Scott Price of CMF’s Tanzania team just returned from a trip visiting some of the Maasai church planters who studied at CMF’s church planter training center in Tanzania, and he was thrilled at what he found.

“They (the Maasai church planters) are doing some incredible things,” he wrote. “In the past two Sundays they have baptized 113 people, and more are waiting. They have started a growing church planting movement and are now looking at how they can impact their communities by helping the widows and orphans, continuing CHE (Community Health Evangelism) training, and holding more immunization clinics. Great stuff!!

“We were also invited to attend a sports weekend with all of the young people from Matale, Mundarara and Mirowa. It was a wonderful tournament and a joyous celebration for the whole community,” he added.

Aaron and Diane Lincoln, CMF missionaries to England since 1993, are part of an exciting new church plant in the Rugby-Cawston area that will begin weekly services on October 10.

The Lincolns have already been a part of two successful church plants in England, and moved from the Dickens Heath Village Church in Solihull in early 2009 to begin a new venture. Since they would be the only CMF missionary family living in Rugby, the Lincolns knew that much of their initial work would be in tapping into what God was already doing there. They also needed to establish relational links with existing churches to build their credibility in the town. In doing so they learned that the Bilton Evangelical Church (BEC) had plans to launch a satellite church in the Cawston area, just around the corner from the Lincolns’ new house.

“When we moved here we had no idea that God was preparing a partnership with the BEC or that BEC has plans to launch a satellite congregation near our new home,” writes Aaron. “We knew that this was more than a coincidence. God had provided one area of ministry where we can make a difference.”

Aaron and Diane soon developed a relationship with Bilton Evangelical Church, and are now partners in the BEC-Cawston team that will launch a second site in a Cawston school building.

Nearly all 40 of the CMF Globalscope international campus ministers attended the recent “Celebration” retreat in late July, held this year in Brown County, Indiana. Nathan McDade, the team leader for Globalscope Mexico (El Pozo), shares his thoughts about what makes “Celebration” such a great event and the “crazy people” who attend.

By Nathan McDade

Globalscope Mexico

Every summer, members of the Globalscope Steering Committee, special guests, and every long-term Globalscope staff member of El Pozo (Mexico), The Grapevine (Thailand), En Vivo (Spain), Canvas (England), El Oasis (Chile), and Unterwegs (Germany) leave whatever important projects they are working on and get together for a very special conference. And every year it is a blessed time that proves worth the effort.

This event is known as the Globalscope Celebration, and the “crazy people” who attend are campus ministers/missionaries/folks who’ve followed God’s call to various college towns around the world. Their mission is to create Christ-centered communities for the young people in those places and become a part of God’s work to change lives, families, campuses, businesses, societies, and nations around the world. (more…)

Members of the Globalscope Mexico team in Puebla are holding a “Week of Poverty” this week for the staff and students of the El Pozo campus ministry to raise awareness of and help them indentify with the poor. They hope to teach the students how they might be a part of the solution to poverty.

You may not think that poverty is a lesson that needs to be taught in Mexico, but as Globalscoper Kami Burns points out, “Mexico is actually a country with great wealth, and much of that wealth lives here in Puebla. We minister to students at a school where you will see bodyguards waiting for ‘their students’ to leave class. The roads may flood nearly every day and be full of potholes, but brand new Hummers, Audis and BMWs have no problem navigating their way through the streets, past women selling tamales from a cart or men selling tacos from a basket for just a few cents each.

“We live on the outskirts of a large, cosmopolitan city, in a state filled with some of the country’s worst poverty. A quick car ride can have you in a place where people don’t have electricity or clean water, places where people have never been educated, places where people not only do not have the luxuries we’re accustomed to but also have no hope.

“So we think a natural step would be for our students, whose lives are being changed by Christ’s love, to change the world around them,” writes Kami. “We will be learning about poverty by experiencing life as impoverished people do.”

Monday, Sept. 6, was “A Day Without Electricity.” The students and staff didn’t use anything that required a power cord or battery for a whole day. No iPods, laptops, TVs, cell phones, microwaves or lights allowed. Tuesday was “A Day Without Money.” Since half the people in the world live on $2 a day or less, each member of the group could spend only $2 the entire day.

Wednesday, Sept. 8, was “A Day Without Wheels.” Students and staff had to walk everywhere all day, just as most people in the world must do. Cars, buses, taxis, bikes, skateboards, roller blades and unicycles were off-limits. On Thursday, students were encouraged to donate their extra shoes to a local organization as a reminder of the millions of people who go barefoot every day.

To conclude the week, El Pozo will hold “A Taste of C.H.E.” seminar on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 10-11, to introduce students and local church leaders to the concepts of Community Health Evangelism. CHE is a biblical strategy for helping the poor in a way that promotes dignity and hope instead of only temporary relief.

Ben Fair, a graduate of Johnson Bible College and Indiana native, has joined the CMF Mission Service Center team as the new Director of Mobilization. Ben will oversee the recruitment of new missionaries and their support raising, the REACH and apprenticeship programs and nurture relationships with CMF’s church partners. He will be on the road about 100 days a year visiting Bible colleges, universities, and churches, and representing CMF at conferences.

Ben grew up as a “preacher’s kid” in Trafalger, IN. Following high school he operated a lawn and landscaping business for several years, then attended Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, TN. He majored in missions and Bible, played baseball and, during his final year there, served as head coach of the JBC baseball team and managed 70 acres of sports fields for the college. He graduated from JBC in May 2010. He is an avid outdoorsman who loves to camp, hike, and ride mountain bikes.

Ben credits his REACH internship in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009 with opening his eyes to global missions and introducing him to the many ways in which CMF cares for its missionaries.

“God answered my prayer for an open door into mission work with a call to serve people and communities as part of CMF’s team,” Ben said.

“It’s so encouraging to come here every day and have the opportunity to glorify God’s kingdom through serving others.”