What 10 Years Can Do to a Church – and to a Family Half a World Away
A lot can happen in 10 years.
For our friends D&S, it’s enough time to go from a family of three to a family of five. It’s long enough to learn a brand-new language, and even earn a graduate degree entirely in that language. It’s long enough to watch strangers become friends, friends become brothers and sisters in Christ, and some of those brothers and sisters become ordained leaders in the church. It’s long enough for a place on the other side of the world to become home.
Our church has experienced a lot in the last 10 years, too. We planted a church. Staff members retired or transitioned into new roles. Lots of new friends joined us. Some old friends moved away.
Sometimes 10 years is long enough for a sending church to become virtually unrecognizable to the cross-cultural workers living overseas.
We didn’t want that to happen.
We want our friends to be able to think of us with the same joy and gratitude that Paul expressed for the church in Philippi:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
We wanted to celebrate all God has done in the last 10 years, and to help create new relationships that could sustain them for decades to come.
So last month, Restoration Anglican Church had the privilege of celebrating the tenth anniversary of a family from our congregation who have been serving overseas with AFM. For ten years, they have faithfully participated in the work God called them to do in a place where very few others are following Jesus.
We wanted to make sure that milestone of faithfulness did not pass unnoticed.
So, while they were visiting us this summer, we invited their family members, friends, supporters, and people from our church to gather for an anniversary dinner in their honor.
We served food from where their adopted home country.
We shared photographs—of their family growing through the years, of trips our church had taken to visit them, and of the many ways their community and ministry have grown.
Then we invited people to give toasts: to share memories, tell stories, and name the ways they have seen God at work in D&S’s lives. We also gave them an opportunity to reflect on what these ten years have meant to them, what God has taught them, and how he has brought them to a place where they hope there are many more years of ministry ahead.
At the end of the evening, we surprised them with a significant financial gift contributed by people who love them. It was our way of saying, “Well done. We see you. We are grateful for you. And we are still with you.”
When a church sends people, its responsibility involves more than helping them leave. It is also about helping them stay connected—connected to Jesus, connected to one another, connected to the church that sent them, and connected to the call God has placed on their lives.
Ten years changes a missionary family. It changes a sending church, too. The challenge—and the gift—is finding ways to keep growing together even when thousands of miles separate you.
Because while we hope our friends could write Paul’s words about us, we know that we could absolutely write those words about them:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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