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Most Ugandans assume Southern Baptist missionary George Smith is one of them. They talk to him and his wife Geraldine, who are African American, like they’re talking to one another, they said.

Anglo missionaries, on the other hand, tend to be “a spectacle,” said Smith. “They draw a crowd.”

Through 20 years of ministry in Africa with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board (IMB), blending in with locals has afforded the Smiths distinct ministry advantages—from freedom to call local believers “on the carpet” in sermons, as Smith puts it, to an opportunity to live with Africans as peers.

Back in the United States, IMB leaders also have recognized the strategic advantage of sending black missionaries around the world. They’re making a concerted push to send more African Americans—not only for the sake of missions strategy, but also to align the percentage of black IMB missionaries with the percentage of black church members in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which includes nearly 4,000 predominantly African American churches.

At this point, it’s going to be a stark challenge. Of approximately 3,700 career missionaries serving with IMB at the end of last year, just 13 (0.3%) were African American, according to the IMB’s 2020 ministry report. For the percentage of black missionaries to approach the percentage of black church members in the SBC overall—6 percent, according to Pew Research—nearly half of the 500 new missionary slots the IMB aims to create over the next five years would have to be filled by African Americans.

Observers within and outside the SBC are hopeful, though they wonder if the IMB’s black missionary recruitment effort will include sufficient money and commitment to make a meaningful difference.

“It’s a bit too early to tell” if the IMB is serious about mobilizing African Americans, Smith said.

Last month, the IMB announced the hiring of Jason Thomas as a full-time African American church mobilization strategist. Thomas told Christianity Today he’s aiming for 75 black IMB missionaries by 2025—about six times as many as there are now. He plans to recruit by visiting churches, attending conferences and meetings, partnering with seminaries, and working closely with the SBC’s National African American Fellowship (NAAF).

“All Christians are called to fulfill the Great Commission,” Thomas said. “To do that, we must send missionaries from all ethne,” all races and nations.

Bolstering Thomas’s efforts, the SBC Executive Committee voted this month to add a George Liele Church Planting, Evangelism, and Missions Day to the denomination’s calendar annually, honoring the Revolutionary War-era slave credited as the first overseas missionary from the United States.

“African Americans who have served through IMB have made a tremendous contribution to getting the gospel to the nations, so we want to see more and more African Americans on the mission field,” IMB President Paul Chitwood told CT.

The number of black Southern Baptist missionaries has never been high, but the IMB’s latest push comes amid a mild ebb of African Americans on the field. In 1999, there were 19 black IMB missionaries, 0.4 percent of the total SBC international missionary force. The number increased to 27 (0.6%) in 2013 before falling again to current levels.

NAAF President Marshal Ausberry cited SBC history as a factor in the recent shortage of African American missionaries. Because the denomination was founded in 1845 to retain the right of missionaries to own slaves, racism “seeped into policies,” he said. The era of Jim Crow also inhibited black participation in SBC missions, so black Baptists sometimes engaged in mission work apart from the SBC. Efforts over the past four decades to make the SBC’s racial composition “reflect the kingdom of God” have yet to fully overcome the convention’s history.

More recently, the IMB didn’t immediately replace its staff liaison to black churches after he retired some five years ago. When the agency downsized its missionary force in late 2015 and early 2016 for financial reasons, some claimed the downsizing disproportionately, through unintentionally, affected African Americans. (Black recruitment waned in recent years, the argument went, and few young African American missionaries were being sent to replace their older peers.)

Source: Christianity Today

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A small Christian village in Iraq is finally getting back on its feet after being largely destroyed by ISIS fighters.

Faithwire: Nigerian President Buhari Insists Boko Haram ‘Significantly Weakened’ After Military Campaign

When ISIS fighters came across the rich Christian history of Batnaya, Northern Iraq, they were incensed. Hell-bent on ridding the Assyrian town of its historic Christian heritage, the terrorists defaced churches, decapitated statues and smashed up any and every religious symbol they could lay their hands on.

