Brian C. Russell

It’s the conclusion (part 3 of 3) of the story started earlier this week, by my beautiful (and awesome) wife about her ministry with The Edge.

The Edge exists to mobilize and mentor this generation to passionately follow Jesus and discover their role in God’s mission.

After returning from India, the Edge program had a time of debrief. This debrief time allowed us, both as team and individually, to process what we had seen and been a part of. We also talked about reverse culture shock, how to share two months of an amazing experience with people that didn’t go, and what was next for us. One of the things from the whole Edge program that really impacted me the most was during debrief. In one session, one of the staff was sharing that we have several options when it comes to missions. We can go, send, pray, give, or be disobedient. That rocked my world.

God had allowed me to go to India and now I needed to pray through what was next. Would I want disobedience? Of course not. However, I found freedom and confirmation from the Lord that I was not being called to live overseas BUT that I would be serving in missions.

Jump to 2008. I was invited to be on staff with the Edge. I may not be serving overseas, but I am able to send hundreds in my place. What a priveledge! I get to mentor this generation toward missions, ushering them into the throne room of God, so that they might serve Him in whatever capacity He is calling them.

Whew. That’s a long story!  If you’re still reading this, check out the last 2009 Edge stats:

117 individual debriefs

32 team debriefs

42 of the Edgers returning sensed God leading them back long term.

43 want to mobilize others to be involved in the Great Commission.

31 desire to befriend Internationals here in America.

75 have a renewed passion to pray.

33 committed to sending others through sacrificial giving.

“[The long termers] really focus on relationships, focus on equipping and mobilizing national believers, and didn’t pressure us to return or not return while encouraging us to seek God’s will.” – Stephen, Sucre ‘09 [Bolivia, South America]

“God turned Joy getting very sick and vomiting and our disappointment of not getting out to a nomad camp… into an opportunity to meet one of the most powerful tribal chiefs and share audio portions of scripture with him using cell phone technology! I thought your program for Orientation/Debrief was excellent and very effective, particularly for the college student demographic… You’ve got a great thing going!” – Jeremy and Joy [Chad, Central/North Africa]

Thanks for letting me share all this with you!

If you are interested in going on the Edge or sending someone from your church/campus? Give me a call! I want to serve you. 1.800.755.7284 or 407.382.6000. Apply online at www.pioneers.org/edge

~Mary

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If you want to follow my wife on Twitter, and missed the secret links to do so, her username is @marysmusings, and she keeps her own blog, along with a record of support and our family newsletter updates here:  http://maryrussell.wordpress.com.

Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s a continuation of the story started yesterday, by my beautiful (and awesome) wife about her ministry with The Edge.

The Edge exists to mobilize and mentor this generation to passionately follow Jesus and discover their role in God’s mission.

While in India, I experienced God in ways that I could never have imagined. I stayed in the foothills of the Himalayas, hiking to distant villages where people were not only not Christians, they had never heard of Him. They really were the unreached because they were almost unreachable!

When sharing with one family about God’s love through the sending of Jesus and all who Jesus was, we were asked, “Where is this Jesus? What village is He from? Can we go talk to Him and meet Him?” We were blessed to be able to learn from these people, pray with them, and share Christ with them. That summer no one came to Christ while we were there, but lives were changed, the seed was planted.

I received an email recently from the missionary I worked with that summer that said three of the young men we had spent time with, prayed with, and shared Christ with had accepted Him as their Savior! Not only that, but they were now ministering with the missionary and his family! Praise God!

To be continued…

For now, some more Edge stats:

Among 41 unreached people groups with less than 2% of their population knowing the truth about Jesus Christ…

4,321 prayer partners prayed for these Edgers.

2,326 financial partners sent these Edgers

“God allowed me to share the Gospel with two girls, Isabel and Rocia, and leave the Bible in their hands. God showed me what it was to be intentional with people. I was prayer walking on the way to meet with people, and praying and seeking for every opportunity to share my faith or some awesome truth about the God I serve!” – Lauren, Basque Bridge ‘09 [Spain, Western Europe]

“Something amazing God did this summer: He opened the door for us to enter the villages where missionaries had never been before – into the heart of a large unreached people group. And, he opened the door for us to stay with ‘Ben,’ the ‘godfather’ of the area… That was amazing and significant because if he accepts [us], the villagers can accept us, and it seems they did. We got to go to a school and to see a cultural dance prepared just for us. Then they all wanted pictures with us, too! It was an amazing experience.” – Melissa, Kantoli ‘09 [Southeast Asia]

