The value of short term Help

March 29, 2012 in Teams | Tagged

Wow, he has really made friends learning language . . .
I was able to focus more on my ministry . . .
She shared her faith so freely with the local people . . .
I have been refreshed . . .
I caught up on projects I have been putting off. . .

My children have a new teacher . . .
They fixed my broken water pump . . .
He helped build a pastors house . . .
I was comfortable living quite simply. . .

These are the comments we often hear when someone has had a short term experience. Living, serving, working, learning in a foreign culture for up to 1 year is the definition of a Short Termer.

Recently, I went to a Short Term conference in Madagascar. How wonderful….. Read More »

Send Me!

March 24, 2012 in Uncategorized

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

Missions is all about being called out and sent to accomplish a specific task. And in the case of TIMO, that task is to preach the gospel of the kingdom among the unreached while training for a lifetime of ministry.

So when AIM leadership cast their eyes upon North Africa and asked, “whom shall we send to this dark land, and who will go for us?” The NA1 team replied, “Here we are! Send us.”

Then mission leadership cast their eyes into Eastern Africa and asked again, “whom shall we send to the unreached Alagwa and Ndengereko, and who will go for us?” And the members of these TIMO teams said, “Here we are! Send us.”

Further south leadership has asked “whom shall we send to the islands of the Indian Ocean, and who will go for us?” And the members of the I4 and I2 TIMO teams eagerly replied, “Here we are! Send us.”

And the sending continues on. As new areas of opportunity are identified by leadership the question remains, “whom shall we send, and who will go for us?”

This year the question is being asked, “whom shall we send, and who will go for us into the Asian communities of Dar-es-Salaam, the Rangi of central Tanzania, other parts of North Africa, and the Sakalava of Madagascar?” And in 2013, “who will go for us back to Dar-es-Salaam, and into Matumbi, and Chad, the Swahili of coastal East Africa, the Lopit of South Sudan, another Indian Ocean island and beyond?”

What about you? Are you being called out and sent to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God among the nations? There are opportunities on TIMO for you to respond to the Lord’s call and say, “Here am I! Send me.”

Submitted by Scott

“Joys” of Language Learning

March 24, 2012 in Teams | Tagged

Language learning can be a cause for laughter at times.  I was recently sitting with several women at a prayer service for a woman who recently died.  As we were waiting for the prayers to begin, the women asked me how funerals and deaths are handled in my culture.  I explained that for Christians, we have sorrow in our hearts because the person we loved is no longer with us here on earth.  But our sorrow is replaced by joy because we know that our loved one is now living with the Lord.  As I was thinking to myself, “Wow, I’m so glad I had an opportunity to share our assurance of eternal life as Christians,” I heard the women begin talking among themselves about what I had said.  Then I heard them talk about milk…wait a minute!  It turns out that I had actually said our sorrow is taken away by sour milk, not joy as I had thought – two similar sounding words that give drastically different meanings!  We all had a good laugh.

By Carrie

A Coastal Ballad

January 1, 2012 in Teams | Tagged

Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coast lands and their inhabitants. (Isaiah 42:10)

The prophet Isaiah speaks about a song to be sung among the nations; a song for the highlands and for the coast lands; a song of glory and praise to the God of heaven and earth.

Off the coast of Africa lies a tiny tropical island surrounded by azure waters, crowned by mist-shrouded volcanic peaks.  In this environment there is seldom scarcity or famine due to the abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables and an endless harvest from the sea.  An ideal location with an ideal climate!  Almost paradise except for one thing – very few, if any, are singing of God’s glory.

However, into this beautiful broken paradise a new song has begun to be heard through the lives of a special group of people who have left homeland and family to join in God’s chorus among the nations.
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IL CHAMUS TIMO (CAPRO)

December 30, 2011 in Teams | Tagged

If you were told that the gospel has been in a place for more than 50 years, you would probably not consider its people unreached rather, you would be thinking of a very vibrant church growing her members spiritually and sending out missionaries to reach the others who are still unreached. On the contrary, the story of the IL Chamus people is a different one.

When we first entered the IL Chamus community in Leswa village, we categorised them as unreached, based on their lifestyle and coupled with the fact that there was no church in this particular village. There are several villages and towns around with churches, but we did not understand why there was no church in this particular village and the others in the interior. The research we did revealed that most of the so called believers are nominal, living defeated lives, and syncretism is the practice in the church. We therefore felt the need to place a TIMO team on ground.

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