What does it mean to truly serve a lost world? Listen to Susie’s powerful conversation with Stephan Bauman, President of World Relief. Stephan shares his vision for impacting the world for Christ.
For Stephan, the call to love and serve others is a very personal one. His wife Belinda had a passion for missions and shared her vision with Stephan. It took a few years for him to warm to the idea. “We had been working – I was in business, she was a teacher… we went across to Ghana, beautiful country, beautiful people… what was meant to be six months became six years.”
Many believers aren’t able to travel overseas long-term; what then can be done? Stephan lists several ways we can “suffer alongside” others as Paul exhorts us in Scripture.
• Choose a country and commit to pray for the people there.
• Organize a short-term missions trip.
• Approach your church about adopting a local church in another country. Stephan points out the plight of believers in the Congo.
• Use your gifts to raise awareness. Stephan shares a story of a rapper, a pastor, a blogger, and a few mothers who mobilized Congolese women to change their community. “This became a grass-roots movement. It spawned a movement that led to village peace communities and hundreds of women on the front lines solving problems in a war zone.”
• Go to worldrelief.org and donate money or partner with overseas villages to manage water systems and food supplies.
What doesn’t work anymore?
• Sponsoring children around the world. Stephan is quick to praise this practice.
“Child sponsorship awakened us to the problem of poverty. But how much better if we could help those moms and dads earn their own money and send their own kids to school? That’s the nice evolution of change – that is about empowerment.”
Stephan points out that at times, sponsorship leads us to view the children as commodities instead of as people. “It’s an important thing that is evolving into an even better thing. It can work, but I think it’s time for a better way.”
• Going off the grid. Stephan urges us to pray and exert our kingdom influence. Ignorance is no longer an option.
Key Scriptures: Philippians 3:12-14; Matthew 19:26
Theme Song: Same Power by Jeremy Camp
