The choir Undivided performs at a garden party at the Jetts' home.

For Steven and Susan Jett, reviving an unkept garden yielded dozens of new relationships and opportunities to share the gospel.

The Jetts scoured the city of Brühl for months looking for a place to live. Brühl is the location of their team’s church plant. “We wanted to live downtown so that we would be in the middle of things,” Susan said, “but to no avail. We were not able to find anything. So we told God, ‘Okay, we will look outside of Brühl.’”

Almost immediately, they found a house in the nearby village of Waldorf. The home was just what they were looking for, but its yard was huge, unkept and carpeted in tangled weeds.

Steven and Susan were already busy with ministry, but Susan was determined to make the yard presentable. Often working 12 hours a day, Susan cleared the yard, starting with the vegetable garden. “One evening [I worked] until midnight with a spotlight,” she said. Within a few weeks, the weeds were gone, and Susan had planted corn, pumpkins, gourds, beans and an array of flowers. She had never planted vegetables before, but soon found that she loved seeing things grow.

“Little did I know that the yard and garden would become a ministry in itself,” Susan said.

As Susan worked diligently, trimming hedges and expanding her garden, her neighbors started to notice. “We met all of our neighbors because of the work we did in the yard and the garden,” she said. Because of their home’s location on a busy corner of the village, the Jetts see a lot of foot traffic: neighbors walking their dogs, riding bikes and going shopping. “When I am out working they will stop and stand at the fence and wait for me to come and talk. I have had many opportunities to share about the Christian life, about salvation, pray for them or tell them I will be praying [for] a particular situation.”

After developing these relationships, the Jetts decided to host their first garden party with a concert from Florida State University choir Undivided. Choir members hand-delivered invitations to neighbors, and nearly 50 attended. While guests enjoyed a meal in the Jetts’ garden, they heard the gospel presented alongside the concert.

The concert generated even more buzz in the community, and the Jetts found themselves hosting other events in their garden. Susan shared her harvests with neighbors, allowing neighborhood children to pick pumpkins in the fall. Fifty of Steven’s students attended a party at the Jetts’ home. This summer, more than 50 neighbors gathered for a party on July 4, enjoying American food and games, learning about American history and culture. “Steven shared with the audience about the birth of America, and then about the new birth we can all have through a relationship with Christ,” Susan said.

“We have also built instant credibility and trust from the neighborhood because of the interest and care we have shown in getting and keeping the yard in good shape,” said Susan. “They have been amazed at what has been accomplished and are proud to be a neighbor.

“God has taken ordinary [things]– a yard and garden– and used them to serve and glorify Himself. He is amazing!”

Mark Edworthy, Affinity Global Strategist for the European Peoples Affinity Group of the IMB, addressing the partners.

PRAGUE — “This might be the greatest contribution the IMB can make to global evangelization,” said Gordon Fort, vice president of the IMB Office of Global Strategy, “More than anything we’ve ever done.”

Fort spoke of the internationalization of missions– churches all over the globe sending their own missionaries into other countries to share the Gospel.

This week, leaders from the IMB and several international missions sending organizations gathered in Prague, Czech Republic, for the European National Partners in Mission Sending Consultation.

Missions leaders from the United States, Europe and South America gathered to discuss global evangelization. During the consultation, leaders forged partnerships and shared their struggles and victories in sending cross-cultural missionaries. These organizations have a salient common goal: sending people from all nations, to all nations to share Christ.

“We thought this would take years to develop, this concept of the internationalization of missions,” Fort said. “And what has become very apparent is that God has already been doing stuff that we had no idea about, and we’re just beginning to get in on it!”

During the consultation, missions leaders conveyed their passion for reaching the lost. Those from Central and Eastern Europe shared their struggles with churches that still operate under a communist-era mentality. Some shared stories of traveling to more than 300 churches, urging pastors to embrace a focus on missions. Others emphasized the urgency of sending missionaries to unreached people groups in Central and South Asia. The leaders dialogued and shared ideas and needs, pinpointing ways they could assist each other.

“When I see the pictures and I hear the testimonies, I know that we are sharing lots of things, even though we are so far [away from one another] and have different contexts,” said Carlos Gomez, leader of PAAM, a Panamanian missions organization. “We have the same challenges. We find problems with money issues [and] churches with no missionary culture. But overall the main challenge we have is to go back to the Word of God. What were we created for?”

While these international missions sending organizations are growing, sending dozens of cross-cultural missionaries annually, they are still young. IMB leaders seek to help these organizations become more established. “[The IMB] has an incredible infrastructure of 165 years all around the world, and our partners look to us for help in several areas,” said IMB Strategy Training Associate Mick Stockwell. “We need to pour our resources and everything that we have into helping the other nations to reach the nations.”

Throughout the consultation, the IMB provided insight on evangelical strategy, missionary training and equipping. IMB Strategist Scott Holste shared research on the unreached and unengaged people groups of the world, showing missions leaders the urgency of sending missionaries to countries without any evangelical presence. “If you take all the missionaries in the world… only 3 out of 100 are working with these least reached people groups of the world… so we’ve got to partner together. We’ve got to get the whole church involved.”

“We have sensed that God is really stirring the church locally in this generation,” said Fort. “And we have felt that perhaps the greatest contribution we can make to global evangelization is making it possible for those last peoples who have not heard.”

Readers can pray for these organizations as they raise funds for missions sending, develop strong and efficient training programs for missionaries and mobilize local churches to participate in cross-cultural missions.

Participating in the consultation alongside the IMB were the following organizations:

PAAM, Panama (www.misionespaam.org)

College of Theology and Education, Moldova

Asociatia Liga Crestiná Pentru Drepturile Rromilor, Romania (www.lcdr.yolasite.com)

Asociatia Rromilor Crestini Calea Adevarol Si Viata, Romania

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, USA (www.swbts.edu)

Mission Department Baptist Union, Romania

To All Nations, Germany (www.to-all-nations.de)