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Christmas Our Reset For Missions

The choice is ours. Will we be participants in a secular view of the Christmas season, or will we allow Christmas to be an opportunity for mission reset? Perhaps unlike any other period of western history, the message of Christmas has almost disappeared into the desperate pursuit of material excesses that give little or no recognition to God. In our all-consuming pursuit of escape from Covid’s restrictions, the message of Christmas is at risk of being lost more than ever! Through the clammer o...

An Important Announcement

9th December, 2021Public Release Over the last two years, the GC3 Board has been working through a process to ensure the organisation not only has a clear direction for the future but is appropriately resourced and staffed so that it can continue to serve New Zealand churches and our global mission partners effectively. We are therefore pleased to advise that Michael Hanson has been appointed to take on the leadership of GC3.  In mid-2022, Sefton Marshall will retire from his full-time rol...

The Unique and Unchanging Message

The intellectual credentials of Christianity’s message are very strong, much stronger than is often acknowledged. When Christians are troubled by doubts, they only need to look at rival conventional systems in our world to see they are far less credible than faith in God. As I witness humanity’s desperate pursuit to find reason for life, I am saddened by the rejection of Christian contribution to the discussion. For example, our world’s new social experimentation of ‘cancel culture’ re...

Children Of The World

One hundred and forty million babies are born each year. The world is home to around 2.3 billion under-18s, and this figure will stay broadly the same for the rest of the century. (Over the same period, the number of over 65s will grow from half a bil­lion now to 2.5 billion in 2100.) Improvements in children’s physical wellbe­ing have accelerated since the UN adopted its Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Mortality for under-5s has more than halved, and primary education, clean ...

It Was Thursday Morning

It was Thursday morning - Isaac and I were helping to rearrange the staff in the outpatient clinic as a number of staff informed us the day before that they were leaving. Isaac had been helping in triage, I was in the ward, recording the weights of the eight tiny neonates that I had just measured. A staff member came in and asked me to weigh another tiny baby who had just arrived at the clinic (they were too small for our digital scales in triage). The baby was 21 days old, born premature at an ...

Has Covid Stopped GC3 Missions?

From where we sit in our New Zealand context it would appear that mission has changed forever with the COVID pandemic isolating us from the wider world and the opportunities for travel and return to New Zealand. This context reminds me of a quote that suggests, “Where you stand is how you perceive the world”. In our New Zealand context with its strict isolation policy and with a conviction that the virus can be eliminated, we risk having a limited view of what is and can be done in mission a...

Technology saves lives

Each month Sefton Marshall sends out “Office Matters.” And without fail he receives a response from Steve, a Kiwi field worker with a Christian not-for-profit who is based in the USA. The two men speak into each other’s callings, sharing their lives and faith across the miles. Here are some excerpts of their exchanges to encourage you the way they encourage each other. “‘Technology saves lives’ – I used to think this was a gross exaggeration and prideful stretch,” Steve Peacock w...

Big Goals In Russia

After the chaotic collapse of Communism in the 1990s, life for the 144 million people who call Russia home is now materially better. But freedoms remain stifled, the business climate is challenging, and millions still struggle against poverty and ill-health. A whole, wasted, educated generation is opting out of political or civic participation.   The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) survived Communism and remains the major symbol of Russian identity. However, along with smaller Christian ...

Effective Mission Equals Teams

More than any other time in our history the Covid pandemic has demanded an unnatural change in society that has shaken the norms of life. That change has required that we socially isolate and retract into our bubbles. The loss of social team networks and support such as workplaces, mission action, and church gatherings has radically changed our life. This is surely not what God had in mind for his people! No, it’s not. In fact, we see in the Bible’s first example of teamwork, God the Father,...

When the Bible Speaks

The first result of a closed Bible in the church is almost always the promotion or elevation of man and the replacing of God’s instructions with human reason! It is to this error that the apostle Paul cast a warning in which he even names himself! 1 Corinthians 3:3 – 4 “For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men”? In verse 5, ...

“Lament” - God’s Provision in a Pandemic!

A definition of lament is “Appealing to God for aid and overcoming present calamity.” With the impact of Covid-19 I have been saddened by little evidence of society or Christian communities calling on God the healer, protector and sustainer of life! Never in recent history has the world been so confronted with how little control we have over a world that is being pounded by this pandemic, as well as natural disasters, and human disasters resulting from bad stewardship of the creation that G...

Pray for Afghanistan

Over the last few weeks, the nation of Afghanistan has again begun to dominate global headlines. As the political landscape shifts let us remember the people of this nation. Pray for protection of life as no one is exempt from daily threat of death. Pray that God would open the hearts of political, tribal and community leaders. Pray for believers to find open doors into the lives of powerful people. Pray that leaders would come to understand and accept Jesus’ identity as the Son of God and wou...

What do they have in common?

What does a young Moroccan student in Munich have in common with a Jewish bride, a grandmother in Somalia, or a Bedouin with his camels in Saudi Arabia? None of them have heard who Jesus really is. They are among the 483 unreached unengaged people groups of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Pray that they will cross paths with believers who will share the Good News with them. Give thanks for those working, translating and serving in this part of the world, for it isn't an easy area to be call...

