Upcoming Events Around the World

Oct 1 Summer 2014 Internship Launch www.whm.org/go/internships

Oct 4-5 Join us for Intern Reunion Weekend in Quaker Lake Camp in East Climax, NC. All former interns and friends are welcome. pking@whm.org

Oct 21-25 Sonship Week at Delhi Bible Institute in Delhi, India for faculty and staff

Oct 24 Ministry Lunch at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, MO on pastoral internships with overseas church plants in London and Prague

R umors of war whispered their way into the clinic at Nyahuka, Uganda, on

Thursday, July 11. It was quieter, emptier than usual. People stayed home, full of memories and fear. There was fighting over the river, they said. Fighting in the Congo.

World Harvest missionaries woke the next morning to find that thousands of Congolese refugees had already arrived in Bundibugyo district, pouring over the border: bundles on their heads, babies on their backs and uncertainty paving the path before them.

ADF1 rebels had attacked the DRC town of Kamango, just over the river and across the border. Congo is the wild west, a haven for rebel groups and the thickly forested battleground from decades of complex and

overlapping spheres of conflict. When the bullets start to fly, even the impoverished district of Bundibugyo looks like a refuge. Over the coming days the numbers of refugees would swell to estimates ranging from 55,000 to 70,000. The Ugandan army, Red Cross, UNHCR and other aid agencies were on the ground within 24 hours to assess and attempt to register the Congolese, set up shelters, organize food and water distribution, sanitation, and healthcare.

After initially taking refuge in local schools and churches, the refugees were transported to a temporary camp at Bubukwanga, about 20 miles away from Bundibugyo Town. WHM Water Engineer Dr. Joshua Dickenson mobilized

Congolese Refugees in BundibugyoBy Andrew Shaughnessy

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Upcoming Events (contd.)

Nov 8-10 Grace for Men Retreat held by Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS

Nov 7-9 Meet us at Global Medical Missions Conference in Louisville KY, learn about WHMopportunities in medicine and public health. go@whm.org

Nov 12 Covenant College’s Global Gospel Advance Fair in Chattanooga, TN

Nov 12-15 Japan Church Planting Institute National Conference in Tokyo, Japan

immediately, collaborating with the various aid organizations to provide clean water access for the refugees: building tap systems, raising money to pay for water trucks and building materials, and helping repair and expand the pre-existing GFS (Gravity Flow Scheme) water system to pipe water to the refugees.

Summer engineering interns assisted Dickenson with the water projects in the camps, while female interns went to minister to children who had been separated from their families in the chaos. Dr. Jessica Ankney and PA-C Anna Smith made several trips to the camp, vaccinating a number of children and helping with paperwork, but the swift response of MSF2 and other aid organizations allowed WHM’s healthcare workers to shift their

focus back to the clinic at Nyahuka.

“The first day I went to the refugee camp, I had a hard time not crying,” said Ankney. “It was really overwhelming to see so many people with so little, all together in such a small space. People were fighting over food. The initial supply of tents had run out (more came later), but in the meantime, many people just had makeshift tents made with mosquito netting, paper, blankets, pieces of plastic, flour sacks, whatever they could find, most of which would not be waterproof when it rained.”

The transition camp, currently holding around 20,000 relocated Congolese, is already overcrowded and at full capacity. Some 40,000 other refugees have

been relocated to similar camps around the district. But long-term implications are difficult to gauge. “The goal is for the camp at Bubukwanga to be there for three months or less,” Ankney said. “If the refugees are not able to return to the DRC within three months, then they will be relocated to a more permanent settlement in central Uganda.”

In a district where the people already struggle daily for adequate food, shelter, education, healthcare, and clean water access, the sudden influx of tens of thousands is difficult to say the least. The number of patients in the pediatric ward has risen as malnourished refugee children are admitted, burning quickly through medications and nutrition supplies. Compounds are overcrowded with relatives from across the border. Schoolroom desks have reportedly been burned as firewood.

Meanwhile, World Harvest’s missionaries are doing what they can to help the displaced. These are their neighbors, after all. In addition to their specialized response efforts, the WHM team supports local Ugandan church efforts to help – donating clothing and food for aid. But the impact on the local community with which the WHM team works, is staggering. “It’s just a drop in the bucket,” says Ankney. “We need much prayer for the desperate situation here.”

Ankney is right. But in the midst of overwhelming needs, this team and those they serve have an opportunity to lean into the compassion of Christ who himself suffered and was alienated. Our good news is that He chose to enter this chaos in order to offer every manner of provision to those he loves. May Jessica, her team, and these tens of thousands of neighbors be sustained, held up, and moved towards love by that same grace.

J eff and Abbie Nelson started Sonship last summer, after meeting with James

Dirksen, a friend from their Portland, Oregon church and current World Harvest Board Member.