“The highlight of my trip was being able to share the gospel with a group of teenage boys that we befriended. I am so thankful that God brought this opportunity along. They basically just came out and asked why I was different. It was very obviously a work of God.” – Brett, Montenegro ‘09 [Eastern Europe]

“God has given me a huge love [for children]. When we were leaving the clinic center, one of the [tribal] leaders… saw one of the boys coughing and crying in pain and… [started] beating him. It broke my heart. For the entire trip up until this point I had been praying for God to show me where he wants me after college either in missions or in another career. That day God really opened my heart to show me that he wants me in missions. Later that night I was praying and asking God how I can show the love of God to the children of all nations, at that point God led me to Luke 10. I had never had a passage jump out and grab my attention as much as it did. At that point God told me I would be working with people of unreached people groups. God has given me such a peace in my heart for this and I know that nothing could make me happier.” – Ryan, Senegal ‘09 [West Africa]

For the first time ever on my blog, I have a guest post.  Yeah, so what if it’s my wife.  She’s awesome and that’s what matters.  What she wrote was surprisingly long, so I’m splitting it into 3 separate posts.  Enjoy.

The Edge exists to mobilize and mentor this generation to passionately follow Jesus and discover their role in God’s mission.

I know in the past Brian has shared with y’all that we work at a missions organization. When Brian asked me to do a guest post, I thought it would be great to share what I actually do. I know it’s weird to think that we are missionaries living in the Orlando area, but that is where our headquarters are located. Let me tell you how I got started working with the summer program at Pioneers called The Edge.

In 2006, I went to north India for two months through the Edge program. I went with 5 other college students I had never met until Orientation. Orientation was great! We did some team building activities, but also explored what it means to really share the Gospel. How do you tell someone who has never heard of Jesus that they need Him? What does spiritual warfare look like in other places? What is culture shock and how do you deal with it? Learning those things prepared me for the two months that would change my life forever.

To be continued…

For now, some Edge stats:

126 men and women sent out this summer with The Edge…

On 32 teams in 27 different countries.

50+ long term field hosts

2 Edge Orientation events in West Palm Beach, Florida and Bautry, United Kingdom

“I loved how you… helped honor my commitment to the Great Commission, but also to my home. Commissioning us to go [overseas] and then to go back home…. has been great in preparing me in heart and attitude for my home. Thank you Pioneers and abundant blessings as you continue to assist, guide, disciple and encourage more workers for the harvest.” – Karla, UPG Research ‘09 [Southeast Asia]

“Again he [Jesus] said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?’” (Mark 4:30).

The kingdom of God has been described many ways in the Bible.  Like a wedding, like a workday, like a treasure in a field, and like a vineyard.  The vineyard model has spawned a slew of different analogies over the years because Jesus, himself, gives plenty of different versions of it too.

This stuck out to me the other day as I thought about the idea of “attractive Christianity.”  Most of the people that don’t like Christianity, church or religion in general, don’t like it because of the fruit being produced by those things.  And the idea struck me that I thought was interesting.

A man walking through a orchard comes up to a tree full of fruit.  He reaches to grab one, but notices that it has a huge rotten spot on it.  He aims for another, only to find that it, too, was rotten.  As he scanned the tree, most of the fruit was rotten to varying degrees.  A bunch of good fruit was near the top of the tree, but he had no ladder to reach it, and there were more trees.

So he walked away.

“Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers” (Luke 6:44)

I know that we cannot control other people in our Christian faith, and all we can worry about is the fruit that we bear in our faith and life.  The thought saddens me that people have been turned away because of general Christianity’s and church’s rotten fruit.  I don’t want to be a part of that rotten fruit producing tree.  I fear that one day, our tree will fail to bear fruit at all, and have Jesus say: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14).

What can we do to change this trend?  What kind of faith will continue to bear good fruit that people want to taste, touch and plant more of?  When will the Lord intervene and take away every branch that doesn’t bear fruit or bears rotten fruit, and prune ones that do so that we can bear more fruit (Paraphrase of John 15:2)?

There’s something in a dog’s brain that makes them want to stink.  I’ve written about this fact before, about Washing Your Dog, but there’s something I find interesting about the process where they are walking, find something on the ground, and are inclined to rub themselves upon it.  Most of the time, whatever it is isn’t a good smell, and it seems as if the dog can’t control themselves.

The have to.

I looked it up, and it turns out that a dog’s brain is mainly comprised of sense of smell, and rubbing in garbage and dead animals defines them.  Which is interesting to me.  In my other article, I was looking at this as a bad thing.  Saying that we should be washed and “smell” like God, and not ourselves.

