no difference between church and mission. Javier Soler, mission leader in Amor Viviente (AV) Honduras noted, “From the beginning, mission was part of the DNA of Amor Viviente. For us, mission and church are the same. We don’t distinguish them organizationally. But now we need to insure that we don’t lose that initial missionary DNA.”

In another pattern, some churches have developed departments of missions. MKC is one such. “Our department gets a lot of our funds from donors,” said Yemiru Tilahun, director. “To be frank, it’s not perfect. Administration is not always smooth. The budgeting and activity have to go parallel with other activities of the denomination. Should we create a more separate agency for greater effectiveness and efficiency?”

MKC has recently begun promoting church-wide giving for missions at the rate of one birr [unit of Ethiopian currency] per member per month, and he finds this encouraging.

A third major pattern for some IMA members is that of a mission agency which functions under the authority of a board established by the church. This tends to create greater separation between “mission” and “church” than do the other two. EMM North America, PIPKA Indonesia, and ACMI Kenya fall into this category. This mission agency/church distinction not infrequently creates tension between mission structures and other church structures.

Okanya noted, “In the west, the evangelical church has seen the mission task as primarily a sending activity. We have set up specialist structures to guide our sending activities. Local churches have had very little to do with the mission task beyond releasing workers and finances so the specialist structures could do their specialized work. But now the local church is re-claiming its mission.”

Is one pattern better than the others? In discussion, members returned frequently to IMA’s historic stance. “We affirm diversity in mission structures,” said Richard Showalter, IMA president emeritus and chair of MWC's mission commission. “Mission is an integral expression of every faithful church just as church is an integral expression of every faithful mission. But God is infinitely creative in the choices of structures for mission.”

David Shenk, IMA resource person and global consultant for EMM, led a series of mentoring sessions for younger mission leaders on the subject of Christian witness among persons of other major world religions. “I’m going back home with a new understanding of how to reach out to my neighbors,” said a Kenyan mission leader. “My ministry has been transformed, and I have a new life goal.”

James Krabill, Mennonite Mission Network leader and MWC Global Mission Fellowship planner, enjoyed his first visit to Ethiopia and the IMA. He joined Nelson Okanya in leading a workshop and led the group in rousing West African worship.

SIDEBAR: South-to-south support grows

In the IMA members' assembly, coordinator Tilahun Beyene highlighted the support which comes regularly from IMA members such as PIPKA Indonesia and Amor Viviente Honduras. Referring to PIPKA, he noted that this year they gifted MKC in Ethiopia with seven brand new laptops.

A few minutes later President Abdi clarified that the seven computers were not from PIPKA as an organization, but came was a gift from his congregation, Anugerah Mennonite Church of Jakarta.

Abdi added, “I also told the church about a need God had placed on my heart for a vehicle for the mission work of MKC. So before coming to Ethiopia we also raised money to buy a van for them. God provided the van through the local church and its mission agency PIPKA!”

It was a holy moment. Yemiru Tiluhun, mission director for MKC, could hardly believe his years. Just weeks earlier he had written to a western friend in IMA to share the desperate need for a vehicle for MKC missions. “I administer 140 missionaries on behalf of the churches,” he said, “but I am reduced to being a pedestrian. Please pray with me. We need a car.”

A group of six Indonesians had accompanied Abdi to the meetings, enjoying the international fellowship and experiencing the Ethiopian church.

Witnessing this south-to-south interchange, Richard Showalter, chair of the mission commission of MWC and IMA coach, said, “From its beginning IMA was formed to be a group of peers in mission—north, south, east, and west coming together. It's thrilling to see that happen before our eyes.  We might have expected funds for a vehicle to come from Europe or the United States, but God provided from the south!”

Beyene also recognized EMM for its generous support of IMA. “Even during the hard times from 2008-2011, EMM did not restrict the support it gave to IMA. Every year EMM budgets $15,000. Not only that, but as our nesting agency EMM’s services are used freely. They also give quarter-time support for me as coordinator,” he said.

SIDEBAR:  Missional Stories

As always at IMA gatherings, stories and testimony dominated both the formal and informal conversations. Pastor Tetty Sinulingga of Indonesia said, “I was a government worker, and I loved my job. It was a good one. But after 15 years God spoke to me to leave it. This meant giving up my future. God spoke to me through Numbers 20, “Speak to the rock, and water will come out.” That gave me courage to resign from my job and work for God full time.” Since then Sinulingga, a PIPKA missionary, has planted numerous churches in Sumatra.

Bishop Henry Mulandi of Kenya described a Kenyan missionary, Benson, or “Desert Boy” who was trained in an ACMI school. “After leaving school he started planting churches among the Turkana, (a nomadic desert tribe). Now he has 550 churches that meet under trees. My recent trip to visit Benson was unforgettable—I’ve never seen such churches, such joy.” Mulandi said these young Turkana churches are now also sending their own missionaries to neighboring tribes.

At the end of the IMA meetings, Paul Kimani, an ACMI missionary from Kenya to South Sudan, shared a story from his IMA ministry team just that week. When they ministered in a village about 50 miles outside of Awassa they met a man who followed them from the town center to the church. He sat in the back, but at the altar call came forward to give his life to Jesus.

The man shared his story with the IMA team: “My village is six kilometers away. Just now I’m coming from prison in Awassa. I was in prison because I killed two people and two horses. I was returning from prison for revenge.

“I was going to kill all the members of my family because they didn’t visit me in prison. But now, something has changed in my heart. I have never before knelt for anyone, this was the first time. I’m going back home now. I’m going to tell my family, ‘If you kill me, okay, but I am a changed person.’”

MWC distribution of news release by International Missions Association

Photo: International guests and participants at the recent IMA meetings in Awassa, Ethiopia, pose with hand woven stoles from their Ethiopian hosts.  Photo by Javier Soler

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