Missionaries from around the world answering the call

The daily routine of life sometimes seems monotonous. Now students have an alternative to their normal schedule.
Oct. 22 through 26 marks Missions Emphasis Week, a time when missionaries from around the world come to the UMHB dot on the map and share their lives, ministries and hearts with the campus.

During this occasion, students, faculty and staff will have the chance to live vicariously through missionaries as they tell their stories.

Wycliffe Bible translator Mike Cahill kicked off the week by speaking Monday at 11 a.m. in the SUB and conducting the Monolingual Language Demonstration seminar.

His ministry deals specifically with providing Bible translations to people groups in Ghana who don’t have a written form of the Scriptures.

He and his wife lived in the West African village of Yikpabondo, learning the language and culture of the Koma people, and they began the project of translating the New Testament.

“We cut the project short, and a Ghana man took over,” Cahill said. “He supervised a translation team, and when they finished the New Testament, we got to go to the dedication about a year and a half ago.”

He said when speaking about his travels many people come to him and say they could never go to Africa, and he ponders why.

“There are a lot more people that could do this kind of stuff than they think. We sometimes leave God out of the equation altogether.  God can help us do more than what we think we can.”

Cahill said he hopes MEW will be reflective in posing the question to others as to what keeps them from going.

Fellow missionary Darren Tipton of Do Missions also remarked about the lack of individuals who are willing to take a leap of faith.

“We make so many life decisions: career, ministries, or residence, and we do that with very little prayer support in a lot of ways,” he said. “And then opportunities come to serve internationally for 10- or 12-day or summer projects, and we act like we are making the biggest decision of our lives.”

Tipton, with the North America Mission Board, coordinates short mission projects to south Africa and Asia. His current projects are in Zimbabwe and Mongolia.

“The missionary that we are working with in  Zimbabwe is doing outreach in a very economically challenged environment,” Tipton said.

He said sometimes he feels as if he is pouring one cup of water on one tree during a forest fire. He is relieved, however,  by the thought that providing seemingly minute things to others is not big, but it helps to impact their lives.

When referring to his hope for MEW, Tipton relates to a recurring theme. He said people have gotten so hung up in the validation of a call to missions that they wait their time away looking for a sign. And for some, he said, the confirmation never comes in the form they need to hear it.

Tipton said to trust in the maker. “Take God at His word. If God has called you, you can depend on (Him).”

Another missionary who provides practical care for others is Kelly Malloy. As a nurse, she helps many people in villages, cities and the bush. In the Jos, Nigeria, clinic, she treats about 100 indigenous Muslim women every week for a variety of ailments.  She views the clinic as an outreach to the poor which impacts the lives of women who have nowhere to go.

“Medicine is an amazing key to open the door into the hearts of these women who have gaping spiritual needs. So together with my Nigerian counterparts, I strive to show the love of Jesus and pray with women who come to me in the vulnerability of a medical crisis.”

As a speaker during MEW, she hopes to encourage students to be traders.

“Trade the American Dream and all that is required to achieve this illusive mirage,” she said. “Trade it for the Kingdom of God. Spend all of your energies in the pursuit of Him, where He wants you to be and what He wants you to do to advance His Kingdom.”

All the MEW missionaries have stories to tell, but one in particular is Chief Alma Rohm. She was made a chief in two areas of Africa.

 “I was made a chief in 1982 and again in 1994 in different areas of Nigeria,” she said.

As a federally recognized title, Rohm recalls the difficulty adapting to the culture faux pas addressing the rank.

“It is courtesy in Nigeria when you greet as a woman you bend a knee or kneel. But after I became chief I was rebuked and told I could not do that any more. They said the only person I should bow to was the king.”

While Rohm’s story proves different than most can relate to, she said it is a joy for her to share it and speak to others about mission work.

“I think it is good for people to know something about other parts of the world,” she said. “They have a very false idea of what life is like for other places of the world. So we should have a respect for people who live in other countries and have other cultures than ours.”