Great Commission, Great Compassion
Watershed moments like the ongoing pandemic amplifies. In some cases, we’ve seen it amplify human selfishness and ugliness, but we’ve also seen it magnify compassion and the beauty in humanity. When God calls us to stand up in love, the enemy whispers to sit down in fear. However as this pandemic rages on, we decide whether we choose to amplify love or fear.
From a young age, God placed in me a desire to help others and particularly to reach out to people of different cultures, but I often felt inadequate, inexperienced, and too broken for such an important job. As a kid, I was hard on myself for not being a "perfect" child nor a good enough Christian. However, when I was eighteen, God placed Ghana on my heart, and an experience with a Ghanaian child forever changed my perspective and life.
In 2013, I had the honour of being on CIM's Ghana short-term missions team. Over the course of three weeks, we served the rural villages and supported local pastors with visitations, relationship-building, church planting, youth programs, and prayer. God revealed to me that my North American apathy was more spiritually poisonous than their third-world poverty. He challenged me in numerous ways, especially in fighting the deeply ingrained thoughts that I was inadequate. As the team shared the gospel, we brought a gift that wasn't ours to give, and while I understand that three weeks is unlikely to make a tangible difference in the villagers' physical situations, by God's grace the seeds we planted will continue to be nurtured within each individual that we interacted with. The relationships God formed also taught us invaluable lessons.
2013 Ghana Team with Pastor Asase's family
The Ghanaians were incredibly kind, generous, and receptive. In this photo, we were visiting a village hair salon.
Sharing Jesus' love with the kids was such a joy!
Church often took place under trees.
Mada was the baby girl who left the biggest imprint on my heart. She was a three-year-old with bowlegs from rickets and a huge belly from malnutrition. This physical condition not only restricted her from running with the other children, but it was even more heartbreaking as it could be easily cured with basic nutrients and food. We spent the day doing visitations, and eventually, Mada's 20-year-old father asked us to take her back to Canada, speaking as though she were more of a burden than a blessing. As we were leaving the village, the children chased after us, but Mada was limping and crying, not able to catch up and not wanting us to leave. Our hearts broke for Mada and the other children but helping all of them was out of our realm of possibility.
As we drove away, I realized that in many ways, this situation is opposite from God’s hand in our lives. God’s compassion overflows; there are no bounds to His ability to change our physical and spiritual situations, and he would never leave our side. At that moment, God reminded me that He is in control and takes care of His children, while He emboldened and allowed me to cast away the fear of inadequacy with His perfect love. The helplessness I felt as I watched Mada fade into the distance taught me a genuine surrender and reverence for God’s hand in our lives. Through this journey, I realized that the fear I previously had kept me in chains of inaction, but small decisions of action began to free me and build momentum of impact for God. That day, I learned one of the most important lessons from a little girl who could not even speak to me.
The beautiful 3-year-old Mada, one of the children who made a deep and memorable impact on our entire team.
Fast forward to 2020 - a year of uncertainty and fear. God challenged me again by opening up an opportunity to serve on CIM's Board of Directors during the pandemic, when all plans to send missions teams abroad were thwarted. Yet, God showcased his compassion and control and still paved the way for important work to continue as we pivoted to remotely supporting our partner organizations, vision planning, and fundraising. When we had no Short Term Missionaries to fundraise and bolster the financial needs of our partner organizations, He answered our prayers through the generosity of people in the ‘Be a Blessing’ Christmas fundraiser.
Because of your generous support, many lives have been changed.
This entire village of Kamampa accepted Jesus at once.
Therefore, I want to encourage and remind you that COVID hasn't cancelled compassion. I am so thankful that there are ways we can serve one another without being in person, especially with modern-day technology.
Recently, I finished the book "Great Commission, Great Compassion" by Paul Borthwick, from which I borrowed this monthly update's title and inspiration for the three points below (you can read the book by clicking on the hyperlink). It gave me hope and I felt convicted to pass on a little encouragement for these trying times:
We have the privilege of choice. Be intentional with choosing empathy, not apathy. Even though we may be fatigued because of COVID, try not to be numb to the social issues around the world. Don't focus on what could happen when the pandemic is over and miss the opportunities God's placing in front of you right now. Look at ourselves and the world through the lens of Jesus' compassion rather than our own, and be intentional in identifying those both in and out of our circle whom we can help carry burdens.
Adopt a posture of learning and growing, and have grace. Let's educate ourselves about who needs help and how we can help, and what people need, not what we can give. Learn about the history and root causes of conflict, pain and trauma, not only for broader social issues but also for those you are in a relationship with. Go where you are relationally - check in more frequently on people you know and build genuine friendships. Have grace upon yourself and others - some may be exhausted from the constant lockdowns and lack of social interaction, while others may only be comfortable with meeting over a phone call rather than in person.
Pray with boldness and compassion. Trust God's heart, His healing power, and His timing. Prayer is powerful - intercede for those that you may not be able to serve in person during the pandemic. Even though we may experience physical limitations, our prayers face no limits. Pray for something that seems outrageous; He is the God of miracles!
The needs and opportunities are only growing, and thus we must prepare for the breakthrough that will happen in God's timing. At CIM, we are preparing for the future when mission trips can be resumed, particularly with informational sessions in the upcoming months. If you are interested in knowing more about serving with us, you can learn more here or email us at contact@cimcanada.org.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles; so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
– 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
In Christ,
Candace Chu
Board Director, CIM Canada
May Financials
1. General Fund - for general and administrative purposes, such as staff salaries
2. Designated Fund - for specific ministries in different field locations as designated (cannot be transferred between funds)
*All financial figures are in Canadian dollars and rounded to the nearest dollar
Pray With Us:
Please continue to pray for donations to fund our work in Canada.
Pray for healing for our board member, Siu Lui Ho, as he continues to battle stomach cancer.
Pray for travel safety as our International Worker, Janice Wong, will travel back to Canada for home assignment from July to September.
Pray for CIM USA and Christine Pi as she has announced her retirement as Executive Director. CIM USA is currently recruiting for an Executive Director successor, as well as a Director of Ministry.
GHANA MINISTRY INFO. SESSION
As all our STM trips are still on hold, we would like to virtually introduce you to our mission fields. The next info session will be held on
August 21
12 pm PST/1 pm MST/3 pm EST.
Save the date! We will be sharing about our ministries in Ghana and it will be hosted by our International Worker, Janice Wong.
It is a free event and if you are interested in attending please register here and we will send you a Zoom link. Stay tuned for dates for our Roma ministries.