Global Invitations to the Table

by Sadiri Joy Tira

When I was a student at seminary in the early 1980s, my missiology professor talked about Closed Door Countries (CDC) and Creative Access Nations (CAN). Now we talk about globalization, rapid mobility, mass migration/diasporas, labor/economic re-alignments, and communication connectedness.  

Three decades ago, when we debated how to penetrate these so called CANs and CDCs, the answers were ‘Bible-smuggling’ and undercover ‘tentmaking’. Since then, the validity of these strategies has been challenged by ethicists. Talking about the ‘regions beyond’ has become in some circles, the ‘regions around’ [us]. Unreached People Groups (UPG) have become Unengaged, Unreached, People Groups (UUPG).

Observers see the world around us in mega cities–no longer global villages, but rather more like global condominiums or global apartments. We also hear about how global networks have been replaced by global families! 

My point is: mission and evangelism departments must update their syllabi to keep up with current realities. Our emerging leaders need to recognize the realities of the 21st-century world. Mission professors must spend hours looking at the syllabi for economic, labor, sociology, migration, and technology courses. I would suggest that we need more integrated and inter-disciplinary mission courses in order to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by these new realities.  

It is not too complicated to conceive the potential impact of simple, but intentional personal relationships that spread across the globe. 

Three weeks ago I was in Bahrain, a small but strategic island in the Arabian Gulf. There were gathered 90 Filipino Kingdom Workers (associated with the Filipino International Network(FIN), a catalytic movement of Christians committed to motivate and mobilize Filipinos globally to partner for worldwide mission) representing a myriad of professions: medical doctors, nurses, engineers, bus drivers, maids, etc. 

Some have been in the region for 35 years, indicating long-standing relationships with Arab employers. In short, many of these Filipino Kingdom Workershave earned the credibility and the respect, and even love of their masters. 

In the three days, we met to seek the face of God, worshiping and praying together, and acquiring knowledge and skills on how to effectively connect with our co-workers in the hospitals, hotels, oil fields, etc. 

Call this witnessing! 

Participants learned how to confidently share their life-changing stories, and I believe they left and returned home to their adopted nation excited and empowered. At the end of our time together, we had a big Arabian dinner followed by the breaking of bread. 

I told my friends that neither Jesus nor his followers built a memorial or monument at Calvary or Bethlehem for him to be remembered. I explained that Jesus’ memorial, or His Table, is mobile. 

His Table must be spread to all nations and countries of the world. We (re)committed among ourselves to share our stories to our local friends so that many of them will join in and around the Master’s Table for the breaking of bread.

Meet just a few of the people who participated:

• H.A.: a seasoned Arab trainer and evangelist

• Mark: a businessman who travels extensively, an expert on team building.

• Jopet: chairman of the Filipino International Networkin the region and a medical technologist for over 20 years in Kuwait City.

• Ronald: lives in Bahrain with his wife and children and trains aviation engineers in the region to maintain the Airbus 320. According to him, he gives Bibles as gifts to his students. “I don’t smuggle, but I give gifts and my students receive with gladness.”

• Ike: a tender-hearted mining engineer in Oman, who serves as the pastor of a Filipino congregation whose members are lonely, discouraged, and burdened.

• Ronnie: a successful civil engineer in United Arab Emirates who also organizes training for Filipino Kingdom Workers in the region.

• Luis: the baker of a Royal family in Bahrain for 25 years

Consider these statistics: (from the Country Migration Report Philippines 2013; IOM)

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Number of Filipinos: 1,550,572

United Arab Emirates – Number of Filipinos: 679,819

Qatar – Number of Filipinos: 342,442

Kuwait – Number of Filipinos: 186,750

Now imagine that approximately 7% are evangelical Christians (Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches).  

Imagine if 7% were mobilized as story-tellers whose lives declare testimony to “God [who] so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, [and] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).   

Imagine if each one of them invited just one other person to become a regular partaker of the Lord’s Table before they returned to their homeland.  

Think about the future banquet in heaven (Rev. 19:9), and remember the people who invited you to the Table!

Is that too complicated to imagine?

Sadiri Joy Tira is the Lausanne senior associate for Diasporas; vice-president for Diaspora Missions at Advancing Indigenous Missions (AIM); and Diaspora specialist at the Jaffray Centre for Global Initiatives at Ambrose University College (Canada).