Invisible People 4

Momentum 7

All are Welcome 8

House of Recab 12

AMONGChristian Reformed World Missions

Summer 2015 • Volume 4 • No. 3 • www.CRWM.org

2 • AMONG THE NATIONS

A publication of Christian Reformed World Missions

Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) exists to glorify God by leading the CRC to respond obediently to our Lord’s commission to witness to the Good News of God’s Kingdom and make disciples of all nations.

For more stories and videos about the work of CRWM, visit us at:www.CRWM.org

Cover Photo:Karen, a young girl with spina bifida, paints at her home, Karen is part of the inclusion program at Nicaragua Christian Academy Nejapa campus.

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AMONG

Time and time again in the New Testament we read of Jesus walking with the “least, lost, and last” in His community. His careful attention to people on the fringes of society serves as a great example for all followers of Christ.

In this issue of Among the Nations, you will read about ways CRWM missionaries follow that example and share the fullness of the Gospel with today’s “least, lost, and last.”

Some of the most marginalized people around Tshwane, South Africa, are those enduring homelessness, as in almost any society. If you were making a list of things that you might give to this group, photography lessons probably wouldn’t make the cut. But maybe it should.

At least that’s what Megan Ribbens found as she witnessed the power of photography to give a voice to the homeless population (page 4).

In Nicaragua, Andrew Ippel recognized another group that often receives unjust treatment—people living with disabilities. Yet God is using Andrew to recognize the abilities of all students at Nicaragua Christian Academy (page 8).

Finally, in Nigeria, missionaries are working with children who have been displaced by violence. On page 12, you will see how God is using these missionaries to bring hope through education and therapy.

As you read each of these stories, ask God if there is anyone near you who may at times need someone to emulate Christ’s compassion and grace.

Gary J BekkerExecutive Director

SUMMER 2015 • 3

Almost every evening, Harry Holwerda asks God to give him one person to talk to the next day. His goal is to get to know someone on a deeper level than a simple “Hi, how are you?” would bring.

For Harry, the most exciting part of that prayer exercise is in seeing who God chooses for him. “It often comes from the most unexpected sources,” he said.

When Harry served as a medical missionary with CRWM in Nigeria, he found that establishing a relationship was often the best way to begin treating his patients, as he was often without the laboratories, machines, or other medical equipment he had learned to use in medical school.

“We were taught the simple expression ‘When in doubt, look at the patient,’” recalls Harry.

As Harry got to know many of the people he treated, he challenged himself to use Jesus’ example of compassion and acceptance when speaking with them. This often served as a natural way to share more about the Great Physician, again with some of the most unexpected people.

One “unexpected” person who stands out to Harry is the first patient he met while serving as a physician in a prison. Harry offered the former gang leader a hand-shake, an action that the patient said “blew him away.”

“He said that he had never been offered a handshake in more than 15 years,” said Harry. “Later he told me that that’s how he knew I was a ‘different kind of cat.’”

After Harry’s official retirement as a physician, he con-tinued to serve CRWM as a medical consultant to mis-sionaries from 2005-2015. In this position, he answered medical questions that missionaries had while on the field, and he connected them to local medical staff.

“Missionaries have always been my favorite type of people,” said Harry. “It was always an inspiration to hear how God was working through them all over the world.”

Since Harry retired from his volunteer position with CRWM in the spring 2015, he now has more time to spend with his family. Recently he said he had the honor of putting a white medical coat on his granddaughter as she graduated from the University of Michigan’s medi-cal school.

Even on the day of the graduation, God gave him new opportunities to share his faith and experiences with others.

“Two different people approached me after the cer-emony to talk about medical missions,” said Harry. “It’s amazing to see the Holy Spirit at work.”

ALUMNI CORNER

4 • AMONG THE NATIONS

SOUTH AFRICA

INVISIBLE PEOPLEAs a person enduring homelessness on the streets, David has been mistreated, misjudged, and ignored by other citizens in Tshwane, South Africa.

