Cristina and her husband were our neighbours in Guadalajara; they lived on the corner of the next block, on our way to the preschool our boys attended. Many days we would stop and talk coming or going from school. Over time we became friends. Her husband had served in the Mexican military, and their children lived in the USA, so they were alone. One day they were not there, and for many months we did not see them. When I did see Cristina next, her husband had passed away. We began spending more time together, and our conversations turned to Jesus. Not long after, I came by one day, and I hardly recognized Cristina. She excitedly invited me in to tell me, “I met Him! I know Him! Everything has changed!” Her encounter with Jesus was so profound and so personal her very countenance had literally changed. After the encounter, her favourite thing was to spend hours reading her Bible each day! Even in her grief, she lived with deep joy and a newfound passion for El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient God.
God has taken us on an adventure of a lifetime. It has included risk, change, challenge, and lots of unknowns. It has meant a wealth of relationships with many who chose to also follow Jesus on His path for them. It has been incredible, challenging, and vibrant to accept His invitation over and over to “follow Me.”
Murray was born in 1964 into a Christian family with five boys. He is the fourth of those boys and accepted Jesus at the age of seven when he and his brothers were “playing” church. From a very young age, he planned to be a medical doctor, studying and excelling at school. Active in Boy’s Brigade and youth group, he was a natural leader. He describes his life during adolescence as “one way at church and another at school,” until one day he heard God’s voice clearly giving him a choice, an invitation, “You can continue down the path you live at school, but you will do it without Me, or you can choose Me. Which will it be?” Murray chose to follow Jesus and leave the double life behind.
Not long after, on the first night of a week-long missions conference, the speaker asked who felt God calling them to missions. Murray sat back comfortably, knowing his path was already firmly set with plans to study medicine. Over the week, God did “desire surgery,” and by the last night, Murray was so convinced he wanted to follow God’s calling into cross-cultural missions he was ready to stand up and declare it even if the speaker did not ask. He did ask, and Murray stood to declare his decision. His Dad came and stood behind him, affirming, “your mother and I support you in this.” Their support meant the world! As has the support of our home church.
I also grew up in a Christian family, though it was not always the case. My Dad was an alcoholic. God miraculously rescued him at the point of suicide; an old drinking buddy who had found Jesus arrived at the very moment and told him about Jesus. The story of this friend’s obedience has deeply impacted me to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Through our obedience, the All-Sufficient God could be intersecting a situation, which might literally mean life or death for someone.
I am the youngest of four and still remember wanting my own personal faith journey with Jesus at the age of five because He was so real in our home. Prayer, faith, deliverance, and serving were some of the fruits modelled. It has always been my desire to serve Jesus with my whole life, whatever that looks like. So, when Murray and I met in high school, our love for Jesus, our mutual goals in life, and our vibrant youth group were good soil for a lasting relationship to begin.
We were married in 1984 and then went back to finish our theological training at Canadian Bible College. We knew we were headed for missions but had lots of questions. After college, we wrote to many Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) international workers around the globe with one question, “If we came, would they put us to work doing whatever they did not have time for?” In all, we spent six months travelling and learning from men and women who were serving globally. God confirmed His cross-cultural call to me sitting on a hot and sweaty bus in Thailand during our trip. The bus had stopped to pick up more people. Outside the window, a man was selling roasted chicken on a stick. There was lots of noise, many smells, and we could not understand a word of what was being said. Everything was so different! I asked God, “Why do I need to leave culture, language, and everything known? Couldn’t I be more effective in my own known world, in Canada?” His response was shocking, “If one person comes to know Me through your ministry, isn’t it worth it?” “One person, Lord?” “Yes, all Heaven rejoices over one person who repents.” And it was settled! Beautifully, there has been at least one in each place we have lived!
Coming back from our world trip, we were convinced that God was inviting us to take risks and follow Him deeper wherever we would go. We were ready to go and start things where there was nothing, rather than managing or maintaining
ministries that already existed. None of this could be done on our own. We needed to listen and follow closely what El Shaddai was saying. God gave us a burning desire for more of Him, and we began asking for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. We shared our desire with a friend; he encouraged us to fast and pray for a season. Then he came back and prayed for us. For me, the immediate and consistent fruit of this time was a boldness to share my faith. For Murray, it was a fresh filling, manifesting itself in personal ways and ministry effectiveness in his first pastoral role. Daily and consistent morning time with God became, and has continued to be, a pattern that kept our faith strong and has developed our ability to recognize and follow Father’s voice.
