A God-Sized Vision for OMS

In June we were invited to be a part of the International Missions Conference and the Worldwide Coordinators Seminar that were held at Ohio Wesleyan University in Marion, IN.  Since not all of our time is spent in Latin America, I wanted to give you an overview of what we accomplish in these other activities, both as an organization and as individuals and share some of my experience {Gary}.

The Missions Conference was primarily focused on sharing the vision of Bob Fetherlin, President of One Mission Society.  Bob explained his desire since being named president to cast a vision for the next decade.  He said he kept coming up with goals, but kept feeling God saying “bigger!”  Bob spent long prayerful negotiation with God and came up with what he said was a GOD SIZED GOAL.

“One Billion – One Opportunity Vision”

“We’re asking God, by his power and grace and for his glory alone, to enable OMS and our partners to give one billion people the opportunity to hear, understand, and believe the Good News of Jesus Christ over the next 10 years.”       

    Robert Fetherlin – President One Mission Society

This first half of the conference was to share the vision and discuss how this God Sized Goal could reasonably be achieved.  Not by OMS or other organizations, but by God. After all - with God all things are possible. 

We heard outstanding speakers share how their placement in worldwide mission gave them a critical position to see that the people are primed for receiving the good news.  Attending the conference were prayer supporters, financial supporters, missionaries and ministry partners from approximately 60 countries where OMS has an ongoing ministry presence.  This first half was the inspirational part of the meeting and everyone got tremendously excited for the opportunities that God is opening for us and Christians around the world to spread the Gospel.

The second half dealt with the mechanics of the implementation of the vision - the “feet on the ground” aspect of what God was calling us to do.  This was attended by ministry leaders from all over the world:  Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and from North America as well.  Here each group and ministry provided a short update on their activities, successes, setbacks and their plans for the future.

   

There were seminars and workshops presented that discussed methods and practical steps to more effectively spread God’s word. They pressed us to be looking at the challenges and the creative methods each group had found to overcome and share those with others that may currently be encountering similar obstacles.  The first three days of this portion of the Symposium were packed with good practices that have worked in other areas and how to avoid pitfalls and errors and follow Biblical principles in the spread of the Gospel.  

On the last day, each national group met individually with others from their respective countries and together they worked to determine what portion of the One Billion – One Opportunity goal they could be responsible for.  During the final session, the results of the tally were presented to the assembly.  Now remember this is just what OMS ministries feel they can be reasonably held accountable,  ...….. The number came to approximately 400 million, forty percent of the stated goal, without allowance for the contributions that come from other agencies, organizations and evangelistic-missionary groups.  That is an impressive goal in and of itself, if combined with other partners are able to do, the One Billion – One Vision concept appears reachable. Indeed, with God, all things are possible. 

The Conference ended on a very positive note and we all headed home inspired, encouraged and challenged.  When we look at the big picture, we can all see that it has to begin with each and every one of us sharing our faith on a daily basis and letting the power of multiplication work to give the opportunity to billions to know Jesus.

CAN YOU PRAY TODAY?

Gary and Diane are at OMS headquarters this week in Greenwood, Indiana and had asked my sisters and I to be praying for them today as they have the majority of their training responsibilities today. Could you join Emily, Carrie, and our families in praying for my parents to train and lead with confidence that they are going where God is leading as they train other OMS folks? Thank you!

#FeelingBlessed

From Diane:

Gary often writes very detailed descriptions of our times in OMS training meetings. I will just give a little added perspective. One thing that we both neglected to mention in our last handful of posts about the meetings is the prayer that covered us while we were there. During and well before every meeting there is a prayer team that is doing only that and nothing else. They pray during all the meetings, walking around or sitting and covering us in prayer. Also we are able to schedule specific prayer times for our individual needs and that of our specific ministries. It is such a blessing to feel the Lord's presence during this time. That is one reason why we are so uplifted at the meeting. There is such a spiritual emphasis placed on all OMS does.

During our visit to the Dominican, I had the privilege of sitting in on two sessions of the individual prayers. It was such a blessing to participate. Since many of the attendees were Spanish speakers, there were translators there too. One of the sessions that I was in required a translator, and that flowed so well. The translator was able to speak almost simultaneously with us as we prayed. It was amazing and beautiful.

We are more grateful every time we attend an OMS function that the Lord directed us to this wonderful organization. #FeelingBlessed

What are you doing this week in Greenwood, Indiana Gary and Diane?

DIANE

This week, April 26 to May 2, Gary and I will be in Indiana at One Mission Society headquarters for a Church Multiplication Facilitator conference. This may sound very dull and boring but it will be anything but that! If it were just ordinary business meetings, I would not be looking forward to it at all! There will be meetings, but they will all be biblical and prayer centered. 

That was the thing that impressed me the most the first time we visited headquarters. This organization is Christ-centered and runs on prayer. The people who work at headquarters are just regular people like you and me - those who love the Lord and want to serve Him with their lives. Before our first visit, I had no contact with them. Gary had spoken on the phone at length to Becca from recruitment. So he had some idea of the heart of this organization. BUT I still had some reservations! So we went just to get to know this organization and its people. 

