A photo of the famous ‘Sahara caravan train’, with men striving cross the Sahara desert for 6 months a year just to sell salt for

grains and provisions needed to thrive in the desert.  Andrew and his wife Belinda travelled over 600 km North of

Galmi Hospital to take this shot. Encountering them crossing the desert is a once in a life-time experience for most travellers.

 

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How in the world does a Christian entity exist for 125 years? Whilst not the longest surviving mission agency, SIM is still one of the few agencies left from the heydays of the modern missionary era. ‘Striving and thriving’ are the ‘portions’ which God gave us as His co-labourers in His

vineyard. So long as we do our work faithfully, God will give the increase and continue His purpose through us, according to His will. 

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I can think of 4 overlapping reasons why we survived all these years.

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1. We have hung on well to our motto “By Prayer”, which ultimately means “utter dependence on Him”.

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2. We have clung on to the Spirit of mission and not to our own power or might, as in the words of the Lord to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6 – “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. SIM survived not by our might nor by our power as a big agency, but simply by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, lifting and empowering each one of us to keep striving and thriving against the odds for 125 years.

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3. We have not become weary of ‘doing good’ especially when things became routine or moved slowly. The first fourteen years of SIM’s history was just pure striving with hardly any fruits to show. We could have ceased operations if either our missionaries or our supporters gave up there and then.

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4. We have been able to pass on the vision to the next generation successfully. The moment the next generation of missionaries or our supporters think that our cause and effort is hopeless and unimportant, we are doomed. Many churches and Christians, and even missionaries, do not fully grasp the value of the ‘home or sending office’. Unconsciously, it is considered as another layer of unnecessary administration and financial burden to be borne, and perhaps could be done away with. However, the most critical function of the sending office is to pass on the missionary vision to future generations of senders and to build up a strong base of supporters and partners to continue sending the next generation and the generations after that. It is a very long-term vision that is not replaceable, as long as it is the Lord’s will for workers to be sent to the harvest fields.

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We are still able to fulfil God’s call to SIM because God’s missional people like you are involved and

journeying with us in the Great Commission.

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Striving and Thriving in the East Asia Region

One of the many examples of ‘Striving and Thriving’ in our region is

the formation of the SIM East Asia Regional Division in the early 1990s.

While still in the pre-formative stage in 1990, our SIM Australia Office

with courageous faith decided:

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1. To set up a fully functioning office in Singapore (the 7th SIM sending

regional office in the world). At that time, East Asia was no more than

1% of the global SIM size.

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2. That East Asia will be built up to include 10 regional countries (West

Malaysia, East Malaysia+1, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan,

Korea, India, Taiwan and Singapore) to send out Asian missionaries.

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3. To enter into the newly opened country of Mongolia.

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4. To develop Philippines also as a field country, resulting from the

merger with International Christian Fellowship.

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5. To raise funds for all these needs from within the new region, even

though we still had office building loans and other outstanding debts.

With just one couple returning from the field and another couple

seconded from Australia, it was indeed a time of striving and thriving as

East Asia grew in vision and strength. Through achieving economies of

scale, it is now able to sustain itself as a viable mission sending agency.

Thanks be to God for our supporting constituencies.