We served at Kilcona Park Alliance Church in Winnipeg for the next four years, where Murray was the outreach, pastoral care, and worship pastor. Those years were such good learning and stretching times for us. We were out four or five nights a week at care groups and would pack the playpen and put our first son to bed wherever we were. Murray honed and developed his skills in leadership, worship leading, prayer, and pastoral shepherding. I discovered my love for discipling new believers and still look back at those classes with joy; people whose roots have gone deep in Christ as they have learned to follow El Shaddai. They continue to bear good fruit.
On a short-term missions trip we lead into Northern Mexico, after supper one evening, walking up an avenue near Ciudad Victoria, we said to each other, “This feels like home.” After four years of ministry at Kilcona, where our two sons, Mitch and Myles, were born, we headed back to Canadian Theological Seminary (CTS) for final preparation to go global. During the year (1991-1992), Murray travelled to Mexico with Charlie Cook and Steve Scarrow. God gave them a vision, one we have carried forward ever since, “Dios a México, México al Mundo,” “God to Mexico, Mexico to the world.” As we write this, the Mexico National Church is preparing its first candidates to send to the least reached!
Mexico
Guadalajara was known as a missionary graveyard. Many mission groups had gone in and left because the soil was so hard, the work too challenging, the persecution too intense. Yet, we felt called to this city of six million people. Our field director at the time, Ramon Esparza, had prayed for over twenty years for the opportunity to plant a church there. So, in the summer of 1992, we moved there with Tim and Susan Webster to start the C&MA’s first church plant. In the city, we knew one Christian couple, a couple who had written the Esparzas. Through research, investigation, and meetings with other pastors, we sought out where the greatest need existed in the megacity. They directed us to an area of about 100,000 people with no known church or believers. So we began to walk and pray and pray and walk, week after week.
One day, as Tim and Murray stopped at a corner store (tienda) for a Coca Cola, a conversation ensued, opening a door for a Bible study in the tienda owner’s home. Two more Life of Jesus studies started, and within a few months, we had a nucleolus of new believers, and a church was birthed. A few months later, the same tienda owner called one day. He was reading the Bible with some friends and needed help explaining what they were reading. I got off the phone and commented, “I feel like we are living in the Book of Acts. I just don’t know what will happen on the next page.” It was God’s place and time for Guadalajara. This challenging, dry place was encountering El Shaddai; He was changing lives one at a time. The church grew, and a second one was started, along with a seminary. Our family grew too with the birth of our two girls, Mikaela and Mattea.
Canadian Pacific District
In the middle of this exciting roller coaster ride, God asked again, “Will you follow Me?” This time it was back to Canada for Murray to work in the Canadian Pacific district office. Little did we know, it was also to save my life. Shortly after arriving and getting settled, it was discovered I have a rare, life-threatening condition. A phone call came from the doctor’s office, “The doctor has requested an appointment with you and your husband as soon as possible.” Ugh! Obviously, bad news! In the twenty-four hours between the call and the appointment, I clearly heard God’s voice, “Michelle, I will not remove this from you but will walk with you each step of the way.” After all these years, I declare God is faithful to His promises. Though He has not healed me completely, He heals me daily and gives me my portion! He is close, He is trustworthy, and He knows best. Though following Him in this health journey is one thing I would have never chosen, neither would I trade it! He has called me deeper and walks so closely with me! He continually proves He is sufficient.
Why do we see hard as bad? Isaiah says, “Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, ‘This is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left’” (30:20, 21 NLT). We all like the last part of the verse, but that intimate knowledge of His voice comes at a cost. The “follow Me” can carry lots of adversity and suffering, and it is so worth it!
In our second year in Canada, Dave and Brenda Petrescue (Michelle’s brother) came to Canada for a family event. Dave shared his vision and dreams for Egypt and Maadi Community Church. He jokingly jabbed Murray in the ribs and said, “So, where do you see yourself fitting in?” At that moment, a switch went off in Murray’s heart and another “follow Me” invitation ensued. Our leadership was turning their focus to least-reached people and encouraged us to consider this opportunity. Though Murray felt a desire to go, he said to me, “We won’t go unless you, Michelle, are convinced it is right.” I wrestled hard and long with the Lord. One Sunday morning at church, a young lady I did not know handed me a note and said, “I sensed God ask me to give this to you.” I thanked her and put it in my Bible. The next morning in my quiet time, I remembered the note and read it. It was from Isaiah “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18 19 NIV). Reading the note, my wrestling ended, and I said, “Yes, I will follow. I will go.”