“So often we withhold dignity from people enduring homelessness,” said Megan Ribbens, a CRWM missionary who serves in David’s hometown. “Collectively, homeless men and women are treated with a single, dehumanizing story—dirty thieves roaming the streets.”

Now Megan is working alongside David and other mem-bers of the homeless community to restore their dignity and make their stories visible.

Building TrustMegan teamed up with Blake Woodhams, a professional photographer, to offer photography classes to David and eleven others. These lessons allowed the participants to tell their own stories rather than having their stories told for them.

“In entering a world that was not our own,” said Megan, “we chose to teach skills and equip others to tell their own story.”

After just a few lessons, Megan and Blake found them-selves sharing tea and other fellowship that showed signs of the trust that was building among them.

At one of the photography workshops, David shared his story of why he lives on the streets. When David lost his job and couldn’t feed his son, he turned to his mother for help. David actually had a chance to live with his mother, but he turned it down.

David knew that his mother was receiving government grants that provided money for food and he did not want to take advantage of that money. He left home so that his son and mother could use all the financial resources on themselves.

“This completely changed my stereotypical assumptions about absent fathers,” said Megan. “Abandonment and irresponsibility in my mind quickly morphed into incred-ible sacrifice and responsibility.”

These were the kinds of stories that could be shared through photography.

Through photography, people enduring homelessness are adding their voice to the conversation.

SUMMER 2015 • 5

Uniting the VoicesMegan and Blake challenged David to use his new skills to capture snapshots of his life to depict four themes: precariousness, hope, community, and be-longing. Soon David’s world came to light through the images he selected to share with the group.

“We observed an incredible sense of belonging within the participants,” said Megan. “We also learned that the church has become both a source of hope and home.”

Next, Megan and Blake invited David and the others to share their photos with the wider community at the Tshwane Homeless Summit, an event that brought together many unique voices, including government officials, church leaders, academics, and members of the homeless community themselves.

At the summit, David proudly showed off his work to friends and other participants, answering ques-tions and offering commentary to viewers.

“The viewers mulled over the creative perspec-tives, deep meanings, and raw images of real life,” said Megan.

Further resultsAlthough the summit has passed, both Megan and her husband, Mike, have reported further results. One of the participants found a job through con-nections he made at the summit. Another found someone to sponsor him to take a six-month

computer course. David and others shared their stories with broader platforms, in-cluding newspaper and tele-vision reports.

Adding people like David’s voice to the conversation in Tshwane is one of the most impor-tant steps to transforming the community there, says Mike.

“It’s all about trying to transcend boundaries,” said Mike, summing up he and Megan’s goal in South Africa. “We can talk about spiritual renewal, social renewal, but if we don’t actually talk about the chal-lenges together, we’re never going to make a long-lasting impact. That’s the beautiful thing that’s hap-pening here.”

Praise God for using art as a redemptive tool. Pray that Tsh-wane, South Africa, will continue to listen to the voices of those enduring homelessness.

“The church has become both a source of hope

and home.”

David and others used the photography skills they gained (left) to tell their bigger story (right). See the photos they took on page 6.

6 • AMONG THE NATIONS

HOMEWhat does home look like to somebody who spends much of their time living in a park? For Peter, it is his sense of community with others that makes him feel at home.

BELONG Although a sense of belonging can be difficult to find for a person enduring homelessness, Kiola took this photo, expressing his sense of belonging in Christ and at his church. Similarly, other participants submitted photos of their church for their “Hope” and “Home” photos.

HOPEThe people of South Africa still endure many of the struggles brought on by apartheid. Still, Carlos shared this photo representing a person who has brought positive change in the nation, and brought him hope—Nelson Mandela.

PRECARIOUSThis photo, submitted by David, tells the story of the realities that people endure on the streets. This man was caught stealing and was being beaten by a crowd of people before David and his friends stopped them.

Participants in the photography class submitted their photos with four categories—home, hope, belong, and precarious. Each of these photos represented what those words meant to someone enduring homelessness.