Located in Greenwood, Indiana, OMS is a large campus in the middle of town. There are many buildings for administration plus housing for people who live on campus. And also homes and apartments to house us for special weeks like the conference we will attend. They make these rooms available to us for a minimal cost. As soon as we entered the headquarters building with its many flags flying out front, representing all the countries that OMS had missionaries working full time, I felt the love of Christ present. Everyone was so friendly and obviously loved their job. As I said before, just ordinary people who love serving the Lord. I knew right then that The Lord had directed us to the right place. We really did no real investigation of agencies. This was truly Gods hand in our lives leading us to them.

So this week we will be doing some training. reviewing Train and Multiply and coaching. But all sessions begin with Bible Study and prayer. So we are refreshed and renewed spiritually during this time. We also get to connect with other CMF 's, people who are doing what we do in other countries. We have fun with skits and other things and are better equipped to do the job that God has called us to do for Him. This is why I am looking forward to this week. It is such a blessing to be a part of this organization.

When we were confirmed to be a part of OMS both Gary and I said we did not feel equipped for this job. When we said that, Paul Cox said, "We at OMS like to say: God does not call the equipped, He equips the called." This week is a part of that equipping process. We are excited to be a part of it. And we know beyond a doubt that we are called!

GARY

As with any enterprise, there is much time required to prepare, plan and train in order to be able to do your best job.  When all the dust settles, of course it is God who makes things happen, but we need to be as prepared as we can so that as His tools we are not hindering or slowing the work..

Next week, we have our annual Church Multiplication Facilitator's Seminar in Greenwood, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.  Diane and I will be spending classroom time from 8:00 AM to 5:00PM Monday through noon on Friday, working with the material we routinely use in the activity with which we are involved in Honduras.  We will review the existing material, we will be introduced to new material and hear about uniquely effective methods that have been used with the material.  In addition to the training itself, we will be hearing from each of the CMFs who are working  in countries from around the world.  My roster of attendees indicates that we will have people from every continent except Antarctica who are performing activities just like we are to spread the Gospel, develop strong groups of believers and who will start new churches in the areas and the environments in which they find themselves.

While we are all in these meetings, there is a prayer team of volunteers from OMS that will be praying for all of us, and with each of us at appointed times throughout the week.  They will pray for those specific areas , people and situations that we are encountering in our work in the individual countries, and also for personal and family issues that may be pressuring each of us.  We would ask that as you are able, you will continue to pray for Diane and I , but also for all the OMS volunteers that are able to attend the seminar this year, and for the work of One Mission Society in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Diane and I both feel so comforted and inspired by the prayer that is being offered up for us and for the volunteers that are doing the majority of the work in working in the prisons in Honduras.

From Friday Noon until Saturday Afternoon, May 2, we will be attending a training seminar on coaching of the volunteers.  This is good reinforcement of the skills that I used during my working career as a sales manager as well as my selling skills.  While I enjoyed my career selling chemicals, it is great to be selling a much better product now with eternal guarantees!

Our current plans for this summer include a trip to the Dominican Republic to attend the ECC Latin America Regional Coordinator's Conference at Pico Escondido, a Young Life Camp in the interior of the Dominican Republic about 90 miles from Santiago. The purpose of this conference is to encourage the Regional co-ordinator's from each of our partners in Latin America to continue developing and establishing their own independence and support mechanism following up on the ideas and concepts that were introduced at the VAN (Value Added Networking) Conference held in Indiana last summer.  This trip will be approximately 10 days and we will be leaving for the Dominican on Monday, May 11.

Training in Indiana

Hello, friends and family!  Gary here.  Just a quick update on what I was up to last week.  After only one day home from Honduras, I was back in the car and along with another Church Multiplication Facilitator (CMF) from Middlefield, OH, Roger Cruse, we were on our way to Greenwood, IN to our destination - Henryville, IN. 

Roger is the CMF for a portion of India and all of Indonesia, where he travels 2-3 times each year.  We were invited to attend one of the workshops at the VAN Symposim.  This Symposium brought together the largest and most significant of our ministry partners from around the world to discuss and share how networking together and sharing one another's experience can afford benefits to all members of the ONE MISSION SOCIETY team. 

Above:  Banner honoring the attendees from around the world Those involved were from Colombia, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Spain, Korea, the Caribbean, Bangladesh and a few other East Asian countries as well.  

The general scope of the discussions was what kind of support services, materials, trainers and training should an organization supply to their direct or 'first wave "train and multiply" partners and how should this support be sustained and maintained with subsequent waves in order to keep the Gospel being spread, expanded and modeled in subsequent waves. 

It was an interesting and active session and led to a lot of good discussion and dialogue between both OMS people and other participating partners as well.  An interesting development is now occurring in that some of these partners are now at the point where they are sending their own missionaries out to develop new areas and new countries using the model from One Mission Society.  Our work in Honduras fits this description quite well, inasmuch as Confraternidad Carcelaria de Colombia is sending trainers to Honduras to begin the development of the Honduran Prison Ministry utilizing Train and Multiply materials and methods.

Photo left:  Prison Fellowship of Columbia Representatives- It is so encouraging to see that the Great Commission is being understood and executed throughout the nations of the earth, in the second, third and subsequent waves into an ever expanding body of Christ.

Above:  Our group photo

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."  Matthew 28:19