Cairo, Egypt
Haroun was the first-born son of the local mosque’s imam in Haroun’s hometown in South Sudan. Haroun had a dream one night; he saw a man’s face and sensed Jesus telling him to find the man because he had something for Haroun. One day, while walking down the street of his town, he saw the man from the dream. He approached him many times, told him about his dream, and asked what the man had for him. The man was the only church leader in town, and he eventually, reluctantly (because it was illegal), gave Haroun a copy of the Bible. While reading the Bible, Haroun encountered Jesus. His decision to follow Jesus led to significant persecution from his family, even to the point of them giving the order for him to be executed. As a result, Haroun fled north to Egypt. In Cairo, Haroun was discipled in a small group through Maadi Community Church (MCC). Haroun became a small group leader, multiplied his small group many times, and became a significant spiritual leader among the many Sudanese living in Cairo, pastoring one of the six church plants from MCC in 2006-2007.
Haroun knew he would not be able to return to South Sudan because of the persecution he would face. So, he began a Bible institute to train other Sudanese believers to go back and share their faith, starting faith communities in South Sudan where disciples could be multiplied. It was a privilege to work side-by-side with Haroun as part of the MCC staff.
Egypt encompassed some of the best and most challenging years of our lives. We discovered rich, fruitful ministry and deep personal pain often walk in tandem. Church was like a touch of heaven, with many nations and traditions worshipping together in the desert land, unified by the love of Jesus. Never before had we experienced such deep friendships as quickly as we did in Cairo. In ministry, Murray focused on opportunities outside the church walls and saw rich fruit among refugees and “cousins” like Haroun. I had the privilege of studying God’s Word together with women from many nations who had never studied it before. Simple steps of obedience, plus God’s intervention, resulted in many people choosing to follow Jesus.
Elaine was one of those. She was a nurse, and in nursing school many years earlier, she had a friend who was a Jesus follower. This friend was kind and loving and often invited Elaine to a Bible study or church. Elaine would politely decline, but she was intrigued by her friend’s life. She promised herself that one day, she would study the Bible to understand her friend more. Fast forward twenty years, and she had just moved to Cairo. While attending a lady’s event, an invitation to study the Bible was given. She said, “I don’t have an excuse why not.” Elaine joined me in my living room, told me of her promise, and emphatically iterated, “but I don’t want anything to do with religion or church.” It was one of those times when I was keenly aware God was at work. I just did not want to get in the way. We started studying the Book of John. When we got to chapter three, she said, “can I do this?” I reminded her, this is what she said she did not want to do. With her whole heart, she chose to embrace Jesus.
What made Cairo hard? Our All-Sufficient God used our time in Egypt to break down our perception of who we thought Him to be. He challenged our way of doing things, and in the process, He developed compassion, humility, and curiosity in us. We had loved one people group, but there in Egypt, God expanded our hearts to love the world and its variety of cultures and peoples.
The year 2006 was a tough one for us. First, my brother Dave died tragically in an accident in Cairo. He was deeply loved by the church and the community; we all grieved together. Then, only seven weeks later, my Dad passed away in our hometown of Kelowna. Grief is another of those “follow Me” journeys we would not choose. Yet, within grief, we find God near and dear; He deepens our ability to understand His heart of love. Even in grief, we have found Him to be sufficient. Though we only lived in Cairo for four years, we feel like we lived about ten years of life. Later on, when working through some past experiences, we counted over thirty major traumatic events from those years.
Caribbean Sun Region
When our leaders asked us to consider going back to Latin America as the regional developers, we said, “No, why would we do that?” Our family of six had moved to the Middle East, and we were learning Arabic. We agreed to pray about it for one month. On the last day of the month, both of us, individually, heard God’s voice and invitation, “Do you trust Me? Be willing to enter the process.” And every step of the way, His invitation continued, “Just follow Me, one more step.”
We returned to Canada in 2008 for one year to begin the new role and then headed to Costa Rica in 2009 to set up our new base and regional office. Leaving our two university-aged sons in Canada, we embarked on another adventure with our girls. Upon arrival in this new land, we had just our suitcases and our All-Sufficient God, who opened the doors and provided housing, schooling, and immediate needs. It usually takes a few months of transition before one gets their footing again, but we could not land. By the end of 2009, we realized we were not thriving; we were barely surviving.
We had a conversation with Dr. Westwood, one of our international medical team, and two hours into the conversation, he said, “Your souls need time to catch up to your bodies.” Our leaders graciously gave us a leave of absence to process the many traumas, transitions, and unprocessed griefs we had experienced over the years. The year 2010 was our year of recalibration. We discovered Holy Spirit as a counsellor as He gently unpacked a tangled web of pain, emotion, and unhealthy work and transition patterns. Healing us from the inside out, He re-established health and vibrancy. He taught us the importance of Sabbath rest, praying as a priority, and abiding instead of striving. That year transformed the way we live, think, love, and do life and ministry. Oddly enough, it also established a healthy leadership style in the Sun Region where authenticity, trust, and vulnerability marked us all, impacting us and the way we disciple others.
