In the first two parts of this blog series, we shared Teresa’s story of introduction to Discovery Bible Study (Part 1) as well as stories of Teresa’s missionary journey through Asia (Part 2). 

In this final installment, we asked Teresa to share wisdom for Canadian ministry leaders and also to address a common concern with the Discovery Bible Study method.

In her modern-day missionary journeys throughout Asia, Teresa has been focusing on training leaders and equipping them to facilitate disciple-making-movements, primarily through the tool of Discovery Bible Study. In this article, we share stories from Teresa’s recent trip to Asia. Stories of God at work through the tool of DBS! Stories of a Disciple-Making Movement!

“She has a map! That's just like in the back of your Bible, the missionary journeys of Paul”, Craig Kraft, OC’s Executive Director, excitedly shared about an OC missionary and her recent travels through southeast Asia.

Sure enough, the map looks curiously like those maps in the back of your Bible – pinpointing the stops along Teresa’s recent missionary journey to Asia where she travelled from place to place - flying, or renting a jeep and travelling with other leaders and driving into remote communities, to equip leaders and guide a disciple-making movement using the Discovery Bible Study tool. After a glimpse into her story, we knew this was a story we needed to capture and share.

One of the challenges of interacting cross-culturally with our neighbours is that we understand our own worldview very clearly, but people coming from other cultures come with a different perspective. Each of us is convinced we understand how the world ‘really works’ and may struggle to understand why people have different thoughts.

This difference carries into spiritual realities. Imagine the challenges that might be faced in understanding someone’s journey to faith. They may not need to fully understand that their sins are forgiven as much as they need to realize that their shame has been lifted; or that the God of the Bible is the truly powerful one with authority over all of heaven and earth.

As we have opportunity, we want to share stories from people who have found Jesus who come from different worldview. What follows is one of those stories. Maybe you won’t fully understand it; maybe it will make you a bit uncomfortable. I encourage you to listen with your heart to this journey to Jesus that might be quite different than your experience.

We pray that these four stories about disciple-making & disciple multiplication (from Simply Mobilizing Canada) encourage your heart and inspire you to action!

• The Letter - the story of just one letter and how God used it to bring many to Himself.
• Why I love doing Discovery Bible Studies with my Muslim friends - the story of a woman who is studying the Bible with her Muslim friends.
• From Stone to Soil - Once upon a time, a seemingly uninterested man participated in a Discovery Bible Study in a cafe around the world, and then everything changed.
• Living and Active - the story of how the Scriptures made it to a remote village through text message.

This summer, we had the privilege of connecting with Shelly Lyons about her research on Adult Third Culture Kids. Listen in to hear more about the “heart” behind the research and her big picture dreams for how it will be used! 

Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCK) are adults whose lives were shaped by mobility and cross-cultural experiences during their childhood. According to Merriam Webster, a “Third Culture Kid (TCK)” refers to "a child who grows up in a culture different from the one in which his or her parents grew up ... The 'third culture' to which the term refers is the mixed identity that a child assumes, influenced both by their parents' culture and the culture in which they are raised."

One Sunday morning in the church where I pastored, a family came to me and shared how some of their friends had left our church to go to another church: a "competitor church". They were completely distracted by their news. Does the Bible encourage us to compete with fellow believers? Is there such a thing as a competitor church?