Discipleship and Support of Missionary Children (Maggie Green)
Canada | 20035
My Story
After graduating from Moody Bible Institute in 2018, I was wide open for anything! I had little preference or clear direction for where to serve - I was only confident that God had called me into ministry.
As a graduate, I eagerly applied for anything near and far and grew discouraged as door after door was closed to me. After several months of searching, I prayed to the Lord, frustrated that I wasn't having success in finding a ministry to serve with. I was immediately convicted that I hadn't been searching intentionally, or even faithfully. In all my excitement to be useful, I hadn't truly paused to ask for the Lord's guidance or blessing.
Less than 24 hours after getting my heart right, I stumbled across a ministry posting on GEM's website and instantly connected with the mission and vision of GEM. I felt total peace as I applied with GEM, even as I was surprised: having lived in Kenya previously, I had assumed I would be headed back to Africa in some capacity.
Instead, the Lord brought me to serve in Germany at Black Forest Academy. Serving with GEM is an honour: I deeply align with our faith statement and core value, such as transformation, and the emphasis placed on discipleship. Ministry in Europe is a slow endeavour, with more spiritual progress achieved through long-term, everyday faithfulness than some of the evangelistic outreach efforts I observed in Africa, or the event-oriented exposure I've seen meet success in the States.
I learned a lot while in Europe with GEM and I loved my time on the field, but after 3 years, GEM Canada approached me about moving into a support role with the home office. I had assumed (I should really stop doing that) I would be overseas indefinitely and had never even considered moving back to Canada. To my surprise, I felt total peace and confidence that the Lord was leading me back to Canada, and since making the transition, have seen how obviously "right" it is for me to be serving with GEM Canada here.
Where I Work
After serving with GEM in Germany from 2020-2023, I was approached about the possibility of transitioning to work with our home office in Canada. Specifically, I was seconded from GEM Canada to the Sending Collective, the collaboration of 5 Canadian sending agencies: GEM Canada, SEND Canada, SAM, TEAM of Canada, and Christar Canada. I also work with Outreach Canada as a co-director for "ReBoot," a camp for missionary kids who are transitioning back to Canadian life after time in the field.
My work with the Sending Collective focuses primarily on bolstering the Canadian Church to fulfill the Great Commission. This can look like building a stronger network of missions pastors and committees across Canada, creating resources that will support an average local church's missions efforts, or constructing a training program that will be more effective at mobilizing Canadian missionaries. You can see some of the initiatives I work on at gojournal.org or globalmissionstoolbox.com, and learn more about the Sending Collective at thesendingcollective.ca.
Less than 10% of our population proclaims Christ. We have 63 people groups that are classified as "unreached." The annual growth rate of the Canadian Church is less than 1%. Although my heart and focus is still with Europe, and much of my work directly supports GEM Canada missionaries and other workers around the world, I very much feel that Canada is also my mission field. I invest much of my spare time in my local church, teaching Bible studies, training Bible teachers, working with our youth group, discipling, and leading outreach events in our community. The longer I am here, the more impassioned I am to see revival in the Canadian church. I would love it if you would pray with me for this!
I love serving with GEM because Canada and Europe have many similarities, spiritually (and even culturally, to some extent). I continue to feel burdened and called to Europe, and yet see that God has clearly placed me here for this season.