Indy NMI

Indianapolis District Nazarene Missions International

Becky Jackson Dusek

LoveWorks

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LoveWorks team plants seeds in Australia and New Zealand

by Asia-Pacific Region Church of the Nazarene
10 Aug 2023

Australia and New Zealand Churches of the Nazarene partnered to host a team of eight students and two faculty/staff members from the LoveWorks program at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) for three weeks in May 2023. LoveWorks teams are short-term missions teams sent from PLNU to support long-term ministries and local churches worldwide.

LoveWorks teams represent an opportunity for the global Church of the Nazarene to be built up in unity and maturity (Ephesians 4:12-13). One PLNU student, Hannah Young, said, “I quickly felt welcomed, included, and loved.”

“I am forever changed by the sweet people that my team and I were able to meet and how Jesus worked through us,” said Ruthie Jochimsen, a member of the LoveWorks team. “We focused on the importance of planting seeds. On short-term missions, we may not see the fruits of our labor, but we need to continue in prayer and trust that God will continue to grow the seeds planted.”

Place of Peace and Carina Church of the Nazarene hosted the team for one week in Australia, and eight churches and congregations in New Zealand (All Nations and their Marathi Fellowship, Seabrook, Māngere, North Shore, Immanuel Outreach Ministry, Onehunga, and Crossroads Church of the Nazarene) hosted the team for two weeks.

The churches and LoveWorks team focused on partnering to plant seeds in the lives of people in each community. In Australia, the team led a gathering for the North and West District youth at Carina and joined with Place of Peace on a community yard-work project. They also participated in the churches’ weekly worship services and produced a media project for the district.

In New Zealand, the team led worship, game nights, Youth Group, Kid’s Club, and volunteered at a local primary school. At Seabrook, they helped with property maintenance; at Crossroads, they built a prayer labyrinth.
The relationships the team built have already extended beyond the borders of Australia and New Zealand. Pastor Livingston Po Ching of Carina Church of the Nazarene and his family visited the team in California in June on their way back to Australia from General Assembly.

“What a blessing it was to see precious relationships keep growing across the world,” Young said.

The churches in Australia and New Zealand as well as the LoveWorks team were blessed by each other’s services.

“Where we sought to serve, we were also served,” Young said. “Where we sought to love, we were also loved. Where we sought to be a blessing, we were blessed. The experience was a beautiful expression of what our church seeks to be.”

 

–Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific

Remembering Mona White

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Remembering Mona White

by Nazarene News Staff
| 10 Aug 2023

Mona White, 92, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, passed away on 25 July 2023. She was a missionary who served in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from 1959-1995.

Mona Rae Smithson was born to Allen Wrex and Evelyn Marcella Smithson in Luling, Texas, on 8 September 1930. She grew up scooping Mayhaw berries from the bayou with her big brother and running them home to make jelly with her mother.

In school, she enjoyed singing in the choir, marching with the pep band, and making new friends. She developed an early interest in poetry and wrote often for school publications.

Throughout her life, Mona had a deep love for the creative arts, which her children and grandchildren shared. Even though communication was difficult in her last days, she knew the words to every song she had sung to each of them and spent the final visits singing just like in her younger days.

Mona attended Southern Nazarene University (SNU) in Bethany, Oklahoma, before beginning her missionary journey alongside her husband, Wallace White. They were married in 1949.

Mona and Wallace were missionaries in Papua New Guinea from 1959 to 1992. They planted many churches and helped start a hospital in Kudjip, a remote part of the PNG highlands that now boasts a residential wing named after them. They also founded missionary work in the Solomon Islands in 1992 and were involved in it until they retired to Colorado in 1995.

After the passing of her husband in 2008, Mona continued her mission work at “Winslow Court,” her assisted living residence, for the next 13 years. She coordinated weekly services and speakers, led Bible studies, and joined the choir. She was voted “Ms. Winslow Court” for one of the years she was in residence.

Mona spent her days at Winslow Court rekindling her passionate pursuit of oil painting, writing poetry, and music. Her love of serving others never waned as she continued serving the Lord until her last breath.

Mona was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years, Wallace Filmore White, her parents, her brother Allen Wrex Smithson, Jr., and one grandchild Michelle Suzanne Gilliam White.

She is survived by her sons Robert White, Stephen White, Granger Narara, and Reggie Narara; six grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.

Kid’s Kaleidoscope

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Kid’s Kaleidoscope is a new addition to the NMI Central publication on the first week of each month. It coordinations with the word area focus for that week. NMI is committed to engage children and youth, providing missions information and activities, designed to awaken and nurture a spirit of missions in the hearts of children. Use the following link to access the activity pages for July in several languages! Past issues (in English) can be found under the “Resources” tab. Scroll down to the Children’s Missions section!

Files – Nextcloud (nazarene.org)