God Loves You!

How do we say these three powerful and true words to the poor, oppressed and marginalised? Everything around them screams exclusion, isolation, exploitation and hopelessness. They may well feel unheard and forgotten.

The only way to be able to say “God Loves You” with integrity is to show it.

Good News to the poor is not just words it is the very power to break the injustice that has trapped them; it is the hands that reach out and bring healing and love; it is the process of being freed. The Good News is restoration, liberation, reconciliation, redemption and inclusion.

Development goals seek to make a better life for the poor and disadvantaged. But the Gospel does not seek simply a better life, as important as this is. The Gospel is a declaration and a demonstration of God’s love and justice; the Gospel breaks the chains of inequality and oppression, it confronts corruption and those who exploit, and the Gospel declares the reign of God.

In our study of poverty we develop theories and models that seek to explain its causes and effects, and thus suggest possible solutions and hoped-for outcomes to address it. However, from the poor’s perspective poverty is injustice and death.

Jesus declares that He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), that he has come to give us life in all its fullness (John 10:10) - creation being about giving life and God declaring it good. Thus poverty is an affront to God. Poverty is a sign of rebellion and sin against the will of God. To be a follower of Christ, to be a bearer of the Good News, is to be an activist against poverty and oppression.

Micah has chosen to actively engage with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and over the coming months and years we will seek to raise awareness of the travesty of poverty, mobilise a concerted and persistent effort to address the injustice of poverty and hold ourselves, and our leaders and governments to account for our shared responsibility to reduce poverty and bring in sustainable development. However, for us it is more than development, it is liberation.

God’s Liberation Agenda! (GLA)

Poverty is the direct result of human action and inaction. We don’t naively respond because we are good and it makes us feel better to help the poor. Nor do we respond out of a belief that the poor are all innocent and perfect. No, we respond because God is Good and his purpose is to bring healing and life to us all. We respond because God loves us and has demonstrated this through Jesus Christ.

God loves you – it is our call to action, our call to unite our effort, our call to change our lifestyles, our call to be a part of Gods Liberation Agenda. Come, let's walk together.

17 SDGs + 1 GLA = Good News!

Sheryl Haw
International Director

Thank you for Membership Contributions

Micah Global is only able to do the work we do around the globe because of our membership contributions that help to multiply what we are doing together. Thank you to all who have sent in their annual contribution - we really value it greatly. If you have not yet transferred your 2016 contribution please do so. Let us know if you are unsure of the process. You can follow instructions here or email Joanna Lee for assistance. Thank you so much!

Prayer Requests

Micah Global sends out a Prayer Focus letter each month and we love to call others to pray for each other regarding specific needs that come out of our partner nations. Please send us any prayer requests you may have for your nation by emailing prayer@micahglobal.org

SIM UK and MECO UK Merge

Serving In Mission (SIM-UK) and MECO (Middle East Christian Outreach) UK & Ireland have completed their merger as of 30 September 2016.

To read more about this merger and the anticipated impact download their special magazine about this here.

Masters in Transformational Development

Passionate about justice for the poor? Committed to a faith-based, biblically-informed response to the needs of those who continue to be violated by poverty? Yearning for an opportunity for thoughtful reflection relevant to your calling and vocation as an aid and development practitioner?

AGST Alliance & Malaysian Care in collaboration with Eastern College Australia offers this Master of Transformational Development (MTD) course. It is designed for Christians working either directly in community development initiatives, or on the staff of development non-government organisations (DNGOs).

Rev. C. B Samuel, on the Micah Global Panel of Reference, writes of this program: “Having contributed to the MTD and met many of the students, I gladly endorse this program that empowers individuals with the capacity and hope to help shape the tomorrows of communities on the margins of society. The MTD promotes an alternate reading of history as the history of God’s interventions to liberate and change.”

For more information click here.

En Route Programme

This year, All Nations celebrates two En Route programme landmarks; the 10th anniversary of its residential, 10-week, En Route cross-cultural training course and the launch of its upgraded, 13-week, online Explore course. We are also pleased to announce the addition of two new ‘Spot-Lite’ topics for Explore: Language Learning and Living as a Family Cross-Culturally.

We are thankful that over the years En route and Explore have served to prepare over 550 cross-cultural mission workers from over 35 nations, more than 40 mission agencies, and representing well over 250 churches. The En Route programme team continues to count it a privilege to be engaged in helping people to respond missionally to the opportunities and challenges of God’s increasingly multi-cultural world. The course leaders are Richard Evans and Andrea Thomas.

For further information please see www.allnations.ac.uk or email 

Peace and Justice Witnesses in South Africa

In the midst of growing despair and hopelessness, there have been significant protests on South African university campuses during this past year. This has resulted in increased violence on the part of both police and protestors. Churches have united to train and equip Peace Justice Witnesses, who stand between police and protestors, de-escalating violence and limiting harm to people. Click here to read more about this amazing story of hope in the mist of hard times.

