Breaking the Traditional Mould of Missions
by Jason Law
The call to missions is not only a major injunction for followers of Christ, but it is also one of the primary attributes that define a Christian. The fact is Christ charged us to reach others with His message because it is intrinsically tied to God’s ultimate redemption of His creation and people. However, despite much that has been said about missions, sometimes it can be a cliché or intimidatory to the more timid among us.
One couple is on a goal to change this.
For this couple, Reverend Dr Justin and Reverend Dr Jacquie Ryan, missions have been a part of life for many years. Since the time they founded One Voice Ministries in 2008, “Missions and Training” has been their passion. Actively involved in reaching the unreached and saving the unsaved within the 10/40 window, they have shared the Word of God for more than a decade in 10 nations.
Before the Ryans left their secular jobs to become full-time missionaries, they were teachers by profession. Recently, the Lord took them on a new phase of ministry, leading them to establish a new academy dedicated especially to the training of missionaries.
The Issachar Academy
Located in the serene neighbourhood of Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur, the Issachar Academy was named in honour of the tribe of Issachar, who was said in 1 Chronicles 12:32 to understand and know the time of God’s timing and moving. The building is a beautiful bungalow equipped with enough space for 3 different classrooms, where close to 100 future missionaries could be trained at any given time.
Reverend Dr Justin shared that from the very start of their mission work, their calling was for the interior areas of Asia where training and equipping for evangelism was most needed. Throughout all this time, God had been placing an impression upon their hearts on starting a missions school so that more people could come and learn everything about missions, get mobilised, and go out into the field.
In 2012, a prophecy was released on the Ryans that the founding of the missions school would become a reality in the near coming years. Reverend Dr Jacquie shared, ‘At that time, the prophecy took us by surprise and we didn’t know how God would lead us in that direction.’ In 2015, she had a dream in which the Ryans and some of their ministry members were driving up a hill and coming to a bungalow. ‘We didn’t understand the dream, and we did not foresee how such a costly place could have a role in our lives.’
It was not until after the prophecy was released again in 2017 and she had another dream in 2018 that they finally understood. In the second dream, they were walking into the same bungalow like the one in the previous dream and seeing how it was set up. ‘We saw the classrooms and this time we understood. God wanted us to look for this specific bungalow and it was meant as a place to develop people.’
Soon after the dream, the Ryans felt that God was telling them it was time to look for this specific place. ‘So, we contacted the real estate agents, and we told them that we were looking for a bungalow on a hill. They wondered – all non-believers – “why on a hill?”, and we told them because God told us so,’ Reverend Dr Jacquie Ryan related light-heartedly. ‘They searched everywhere for that bungalow, from Taman Seputeh to Bangsar to Kenny Hills, because we were so specific with our design.’
Finally, Reverend Dr Justin started to look online himself and he saw a bungalow like the one that was in the dreams. ‘On the way to the bungalow, we saw that we were driving up a hill.’ When they finally saw the place, everything fitted so perfectly that they didn’t have to do a single renovation or partition. They wanted 3 classrooms. They wanted a sitting room, and also a section to set up their Christian gifts business, Galilee Gifts, and the place had it all. ‘We wanted a place that we could set up like a home instead of a school and it fitted exactly.’ The academy was a promise and prophecy fulfilled.
Making Missions Relational
Relating about their heart for missions, Reverend Dr Justin shared that going around the 10/40 window, the Ryans felt that they were a great need for the equipping of missionaries. ‘Having traveled around the 10/40 window of evangelism, we have been to all the countries around us and we see that there is a need for missions,’ he explained. ‘There is a need for people to reach out because truly as the Bible says, the harvest is plentiful but it’s just that the workers are not enough. So, in our hearts, because God had gifted us with the calling of missionaries and having the experience of missions right from 2008, we felt that God was leading us to start Issachar Academy primarily to equip missionaries.’
The academy runs two main programmes for the training of missionaries. Both programmes are shaped to disciple and develop the trainees on a personal level.
The first of these programmes is known as the Missions Impact school. Under this programme, students come for classes that run for 3 days at a time on a bimonthly schedule, where the Ryans will journey with participants individually and help them to discover their call.
Dr Justin describes, ‘The Missions Impact School is a 5-month programme wherein the whole process of it, we help a person identify his or her calling; what has God equipped them to do. All of us have got certain gifts and talents that God has given to us and only when we find it can we find our calling or even start our Christian walk.
‘So the first step we help them to find God’s will and calling in their lives, and only from there do we really teach them about missions such as the 10/40 window and unreached people groups. And we open up nations to them and help them to understand that their specific gifts can be utilised by God to reach out to these nations.’
