Director's Update from Denise

We just came off of a miniature fundraising cycle in January-February (normally 13 month or more). It's amazing how this missions life continues to stretch us after more than 10 years. You might think you're getting the hang of it, and just then it changes. 

My expectations of two month of fundraising were very blurry. I knew instinctively it wasn't sufficient time from a financial perspective, but God often has other plans in these situations. The journey became about saying thank you to those who have been so faithful for so many years. What a beautiful thing!

The journey, much to my surprise, also became about talking to young people about International Media Ministries and how sometimes you start life with one career path in mind and God does some fancy footwork that surprises you along the way. 

My husband Kerry and I started our career paths in secular journalism. We find ourselves delighted and humbled at the journey that has brought us all the way to full time missions, video, and IMM. 

So, we got to share these ideas and more at a Chi Alpha Salt Gathering of secular students in the southern midwest. That was one that debunked the grand illusions of going to serve and finding out your mission involves A LOT of personal growth.

We shared online in an introduction to Global Missions class at the School of Urban Missions Bible College and Theological Seminary. It was a time of telling our journey as it changed, and about God's use of media in many parts of the world.

We shared in a film class at Evangel University and in several digital media courses at Valley Forge University. I'm excited to see how God moves in young lives who are inspired to turn missions on it's head and look at it from different angles -- including media!

Planting the Musulmanes

A few weeks ago in a dream, I saw a purple plant bulb that recently had been placed in the ground.  I overheard men walking around, using shovels.  They were saying, “We are supposed to plant the musulmanes.” They were digging the bulbs from one area and planting them in another.   As I was looking at the purple bulb, I awoke and realized that musulmanes is not the name of a type of plant, it is the Spanish word for Muslims.  Later, I discovered that the plant bulb that I was seeing was actually garlic. 

What I was experiencing in the dream left me with the impression that it is God’s purpose to plant Muslims in Europe.  One of the people groups that are being transplanted to Europe are the the Kurds.

Years ago, after agreeing to pray for a people group during a missions convention, I was given a paper with the name Kurmanji on it.  When I read about these people who speak the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, I discovered that they were living much as they had for hundreds of years.  They traveled little and used traditional farming methods.  I was wondering how missionaries could present the gospel to these people.  With the massive population shifts that have occurred recently, there are now about 800,000 Kurdish people living in Germany.  

We need to ask God to continue to show us what he wants us to do to reach these new inhabitants of Europe.  Surely, he wants us to work together, collaborate, and share resources.   IMM recently supplied people who minister in a refugee camp with a portable wifi transmitter that we call a HopeBox.  Refugees were able to download the Bible and other resources on their phones.  Several received salvation.  I pray that we will have more opportunities to use this evangelistic tool and others that we have developed.

Islamic Walls Are Beginning to Crumble

Just like the Iron Curtain, we are seeing the walls of Islam begin to crumble. One of the videos we produced this year for a like-minded organization was put up on various social media sites. (You can view it here: Laila: Looking for a Miracle)

Over a one month period, there were over 22,000 views of the video from people who live in the Arabian Gulf. The aim was to discover people who identified with the story told in the video, engage them in personal contact, and encourage as many as possible to begin meeting together in private chat room groups where their questions and concerns could be discussed and answered. 

Disillusioned Muslims are searching for answers. Unfortunately, in many places the truth of the Gospel is still hidden from them. Leslie and I want to say a hearty thank you for your partnership in making this possible; seeing the good news of Christ delivered via media to every last dark corner on the earth.

Completing Tasks

I’ve been carrying the same Top Flight Composition Notebook on and off since October of 2010.  It’s  not the first one; it’s just the most recent.  I picked up the habit of using it for to-do lists, approximately one page per week. Most weeks, there are many tasks that go undone and get written down on the following page.  At the moment, I’m feeling stress to finish most of the jobs on my list before the end of the year.

In a way, I’m very much like this book of lists.  I’m constantly not as complete as I would like, or that maybe others would like.  I don’t always check my boxes. I sometimes get my priorities rearranged. But I’m thankful for the truth in this verse from Philippians:

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Phil. 1:6, NLT)

Do you sense unfinished tasks in your life? Did the things you set out to do last January bite the dust? Do you ever feel like there’s no point in trying? Take heart!  This verse promises that if we allow Him to continue the work… trust His processes to bring change in our lives… believe that He is able to accomplish the impossible… then we can know a day of finishing will come.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks…

They say you can´t teach an old dog new tricks… Coming to Spain and attempting to learn a new language in my 50s is proving to be a fun challenge. Whether you consider 50 to be old or not, I am finding that putting new things in my brain and getting them to stick is harder than it used to be! BUT I love a challenge.

In addition to learning a new language, I have taken on a whole new “profession.”  Before coming to IMM, I had been a K-12 music teacher and a mom. Upon arriving I asked, “What can I do here?” The answer wasn´t long in coming. “Can you keep financial books?”  I had been a bookkeeper in the past, but that was a very long time ago. So not only am I learning Spanish, but learning all about finances as well. A very steep learning curve, indeed.

