share this page
RSS
Twitter
printMission Fields on the Move
The massive global migration we see today presents unparalleled opportunities for ministry.
igration is a major feature of the 21st century. A 2005 United Nations report claims that there are nearly 191 million international migrants worldwide. The International Organization for Migration estimates the number of foreign migrants at around 200 million. Another 100 million are on the move within their own borders.
Migration is enormously complex. Its causes and its effects range from simple economic betterment to the horrors of war, ethnic conflict, and genocide. Whatever the causes, it is an undeniable opportunity for evangelization that the church dare not ignore, says veteran missiologist J. Samuel Escobar in this installment of the Global Conversation.
In our 50 years as missionaries, my wife and I have become familiar with immigration laws and offices in the countries where we have served: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and now Spain. Our most recent experience of standing in line for hours, filling out forms and asking God for patience to cope with bureaucratic slowness, was in Valencia in 2007. Standing in such lines, you hear amazing stories of the joys, tragedies, dramatic expectations, and disappointments of migrant people.
Spain is geographically situated between Europe and Africa, and tied to the Americas by three centuries as an imperial power. As such, it attracts migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The country's Catholic church and its tiny minority of Protestant churches have faced the challenge of this massive wave. It is a missionary challenge that forces churches to go to the roots of their faith.
In the middle of the night on May 4, 2002, in the town of Arganda just outside Madrid, a group of skinheads painted swastikas and racist phrases on the walls of a Romanian evangelical church. Then they set it on fire. Similarly, Joaquín Yebra, pastor of a Baptist church in Vallecas, a suburb of Madrid, has had services interrupted by young men whom he describes not as skinheads but as hooligans who have drunk too much. Twice a week his church provides food and medicine for 600 people, mostly immigrants from Morocco and Latin America. Some neighbors have protested the long lines that form for three hours, though most of them are understanding and sympathetic.
At the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization, hosted by the Lausanne Committee in Pattaya, Thailand, the "Globalization and the Gospel" working group heard stories of how churches in Canada and Japan responded to the challenges posed by migration and how they were transformed in the process. "We cannot underestimate the sheer power global migration has on the interdependence of our daily lives and collective fates, creating our larger common horizon of experience," the group's report concluded.
Read More
Displaying 1–5 of 16 comments
See all comments
allison again
I know it's true that many mission organizations did this. I have extended family members raised "on the field" who at some age, not as young as six, did go away to school. I think the rising popularity and availability of homeschooling info has assisted in keeping parents and children together. I am reluctant to agree that separating children from their parents was a "common" practice in missions. I'm amazed that any christian organization or any parent EVER thought leaving their babies (6-year-old are still babies) for months at a time was an acceptable practice.
RJR fan
I'm shocked to learn that, as recently as 2,000, this allegedly Christian denomination required parents to sacrifice their children on the altar of "ministry." An intact family provides a far better gospel message than a dismembered family. When our Muslim friends see us loving and enjoying our children, their hearts are warmed. Hollywood is wrong -- there are Americans who care about God and family.
samuel Gebremedhin
really I can say this your masseges on news letter changing my life attitude and has conveied me from begining stands. I trying to transfer the knwoledge to other friends thanks to God because of your ministry.
H Price
The need or the wisdom of rehashing this sad story...For some of us who carry this sad story on our soul..when it is spoken outloud after all these years ...establishes for the first time a vocal outrage to a life time of silent screaming. Maybe the arrogance of those who think they know better will be humbled with the enormity of pain that will seep out, now that permission has been given to let it out. To those who abused...we are no longer afraid.
M Chrsitman
Why is the MK so quickly described as 'no longer being a believer' if they speak the truth about their abandonment and abuse within the faith community of missionary boarding schools? The parent child bond was severed at the age of 6 in the name of God. Abuse happened by God's chosen. God no longer represents a nurturing creative force in the child's life, but instead is associated with fear and pain. The journey to untangling abuse from spirituality is different for each MK. It may mean healing happens outside the church. That becomes uncomfortable for the church when their boarding schools create such spiritual pain that their theology can no longer be an agent of healing for their wounded. The church alleviates their fear by putting the label “unbeliever” on the MK – marginalizing the person and their journey. I know the transformation in my life of moving from fear and pain to incredible joy and light.But I bet I would get the label 'unbeliever' by many in the church.So be it
Submit Your Comment