SUMMER 2015 • 7

Although every church has unique gifts to offer, some of the greatests assets in churches today often include mature believers who have a heart for discipleship and young adults who enjoy hands-on, service-based de-velopment. Now those two assets are coming together in Christian Reformed World Missions’ newest pro-gram—Momentum.

Momentum in a Few WordsMomentum is a year-long discipleship program for young adults (ages 18-22) who are looking to grow in their relationship with Christ through mentorship and service in God’s local and global Kingdom. The program is loosely structured as follows:

• Teams of young adults (preferably two of the same gender) meet with a trained spiritual mentor (or couple)

• Monthly discipleship meetings between mentors and students

• Monthly service projects in the local community

• A culminating, month-long international missions experience

• Exploration of future service opportunities both locally and globally

Early ResultsSo far, six students have taken part in the year-long Mo-mentum program. Evan Lane, one of the program’s first participants, had never been out of the country before, or even on an airplane. The program helped him to take these new steps before he served for one month in Romania.

“Every meeting we had paved a road to success,” said Evan. “I definitely feel that I am much closer to God than I have ever been in my life. I really felt God with me the entire time and He’s growing stronger inside me every day. It was truly a life changing experience and I will never forget it.”

Henry DeKam, another pilot Momentum participant, says he sees things differently after his service in Ni-caragua.

“I can say with utmost certainty that God used this trip to open my eyes to the mindset I need to have,” said Henry. “I know that in the end, my heart, mind, and soul were impacted, and now I try to love the journey and see God where I never thought to look for Him before.”

Momentum: Discipling, Growing, Serving

8 • AMONG THE NATIONS

NICARAGUA

As a CRWM missionary who serves at Nicaragua Christian Academy International (NCA International), Andrew Ippel tutored Aiden every day. Andrew re-members the energetic first-grade boy for his creativ-ity and “out of the box” thinking.

But Aiden was falling behind his classmates, strug-gling both academically and socially. The school was not able to meet Aiden’s needs for support that came along with Asperger’s syndrome. Finally, Aiden’s par-ents decided to take him out of NCA International.

“Aiden’s leaving NCA International broke my heart,” said Andrew. “I felt like we had failed as a school, and I wasn’t content with that reality.”

Serving Missionary FamiliesOne of the reasons that Andrew felt the school had failed comes from NCA International’s specific calling to serve missionary families.

Nearly one third of the students at NCA International were from missionary families, including Aiden. Yet if these missionaries had a child with diverse learning needs, NCA International did not have the resources to continue helping them.

“I imagine there are plenty of instances in which par-ents aren’t able to make the decision to follow God’s call to Nicaragua because they realize their child is going to need educational support that doesn’t exist [there],”Andrew said.

Taking ActionAndrew’s discontent prompted him to propose a change at NCA International. He approached the school’s ad-ministrators with some important questions:

• What does it mean to be a Christian school as it relates to including kids with disabilities?

• How are we shaping our students, Nicaragua’s fu-ture leaders, to care for and think of people with disabilities in their future positions?

• If we as a school did want to include kids with disabilities, what could that look like?

Fortunately, Andrew didn’t have to look far to answer some of these questions. He already knew of a few ministries that were reaching out to individuals with disabilities.

SUMMER 2015 • 9

The day that Andrew Ippel had to say goodbye to one of his beloved students was sort of a wake-up call for him.

Tesoros de Dios and NCA NejapaAlthough Andrew’s primary role is at NCA Inter-national, he also volunteers with another partner of CRWM—Tesoros de Dios. Tesoros offers developmen-tal resources for families with children with disabilities. These resources range from horse therapy sessions to support groups for parents.

“Honestly, Tesoros is how I ended up in Managua,” said Andrew, explaining that he wanted to find a min-istry opportunity that utilized his passion for serving children with disabilities.

What’s more, one of the newest ways that Tesoros has been serving families has been in partnership with NCA International’s sister school, NCA Nejapa. Be-ginning in 2014, a few of the students who took part in special education classes at Tesoros began attend-ing one or two regular classes with students at NCA Nejapa.

This unique, inclusive model for special education is rare in Nicaragua, but Andrew has already seen how it has made an impact on one of the students he works with at Tesoros—Karen.