“We had a conversation about missions and what we’d like to do, and James was like: ‘You guys want to be missionaries? You should go now. You shouldn’t wait around,’” says Abbie.

Even before connecting with WHM, Jeff and Abbie were thinking and living missionally. Jeff is a clinical psychologist, while Abbie is an ER nurse. They led a church home group and were trying to start another one. Jeff was an elder in the church. Abbie taught Gospel Transformation to a women’s Bible Study Group, and then became pregnant with their second daughter Lucy (2) around the same time she was starting Nurse Practitioner graduate school.

“We both work full time in incredibly busy, needy situations,” says Abbie, “and we’ve been married for seven years. So we both got to that point of feeling like it would be good to slow down and retool a little bit, and Sonship ended up being exactly what we needed.”

At first they were skeptical, maybe even a bit reluctant. “I didn’t know if Sonship was going to be good or not,” says Abbie. “There were parts of Gospel Transformation that were definitely tough for me to teach through – I was like, Aghh!!! I don’t like this diagram!! There’s no perfect Bible Study curriculum out there, but Sonship has met and exceeded our expectations.”

“I think the questions are pretty pointed with some of the issues that we tend to

gloss over,” Jeff says. “It was good to slow down and take stock because oftentimes we tend to just charge ahead with good intentions. I feel like our [World Harvest] discipler, Jeff [McMullen] has asked some pretty amazing questions that get at that.”

“And we have such a tendency towards self –sufficiency,” Abbie adds. “You know, we’re can-do kind of people. We want to do it all ourselves. [Sonship] forces you to come to the end of yourself and take a long, hard look at yourself and your spouse and hopefully put a framework in place to deal with that stuff before you get out [to the field]… It’s so freeing to admit your need, and I think that’s where the gospel comes to meet you.”

And that’s part of the gospel truth that Sonship drives home: realizing the extent of your own insufficiency, just how big and all-pervasive your sin is, and then turning in freedom to the promises of grace and responding to that grace by moving towards others.

“For me it’s like comfort food, [slowing down and] hearing some of those truths,” says Jeff. “A lot of people come back. They benefit from hearing these things over and over, because we do so easily get off path and forget . . . We need that [constant injection of the gospel].”

“The biggest take-away for me,” says Abbie, “has been that they talk about ministering from a place of weakness. I think Sonship forces you to ingest the gospel and to see it in your daily life wherever that is, whether it’s here in the US or overseas… missions and ministry happens wherever you are.”

For now the Nelsons’ ministry is in the day-to-day life in Portland, but they are pursuing missions abroad, hoping to run a clinic in Latin America sometime in the next two years. They are exploring an opportunity to cross-train with another organization for two years, then return stateside to gather a team and launch a new WHM project in Latin America.

“It’s terrifying,” says Abbie. “We’ve never been out in the field, so we feel freakishly unprepared for that. It’s really difficult to think about uprooting your family and your little bitty kids and taking them to a place like Honduras... but it seems like the work that God has set out for us.”

“I think Sonship has solidified the spiritual end of it for us and helped us to really pause and self-reflect and think about how the gospel is working in our lives and how God calls us and how to be obedient to his calling both in the now and in the later.”

A Gospel for Now and LaterBy Andrew Shaughnessy

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WHM's Mentored Sonship programis a 16-session discipleship experience that helps you connect with the truths of grace as they apply to your daily life and ministry. If you'd like to find out more about WHM's Mentored Sonship program visit us at www.whm.org/mentoredsonship or contact grow@whm.org.

R oger Johnson first encountered World Harvest Mission just as he

began his business career. First it was through his pastor's Sonship-influenced messages on the power of the gospel and grace. The seeds planted during that time took root when he went through Sonship himself.

God used those experiences to help him realize his need for the gospel every day, in every area of his life.

"It impacts everything," he says. "My temptation is to be a selfish, proud person. And I tend to value competence above all things, which leads to perfectionism and

a dependence on myself and my abilities. But that's counterfeit. My hope – our hope – is in nothing but Jesus."

One of the ways God confronted Roger's pride was through his service on World Harvest's board.

"Time after time, I've seen God do something

ridiculous, working in situations that seem foolish or impossible from a human perspective. Situations like approving a budget in faith and then seeing an unexpected number of large gifts come in to exceed that budget. Or watching God work in ways we could never imagine when World Harvest opens a new field."

It's God's grace at work in Roger's life – and in the life of World Harvest – that inspires him to give to the mission and its work.

"Seeing God working in and through people for His glory makes giving more joy than burdensome or obligatory. The beauty of the gospel and the joy of living it out is life giving."

Life-Giving GivingBy Amy Anderson

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Roger Johnson (center) at a 2011 board meeting with Matt Lievens (left) and Randy Bond (right)