The Messenger & Prayer Calendar Spring/Summer 2022 : The Gospel Crossing Cultures in Southern Africa, Uganda, and Honduras

The Messenger & Prayer Calendar Spring/Summer 2022 : The Gospel Crossing Cultures in Southern Africa, Uganda, and Honduras

by | Feb 28, 2022 | SAMS Missionaries

Read The Messenger

The newest edition of The Messenger & Prayer Calendar is here, and it has been expanded by four pages to bring you more stories of God’s work around the world through SAMS missionaries!

In this issue:

    • A little girl experiences healing through Christ-centered care
    • New avenues open for Gospel impact through educational technology in East Africa
    • The Good News crosses cultures through the power of narrative
    • Prayer Calendar for Spring/Summer 2022
    • An invitation from Mission Director Stewart Wicker
    • Missionary testimony: Discerning a Call to Missions

Click this button to read it and join us in prayer!

Read The Messenger
2021 Annual Report Available Now

2021 Annual Report Available Now

by | Dec 13, 2021 | SAMS Missionaries, SAMS-USA

God, by His grace, enabled missionaries and senders of SAMS to equip the global Anglican church for Gospel-driven ministry in 2021. Read how in our Annual Report. You may click the button below to read it.

Read the Annual Report

We invite you to join in the ongoing work of SAMS, partnering with Anglican churches to raise up, send, and support missionaries in response to Christ’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Give to the Great Commission Fund
“I was blind, but now I see!”

“I was blind, but now I see!”

by | Dec 2, 2021 | SAMS Missionaries

SAMS Missionary the Rev. Gregory Whitaker, discipling Christian leaders in Cambodia with his wife Dr. Heidi and three of their five daughters (two having begun college in the U.S. in the past 15 months), shares the following story.

Mabt has been a friend of ours for years. He belongs to a tribal group in remote northeast Cambodia, and he met the Lord when he moved to a city to continue his education. For years, he was the only believer in his family. During one of his visits to his home village, Mabt prayed in his home, welcoming the Holy Spirit and breaking the curses of the mountain gods. As he began playing the guitar and worshipping Jesus, the shelf holding the family idol crashed to the floor, and the idol shattered. Mabt’s father, Yang, rushed in, saying: “My son, what have you done? Now I will not believe in anything. Not in the mountain gods, and not in your God.”

Yang held to that statement for years, during which his vision, already compromised by the loss of one eye, deteriorated. Mabt approached us to ask for advice, and we referred Yang to Mercy Medical Center, where Heidi serves as a pediatrician. He made the daylong trip by bus from the province and underwent successful cataract surgery.

After Yang returned home with restored vision, he was able to read the beautiful words of the Gospel in his own language for the first time, the Bunong translation of the New Testament having been completed only a few years prior. Yang has become a follower of Christ, and freely shares his story with other villagers.

“I received my sight back, and then I could read God’s words for myself, and now I believe Jesus.” -Yang

 We praise the Lord for the many members of the Body of Christ who each faithfully fulfilled the role God had
given them to touch Mabt and Yang’s lives – from dorm parents to Bible translators to medical personnel.
And we trust there are many more beautiful stories yet to be lived and told! 

Pictured: Gregory, Mabt, and Yang rejoice together in God’s saving grace. 

Please pray for:

  1. Mabt and Yang’s village, that many more will become disciples of Jesus Christ who disciple others.
  2. Discipleship and the equipping of leaders in the rapidly growing Cambodian church, which has increased by as much as 30-fold in the two generations since the tragedy of The Killing Fields.
  3. Heidi as she trains young doctors at Mercy Medical Center with a Christian discipleship perspective.
  4. Gregory as he leads the international Anglican congregation, mentors the Cambodian pastor of their sister Cambodian Anglican congregation, and reaches out with the Gospel in the community.

Missionary Candidates Eric and Liz Larson are preparing to serve in Cambodia alongside Gregory and Heidi. They desire to spread Gospel impact through theological education and ministries of compassion.

We invite you to join in the ongoing work of SAMS, partnering with Anglican churches to raise up, send, and support missionaries in response to Christ’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Give to the Great Commission Fund
What Will Be Your Mission Legacy?

What Will Be Your Mission Legacy?

by | Oct 6, 2021 | SAMS Missionaries

 

What Will be Your Mission Legacy?

By Denise Cox, Associate Director

 One generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts.  Psalm 145:4 NIV

A legacy is something passed from one generation to the next–a heritage or birthright.

What will be your legacy and my legacy or a missionary’s legacy? How does serving in God’s global mission pass from one generation to the next?

 

SAMS missionary Rachel Hill grew up in a family dedicated to serving those in need. Her father (William Godfrey) was a Church of England priest. Later, he served as the missionary Bishop of Uruguay, and then Peru. He continues in his retirement to pray and encourage those serving in mission. 

[The Rev. Dr. Allen Hill with Bishop Godfrey] 

The Godfrey home was open to visitors from all around the globe. When Bishop Godfrey and his wife, Judith, were called to missionary service in Latin America, Rachel’s grandparents encouraged the family in their pursuit of serving overseas even though it meant they rarely saw their children or grandchildren. They saw their own legacy of serving Christ bear fruit in another continent.

As a young teen in Uruguay, Rachel witnessed both the challenges and joys of a growing church reaching out to both society’s elites and society’s neediest. She saw her parent’s faithfulness and their sacrifice as they served as missionaries.  The faith of one generation was built upon the faith of the one before. Three generations built this legacy for Rachel, including her great-grandfather reading his Bible in the trenches during World War I, her grandmother ministering to the deaf, and her parents serving in Latin America.

