unFinished 2019

Well, OMS Canada’s 75th anniversary event, the unFinished Conference, took place two weeks ago.
This blog post is a review of the event with some thoughts about our future.

Fair Havens Ministries was the location for the conference. For many years OMS Canada Retreats were held at Fair Havens, so it seemed an appropriate venue to hold the anniversary event. And we were not disappointed. The staff did an exceptional job of caring for us. The meeting spaces were excellent. The accommodations were comfortable and the food was fantastic. Special thanks to Tara for her patience with us; we had never planned an event like this.

The opening session on Friday evening had us in Irwin Chapel. Esther Cooke and Ruth Williston were our excellent worship leaders for the weekend and they did a super job of it. The theme for the conference was the unFinished Task that Jesus gave to the church. This was reflected in our worship by the theme song, “Facing a Task Unfinished”. The lyrics reminded us of God’s blessing and His intention for that blessing to be a blessing to others as well.

Dr Stan Dyer then led us in a rehearsal of OMS’ history, beginning with our founders, the Cowman’s, and the beginnings in Canada with Bill and Blanche Frith. It was abundantly clear that God had been gracious to OMS Canada and faithful in all His ways. There is a legacy to godly leadership and fruitful service for the Kingdom of God. This was celebrated.

In the second main session on Saturday morning, Dr Bob Fetherlin, President of OMS Global, reminded us of the task that remains unfinished, using Genesis 12:1-3 (all the peoples will be blessed) and Acts 1:8 (you will be my witnesses). As people who have been rescued, we are to help rescue others. He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation and we are blessed to be a blessing. Our task is to create new links in the gospel chain to reach those who have never heard. And our ministry is to be ‘Glocal’, ministry that is both local and global.

In the third main session on Saturday evening, Dr Randall Mah of Wycliffe Bible Translators gave us a snapshot of how the gospel is doing in the world today. He reminded us that when the nations are referenced in Scripture it does not mean a geo-political country as we often assume. Rather, it refers to people groups, ethno linguistic groupings of people, connected by culture and language. He told us that there remain approximately 3,000 people groups with less than 2% evangelical Christians. These are the Unreached People Groups (UPG). And until each of these people groups have been penetrated by the gospel and a community of worshippers established, the task remains unFinished.

There were a number of breakout sessions that also took place on Saturday. Three missionary families shared on the theme “A Day in the Life” of a missionary. These were well attended and we were challenged by their experiences. There were also sessions on Short Term Missions, Dynamic Women in Mission, Unreached People Groups, Business as Mission, Billion.Global, and Kairos. We trust that these sessions challenged each one to become more involved in completing the great commission.

In the final session, we were challenged to embrace the 20/20 Vision. By God’s grace, we will believe for 20 new missionaries by the end of 2020. It is a vision that is disproportionate to who we are at OMS Canada but not at all disproportionate to who God is. To support this vision, the OMS Canada Board of Directors have enacted four strategic initiatives. These strategic initiatives have been designed to increase our exposure to those individuals to whom the Lord of the Harvest is speaking about service among the nations.

The first initiative is to hire a full-time Recruiter. If we are serious about doing our share to complete the task, it will involve many more missionaries. And if we are serious about new missionaries, then we believe that a full-time recruiter is necessary. And God has provided extra funds from a generous donor who passed away last year.

The second initiative is to encourage all of you to investigate the opportunity to take the Kairos Course ( https://simplymobilizing.com/courses/kairos/ ). This course will make it very clear what the task is and what is our responsibility. It will also provide us proximity to those people in Canada who are serious about learning of missions and more apt to consider serving among the nations.

The third initiative is the Missions Kickstart program. One of the challenges faced by post-secondary students is student debt. The Missions Kickstart program is an opportunity for OMS Canada to assist graduates pay back their student loans on the condition that they have been approved for missionary service with OMS Canada and will commit to a term of service. Our aim is to be able to move these people to their field of service in a more timely manner by removing the burden of student loans.

The fourth initiative is the 341 Prayer Groups. Prayer triplets are not a new concept to the church. They have been used to fruitful ends around the world. We are asking you to meet with two other people at least once a week to pray for one more new missionary by the end of 2020. That’s 3 people praying 4 1 more new missionary by the end of 2020. When you do form your group, we ask you to let us know about it so that we can pray for you and keep you up to date on how God is answering prayer.
Share your group details here - https://forms.gle/oY17iJ8Snqp9iX5x8  

​The only instruction given in regards to getting new missionaries is to pray. One of the passages where we see this is Matthew 9:38. Jesus has looked out on the crowds of people with compassion because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus said to pray earnestly, therefore, to the Lord of the harvest to send more labourers into the harvest. This is what we are committing to do and this is what we are asking you to commit to do as well.

So we challenge you to join us in our commitment to see the task Finished and hasten the day of
Christ’s return.
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To find out more about any of this, don’t hesitate to call or shoot us an email.