“Slaves of the Cross, we will kill you all. This is Islamic territory. You do not belong here,” the militants wrote across one of the church buildings.

Now three years on from ISIS being defeated in the region, an extensive restoration program organized in partnership with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is set to bring hope back to the small town.

The charitable group has been tasked with restoring the parish church of St Kyriakos, along with the nearby Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. They will also rebuild the flattened St Oraha’s Dominican Convent and kindergarten. Wonderfully, the daycare center will become fully functional once again, catering for some 125 children.

The scheme won’t stop there — ACN’s restoration project is set to cover some 13 Daesh-occupied Christian towns and villages across the Nineveh Plains.

In response to the exciting announcement, ACN Middle East projects director, Father Andrzej Halemba, described the program as “a new and courageous step forward to secure the future of Batnaya.”

“Even if the situation is not very clear, we see the importance of a sign of hope,” he added. “ACN is determined to help the Christians to stay. Our task is to stand by the people who would like to come back.”

Within eight months of work beginning on Batnaya to restore its ruined civic infrastructure, some 300 people have returned. Church leaders estimate that hundreds more will soon return after being displaced in neighboring towns and villages for the past few years.

The rebuilding process will not be a straightforward task, however, as the villages found themselves on the frontline of fighting between ISIS and coalition forces.

“Widespread booby-trapping has delayed work which could only begin after a huge de-ordnance program had been completed,” ACN highlighted. “Restoration has been further hampered by the extensive tunnels dug under the village by captives of Daesh who went underground to escape bombardment.”

Faithwire: Asia Bibi Says She is Seeking Asylum in France, May Return to Pakistan in Future

While the physical restoration will not be easy, for many of the region’s residents, getting over the trauma of the ISIS years will be much tougher.

“For many Christians, returning has meant overcoming memories of Daesh daubing homes with ‘n’ for ‘Nazarene’ (Christian) and demands to pay jizya Islamic tax, convert to Islam or face execution by the sword,” ACN noted.

Still, with time, the project is sure to entice locals back to their homes. As ACN urged, the “resettlement of Batnaya is seen as crucial for the recovery of the Christian presence in the Nineveh Plains.”

Do pray for all the teams involved in this important project, along with all those who are returning home. May God protect and heal them as they claim back their land and restore their religious traditions.

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In 1895, Sister Elena, a devout Catholic nun in Lucca, Italy, and foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit, prayed to God again and again. “Generi, in nome di Jesus, trasmettono avanti il vostro spirito e rinnovano il mondo….” “Father, in the name of Jesus, send forth Your Spirit and renew the world.”

As the world stood poised to enter the Twentieth Century, sister Elena’s passion for the Holy Spirit would spread far beyond the walls of her small order. 

Between 1895 and 1903, Sister Elena penned 12 confidential letters to Pope Leo XIII. She urged the Pope to lead the Church back to the “Upper Room” – to a posture of expectant prayer displayed by the apostles, Mary, the Mother of Christ, and other believers before Pentecost. Elena wanted the Church to experience a “perpetual Pentecost.”

“And the amazing thing is the Pope took it very seriously, and in fact, responded to that,” historian Al Mansfield told CBN.

Prompted by Elena’s letters, Pope Leo called for a special time of prayer each year between Ascension Day and Pentecost. The Bishops and Cardinals soon lost passion for the special prayers, but Elena did not. She encouraged the Pope to teach more fully on the Holy Spirit, which inspired him to write a letter to the bishops. The letter, entitled “Divinum Illud Munus,” emphasized the indwelling and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.

“A landmark document on the Holy Spirit,” Al Mansfield said. “It’s still looked back today as just a milestone of writing on the Holy Spirit.”

Still not satisfied, Elena urged Pope Leo to invoke the hymn, “Veni Creator Spiritus” – Come, Holy Spirit – over the first day of the new century.

Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Topeka, Kansas

“And of course, at the very same time, January 1, 1901, in Topeka, Kansas, there was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the little group gathered at the Bethel Bible School,” said Mansfield. 

