OMS Outreach January-March 2015 | Page 2

Behind the Scenes January-April 2015 Tug-of-War Volume 115, No. 1 Editor and Director of Communications Susan Griswold Loobie Associate Editor Lori McFall It was the end of my fourthgrade year when I first learned about leveraging. In the final days of school, we enjoyed field days, full of races and fun games. My teacher pitted the boys against the girls in tugof-war. I was voted to take the important anchor position at the back. As fourth-grade girls, we really wanted to beat the boys, so we dug into the sand and pulled. But we soon realized we were out-muscled and a certain loss was ours … until I buried my feet into the sand and found a small piece of wood wedged into the ground. Once I propped my feet against that wood, I had leverage and thus, more strength to pull. That’s kind of how it is in ministry. Once we recognize where our leverage comes from—ultimately we know that everything is from the Lord, but he uses people, ministries, and materials—we gain strength and power that we didn’t have on our own. This issue of OMS Outreach is all about leveraging and the ripple effects of ministry … how God uses special people, circumstances, and resources to advance his kingdom. When this happens, people come to the Lord, lives are changed, and God is glorified, and we all win, just like the fourth-grade girls defeated the boys at tug-of-war! Editor, OMS Outreach [email protected] facebook.com/onemissionsociety twitter.com/1MissionSociety youtube.com/user/OMScommunications linkedin.com/company/one-mission-society instagram.com/onemissionsociety Visit our website at www.onemissionsociety.org. 2 Office of the President OMS Outreach equips Christians to make disciples of Jesus Christ through informative, inspiring, and involvement-driven articles, which leads to deeper mission participation by serving, giving, and praying. Senior Graphic Designer W. Foster Pilcher President Bob Fetherlin Leveraging My Weakness, God’s Strength Executive Director of International Ministries Randy Spacht Affiliate Countries Australia—Ian Bongers www.omsaus.org Canada—Mark Kroes www.omscanada.org New Zealand—Owen and Avalon Brown www.onemissionsociety.org.nz South Africa—Bruce Bennett www.omssa.co.za United Kingdom—Stephen Davidson www.onemissionsociety.org.uk United States—Rich Danzeisen www.onemissionsociety.org One Mission Society World Headquarters 941 Fry Road • Greenwood, IN 46142-6599 317.888.3333 • 317.888.5275 FAX [email protected] Cover: Designed by Foster Pilcher All photos courtesy of missionaries, volunteers, and partner churches of One Mission Society unless otherwise noted. By God’s grace, One Mission Society unites, inspires, and equips Christians to make disciples of Jesus Christ, multiplying dynamic communities of believers around the world. One Mission Society is an evangelical, interdenominational faith mission that makes disciples of Jesus Christ through intentional evangelism, planting churches, forming strategic partnerships, and training national leaders in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. OMS then joins with those churches in global partnerships to reach the rest of the world. Subscriptions and Contributions: OMS Outreach is the official publication of One Mission Society and is published three times per year at the One Mission Society World Headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana. Please send all address updates or preference to receive the magazine online (email address needed) rather than hard copy to: [email protected]. Outreach is sent free of charge to all OMS partners, but donations are greatly appreciated to offset the increasing costs of printing and postage. Gifts may be sent to: OMS Outreach • PO Box A • Greenwood, Indiana 46142-6599, project #905420. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2015 One Mission Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Power can be gained mechanically by using a lever with a fulcrum. In business, to leverage is to use borrowed capital for an investment, expecting the profits made to be greater than the interest payable. Broadening these ideas, leveraging involves the interplay of forces leading to advantage, influence, or power. Recently, I visited Bellavista, an over-crowded prison in Colombia. There, God transforms desperate sinners, then uses them in their weakness and brokenness to bring glory to himself. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29). Paul, who wrote these words, served time in prison … so did Joseph, Daniel, and John the Baptist. They dared to believe that God could leverage their weakness to make perfect his strength. Prisoners understand brokenness, weakness, desperation, and guilt. Those who discover Christ greatly value his pardon and redemption. They are amazed that he can forgive and use them. At one point in my visit, I sat face-to-face with former murderers, kidnappers, armed thieves, and drug dealers in an extremely cramped c