Collaboration to the Glory of God – Pioneers Members in Partnership with Simply Mobilizing
21 Aug 2024
My wife Marion and I are Pioneers members serving full-time with Simply Mobilizing (SM). SM is a ministry which began in the Philippines (and now has teams of volunteers in more than 100 countries) helping churches understand the mission of God. It considers the ministry of mobilisation as helping ordinary Christians discover how they can work with God to accomplish some aspect of His mission.
In 2008, I attended SM’s first international conference with one simple question in mind: How could the SM Kairos course be introduced to Venezuela? Little did Marion and I realise that God had so much more in view! They ran their first course in Venezuela in March 2009, and helped those graduates run subsequent Kairos courses. Idita was in the third course. At age 15 she had responded to God’s calling to be a missionary. But 30 years later she had never left Venezuela. In undertaking the course, God lifted the sense of guilt that she had carried all those years, as she recognised that she was faithfully serving God as a missionary to Hindus in her own neighbourhood! Idita’s story completely challenged our understanding of God’s mission and affirmed to them the value of mobilisation tools such as the Kairos course.
Since then, God has grown a strong team in Venezuela, and by 2019 Marion and I, with the help of others, introduced the ministry of SM to 11 Latin America countries. The strong foundation which God grew there was far wider and stronger than we had dared to envisage. Since we left the region, a team of Latinos has been fully responsible for growing local SM teams in 22 countries throughout Latin America.
Through the various courses SM run, available now in Spanish and Portuguese too, God is challenging many individuals to work with Him in His mission. One such example is Jeremias, who in one course sensed God’s challenge to serve as a cross-cultural missionary. Before embarking on a short-term mission, the pastoral team challenged members of the church to help his need for finance. To the surprise of the pastoral team, within a week he had all the needed funds for this exploratory trip. The pastoral team had never seen anything like that before, and attributed the outcome to God’s work during the recent SM courses. Jeremias and his wife are now serving as cross-cultural missionaries to an unreached people group in Asia.
Growth and vision is not about overworking existing leaders, but about prayerfully empowering individuals whom God is raising to participate in the task.
In 2020 I took on a new international role. With the SM family divided into 12 regions (one of which is Latin America), I became responsible for overseeing 12 international leaders. I regularly meet online with these leaders and encourage them to persevere through their many challenges. I coach them as they run training events in their countries. I continue in this very relational role, now as Associate Director of SM International, and Marion now serves as SM’s International Translation Coordinator.
Over the years Marion and I have realized that God wants to accomplish so much more than we would dare to dream or imagine. But yet it is not about overworking our existing leaders, but rather praying for eyes to see more leaders whom God is raising and empowering them. This year, regional leaders’ gatherings are scheduled for five regions: Europe, West Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America. God is at work in raising up more leaders to mobilise churches throughout the world. We are looking forward to interacting with leaders at these gatherings, and hearing stories of the strong foundations that God is building.
Geof and Marion Gunton | Pioneers Members
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