Martin and Susie
While Martin and Susie have between them nearly 50 years combined missionary experience, by their own admission they don’t actually fit the standard picture of missionaries. Based in Shrewsbury, in the English east midlands on the Welsh border, they have seven completely different roles with three different organisations that cover at least eight nations working on a variety of projects, but principally Reach the Unreached (RTU) and Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
Originally from England, Martin has been working in missions since 1983 - and as a CFC missionary since 1993 - working out of the church before returning to England in 2003 to marry Susie, who had been in missions since 1991.
What’s it all about?
To get a better idea of what Martin and Susie do and what their mission entails, we asked them about their work and here’s what they told us. Click on each question to find out more.
What is the principal purpose of your mission?
This is a difficult question to answer. We are supported by CFC to help and support missionary organisations like Reach the Unreached and Youth With A Mission on different projects in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. It involves a lot of travel and means that we could be away on a project for a week to two months, depending on the project and the need.
What does your mission involve?
An important part of our work is to support pioneer ministries who are planting churches among the unreached in their own nation. RTU is the main driver for this through campaign evangelism where we support and encourage local pastors in Kenya, where RTU first started, west Africa and Asia.
I headed up RTU’s work in Kenya from 1993-2002 until those we had trained took over the leadership. I continue to visit to give advice and support the leaders. Susie and I also developed a simple form of Bible study suitable for rural ministry. Since 2004, we have run two-week seminars for pastors who in turn train others. CFC has supported the last five of these.
RTU’s evangelistic campaigns are done in partnership with pioneer local churches working in unreached parts of Asia and West Africa. My role is to keep in touch with and assess how follow-up work is being done after these campaigns – through monthly reports and visiting each nation every couple of years.
We also work in conjunction with an association of other evangelists and I am part of the board of this group.
What is a typical day like for you?
There are no typical days, not just because our work is not your typical missionary work.
For example, with one of the other organisations we work with, YWAM, we help to run two different courses to develop and equip mission workers – the Leadership Development Course (LDC) and The School of the Word and the Spirit (SWS).
LDC aims to further develop those who already have leadership experience by imparting Godly leadership values focusing on a leaders relational skills and personal development. Participants come from those who pioneer churches in central Asia to those spreading the Good News among the prostitutes of Amsterdam. We have been involved in LDC since 2004, mainly in Scotland, Spain and more recently in east Africa.
In 2010, we helped launch YWAM’s first School of the Word and the Spirit at YWAM’s Seamill Centre in Scotland. The course aims to equip people to approach the Bible relationally. It is a launching pad that gives people the tools they need and one participant called it “a revolutionary course for this generation. It presents a classroom of freedom, and grace.”
Are there any moments that you would like to share to encourage people back home and those considering mission?
While our reward is in Heaven, it is great to see real breakthrough. For example, it is always exciting to see how our campaigns have brought real breakthroughs for the local churches. Pastors who had been faithfully labouring away in hard areas at great personal cost now report that they are seeing a far greater harvest. Previously closed villages are now open to the gospel and hundreds of new churches have been started.
Is there a particular verse that has inspired or encouraged you in our journey?
We are called to ‘Go!’ and John 15 verse 16 has always spoken to us, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
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