A construction crew builds a new “sanitary block,” or bathrooms, at a rural school in Uganda.
Photo provided
GREENFIELD — John Muehleisen has seen practical helpfulness open doors.
During the last decade that he worked in Africa, such help looked like public health instruction: Here are the bushes to plant to repel mosquitos carrying malaria. Here’s how to use salt, sugar and water to make a rehydration drink for a child with diarrhea.
Sometimes, though, that help could look like picking up trash. In one village of mostly goatherders, people took note when a local church cleaned up the garbage piles. Doing that also cleaned up plastic bags that could clog a goat’s intestines if it ate them while gobbling trash.
“People in the town would say, ‘Who’s paying you to do this?’” Muehleisen said. Hearing that no one was, they might go away thinking, “If their God loves our goats, maybe their God loves us too,” he said. He said it’s powerful when “we not only declare God’s love but also demonsrate it.”
These days, Muehleisen is vice president of global strategy and training for World Gospel Mission, based in Marion. He’ll be the keynote speaker Sept. 29 in the annual Mission Celebration at Trinity Park Church.
Though he is speaker in the 9 and 10:30 a.m. services, the celebration typically features multiple speakers. His daughter, Holly Muehleisen, ministers in Japan and will visit the children’s ministry classes.
Linda Ostewig — executive director of Recovery Café, The Landing Place and Talitha Koum Women’s Recovery House — will speak to adult Faith Groups in both the 9 and 10:30 a.m. time slots.
“I am wanting to share that people need hope and love and are struggling,” Ostewig said, “and how we have that to give as believers — being the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are hopeless.”
Mission Celebration is a tradition that dates to the 1980s. The church had a gathering in 1983, organized by the Rev. Ross Van Dine and Karen Lindsay with guidance from the Rev. Glenn Beck.
It took place just as Nancy Grimes and her young family were looking for a church.
“Greg and I and our three small children where looking for a mission-minded church,” she wrote in an email. “I had been a single missionary in Burundi, Africa, for a year teaching the children of missionaries. When we saw the 1983 Mission Conference, we were happy.
“Trinity Park was a very friendly church, and my 6-month-old daughter did not cry in the nursery. We became members.”
Grimes later became mission chair, and annual Mission Celebrations began in 1986. Muehleisen has spoken at several, including 2022, 2017 and 2002.
Trinity Park is “for many of us like a poster child of a local church that gets involved with mission work,” John Muehleisen said. “People see it woven into the fabric of their church life, not just something that’s tacked on” one weekend a year, he said.
He said in the past, some churches might have simply wanted to donate to international work and let a mission agency carry it out. Yet today, churches often seek a more personal investment with a mission partner overseas, perhaps carried out through visiting teams and/or more of an ongoing relationship.
When he shares in Greenfield on the 29th, he wants people to understand the work World Gospel Mission does, but he’s more interested in people understanding what they can do.
“Let’s work together to change people’s lives for the better,” he said. “It’s more a matter of ‘Let’s work together, each of us doing our part and playing our role’ … more than just making a donation.”
IF YOU GO
Mission Celebration is an annual event to highlight ministry happening locally and globally. The congregation of Trinity Park Church commits each year to giving to support the various types of work. Anyone interested in hearing the speakers, though, is welcome to attend.
When: Services are at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sept. 29.
Where: Trinity Park Church, 207 W. Park Ave.
Speakers: Keynote speaker is John Muehleisen, vice president of global strategy and training for World Gospel Mission.
During both services, Holly Muehleisen will join children’s ministry director Crystal Baker in ministering to children. Holly is a missionary to Japan.
During both time slots, Linda Ostewig will share with Faith Groups.
Music: Indiana Wesleyan University Praise Team will share music in both services.
Food: A fellowship time with refreshments starts at 10 a.m.
Lunch follows the second service. John Muehleisen is a ventriloquist, and during lunch his puppet Lazarus will make an appearance.
