We're On a Mission From God--Part 2: Growing the No-Till Organic Mission Community

In Part 2 of "We're On a Mission From God" I would like to share with you some history of how we wound up starting our own grassroots mission to homeless and orphaned Ukrainian children. This isn't a call for people to run off to Ukraine, but I believe that the vision and goals we have for the mission, as well as how it all came about, may hold some profound insights for those who are--like all of us--stumbling into this post-modern missional form of our faith.

In 1992 one of my life-long best friends, Woody Wolfe, started Heart to Hand Ministries, an outreach to critically and chronically ill children and their families. While working in cardiac rehab at Geisinger Medical Center, he began going to their Children's Hospital to play guitar and sing to the kids. The doctors discovered that the kid's vital signs would significantly improve when Woody sang and played for them. Next thing you know, Woody had full support and began working with the children full-time, not only in Geisinger, but in hospitals all over the country. At first, Woody almost declined the full-time offer due to the restrictions placed on him regarding sharing the Gospel. In retrospect, this was a God-send. It forced Woody to develop relationships with the children and their families. When things got tough for the little ones, Woody had already gained their trust and it was he whom they sought for spiritual guidance. Sometime, it was Woody himself who needed the spiritual guidance, like recently, when he joined the parents of two children at their bedsides and sang to them after they were taken off life support. His is quite a story in itself and you can read about it on Heart to Hand's website.

His work in the hospitals led to his being invited to go to Ukraine in 1998 to visit some of the orphanages there. Being confronted by the dire need of those children changed his life. I got involved when he started sharing his Ukrainian mission trip stories with me. Woody was very frustrated at what little was actually being done over there by the denomination he had gone over with. The missionaries themselves knew more had to be done, but their pleas fell on deaf ears at their home district's headquarters, where their only concern seemed to be with getting a church building erected--the least of the needy Ukrainians worries. We began brainstorming ways that we might be able to help. As we shared the plight of the children with others, more ideas and offers to volunteer developed.

In March of this year (2006) Heart to Hand sent an exploratory team to Ukraine to determine a strategy to meet the most imminent needs, as well as to help develop a long-term vision for our fledgling mission. Nothing short of a series of miraculous circumstances put Woody in contact with Ruslan Tkachuk, a brilliant 26 year-old interpreter ,who along with his wife Archana, are raising as many as 10 of the street kids in their home. They have an incredible vision and burden for these children which, in so many ways, parallels our own vision.

Dan, a stock broker, who met Woody while his daughter Claire was a cancer patient at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), was part of the exploratory team. Raised in an abusive fundamentalist Christian environment, Dan is very cynical regarding religion, and it wasn't until Woody revealed to him a side of the Christian faith founded in love and compassion and sans the legalistic dogma he had known in his youth, that Dan even considered associating with Christians. But dealing with his own daughter's affliction made him more attentive to the suffering of children everywhere, and when Woody invited him to be a part of the Ukrainian team, Dan jumped at the opportunity.

Knowing Dan's somewhat fluid utilization of expletives at times, Wood was a bit apprehensive that some of that verbiage might roll off his tongue at an inopportune moment. Not knowing how Ruslan or fellow American, Alan, would react put him on edge until that moment finally arrived. Upon visiting the Ladyshen Special Needs Orphanage, they were confronted by heartbreaking circumstances. Some of the children were bound together in the same tiny crib where they were unable to fully stretch out their bodies; many were naked. *A total of 9 people staffed the orphanage of profoundly developmentally disabled and/or disfigured children over all 3 shifts! Meanwhile, the administrator revealed no guilt in showing up to work each day in his 750 BMW.

*(This figure is disputed in the comments section, although these are the figures I was given. The commenter may be--and probably is correct. However, the pictures and video taken certainly made it appear to be accurate. This in no way is intended to demean those who serve there or at any other orphanage; surely no one would work in such circumstances if they were not loving, dedicated and compassionate people. But even doctors in Ukraine make only approximately $90 in U.S. per month, thus are very limited in their ability to meet the needs. The reason that I didn't delete those figures were to point out that they are in alignment with with the figures supplied by a variety of other research studies, including, but not limited to a close friend who did research work in Russian orphanages for her PhD in Behavioral Sciences. The characteristics her team monitored--devouring food in wrappers, uncontrolled laughing when touched, etc., were determined to be a part of emotional starvation and were quite similar to what our team found. In their doctorate studies, they discovered that many of the Russian children who had been deemed mentally handicapped, rapidly lost those characteristics after a time of emotional contact with others. But when that contact was taken away, they quickly reverted back to their underdeveloped state, which is why we feel that there needs to be continual compassionate contact with these kids. Perhaps Ladyshen Orphanage is not indicative of some of those in the studies, but nevertheless, it would be impossible to give these children all they need with the limited funding available. Those who serve there are loving people, but simply spread to thinly among the Orphanage's population to be able to adequately care for the many needs of special-needs children. Woody indicated upon his recent return, that they indeed were so overwhelmed by what they experienced the first time that it could have caused them to have a somewhat disproportionate view of the kid's suffering, but also that there is nevertheless a lot of need there.)