When God calls, He doesn´t say it is going to be easy, but certainly it is going to be an ADVENTURE! I am so grateful that I have been given skills that can be useful to HIS work here at IMM. The stretching and growing is not without discomfort and even sometimes pain, but I am so glad that God chose me and is willing to work with me.

IMM is always looking for people who are up for an adventure. While most of the tasks at IMM have to do with media and technology, even a music teacher can prove to be useful!

As an “old dog” trying to learn new things, I say, “Bring it on!” God is not finished with me yet!

Are you up for an ADVENTURE?

A Life of Missions

I have had the privilege of seeing much of the world. This has given me an exposure to many cultures. Growing up in Michigan, I was able to visit Canada on various occasions. With my high school French Club, we traveled by train to Quebec City. My first missions trip outside America was a life ­changing AIM trip to Mombasa, Kenya. My ventures into the former Soviet Union include Kazakhstan, Latvia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Having lived in Germany for three years helps me to see Europe as my second home. My first taste of Latin America was a visit to missionaries in Belize. In Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panamá, Dominican Republic, and Colombia, I did children's ministry in many schools and churches with teams from Victory Church, Lakeland, Florida. I continue to give thanks that I was able to travel through Israel, gaining insight about the Bible and Middle Eastern culture.

My travels, prayer requests received from all over the world, language studies, missionary presentations, people that I have known from different countries, and reading I have done, cause me to view myself as an international person. Although I do not have a background in media, when the application specialist encouraged me to consider International Media Ministries, I could identify with ministering internationally. Now, when I work on a video that IMM sends, for instance, to Albania, I feel the urgency for people in that part of the world to receive the gospel. We need to continue to pray that as IMM makes the good news of life in Jesus available to every person, on every screen, the Holy Spirit will draw them powerfully.

God's Special Ops

It is not a long stretch to relate missions to the military life. Military mottos taken from around the world can apply and fit the zeal of a Missionary: “To Liberate the Oppressed.” “Who Dares, Wins.” “So Others May Live.” “Always Dominate the Heights.” "The only easy day was yesterday." “By Strength and Guile.” And my unofficial favorite, “When circumstance closes a door, breach the wall and walk in like a Boss.”

We are told by others that we are “elite” and on the “front lines.” We are treated like heroes in Missions conventions. These are good things, as they encourage us as we strive to accomplish the expectations and live up to the ideals of the title. But consider these two quotes for a little bit of levity:

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” General William Tecumseh Sherman

"The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier." General Napoleon Bonaparte

"Build me a son, Oh Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory." General Douglas MacArthur

I have found that saying “Yes” to God’s call to serve in missions has led me to some strange proving grounds. Crawling under barbed-wire in the mud with live rounds above you? I could find a missionary metaphor for that, and other things, like running up hills till you want to throw up breakfast and eating bugs for lunch. See how it fits? However, what has shocked me is how God reaches way, way back into our lives and salvages the skills we would choose to forget, skills we learned living in a broken world in a broken system.

What is that terrible skill you have? I learned at a young age to walk quietly and steadily through emotionally overloaded environments, maybe not seeing God in the situation, but knowing He had my back. I also learned perseverance while carrying a full pack through a religious swamp of conditional love, and refusing to give up because the God who slogged with me never left.

Let us not despise the days of our youth, but see God’s hand in our strivings, salvaging our earlier testings and conditioning our spirits for the days when we have to breach the walls for the Kingdom of God and set the captives free. And always remember these words:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

And I leave you with one more quote for all of you media-minded sorts: "Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world." Dave Barry

Reflections

I have been in Spain for about 6 weeks and have about 6 weeks until I leave.  This has been a great experience. For my first time out of the United States, it has been eye opening to become immersed into the Spanish culture.

Being in Spain, the biggest struggle for me is the language barrier.  The culture is a large adjustment that I have had to learn and adapt to, from awkward moments when I learned the Spanish greeting (a kiss on each cheek) to the late meal times.

I came to work for IMM to complete an Internship as the final requirements of my Bachelor’s Degree in Recording Arts through North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I am excited for what I have been doing here and the projects coming down the line. I have had the opportunity thus far to work with English, Spanish, Albanian, and coming up soon, Bulgarian.  It’s exciting to know that the work I’ve been doing at IMM is going to be heard by people around the world.

It’s exciting the way God is using IMM to give people around the world access to Jesus.  I’ve been told that IMM will have created content in about 17 languages this year alone. That’s amazing and truly humbling to be apart of some of those language pieces.

I am excited for the rest of my time here and for the impact that it might have on people’s lives.

by Joey Nance

Taking Time, Making Time

If there's anything that the Spanish culture is trying to inundate me with, it's this: time is their greatest ally, and it is wholeheartedly irrelevant.

Not that Spaniards don't care about where the hands are on the clock, but it's this inherent philosophy that anything can be done at anytime time -- all you have to do is want it bad enough. 

Just as a quick example, let's look at the eating habits that structure the US vs Spain.

Americans are habitual eaters, and people, in general: breakfast at 9am, lunch at noon or earlier, and the dinner rush starts promptly at 7pm or earlier. 

But for Spaniards, things are a little different. 