Brexit Means Brexit

But what does Brexit mean for Mission? Redcliffe College explores this question in their Vista Magazine and through a presentation given by Dr Jonathan Chaplin.

Global Leadership Summit Zambia 2016

"Reconciliation cannot take place in the absence of justice" said Pastor Temfwe, Zamibia GLS Chairperson, after listening to the TD Jakes interview at the Global Leadership Summit in Ndola this month. Four hundred and fifty leaders gathered, many who long to see a united Zambia again after the elections which resulted in Zamiba re-electing its sitting president.

"It was different from the Summits we have hosted in the past because one could hear the desperation in the voices of the people as they shared their thoughts after the sessions," says Temfwe, "It was as if we could see that everything that matters rises and falls on leadership."

Many participants felt that professionals in the church are not using their skills effectively to serve others. There are perhaps not enough deliberate initiatives that harness the various skills in the church and channel them to areas of great need. This was highlighted when the topic of poverty was raised.

"With 40% of Zambians living in extreme poverty, it was surprising to hear a good number of people attributing this figure to laziness,  negligence and a lackadaisical attitude towards their livelihood," says Temfwe, "But how can development take place when leaders reduce destitution to those three words? What about oppression, injustice, corruption, nepotism, apathy? One person talked about the need for everyone to have a backyard garden to grow their own produce. However, no one talked about the lack of piped water to most of our under-served communities."

Restorative Economy

"And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in."  Isaiah 58:12 (ESV)

Completing our unfinished millennium jubilee. Read Tearfund's full report on Restorative Economy here.

Translators

We live and work and worship in a global world with many languages spoken. Micah Global has many members who speak a variety of different languages and we believe in building a multi-lingual movement.

To do this, we need to translate much of what we do and have into a variety of languages - some from Portuguese to English, and vice versa, and French, Spanish and Russian too.

Whilst we are committed to producing good content in many languages, we cannot do this on our own. We are currently wanting to grow our translator base and wondered if you would like to translate for us? If you think you have what it takes, please email joanna@micahglobal.org and join our growing team of volunteer translators.

Opportunities

American Leprosy Mission: American Leprosy Missions announces the search for our next  Regional Director for Africa. For more information click here.

Worth Quoting: Theology and Practice

"Theology is done in the communion of the chosen ones living out the agony of the vocation experience. Theology is done in community, and experienced in community as well - in the sharing of stories and in the anguish of trying to understand and discern everything well. It’s a shame that we have reduced theology to an individualistic speech, expressed in words accumulated in books and dissertations. Theology must recover its place in the gathering of the called ones."

Extract from: Steuernagel, Valdir. “Doing Theology Together with Mary” in Journal of Latin American Theology: Christian Reflections from the Latino South. 2013 Vol. 8, No. 2

Worth Reading

David Boan works with WEA as their Director of Humanitarian Advocacy and Service. He is also the founder of the International Community of Research, which focuses on building resilient communities. Here is his blog from his recent trip the the Ukraine.

Preaching and Advocacy - the same good news: What does Mary Crickmore, a CRC missionary in Mali, West Africa, for over 30 years, have in common with Robert Moffat, a 19th century Scotsman who arrived in what is now Botswana, Southern Africa, in 1821 as a missionary from the London Missionary Society? You might be surprised. Click here to read the full article.

Listen to this

Incarnational Missional Communities

In conjunction with Bristol Baptist College, Urban Life hosted an afternoon with Ash Barker, founding director of Urban Neighbours of Hope, as he reflected and shared with us on what he has learned about incarnational missional communities from his time in Bangkok and how this might shape the way we approach mission in our urban contexts. To listen to the talk click here.

Worth Watching

What is Integral Mission?

A reminder of the basics of Integral Mission from Rene Padilla. To listen to the 4-minute clip, click here.

Micah Events

19 November 2016: National Refugee Conference, StopArmut / Micah Switzerland. This will be held in Bern. Watch this space for more from our Micah Global intern, Sergej Kiel, who will be attending.

19 to 21 November 2016: Voices for Justice: 19 to 21 November 2016 - Canberra Australia. For more information and to register to take part see Micah Australia

24 to 27 November: Integral Mission Conversation, Moscow, Russia. For more information and to register see here.

1 to 2 December: Integral Mission Conversation, Bangladesh. Contact James Roy for further information

24 to 28 April 2017: Asia Regional Consultation in Thailand: Integral Mission and the Common Good. Registration to open in November.

26-29 June 2017: Micah Brazil Gathering - see advert above.

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The Work of Justice

... is God's work.

He is inviting us all on His great, costly expedition of transformation in the world but we must respond.

Gary Haugen