As has been my practice in each place we have lived, I was part of or started a prayer group for our children’s school. I prayed for a year and a half in Costa Rica for God to connect me with at least one other Christian mom with whom I could pray. He answered, and Pai Li and I began. She invited a friend, and another lady joined, the school director’s wife. After months of being together, someone asked the director’s wife where they went to church. She replied, “We don’t.” Murray and I talked about it and felt urged to offer regular time together to study the life of Jesus, even though we were not sure how we would do it with our travel schedule. We invited them. A few weeks later, we received an email from the two of them, “We have never had a worship experience as a family before, but we are up for the adventure.” We met for supper, and they asked, “What are you thinking, and when can we start?” In the next breath, they asked, “Can we invite people?” And so, a little house church began. It was our joy to witness highly educated people, some who were almost opposed to the concept of God, turn their eyes and hearts towards Him. What a privilege to journey with these families as we discovered new things about Jesus together.
The places where we still have international workers in the Sun Region are hard. We would often find ourselves hitting a wall and having numerous setbacks. After 2010 and our commitment to pray about everything, my sister and I dreamed of setting up an intercessor team who would meet virtually, for one hour per week, to pray specifically for what was happening in the region. iSUN was born (intercessors for the Sun region). At the end of each semester, we would have a God Story Day and recall the many answers to prayer during the time frame. In those places where previously we would hit the wall, we began to see movement and breakthroughs. This group continues to meet, do the battle, and unseen ground preparation for the seeds being sown. There is a rich harvest because of their weekly investment! Thank you. We now have intercessor groups like this for all the other regions too.
How do you sum up the twelve years of regional leadership in a few lines? Our C&MA international workers are our heroes! Our Alliance leaders are godly. Choosing to pursue more of Father has no limits! Prayer has been a priority; authenticity a must. Unity has propelled us forward, and perseverance has paid its dividends. The mission work over the last one hundred and thirty years in Latin America has been effective, and we have been privileged to partner with our national churches in many ways. We have persevered in a launch of an international school with numerous challenges. One new innovation has been through Samuel House, a cross-cultural live-in internship program preparing Latin Americans to thrive among the least reached as international workers.
In Cairo, Egypt in 2008, we met some young men from Central America serving in Jordan as international workers. We already knew we were leaving Egypt and heading back to Latin America. Their story impacted us and inspired us to dream about the possibilities of Latin American Alliance women and men being sent to the least reached around the world. Over the next few years, in meetings with the National Church leaders from various countries in Latin America, we discovered God was already calling men and women to serve the least reached. These leaders asked us to help them prepare their international workers. We dreamed of how The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada could best help. How could we pass on some of our decades of mission experience in a practical training program allowing for the development of even better, more integrated, more transparent workers who would form part of the next global wave of missions?
It was in August 2016, at the annual conference of Latin American C&MA leaders in Bolivia, when a “God Moment” happened. Murray was sitting at a table having lunch with the C&MA contingent from Chile. The director of missions and Murray hit it off immediately due to the enjoyment of food, lively conversation, and a similar sense of humour (mostly the humour). They asked what our vision was and why we Canadians were there, and then they shared their vision of training missions’ candidates in a multicultural setting. A natural friendship blossomed, and our shared dream became a partnership with a common purpose, vision, and values.
The director of Global Missions, Brem Frentz, and Murray went straight from the conference in Bolivia to Paraguay to visit the multicultural church the Chileans had started in a poly-cultural border town. This was the environment we had been looking for; Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and Christians, all mingled together in one large microcosm of cultures and languages. Their visit and many follow-up visits opened the door to what is now called Samuel House. We have had two Canadian couples assist in the launch of this year-long missions training program. Samuel House (or Casa de Samuel) is now led by the Chilean National Church, with new missions’ candidates attending every year. Several of the graduates have already been assigned to Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt. What happened to us in Egypt was God’s preparation for what He was already doing in the hearts and minds of our Latin American C&MA family, sending new workers to the least reached. We love how He weaves His Story together!
In the fall of 2019, we sensed God inviting us to follow Him on an Abrahamic journey, to “leave what is known and travel to a land I will show you.” We sensed it was time to step away from our role as regional developers without having something else to go to. There was a deep sense of peace that this was the right thing to do. We finished our role in the summer of 2020. As I write this, we are just coming to the end of our last home assignment as international workers with The Alliance Canada. What will life look like from here on? We trust the All-Sufficient God will continue to lead the way. We know we cannot live internationally because of my health, and we know God will continue to give us His assignments as we respond to His ongoing invitation, “Follow Me.”
This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 3. Download your free copy today.