with Andrew Hart, CEO, PAK-7

Matt and Jim hear from Andrew Hart, of media organisation PAK-7, about the unreached people groups of the region in which he works. Andrew talks about the importance of media within mission, why it is vital for PAK-7 to use local believers’ voices and talents in the making of new programmes, and whether they face opposition as they share the good news of God’s love in Pakistan.

Andrew Hart is CEO of PAK7, which is a media initiative sharing the good news of God’s love with the people of Pakistan, reaching out to both Christian and non-Christian audiences in Pakistan, through national and Christian TV and social media.

“How do we bring faith into those situations and make it relevant for people? Well, I think local people do that, and local people know how to do that, because they live there, because that is their life. We’ve trained over the last five years since we started over one hundred young Pakistani believers and there’s some incredibly talented people there, I really love working with them, and they’ve got great ideas about how they can communicate the gospel into that culture. I just love hearing their ideas and the kind of things that they want to make programmes about because those are the kind of things that people are going to want to watch in Pakistan” – Andrew Hart, CEO, PAK-7

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Andrew Hart, CEO, PAK-7

TAG ON SOCIAL:
Facebook: @echoesinternational; @pak7tv and @ PAK7Supporters
Instagram: @echoesinternational;
https://pak7.org/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Qmt8N8BHY6_yKS1gDlWdQ
Joshua Project; https://www.joshuaproject.net/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; evangelism; outreach; ministry; ministries; media; channels; social media; television; TV; unreached; reach; peoples; people groups; Pakistan; South Asia; hard to reach; language; culture; local people; videos; faith; gospel; programmes; programme; strategic; documentaries; reality TV; invest; gifts; talents; entertainment; indigenous; channel; songs; lessons

with Ian Burness

Friend of the podcast and former Echoes mission partner and director Ian Burness comes back to The Same Commission studio to talk all things medicine with Matt and Jim. He shares his expertise and experiences of medical mission to discuss the place of medical mission within overall mission. Together they discuss how medics can share their faith with patients, how medical mission has changed over the years and what should be the priorities for medical mission going forward.

After studies in medicine in Aberdeen University, Ian and his wife Margaret went to Africa in 1979, where Ian ran a mission hospital on the Zambian/Angolan border and worked in local churches among the Lubale people. After returning to the UK in 1990, Ian worked with Echoes of Service, now Echoes International, where he was our General Director until 2015. He’s also published a variety of books on the history of mission.

“In Christian mission we need to say is that why we’re there to do the best we can or to serve the mission of God? And if we are serving the mission of God we’ve got to understand where Christian mission is and understand where best the health sector can work alongside coexisting missions as arms that reach out to people, to touch people’s lives, bring people, make people accessible and allow us to communicate Christ to them alongside the medical care we are giving. I have no problem with that and I think that’s a very important area” – Ian Burness

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Ian Burness

TAG ON SOCIAL:

Facebook: @echoesinternational;
Instagram: @echoesinternational;
Book by Ian Burness - Medicine in Remote Places by Ian Burness: https://www.echoesinternational.org.uk/product/medicine-in-remote-places/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; evangelism; outreach; ministry; ministries; medicine; medical; patients; doctors; nurses; mission stations; Africa; Angola; Zambia; India; healing; faith; health; healthcare; care; doctor; nurse; medical practitioner; patient;

Martin Erwin joins The Same Commission podcast to explore with Matt and Jim what being ‘gospel-driven’ really means for us and for our fellowships. They chat about why it is so important, why we sometimes can lose our focus on the good news of the Lord Jesus and how we can ensure when we are starting a new ministry or outreach to be gospel-driven from the beginning.

with Martin Erwin, CEO, Counties

Martin Erwin is an evangelist, author and church planter. He is CEO of Counties, a charity that exists to make Jesus known across the UK through a national network of evangelists and church planters, as well as schools resources and training opportunities.