A small, sweet pastry and coffee when you wake up, and maybe you'll pick at something else around 11ish. You better believe no one is eating lunch before 1:30pm. Even then, it's time to rest that food and yourself for awhile and then continue on with the day. 

At around 4-5pm, you're going to get peckish, but this time you'll opt for something sweet.  You'll say to yourself, "Hey, that waffle with whipped cream looks good," and with all your heart, you'll mean it. Then you're back at it until the bell towers chime at 8pm--well, maybe 9 pm--and you'll follow through on your plan to have a light dinner of tapas with friends. Scratch that, they just called and asked if you wanted to do 10pm instead. You'll say to them, "Sure. That's fine," and with all your heart, you'll mean it. 

For me, this isn't a master class on lackadaisicalness, but an insight on making the most of your time and being flexible--or being prepared so that you can be flexible--when the time comes. It's my newly adhered to Structured-Enough-To-Be-Free™philosophy. Maybe there is something to tempering your day to be a little more stretched out. Maybe we should try to make our days in fact that, full mornings, afternoons and evenings where our lives are spread out so we can seek out everything in full. That bettering ourselves isn't just during the 9 to 5, and that the loss of our evenings isn't always tied to burnout from a hectic day, job or life.  That a daily regimen of contentment for our bodies leads to contentment in our lives, deeds and plans of action. That rest is a marker for work completed--even though there are no siestas here at IMM!--and its use is to encourage and reinvigorate an individual into achieving again with full force. And when it comes down to it, time is not our enemy, but a malleable fixture upon which we rest our good work.

So what I'm saying is eat a waffle in the middle of the day with the knowledge that being a good steward of our time is key to accomplishing great things, and that each and every morning we have been given a full day to work, achieve, and albeit, wrestle the clock into letting us rest, making it tick alongside our aspirations in gentle submission.

Many Nations and People Through IMM

Over the years, God has given me a heart for people in many places of the world.  Doing missions work in many countries, attending universities and working with people from many nations, receiving prayer and financial requests from missions organizations and missionaries all have had a deep impact on my mind.   Years ago during a missions convention, the leaders gave me an assignment of praying for Kurdish people.  Now, I can assist International (IMM) personnel who are preparing gospel videos for the Kurds.

God has used various means of getting me to focus on North Africa.  For six years, the bosses at my job were a couple from Egypt.  During my freshman year of college, I was fascinated when I met a student from Libya. I received heartbreaking prayer requests about the former conflict in Sudan.  God gave me a desire to reach Moroccan people when I went on a five country tour in Europe that was led by a Moroccan man.   When taking an AGTS missions course, I learned that many people in North Africa had been Christians before the onslaught of Islam.  At IMM, we are working on videos for people in North Africa.

Living in Germany and traveling in Europe caused me to long to see revival here.  IMM’s videos reach Europeans; this includes a movie viewed in secular theaters in Spain.The conflict in the Middle East burdens me.  Jesus said that people would think that they were doing service to God a favor by killing his followers (John 16:2).  This is happening.  What can be done besides praying?  IMM has been working to create videos in Arabic; one went viral to 2.5 million people.  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will use his word in the videos to draw people to Jesus.

Greetings from humid Madrid!

On Sunday night we had the first rain we’ve had in several months. This was refreshing not only for the earth, but I feel it was symbolic to what is happening at IMM. We were in a season of transition; we had staff retire and move to different places in ministry, so we were all doing jobs (and still do) that are not typically part of our job description.

However, that’s a good thing.

We have been stretched individually and corporately, growing in the new things God is doing through this ministry.

Right now, we have four short-term workers. They haven’t been here very long, but they have accomplished so much. We are also thankful that the Gregorys have joined IMM and the Desrosiers will be here soon. The experiences they bring to IMM will be an incredible addition to our team.

The rains have come to IMM! So far this year, we have done projects and translations in 17 languages, with plans to do translations in languages that have not yet heard the gospel.

It is truly amazing to see new things happen to find out God was working behind-the-scenes. Please continue to pray for God to give us new opportunities.

Heading to General Council

As Director of IMM, I am for the first time attending a General Council and we are also doing our annual board meeting after the event. 

The council is a gathering of pastors and church representatives from all over the USA to decide policies, celebrate, and seek God. I never thought of myself as part of the official crowd, but I find myself there now. 

I'm out of touch with the US church world after living overseas--this time for four years. Nearly 12 in total if I add them up. I'm looking forward to hearing the heartbeat of the US churches and pastors. I'm also looking forward to air conditioning! 

But it's a little like a kid's first day at a new school, I don't know how it works, and I hope people like me. The good thing is I know IMM has a lot of great stories to tell. 

Some of the current projects we're working on at IMM include stories in North African heart languages, French translations, and isolated regional dialects in Eurasia. It will be fun to talk about and it will be great to give our board an update.

If you're coming to council, please look me up. Or if you know a pastor coming, please connect me. I will plan to have some treats with me to share and some stories worth hearing. You can also send me an email (denise@imm.edu) for a meet up and I'll buy you a coffee. I'll be the one with the IMM shirt on!