Allen, Rachel’s husband, echoed her sentiments. Serving as a missionary under Bishop Godfrey, Allen felt privileged to see the vision, faith, trust, and heart for God’s mission that the Godfrey’s embraced.

Similarly, both Jon and Tess Hicks, SAMS missionaries to the Solomon Islands, were reared in missionary families. As missionary kids, they were involved with their family in the ministry of their parents. Jon’s family served in the Solomon Islands, going out as a family into the villages to preach.  Tess saw that God called her whole family into mission. Jon and Tess’s children, as they have grown up in the Solomon Islands, have a strong desire to pray and serve. This is a legacy from both their parents and grandparents.

Sometimes legacy isn’t so obvious. Recently, Johann Vanderbijl, SAMS missionary serving in the Province of Southern Africa, began researching the life of his great-grandfather (pictured at the top), Arthur. Arthur and his wife left England in the second half of the 19th century to serve as missionaries in Mauritius and South Africa. They faced challenging conditions including war. They built churches and started a college. Yet, it would seem the legacy of their family was lost in subsequent generations as some were agnostic and no one entered into Christian ministry.  Except, their legacy was revived as Johann was ordained and he and his wife later became missionaries – first to Ethiopia and then to southern Africa. The legacy resurfaced like the bubbling of a refreshing spring.

These are just three stories from among SAMS missionaries of how the faith of past generations influenced lives. Sometimes a legacy is passed down to a grateful and waiting generation, and other times it lies dormant waiting to be restored.

To all of you who are SAMS family, missionaries, prayer warriors, donors and encouragers – you have a legacy. None of these stories happened without behind-the-scenes players: those who prayed, gave and encouraged. Your legacy is in the hearts turned to Christ in continents far from your home. Your legacy may be with a people you will never know. But it exists.

 

    Their descendants will be known among the peoples.  All who SEE them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.  Psalm 145:4 NKJV

    Belong in Christ at Uganda Christian University

    Belong in Christ at Uganda Christian University

    by | Aug 4, 2021 | Africa, SAMS Missionaries, Theological Education, Uganda

    Above: SAMS Missionary Jessica Hughes and her theological student Lovincer Katana at GAFCON 2018 in Jerusalem. Jessica teaches at Uganda Christian University (UCU), and Lovincer serves in the UCU Chaplaincy while continuing her education to serve Christ’s kingdom. Lovincer shares below the impact that UCU has had on her. – Kate Ulrich, SAMS Communications Coordinator

    My name is Lovincer Katana, a first-born-child of six children. I was born and raised in Kalerwe, one of the slums on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. My parents loved God and served in the church as wardens, and I came to faith while in Sunday School because our parents faithfully raised us in church.

    I grew up and started serving in the youth ministry. Having graduated from university by God’s grace, I was placed as a teacher in one of the best girls’ schools in the country, Gayaza High School. The Lord used me to minister to the girls as I taught and engaged with them through various activities.

    I received a call from the Lord to join full-time ministry, which I must confess I wrestled with for two years. I was inspired to study for my Masters of Divinity at Uganda Christian University (UCU) by my priest at St. Nicholas Church, the retired Rev. Kisitu Frederick. He used to talk fondly about Bishop Tucker Theological College, the College from which UCU was launched. I was particularly inspired by the way he taught and engaged the Scripture, and I was certain that I wanted to study where he had.

    Having said yes to the Lord’s call, I joined the Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology at UCU in 2015. I found the University’s atmosphere calm and enabling in that both students and staff were able, on a daily basis, to know Christ, to grow in faith, and to make Christ known in their different fields of specialty. I don’t remember a single day that any of my lecturers came to class to teach and we did not say an opening prayer, closing prayer, or share in the grace (2 Corinthians 13:14) at the end of class. Of course, even during the lectures themselves one would vividly see faith integrated in whatever we were learning, something which blessed my heart since I got my undergraduate degree from a government university.

    There were two days in the week I always looked forward to: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-1pm. On these days, all students and faculty members pause whatever they are doing (including classes) and come together at Nkoyoyo Hall for Community Worship, where we are fed on God’s Word. I felt a unique sense of belonging in Christ during this time that transcended class, age, expertise, and our distinct backgrounds. This is the community’s way of paying attention to what God is doing in our lives, and it is an opportunity to study His Word.

    The University setting itself makes anyone grow closer to God if only they pay attention to their surroundings. Apart from the time set aside for community worship on Tuesdays and Thursdays, UCU has a beautiful compound which is always green and clean. If you are walking around, you notice Scriptures mounted on almost every building. I remember a time I was feeling so low and discouraged, and as I walked through the compound, I stumbled on this Scripture on a building, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25). I had always passed this spot, and I had probably seen the passage many times, but this time I read the Scripture and it came afresh to me and I was encouraged.

    I graduated in 2018 with my Masters of Divinity, and in 2019 my bishop placed me in the UCU Chaplaincy to serve. This was a beautiful homecoming for me. The Lord placed on my heart a passion for biblical languages, especially Hebrew, and a desire to help other students through sharing knowledge with them. I enrolled to study at Bishop Tucker again in 2020, this time in the Master of Arts in Theology (Biblical Track). The Bishop Tucker faculty has great men and women (my favourite being a SAMS Missionary, the Rev. Jessica Hughes) who pass on their knowledge of God’s Word, helping us grow in immense ways. I am enjoying my work and my studies tremendously, and I am always looking for ways on how to pour myself out into the lives of students so that we journey and grow together. I am grateful for each day that passes in this community.

    God the Alpha and Omega, to Him alone be the Glory!
    Rev. Lovincer Katana Kanyike

    Get to Know & Support Jessica Hughes