“If I can rediscover or be grateful to God for the circumstances in my life, I have got ammunition to share when someone’s struggling, when someone’s having a moment, someone’s having a bad day or being challenged, I’ve got something in my life that can shed light on the path for that person. Now we know that Light is Christ Himself – ‘I am the Light of the world’. So rediscovering a testimony through radical gratitude I think is really significant, because then we’re not rehearsing ‘what’s my testimony?’, ‘How can I tell my testimony in three minutes?’… We’re up-to-date in our walk with the Lord. ” – Martin Erwin, CEO, Counties

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Martin Erwin, CEO, Counties

TAG ON SOCIAL:

Facebook: @echoesinternational; @ countiesevangelism ; @martin.erwin68
Instagram: @echoesinternational; @thisiscounties ; @martinerwin68
Resource mentioned: https://www.countiesuk.org/gsuslive

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; evangelism; outreach; ministry; ministries; evangelists; witness; gospel; gospel-driven; good news; Jesus Christ; Jesus; Lord Jesus; God; gratitude; attitude; gratefulness; grateful; church; fellowships; churches; assemblies

Eunice Jones rejoins The Same Commission podcast conversation in Season Three to reflect on what it is like being single as a mission partner. She shares the particular challenges and blessings that come along with being single, speaking from her experiences serving in a South Asian country. Matt and Jim look with Eunice at some of the cultural expectations that surround people who are not married, and explore with Eunice how we here in the UK can support and pray for mission partners who are single.

with Eunice Jones

Eunice Jones, now living in Wales, was a mission partner in South Asia, commended in 1989 until 2020. Today she is still involved in social media outreach, encouraging believers in South Asia. She is also working on translation projects for Bibles and Christian resources and makes sure these translations are recorded and distributed by media, for example through local radio.

“It’s the same way I don’t want to do anything that would grieve my heavenly father, so that commitment to purity, without someone putting parameters there, but the choice to live a pure life is part of that relationship and it is quite powerful to be able to share that. The real big divide between Islam and Christianity is that for us God is not our boss, when He’s looking at you to make sure you are toeing the line, He’s your father and you choose to please Him, because you want to, because of that relationship that’s underlying there so I think that being single was helpful in that way to be able to share” – Eunice Jones, Mission Partner, South Asia

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Eunice Jones, mission partner (South Asia)

TAG ON SOCIAL:

Facebook: @echoesinternational;
Instagram: @echoesinternational;

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; Single; Singleness; Marriage; Married; blessed; challenges; families; relationships; friends; colleagues; work; unmarried; unattached; isolation; unwed; family; home; relationship

The Same Commission podcast starts Season Three with a hard-hitting look at what mission looks like in the aftermath of war. Andy Mayo shares his experiences of mission in the Balkans after the Yugoslavia conflict in the 1990s. Pertinent to today’s world, with over 110 armed conflicts [1] , we look at the challenges of working in areas affected by fighting, when to stay and when to go and how to balance the needs of people you are serving.

with Andy Mayo

Andy with his wife Faye lived in the Balkans for the decade that followed the civil war that tore Yugoslavia into fragments, serving in a Bible School that sought to disciple believers to serve as evangelists and church-planters. Now back in the UK, Andy and Faye are both involved in the arts, pointing to the Good News of Jesus in universities and other contexts - Faye through ceramic sculpture and Andy through music. Andy is part of the leadership team of Oak Hall Expeditions and both serve in a small growing church on the south edge of London.

“We had prayed about it and we had real peace it was the right place to be, and actually it was a really fruitful time. So, we weren’t in the heart of where those bombs were falling, we were over the border. The UN were leaving but we felt sure it was the right thing to be there at that point” – Andy Mayo, Oakhall

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Andy Mayo, Oakhall

TAG ON SOCIAL:

Facebook: @echoesinternational; @AndyIMayo
Instagram: @echoesinternational; @andy.mayo/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; War; Conflict; Tension; Armed Conflict; Fighting; Aftermath; Eastern Europe; Humanitarian Aid; Training; Support

[1] https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts

A topic which isn’t always the focus of Western churches, Nate Bramsen reflects on the challenging issue of SPIRITUAL WARFARE with Jim and Matt in today’s episode of The Same Commission. They consider the Biblical definition, discuss whether mission partners face particular spiritual pressures as they serve and focus on what our responses as believers should be to spiritual attacks. Nate gives a personal account of the prayers of God’s people sustaining him in times of trouble and the assurance that we have in in the Lord Christ Jesus.

with Nate Bramsen, CMML mission partner

Born and raised in Senegal, Nate Bramsen founded Rock International in 2006, a non-profit organization offering holistic care and multi-media gospel media tools for children in neglected areas of the world. Today, Nate carries out a global itinerant speaking schedule, podcasts, and works with teams taking the Gospel to unreached areas. His heart is to see this generation become disciples and unconditional followers of Jesus Christ.