Student Spotlight: KarenJust outside of Nicaragua’s capital city, Doña Marta helps her seven-year-old daughter into her wheelchair. After a few adjustments, Karen wheels over towards a chirping cage and pulls out her favorite of her three birds.

As Karen watches her pet move along her fingers, Doña Marta shares Karen’s dream of someday be-coming a veterinarian and how, despite Karen’s spina bifida, that dream may one day be a reality.

“When I first heard the diagnosis, I didn’t know what to do,” recalls Doña Marta, “but the Lord put many angels in my path.”

Doña Marta’s “angels” have included other parents and staff at Tesoros and, most recently, students and teachers at NCA Nejapa, where Karen attends school.

Although she was hesitant at first to send Karen into a regular classroom setting, Doña Marta soon grew more confident.

10 • AMONG THE NATIONS

“The Lord put many angels in my path.”

Karen (bottom right) with her classmates at NCA Nejapa

SUMMER 2015 • 11

“We thought that these people would treat us differ-ently,” said Doña Marta. “but then I saw how they wanted to support us, help us, and play with her.”

“It’s important for Karen to go to these classes be-cause she has to prepare to be independent and be-come a professional, Doña Marta added.

Karen’s classmates and teachers have also benefited from having her in the classroom. “Just as I have taught her, she has taught me so much,” said Salazar Gutierrez, Karen’s third grade teacher.

From Nejapa to InternationalSeeing the role that inclusive education has played in Karen’s life and knowing that there were several other students like Aiden who could benefit from this mod-el, Andrew proposed a change at NCA International.

Now, for the first time in NCA International’s history, students of all abilities will be able to attend classes in August 2015. Andrew will lead the school in this transition.

“Andrew came to our school clearly by God’s direc-tion,” said Liam Starkenburg, NCA International’s principal and a CRWM missionary. “I believe God was preparing the school and him for this experience that we’re launching here together.”

The new program, known as Students of All Abili-ties Recognized (SOAAR) will provide teacher train-ing, individualized education plans that depend on a student’s ability, and other resources for students and teachers.

Andrew said, “I am so excited to see how God will move through this program, excited for the ‘Aidens’ it will bring into our classrooms and for the school to live out more deeply its mission of Christian educa-tion in Nicaragua.”

Praise God for the positive changes that are taking place at NCA International. Pray that all students at the school will benefit from an inclusive education setting.

CRWM Missionaries in Nicaragua associated with NCA or Tesoros de Dios

Michelle Adams— Director at Tesoros de Dios

Nathan Boersma—Association Director of NCA schools

Joni Garcia—Staff member at Tesoros de Dios

Josh Garcia—Youth ministry leader at NCA International

Steve Holtrop—Board member at NCA International

Andrew Ippel—SOAAR program director at NCA International, board member of Tesoros de Dios

Angie Johnson—Teacher at NCA International

Kelly Solano—Teacher at NCA International

Liam Starkenburg—Director at NCA International

David Stienstra—Director of Technology at NCA Schools

David Turner—Teacher at NCA International

Dan Van Zoest—Administrator at NCA International

Andrew teaching at NCA International

12 • AMONG THE NATIONS

NIGERIA

When Sam and Marilyn Akaakaa, friends of CRWM mis-sionaries, felt God calling them to take a few extra children into their home a few years ago, they responded faithfully. Little did they realize at that time, God was preparing them for something much bigger.

As violence in the North of Nigeria grew more wide-spread, so did the number of internally displaced people. Soon there were thousands of refugees who had fled for their lives and were living in camps not far from Sam and Marilyn’s home.

Sam and Marilyn began to take in more and more children feeling God calling them to say “yes” to each one of them. For this reason, they began to identify their home as the House of Recab.

“The name ‘House of Recab,’” explained Mike Van Der Dyke, CRWM missionary and friend of Sam and Mari-lyn, “is taken from Jeremiah 35 where the Recabites were praised by God for being obedient to the teachings that were handed down to them by their ancestors.”

