Partnering and Praying for the Kingdom: SAMS in Global Mission
Anyone who has taken part in a harvest knows the value of a team. Whether picking grapes by hand in a vineyard or using combines and grain carts to harvest a cornfield, a team of workers carries the process along. Many hands make light work, produce is picked at the optimal time, and laborers experience joy as they celebrate fruitfulness together.
The kingdom of God is like a great harvest. God is the Lord of the harvest, and, to our honor and joy, he includes his children in the endeavor. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
SAMS is a missionary-sending community engaged in relationships with the global Anglican Church to reach the world with the Gospel. We desire to see the kingdom of God expand, and to see a great harvest! SAMS seeks the kingdom and the harvest in two crucial ways:
- By partnering with our brothers and sisters in the global Anglican Church so that the Gospel may be known, and
- By praying for the Lord to sustain today’s laborers and to raise up new laborers for his harvest.
First, SAMS partners with our brothers and sisters in the global Anglican Church so that the Gospel may be known.
As SAMS sends missionaries to minister alongside Anglican provinces and dioceses around the world, our missionaries are blessed by the cultural insight, historical perspective, and contextualized leadership of national bishops and church leaders. It’s these brothers and sisters who provide oversight and assist our missionaries in discerning how to best serve the people around them. Together, we form a team, so that believers worldwide are working together to bring the message of the Gospel to the corners of the earth. Here are just a few of the ways that SAMS is currently engaged in partnership around the world:
Angel receives a children’s Bible (rural Rwanda)
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In Cambodia, SAMS missionaries are seeking to reach university students through campus ministries and to connect them with a Khmer church community.
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In North Africa, SAMS is serving within a diocese by providing direct support to a bishop who is pioneering new ministry initiatives in the region.
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In Rwanda, SAMS missionaries are partnering with diocesan leaders to provide spiritual care to families in the midst of widespread church closures.
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In Chile, SAMS is responding to a bishop’s invitation for pastoral presence and leadership in Santiago, the country’s largest city and capital, by preparing new missionaries to serve.
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In the Netherlands, SAMS is helping to send experienced missionaries who will be part of a seminary faculty equipping leaders for the Church throughout Africa and Asia.
“Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers…” (North African street scene)
SAMS believes that our missionaries are called and equipped by the Lord – ready to serve, with sanctified spirits and imaginations to guide their ministry. At the same time, SAMS missionaries are guests in their host countries, committed to working under the established Anglican oversight within their location of service. Proverbs 27:17 states that “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” We are teammates with our global brothers and sisters for the sake of the kingdom: co-laborers in the harvest, sharpened by one another’s wisdom and experience.
In addition to partnering together, SAMS prays for the Lord to sustain today’s laborers and to raise up new laborers for his harvest.
The whole Society – staff, missionaries, and senders – is united in praying that the Gospel would be known throughout the world. SAMS’ staff prays together, individually, at our churches, and on calls with and for missionaries. Our senders, too, are part of the team, praying and being prayed for as they offer themselves through intercession, friendship, financial giving, and more.
University students in prayer during a campus event in Cambodia
The SAMS community is committed to praying for the Lord to raise up new laborers for his harvest. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Won’t you join SAMS in praying for the Lord to call and equip more individuals who are willing to serve cross-culturally for the sake of the kingdom? SAMS’ desire is to see people and nations reconciled to the Father through Jesus Christ — to see the harvest increase! We wait expectantly, seeking to empower those already serving, and hoping boldly for more individuals to partner with the global Anglican Church to bring the Gospel to the world.
Chelsea Weeldreyer serves as Co-Director of Missionary Care and Mission Engagement at SAMS. She and her family were SAMS missionaries in Rwanda from 2022-
2025, focusing on theological education, lay leadership in the church, and ministry to under-resourced women and children in the community. Chelsea and her husband Wade now serve together as co-directors and are delighted to retain a global focus on mission in their new role at SAMS. They have two wonderful children, Evie and William.