Global Teamwork

Global Teamwork - by Vic Wiens

I just returned from three weeks in a very special place that I call, “My beloved Brazil.” Nearly 100 international guests gathered in Curitiba for the annual summit of the International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB). Delegates from twenty-two member conferences were joined by leaders from ten emerging conferences, together with dozens from our global Multiply team. Following the summit, our visionary hosts invited us to join hundreds of Brazilians for a renewal event called Despertar, which means Awakening.

Here are several outstanding memories for me personally: 

• Since guests from Ukraine could not come due to the war, the ICOMB crowd gathered around the Ukrainian flag and our European representatives. In strong unity, we cried out to God on behalf of the Ukrainian church, for endurance in suffering and for peace to come. 
• With other experienced workers, we offered counsel to Safari, leader of the MB conference in Malawi, as he follows God’s call to leave his current home for missionary service in another country.  
• Listening to Thai pastor Naat’s plenary address where she shared, with considerable transparency, how she has learned to grow in her love for God through weakness and shortcomings.  
• Translating into Portuguese for two brothers from India and Morocco as they inspired a local Brazilian church with their testimonies of God’s faithfulness and their obedience to the missionary call.

There are common threads in these four memories. God is raising up outstanding men and women, equipping them for his mission, and sending them to the unreached both in their own countries and beyond. By God’s enabling, they come with strong Christian character, with resilience learned in the crucible of suffering, and with missionary vision second to none....

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Click here to read other stories from the recent issue of MULTIPLY's summer 2022 "Witness" magazine.