But now I’m wondering how awesome it would be if we had this same sort of reaction to God that dogs have to a dead animal carcass.  Instead of continuing to walk along like nothing’s wrong, like God isn’t working, we saw it, smelled it, and had to roll around in Him.

What kind of lives would we lead if every time we saw God working, we had to join in?  If our brains were concerned more with having the scent of God on us, than what we had set out to do that day?  What do you think you’d  be involved in?

Not too long ago, I posted about how missions is important and how God is moving around the world.  This is a continuation of that thought with a different angle.  There’s no monetary giving involved in this post!

BAM is Business As Missions and is a movement to get people to utilize their God-given skills (business mainly, but also creative as well) to spread the message of God in countries that are not open to traditional missionaries.  Basically, they do what we’re all supposed to be doing.  Working, and sharing Christ with everyone they come in contact with.

There’s a conference coming up November 5-7 in California.  It’s called Venture ‘09 and is hosted by Pioneers.  It’s a conference specifically for people interested in BAM, and sounds awesome.  The brochure says

Venture’09 is a unique gathering where entrepreneurial, global Christians can dream, connect with other who share their passions and see how their God-given abilities in a professional field can provide economic empowerment for the poor and create an opportunity for authentic ministry in parts of the world inaccessible to traditional missionaries.

Sounds awesome!

I was able to prepare a trailer for the conference.  So, here it is!  Hope you enjoy it!

Venture’09 Trailer from PI-USA on Vimeo.

If you’d like to learn more about Venture’09, check out the website.  Like the video says.  And, if you trust me, you’ll check it out!

At my place of business, we have an office meeting just about every Thursday just before lunch, and I won’t lie, sometimes I don’t want to go.  Most of the time, after being there, I’m glad I went, but it’s right in the middle of my day and other excuses.

The thing is, that time is spent getting updates from the other teams and seeing what’s happening within our organization.  Which, as uncool as it may sound, turns out to be fairly inspiring most days.  Very much UNLIKE my four years at the HD where our store meetings were spent like a pep rally at a high school trying to “boost our confidence” in the company as if it were our life blood.  Remember that party in Office Space where they’re meeting the inquisitor people?  Yeah, that was a very muted version of the HD.

Did I mention that those meetings were at 6am on Sunday?  Everyone hated those meetings.  Everyone.

So maybe it’s that mentality that always clouds my view our our “Roundtable” meetings (which is completely misleading because there are no tables anywhere in that room for our meetings).  I’m not sure what it is, but it happened to me yesterday.  I dreaded going to this meeting.

Once I got there, we did our usual praise and worship time, and I wasn’t really feeling it, but sang along.  I’m okay with stuff like that.

But then, our boss, the US Director of Pioneers, Steve Richardson got up and began talking about something that made me rethink this meeting altogether.  He got up and said, “Do you realize that what we do is ‘worth it’?”

I sat there, thinking.  Yeah, I mean, I guess.  I can see that. Of course, comparing working at a missions organization to working at HD, of course I can see the difference.  But I wondered if I really knew how much it was worth it.

He then went on to describe a sermon that he had preached about missions and what God was doing all around the world through missionaries, and said that a few people came up to him after and thanked him.  One even said, “I’ve been giving to missions my whole life, and no one has ever told me that it was worth it.”

I’m not sure if you’re into missions.  I’m not sure if you give to missionaries.  But, you should know that it’s worth it.  God is moving all over the world.  From big cities with crime, drugs, violence and prostitution to huts in a jungle with spirits, magic, and darkness God is there.

In the book The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn says, “I’ve heard people say, ‘I want more of a heart for missions.’ I always respond, ‘Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions—and in your church and the poor—and your heart will follow.’”

Recently, as my wife and I have been struggling with raising support for the ministry that my wife is involved with here at Pioneers (the EDGE - check it out!), we both got an itch to start giving back to missionaries that are out on the field, and like Alcorn says, “Suppose you’re giving to help African children with AIDS. When you see an article on the subject, you’re hooked. If you’re sending money to plant churches in India and an earthquake hits India, you watch the news and fervently pray…  As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.”

It’s totally true.  Before we began giving to the missionaries that we give to, even while working at a missions organization, I still wasn’t terribly into it.  I couldn’t explain it any better than Alcorn did.  If you want to see what God is doing throughout the world, then do it.  Join missions, go on a short term trip, or just start giving and praying for some missionaries.

There are plenty of ways to give and go.  I’ll plug Pioneers because I work here, but I also know of the great work that other organizations around the world are doing.  Here’s three that are all right down the road from me (including Pioneers).

Pioneers, Wycliffe, Campus Crusade for Christ

Well, what are you waiting for?