Before long, Sam and Marilyn had about 200 children living in their home, each one having just gone through unimagi-nable tragedies. The children ranged in age from 3 to 16.

But the Akaakas were not alone in the task of caring for these children. Several CRWM missionaries came alongside them to support their calling and bring healing as best as they could.

Healing through ClassesWith help from CRWM missionaries, the House of Recab not only served as a home, but also as a school. Each day, the house’s twelve bedrooms transformed into makeshift classrooms. Both CRWM’s Victoria Van Der Dyke and Sarah Kluitenberg served as volunteer teachers for these students.

This was the first time that several of the children had been to any form of school in more than two years.

“For many of these children,” said Sarah Kluitenberg, “their thoughts go back to what they experienced. School

RecabHouse ofCRWM missionaries in Nigeria came alongside a couple that

felt God’s continuous call to say “yes.”

SUMMER 2015 • 13

provided a way to take their minds off of those experiences and focus on learning.”

In many cases, the stability and distraction of the classroom seemed to work well.

“Many times after school, I would find the children singing songs or playing games that we played in class,” said Sarah. But she added that there were still clear signs of trauma for many of them.

Healing Through Trauma TherapyRecognizing the unmet need for many of the children at the House of Recab, CRWM’s Mark Wiersma worked in partnership with World Renew to provide a trauma-healing workshop.

“The goal of the training,” said Mark Wiersma, “was to help the children affirm who they are and realize that they still have much available to them.”

Slowly, Mark began to see small signs of positive change.

A boy who was always sitting and thinking about his recent past began to read and solve number problems.

A young girl who had never spoken began talking briefly about her parents.

Then bigger changes started to occur. In one instance, a boy who seemed to have nothing to say about his past recalled that he had a family member living nearby.

Despite these positive changes, both Mark and Sarah noted that there was still much long-term work to be done.

“Through my own western eyes,” said Sarah,”there were many things that needed to be done. It is easy to get dis-tracted by the things you want to fix. But my own purpose was to provide education for the students.”

As these children continue to find healing, pray that God will bring them comfort. Thank God for the great faithfulness of Sam and Marilyn. Pray that they will continue to find ways to ease the trauma of these children.

Sarah Kluitenberg (below) and Victoria Van Der Dyke (above) both volunteered as teachers at the house

14 • AMONG THE NATIONS

UPDATESNew Missionaries Prepare for ServiceIn early July, twelve new CRWM missionaries attended orientation and were commissioned for service as CRWM missionaries. At the orientation, all of the missionaries shared the unique ways that God called them to their upcoming ministry roles.

“God has a sense of humor of putting things together in ways that you would never expect,” said one missionary. “There were so many amazing ‘coincidences’ in making this happen.”

From Mangulile to MolineMoline CRC (Moline, MI) and Mangulile CRC of Honduras have been cross-cultural church partners since 2012. The partnership be-gan when Caspar Geisterfer, a CRWM missionary whom Moline CRC supports, proposed the idea.

Most recently, this cross-cultural church partnership included a visit by Mangulile’s pastor, Adonis Romero, and his family to Moline. The family took part in Moline CRC’s annual week of service to its com-munity, joining the members in cleaning up yards, building ramps for wheelchairs, and improving the walls of homes in the Moline com-munity.

Earthquake Rocks NepalHigh magnitude earthquakes that struck Nepal in April and May have left much of the country in ruin. Since that time, CRWM has used its well-established network of staff in Nepal to provide relief in part-nership with World Renew.

Together, the agency staff are working with church plants and other connections in Nepal, to provide both physical and emotional sup-port during this time of trauma.

Synod Approves UnificationAmong many decisions made at Synod 2015, delegates at the an-nual meeting overwhelmingly approved a proposal to join Christian Reformed Home Missions (CRHM) and Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) into one global mission agency.

After approving the unification, delegates surrounded the two direc-tors in prayer, thanking God for visionary leaders who dreamed and worked very hard, and asking that God will now give them a calm spirit as the work of joining moves forward.

HOME SERVICE SCENE

SUMMER 2015 • 15

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