Greater Than Gold

The world knows the name Eric Liddell as the winner of the gold medal for the 400 meter race in the 1924 Olympics (portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire). Many know, further, that he did not originally train for that race: he had trained for the 100 meter race, but, dismayed to find that the race was to be held on Sunday, the Lord’s day, he refused to run it and was allowed to switch to the 400 meter. Perhaps fewer still know that he was born to missionary parents and went back to China as a ...

Hindering God's Work

So many people in the world today have never heard what the Bible teaches about how we can be saved from sin's consequences and have a great life forever. Rachel and her husband translate the Bible in and teach in the Pelaꞌwan language. In this article, she shares her frustration at people doing things that hinder God's work and challenges us to consider becoming Bible translators or missionaries ourselves. Once again, someone did something really stupid, that is to say, something Christians s...

Whose prisoner are you?

Christian perspective has become a prime target for liberal society and media. As a result, attacks on Bible content and Christian ethics have gained momentum as the sanctity of life is challenged and God’s moral boundaries abandoned. Sadly selective scripture application or, indeed, silence is now a serious consideration for many Christians. Yet, some would argue that this is what’s required for the western Church to survive! Could I respectfully suggest that the current assault on Christi...

Teach Them Diligently

Though Kenya is considered a Christian nation, ethnic cultural practices are frequently mixed with biblical truths. The need for trained leaders for the more than 80,000 congregations is massive. One Kenyan pastor recently told his congregants that they could be saved by good works. Sitting in the pews were a group of children from a local orphanage, ranging from second grade to high school. When they returned home, they were distraught. They kept telling their house parents that is not what the...

A Prayer for Missionaries Returning from the Field.

Father God, We lift up missionaries returning from the field. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that You have a specific season for facets of our lives, and for many missionaries, their seasons in the field are not permanent. We lift them up in prayer as they return back to their homelands from the field. May they know they fulfilled their seasons in accordance to Your timeline for their lives, and the next assignment and chapter You have for them is important to Your heart. Help them to receive encoura...

Hungering To Learn

Throughout church history, Christians have looked to books to receive guidance, encouragement, and the wisdom of others. But in China, purchasing Christian resources is difficult, and there continue to be complex barriers to getting Bible-based resources into the country. In 2020, a group of Chinese believers was taken to the local police station for lengthy questioning about buying some Christian resources smuggled into China. Many were detained for more than 24 hours, and the person who sold t...

Two-Tenths of 1 Percent

Bosnia-Herzegovina is a beautiful country, where the hilly landscape is dotted with picturesque mountain villages. Ten years ago, in one of those villages, three Muslim women began to meet together in secret. They would log on to the internet and read the Bible together. Over time, they became attracted to the person of Jesus Christ. Desperate to know more about him, they mustered the courage to drive from their mountain village, where there was no church, to the another town, 45 minutes away. T...

The White Flags Of Peru

Mid last year, the government of Peru instituted mandatory COVID-19 lockdowns, closing everything but approved banks, food markets, and medical facilities. Since most of the population subsists on a day-to-day income, many could not fathom surviving two weeks without work. As they ran out of food, people began hanging white flags outside their homes. The flags were a type of surrender, signalling that those inside were desperate. One church started gathering food purchased and begun delivering i...

Let no one despise Ugandan youth

Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world. Three-quarters of the population is younger than 30, while only 4.6 percent of the population is older than 60. The average age in Uganda is fifteen. These young people are willing to sail across the Mediterranean Sea to find jobs in Europe or travel to the Arab world as domestic workers. Some join terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. But others are planting churches, leading congregations, and reaching the unreached. The growth o...

Why do we pray for Christian Mission?

To answer this question, we would do well to first explore what Christian mission is. My definition for the sake of this reflection is that “Christian Mission is the deliberate proclamation of the Good News of the gospel.” This message comes with a personal invitation from God for all Christians to share the Good News. Matt 28 v18 – 20 In the western world a raft of crippling deceptions has created varying objections and at times hostility to the claims of Jesus. Christians by their presen...

The Walking Christians of Venezuela

For the people of Venezuela, skyrocketing inflation and the lack of food and medicine have been key reasons why over five million people have fled the country. Internet access and electricity availability across the country is unreliable, 95% of public transportation is unavailable, and fuel is inaccessible for many. Yet, the church has persevered. Pastors on the ground report an unexpected growth of new believers who have arrived tired and in need of a loving Father who brings peace, comfort, a...

God's Grace

From time to time I hear Christians say how much they are undeserving of God’s grace and salvation through Christ. Well, that is the definition of grace: unmerited favour. Do people think about God’s grace as an award? If you won an award or a prize for a competition, and there were many better entries than yours, yet you still won, you may well feel it was undeserved. Or if you won by default, because others were disqualified or couldn’t compete through illness. But it’s really not wort...