Roland Family Mission Calling

Kenya Mission 2006

Vision Statement

 

 

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“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.? And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.? Acts 16:9-10

 

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Purpose:

To glorify God by ministering to the people of Kenya and communicating the story of His goodness and redemption to them.

 

What we will do:

We pray that God would honor our desires in His calling and claim a harvest in each of these areas as an offering to Himself. According to God’s will and grace, we intend to:

 

1.         Practice the love of Christ to souls in need and share with them the good news of salvation, in this way caring for their physical and spiritual needs. We will cultivate this by building genuine relationships based on love, living among the Kenyan people in their own culture, at their own economic scale. We will reach out by offering classes for women in nutrition, breast-feeding and childbirth and caring for children through a camp ministry. We will welcome neighbors and friends into our home and show them Christ’s love in warm hospitality.

 

1.         Equip the indigenous believers to establish the Lordship of Christ over all of life. We will do this by helping to initiate a vision for PACE Bible College for the training of African pastors and lay people who can effectively lead the African church to glorify God by practicing genuine biblical thinking and living.

 

2.         Demonstrate the fact that because both men and women are made in God’s image, to reflect Him, it makes a difference in how husbands and wives should regard and treat each other. We will do this by modeling a loving, functional, marriage relationship to friends, students, co-workers, guests and neighbors.

 

3.         Shepherd the local believers and “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ? (Eph 4:12). We will do this through a supportive preaching and shepherding ministry with the Nyahururu Africa Inland Church.

 

4.         Explore this opportunity to discover more of God’s glory in people and the natural world and praise Him for it. These new perspectives will help us and our children in our own journey of life and continue our training in ministry.

 

5.         Glorify God and communicate the story of His goodness and beauty in the world. We will do this through various avenues, from keeping a tasteful home and garden, to projects in writing and artistic-documentary film making.

 

Duration:

We plan to go for one year, from January 2006 to January 2007. After this term we will return to the States to seek the Lord’s will for our next step. James will remain involved with PACE Bible College by returning for yearly teaching trips. We will also encourage those who donate to our term to consider continuing their yearly giving to the Kenyan national who will replace us when we leave.

 

What motivates us to go:

We are searching for our calling–ways we may glorify God with what He’s provided us. Because we sense God’s blessing in our marriage, family, work and lives, we feel accountable and compelled to use this abundance of blessing to live out God’s glory before other people.

 

What we believe:

Our statement of belief is available at our website: www.cafezanzibar.org. We also concur with the Villars Statement on Relief and Development. This non-denominational document is an attempt to articulate a biblical perspective on how Christians should think about and participate in issues of social justice, relief and development for the glory of God.

 

Accountability

We will be directly accountable to the Evangelical Free Churches of Atlantic and Algona Iowa, and will seek ministry credentials and cooperation with the Evangelical Free Church International Mission, Africa Inland Mission and Africa Inland Church.

 

Philosophy of Fund-raising

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Commitment of Responsibility

 

 

While many other believers use fund-raising methods that are Biblically legitimate, we have decided to particularly demonstrate our dependence upon God and guard against materialism by committing ourselves to the following principles (1 Cor 9:17-9).^[1]

 

1.         We will do all things for the Glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

2.         We will work joyfully, with the ultimate understanding that we are willing to suffer as servants to Christ (Mark 10:45, Heb 12:2) and are not living for our own comfort or material prosperity (Heb 11:8-16).

3.         We will not randomly solicit donations for ministry work, but rather seek our provision from God through prayer (Matt 6:30). Ultimately, we will combine vision, faith and prudence to carefully budget our work according to the amount God provides (Philippians 4:10-19).

4.         When invited, we will prayerfully present our ministry and share honest facts and needs without communicating any kind of pressure (2 Cor 1:8).

5.         We will submit ourselves to the accountability of our sending churches and our fellow co-workers. All accounts will be audited annually by professional auditors and reported to the sending churches.

6.         We will encourage donors to fulfill financial responsibilities to their local church before contributing to our work (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

7.         We will not incur debt for ministry expenses.

8.         Money contributed for a specific purpose will never be used for other purposes without the donor’s consent.

9.         Donor’s names will never be published with the amount of their gifts.

10.       The success of our ministry will be measured not by the numbers served or by the amount of money taken in, but by whether God uses it to glorify Himself.

 

 

 

 

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James W. Roland

 

 

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Heidi S. Roland