“Spiritual warfare doesn’t just mean what the enemy is doing, spiritual warfare is what we get to do. We are on offence, we’re not on defence. I’ve already got victory so I’m moving forward. How do I move forward? In ‘everything by prayer and supplication’ – and so prayer is our weapon” Nate Bramsen, mission partner (CMML)

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Nate Bramsen, CMML mission partner

SOCIAL:

Facebook: @echoesinternational; Nate Bramsen @bramsen
Instagram: @echoesinternational; Nate Bramsen @natebramsen

Nate Bramsen, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTeE49ilmWgpzifMNWwM5g and Into Your Bible: https://www.intoyourbible.org/
Spiritual warfare in the jungle (video mentioned in podcast) https://youtu.be/WRWStpaKqwY?si=dkhGdZlo3c4SNHR7

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Assemblies; Believers; Prayer; Missionaries; Faith; Spiritual warfare; spiritual attack; enemy; pray; attacks; religions

Jim and Matt chat to Matthew Skirton from OM about whether there is a need for short-term mission in the world today. They consider the advantages of short-term mission, the challenges of doing short-term mission well and whether short-term mission always leads to long-term service in cross-cultural mission. Matthew highlights the unique role that short-term outreach has to inspire people for the wider mission of God.

with Matthew Skirton, CEO, OM UK

Beginning his ministry in Moldova, Matthew Skirton is now the UK CEO of OM, overseeing the ministry across the UK as OM seeks to mobilise people to be involved in mission work among the least reached. He regularly preaches and speaks at churches, Christian events and conferences.

“So this belief that we are all called to mission work…I suppose it is a little thing but I think quite important- that we don’t speak of being involved in a ‘short-term mission’ and then just tick the box and then I’ve done my mission work… because we are called to wrap our whole lives around the reality of knowing God through His son Christ and living as a disciple of Christ and all being on a mission, we are all ‘sent ones’, we are all missionaries and so that’s the thinking around not calling them ‘short-term missions’ but ‘short-term outreaches’ within OM” – Matthew Skirton

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International and Matthew Skirton, CEO, OM UK

SOCIAL:

OM website: https://www.uk.om.org/appeal/skirton
OM UK Facebook: @OMUnitedKingdom
OM UK Instagram: @omunitedkingdom

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; short-term; mission; outreach; volunteer; volunteering; missional; cross-cultural; missionaries; mobilise, mobilisation

This episode of The Same Commission considers the role of women within mission, particularly those mission partners serving in countries with a strict patriarchal society or where women’s rights are not respected. Eunice and Janey share differing experiences of serving in male-dominated societies with Matt and Jim, looking at both the challenges and the benefits of being a woman mission partner.

with Eunice Jones, South Asia and Janey Mukomba, Zambia

Janey Mukomba, originally from Scotland, heads up Mwana Ministries in Zambia, which seeks to improve the lives of children in Africa by reaching them with the good news of Jesus Christ, and providing opportunities to further their education, with three strands of ministry - Mwana Media, Mwana Mission and Mwana Action. Looking ahead, Janey is hoping to produce new TV programmes with her team in Zambia, focusing more on animation, to minister to children on television.

Eunice Jones, now based in Wales, was a mission partner in South Asia, commended in 1989 until 2020. Today she is still involved in social media outreach, encouraging believers in South Asia and with translation projects for Bibles and Christian resources, including ensuring that these translations are recorded and distributed through media, for example through local radio.

“In a country where Christians and missionaries are considered suspicious and… we experienced a lot of opposition and men and families lost their visas and had to leave, women were considered relatively harmless...in terms of impacting the community. That worked in our favour because we were able to carry on, not only just running a clinic but communicating the gospel and I was involved in translation work. I think had I been a man I would not have still been there.” – Eunice Jones, mission partner, South Asia

Podcast participants: Jim Armstrong, General Director, Echoes International, Matt Pitts, Missions Director, Echoes International, Eunice Jones, mission partner, South Asia and Janey Mukomba, mission partner, Zambia

TAG ON SOCIAL:

Facebook: @MwanaMinistries
Instagram: @mwanaministrieszm
Mwana Ministries: https://www.mwanaministries.org/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk/commission
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-same-commission/id1735900905
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/be7b52bc-c722-41d2-a211-2cd958f6b7eb/the-same-commission
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LlwFSwHrVeYrJlhfcvJy2?si=b78369ad3f5945e5

SOCIAL:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/echoesinternational/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echoesinternational
Website: www.echoesinternational.org.uk

KEYWORDS: Mission; Mission partners; Gospel; Christian; Brethren; Believers; Church; Fellowships; Assembly; Assemblies; Women; Woman; Female; Misogyny; Male; Domination; Power; Patriarchal; Patriarchy; Rights; Society; Community; Communities; Families; Respect; Gender; Africa; Zambia; South Asia