Friday, May 2, 2014

Moving Forward



Last year was a year of big changes for our family.  Anders' birth in September was one of the best changes you can get.  However, this year we are also enjoying another great change.  We are now officially missionaries serving with ReachGlobal instead of One Challenge.  We have good friends on the One Challenge team in Bucharest and look forward to seeing them when we return to Bucharest. However, as far as ministry fit is concerned, ReachGlobal is where we see God's place for us.  There are many benefits to this transition, and we'll list the biggest ones for you.

1. Ministry Focus.  With OC our ministry was headed more and more in the direction of MK (missionary kid) education.  While we are so very thankful for the staff at the Christian school and the ministry they have had to our children, we know the reason we came to Romania was not to work in the school, but to mobilize Romanian missionaries.

2. Healthy ministry.  ReachGlobal is committed to "healthy people living in healthy teams equipping healthy leaders in order to multiply healthy churches."  We have seen this playing out in their team culture on the field and already have seen its benefits for us personally.  The enemy does not want missionaries to survive, thrive, or be effective, so we need to be intentional about taking steps to be healthy and keep our ministry healthy.  It does not just happen.

3. Seasoned colleagues.  Our new team leaders are a couple who have been mentoring us over the last couple years.  They have been working in Romania for nearly 20 years and possess a wealth of experience and wisdom which we value highly.

A few facts about ReachGlobal...

  • ReachGlobal is the missions arm of the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America). 

  • They have been sending missionaries for about a hundred years.


  • Their ministry vision is to to impact 100 million people with the gospel over ten years.

  • ReachGlobal's ministry strategy is "Develop. Empower. Release."  This fits in well with missions mobilization as we develop Romanian believers who are interested in missions, empower with the tools needed for ministry, and release them into cross-cultural ministry.  We also want to develop a missions vision within the Romanian church, empower it to greater involvement in the Great Commission, and release it to do these things in a distinctly Romanian way.

With a new organization comes a new budget.  We are required to be at 100% of our monthly support before returning to Romania.  The next few months will be filled with personal and professional development as well as ministry partnership development.  Please pray with us for God to prepare churches and individuals to financially partner with us in this ministry.  We are praying that God would allow us to return to Romania this July. We have already seen Him moving in wonderful ways.

Grace & Peace,
Joshua & Kara Dunckel
(and Noemi, Isobel & Anders, too!)

No comments:

Post a Comment