As they stood on the steps of the orphanage, after witnessing such an inexcusable injustice, Dan, shaved head and goatee, and looking all the world like Shrek, began flexing his muscles, his face reddened, as he angrily shouted, "This is f****** bull s***!" Woody, fearful of Ruslan and Alan's reaction, sheepishly awaited their response. Ruslan's face revealed a wide-eyed grin as he joyfully remarked, "At last God has answered my prayers. He has sent me someone who has a passion for the gravity of our situation!" Of course, Ruslan was right-on. What Dan may lack in simple outward righteous appearance, he makes up for with a big heart and the kind of passion and compassion it is going to take to make a difference for the children of Ukraine--or anywhere else for that matter.

I believe that was a significant moment for us in the survivability and success of our mission. While the institutional mindset would have us seek out workers with degrees in missiology, whose lives exemplify a certain stereotypical righteous appearance that is so often expected in Christendom, Jesus chose his disciples using no such criteria. In fact, it could be argued that He had no criteria whatsoever other than one's choosing to come and follow him when He made the offer.

Being convinced that we should not place any demands on people that the Lord Himself would not place on them, we have, from that day forward, invited anyone who wants to join us in our efforts regardless of where they are spiritually at that juncture of time. One could argue that we are only setting ourselves up for disaster or that the Gospel will be compromised, but I can tell you that just the exact opposite has held true thus far. The not-yet believers are experiencing on-the-job discipleship. They are diving head-first into what it really means to be true servant/disciples of Jesus. The Gospel is being made real to them in everyday life rather than being first embraced in theory before being tried out in the world--if that theory ever blossoms into true faith at all. Their new-faith zeal is fused with the passion that can only be bred in the real-life experiences of serving others. Spiritual gifts flow naturally from people without even thinking about them. The fellowship they are discovering with those who share this passion and mission has a depth and intimacy that eludes the antiseptic "planned" church communities typical of institutional religion.

What we are doing is what I call growing a no-till organic mission community. In farming, no-till planting means just that--the seeds are planted on fallow, unplowed ground. In reality, what we do isn't even no-till; it is really more like scattering. We're tossing our ideas out there, and some of them take root and begin to grow. By relinquishing our control over what is done, people are both free and encouraged to seek God's will pertaining to their role--if any--in the mission. In example, one young woman named Karena is spearheading a mission to start a music training program with the street kids, acquiring musical instruments and instructors, with the hope of one day having an entire symphony orchestra made up of children who once grew up on the street. It is her dream and we will do all we can to help her see it come to fruition. But, it is up to her to follow through with it. In another example, the aforementioned Geisinger Medical Center is going to send a medical mission team to Ukraine to work with the street kids and orphanages for one month every quarter. It is our hope that we will find other hospitals to follow in kind. Ruslan, our Ukrainian interpreter, hopes to start a furniture business, training the street kids in various aspects of the operation and eventually turning it over to them when it becomes solvent and when they prove they are ready to take on the responsibilities. Another couple from here in the states is buying land in Ukraine to be used for shelters, camps, and vocational training for the children. The list goes on and on.

We never expected anything like this to happen. But, as we share with people about what we are doing, they connect with it. It's not like asking for a generic check to support some vague mission they know nothing about; instead, we are putting a face on the mission for them. When we show them how they can help beyond giving money, they become excited. People want purpose and meaning in their lives, and becoming part of making a better, more compassionate world lends purpose and meaning to life like little else can. What is amazing is how we are getting a stronger response from doctors and nurses and from people hanging out in bars than we are from churches. We do get help and volunteers from churches, but the numbers of those outside of organized religion is remarkable. We could have never anticipated the reciprocal evangelistic ramifications that a foreign mission would hold for us, but it is very exciting to say the least.

At the time of this writing, here is what is happening both in Ukraine and on the home front:

1. A big breakthrough occurred in July when, after much negotiating with the American embassy in Ukraine, we were able to bring a 10 year-old girl over here for a successful brain operation, which without it, she would have died. Not only was it a great outcome, but we made some important friendships with some Ukrainian folks and gained the trust of the embassy.
   