Agnes Osmond, a student at the Bible school, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues late New Year’s Day after prayer and the laying on of hands. Her experience – echoed by several other students – sparked the modern Pentecostal movement.

“So it’s interesting how something was happening in Rome, the Pope calling down the Holy Spirit, and then in Topeka, Kansas we have the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. It’s very interesting how the Lord began the twentieth century by pouring out his Holy Spirit that way,” remarked Mansfield. 

The Fruit of Sister Elena’s Prayers Spreads

By 1906, members of the Bethel Bible School group, most notably William J. Seymour, were leading the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles.

Sister Elena’s prayers again bore fruit in 1958 when white smoke billowed from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of Pope John XXIII who, like Sister Elena, longed for the Holy Spirit to renew the Church. He said the Holy Spirit had inspired him to reset the Church’s relationship with the world. It was time.

Prayers for a “New Pentecost”

In 1962, Pope John convened a church council, later called Vatican II, hoping to pave the way for Christian unity. He asked Christians everywhere to join him and “joyfully echo” his prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Renew Your wonders in our time, as though for a new Pentecost.” 

“He was looking for energy. He was looking for power from on high. He was looking for God to do something. He was looking for new Pentecost,” said Dr. Ralph Martin, professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

Pope John passed away in 1963 before Vatican II concluded. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI who found the world devolving into chaos. A new generation was thumbing its nose at convention. Students took to the streets in protest. Turbulence ruled the decade.

Hungry for More of God

David Mangan was a graduate student in physics at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He belonged to Chi Rho Society, a group of Catholic students who met before classes to pray and study scripture. Hungry for more of God and seeking this “New Pentecost,” they went away together on a retreat at the Ark and the Dove in February 1967. 

“We were given a little paperback book called The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson, who was a Pentecostal pastor who worked with drug addicts and, in miraculous ways, brought them to healing and salvation merely through prayer,” David recalled.

Patti Mansfield was a 20-year-old French major at Duquesne when she attended the retreat. 

“I kept saying, ‘this is happening today? Well, why aren’t these things happening in my life?'” Patti said.

“Where’s the Dynamite?”

The students opened each session of the retreat with the hymn, “Veni Creator Spiritus,” –  Come, Holy Spirit – the same hymn Pople Leo invoked over the 20th Century. One of the speakers taught from Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”

“The word for ‘power’ is the same Greek word where we, in English, would get the word ‘dynamite.’ And He likened the coming of the Holy Spirit to dynamite,” said David. 

David joined his small group session and asked a question, “Where is the dynamite?” He later recorded in his notes his desire to hear someone speak in tongues.

“And then I put a dash,” Mangan said. “And I put ‘Me!’ with an exclamation point.

David then went off by himself to reflect on the teaching.

“When I opened the door and walked into the chapel, the presence of God was so powerful, I could hardly move,” he recalled. “The only way I could say it was, ‘I was lost in Christ and happy to be so.”

“And I forgot – completely forgot – about all my pushing to say, ‘Where’s the dynamite, where’s the dynamite?’ and that’s exactly what it felt like,” David described. “It felt like little explosions in my body were going off as part of this whole experience. I don’t even know how to describe it beyond that. So I started opening my mouth to thank God for what He had done, and I started praying in another language.”  

Later, Patti joined David in the chapel.

“I began to tremble,” Patti recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘But God is here.  And He’s holy and I’m not holy.’ And so just kneeling there in the quiet of my heart I said  ‘Father, I give my life to You.  Whatever You ask, I accept it.”

Other students were also drawn into the chapel. 

“Some people were laughing for joy, others were weeping for joy,” Patti said. “Some said they felt like they wanted to praise God but they didn’t know if it was going to come out in English.  And anyway, we were there and just in awe, just in awe of the sovereign God.”

The small gathering of Duquesne students who walked away from that retreat center say they were never the same. But what they didn’t know at the time was that their life-changing experience was meant to be shared – and it was just the beginning.
 

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