Upon completion of the Missions Impact school, the students will embark on the second programme, known as the Ministry Toolbox school. Dr Justin explains that the Ministry Toolbox School is also open to pastors who may not have attended the Missions Impact School but who are already active in the mission field and who already know their calling. The Ministry Toolbox School is also a 5-month programme with the goal of providing practical tools for this specific area of ministry.
‘Areas include developing yourself as a leader, how to develop and engage the people that surround you, how to manage finances when it comes to setting up a ministry and your personal finances as well,’ Dr Justin clarifies.
Dr Jacquie explains further, ‘There are 3 parts to the Ministry Toolbox School, which are the personal development, people development, and church development.’ The goal of this programme is a holistic one. ‘So people develop themselves personally and grow the people serving under them, and if their ministry is in a church how to impact the church.’
Issachar Academy opens its doors for its main programmes to two intakes a year; from February-June and July-November. Besides the two main programmes described above, the Ryans also have a calling in training people to recognise and function in different seasons of their life.
‘We launched something this year called the Kairos Encounter programme, where we teach people about seasons of God in their life,’ Dr Justin unveiled. ‘How to recognise the season you are in, and when you know the season you are in, how do you act and relate to God in that season, what are the challenges that come with the season. Because when you understand that, then you can make sense of things that are happening around you. So that is something that we have newly launched and we are very excited about it.’
Unlike the Missions Impact School and Ministry Toolbox School, the Kairos Encounter seminar is a single weekend experience. But through it, attendees will get to know the personal season in their life, what to do in that season, whether the season is ending or starting or in the midst, and why there are struggles in that season of their life. ‘The aim, therefore, is to equip people in a more general way,’ Dr Jacquie expressed.
Throughout all the training conducted by the Ryans, the goal is to transform missions into something personal and relational and to make it come alive for people. One of the ways the Ryans bring this about is through practical missions.
‘We take them on actual missions and we relate and tell them about the different experiences we had. And that opens up their minds because they probably had assumptions about how missions are in other countries, but when you have someone who has walked on the land or worked with the people, it gives you a different perspective of missions,’ Dr Justin shared.
Another way the Ryans help missions to come alive for their students is to bring the different national cultures to them. One interesting example is Learn, Pray, Eat where students learn all they can about a nation, such as the realities for the Christians there, share what they learnt with one another, pray for that nation and fellowship over the cuisine of that nation.
‘Our idea is not to get people involved in short-term missions but really we want to get them involved in missions as part of their lives, something that is continuous where there is always involvement in it. They may not be full-time missionaries that need to relocate and go to another country, but they can still be actively involved in missions.’
The Ryans shared that their dream and goal is to see the progress of their students when they step into the ministry. ‘Everyone has an individual calling and we cannot force people to fit into a mould. God can use many kinds of talents in ministry. Some may be gifted in creative arts and ministry, others in work among the children. Still others in reaching out to the abused and abandoned. Everyone is different but they can all be employed if they are open to the opportunities. And we want to journey personally with them.’
Sharing an example, Dr Justin relates the testimony of one of their students. ‘When he first came, this student did not consider missions something he could be involved in. Along the way, while attending our training, he realised that it was a time of equipping for him and that God had given him a gift for creative arts and ministry among children. When he returned back to his church, God shaped and grew him to become the missions director for his church.’
Besides training, the Ryans have also given scholarships to the less advantaged. One such student grew up to be a missionary in India. He later visited the Issachar Academy and shared his experiences as a missionary. The students at the academy got to hear not only from a visiting missionary but from an actual fruit of the ministry of the Ryans.
The life of the Ryans has been intrinsically tied with missions. ‘We have the knowledge to run and teach a Bible school but we want to focus on missions. We want to break people’s fear, expand the frame of the traditional concept of missions, and demonstrate that there is a broad meaning to missions.’
‘As believers, missions are in our DNA, and there are many ways to be involved,’ Dr Justin shared. ‘Some may be called to go, some may be called to provide support through resources and finances, others are called to pray.’
Ultimately, the Ryans hope is that they would play a part in helping people understand their calling in missions for themselves and how to pursue God’s season and plan in their lives.
About Issachar Academy and the Ryans: To provide a way for the Issachar Academy to be self-sustaining, the Ryans also provide resources for the missions field for a small cost. Various books and gifts in the native language of nations in the mission field, such as Khmer, Telugu, Cambodian, Thai, Bahasa Malaysia, and many others are available. Dr Jacquie shared, ‘We want to help missionaries to plant a seed that goes beyond the physical aspect.’
To find out more about the Issachar Academy, you may visit their website at http://onevm.net/.
