Paul & Grace Robinson our one of our mission partners. Paul heads up the Mission & Mobilisation department for OMF here in the UK. Grace has recently started as the intercultural worker at Platt church, Manchester.
What a difference the risen Jesus makes!
Picture the scene described in Revelation 7 of the great multitude of people that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” Contrast it with the scene in John 12 of Jesus travelling towards Jerusalem and his death: he is greeted by crowds waving palm branches but this is nothing compared to the great multitude we see in Revelation. In John, we see that the crowd do not really know who Jesus is. They worship him as a man who comes ‘in the name of the Lord’. Their vision is so small – they are excited that Jesus might be the ‘King of Israel’ – a King just for them. Little did they realise that they were worshipping the King of all nations, tribes, peoples & languages.
For the last 6 months, I (Grace) have been seconded from OMF to work at Holy Trinity Platt as their Volunteer Intercultural worker.
The vision statement for the work is: By God’s grace, we see Holy Trinity Platt grow as a Jesus-focused intercultural community of believers reaching out in mission to the city of Manchester and beyond. An intercultural church is a church in which every member can ‘give’ of their time and gifts – and have their giving received! A motivating verse is Acts 20:35, “It’s more blessed to give than receive.” If as a church, we do not create opportunities for people to give then we are withholding blessing. Part of my role is considering ways in which the church may unintentionally be preventing people from giving – this might be because we tend to gravitate towards people who are like us! They become our ‘go to’ to help in church services, go on rotas or start new initiatives – but what about those we don’t know so well? The positive experiences I had in Cambodia of being led and taught by Christians from the Majority World are a big influence. I experienced great teaching from Malaysian & Japanese co-workers; I learned much from watching an intrepid and passionate Thai missionary; and I was led in stimulating Bible study by my Cambodian house-help.
Isn’t the picture in Revelation 7 exciting? A vibrant community made up of all sorts of people from all sorts of places, united in their worship of Jesus – only possible because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thank you so much for your continued support for our family & OMF.
We hope you have a special Easter.