Fifty-four missionaries were commissioned for service in nine different worship services taking place around the world from April to July. Some begin service in new placements while others continue with work they began during the pandemic.
By Christie R. House
July 27, 2022 | ATLANTA
Augustinus Hutabarat, from Indonesia, was accepted and trained as a young adult Global Mission Fellow (GMF) and has served the Street Children Ministry in Phnom Penh for almost a year with the United Methodist Mission in Cambodia. The complications of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that he, and all other missionaries in the last three years, participated in online training, never actually meeting Global Ministries staff or colleague missionaries in person…until now.
As pandemic restrictions are lifted in many countries, small gatherings and travel have once again become possible, with certain precautions. From April through July, Global Ministries coordinated regional missionary gatherings so that 54 missionaries could be officially commissioned and have a few days to fellowship, worship and continue training together with other missionaries in the regions they serve.
So, on April 24, at Toul Kork Methodist Church in Cambodia, Augustinus Hutabarat was officially commissioned, along with five Global Missionaries and four more of his Global Mission Fellow colleagues.
“A day that cannot be forgotten, not only as a ceremony, but a spiritual journey that has just begun, finally we were commissioned!” Hutabarat exclaimed. “Through this commissioning I was reminded that, as a missionary, I have a duty from God to bring good news to everyone, that God loves all human beings, and that we must engage in our communities, connect with the church in mission, and grow in personal and social holiness.”