2. We have gathered some of our area's finest musicians to form a symphonic-rock Christmas group that will travel throughout the U.S. and Ukraine next Christmas season performing concerts to fund our work in Ukraine and to teach and encourage others to take up similar missions works in other places globally. CD and DVD sales will also go toward our work in Ukraine. We held a preliminary benefit concert recently with wonderful results. The concert was held in a large night club setting and it proved to be a very positive witness for Jesus; many were moved not only to help financially, but physically as well.
   
3. Our first land in Ukraine will be purchased after the beginning of the year. This will be used for a shelter away from the city for the street kids, as a place to hold camps in the summer for them, as a place to start our first business for the kids, a place for the short-term missionaries to stay while serving over there, and possibly as a medical clinic to serve the needs of the children.
   
4. We are organizing short-term family mission trips, where the families will 'adopt' children from the orphanages to live with them during their stay. We have a lot of response for this and hope to have a constant presence of these families among the orphans by the end of next year.
   
5. There is a good deal of need for physical therapists, especially in the special needs orphanages. We already have a number of PT volunteers, and they will also be holding training sessions here in the US for short-term missionaries, as they can be taught how to perform many of the PT duties.
   
6. We are organizing a program that will enable us to send regular container shipments of necessary items that are either unavailable or in short supply in Ukraine.
   
7. We hope to establish our first Business for Humanity project next year. The Ukrainian government welcomes foreign investors in the business community and we see it as an opportunity to significantly help the Ukrainian children take a hold of their future. The idea is for investors to start the businesses, train the children to operate them, and once they are solvent, to sell them to those who have come up through the vocational programs, at a profit, but with interest-free loans. The uniqueness of this idea is that the mission itself becomes self-subsidizing. For too long the church has had a bake sale mentality when it comes to mission fund-raising. There are simply much better ways to raise money if the church would just use its head. I will have more to say on this topic on later posts; it is one that I am very impassioned about.
8. Probably the most imminent need is for a full-time shelter in Kiev. There is a drop-in center there, but the street kids must leave by 5pm every night, forcing them into another night of prostitution, sleeping in sewers, and sniffing glue to stay warm and to mask the hunger pangs.
   
9. Our friend Karena, whom I mentioned earlier, has hired someone to take her place at her health food store, and has enrolled in the local university to finish her music degree, and plans on heading to Ukraine in the summer to begin putting together a music program for the street kids.
   

In summary, I believe that if the missional movement is going to survive and thrive, it will have to build on real missions. There is no better way, I believe, than to learn from our mistakes and to engineer a workable plan that solves the problems and the inefficiency of the old programs of those who came before us. If our churches resist the change that is necessary, then we should forge ahead without them; but let's not drag the same old methods along with us that have failed the church for generations.

Years ago I bought a large Kubota 4 wheel drive tractor. I wanted to buy an American made machine, but found that they were all made overseas anyway, and the Kubota was miles ahead of the ones bearing an American name. Every so often, a Japanese engineer would come over and service my tractor, take pictures and make note of any problems. I was impressed that they made this much of an effort to see how well their machinery was holding up in the field. The district sales manager for Kubota told me that he Japanese have a different approach to training their engineers that we Americans do. He explained that, while American engineering schools foster invention, the Japanese schools focus on improvement. They dissect our machinery and devise ways to make it much better. That is precisely why they produce a superior product.

Unknowingly, this is what we have found ourselves doing with the Ukrainian ministry. We witnessed the limitations of one denomination's mission effort and began devising a more effective plan. As long as the church keeps going back to the institutional/attractional way of doing church and/or missions and evangelism, it will continue to make the same mistakes and wind up with the same minuscule results. People are only going to contribute so much to a mission work of which they know little. But, if we take more of a one-church, one-mission approach, where a community is drawn together in making a difference for those whom they are reaching out to, our checks will never be big enough to satisfy us. Instead it will become something we live for. That is what is happening to us. We can't take credit for it; it simply has grown quite organically as we scatter the seeds.

Someday, we might have a place to worship, but it's not a priority. If we wind up with a place to worship, it will be because we discovered that we can worship in a building that was already serving our mission to near-capacity in other aspects, and not because we feel that we needed one. The kind of worship and community we are finding in carrying out this mission is a better kind of worship and sense of being the church than any institutional worship could ever hope to be. It is a radical departure from the norm, but not an impossible one. It takes but a vision and a big leap of faith.

Thanks for taking the time to get through this. I know it was a long one, and I hope some of it is of some value to some of you.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Webb