2022 Report

Your prayer and financial partnership advanced the gospel in 2022 in so many ways!

The Short Version

Everything the Baxters do seeks to advance Diaspora missions—missions to and from the millions of people migrating around the globe.

It is a privilege to help mission groups around the world to engage more effectively in diaspora missions.

The Long Version

Director of Diaspora Initiatives:

•  Consulting for US church teams as they engage with immigrant populations in their communities.
• Guidance for Converge International Ministry leaders and missionaries working among migrating people groups in initiatives worldwide.
• Mentoring a missionary who is working on a MA in missions at Sioux Falls Seminary.

Discipleship Making Movements (DMM) seek rapid gospel multiplication. John and Jan are on a team creating DMM training that will be released to all Converge missionaries in 2023.

Converge Innovation: After John introduced an innovation training seminar on engagement with migrating people groups to Converge mission leaders, leadership approved an Innovation Specialist to refine this training for Converge global workers.

John’s task through 2023 is to support the new specialist as she creates training and oversees innovative projects throughout our Converge global initiatives.

Itzinya Economic Missions is an innovative business-as-mission platform that uses entrepreneurial training to engage with unreached immigrant populations worldwide. For several years John has spearheaded the drive to bring Itzinya to the US, starting with a training center in the Twin cities.

First COVID19 and then difficulty attaining permits for the refurbished ministry center have delayed progress. Progress resumed in March as John met with several business and ministry leaders in the Twin Cities. Outreach to immigrant communities will begin there in 2023; a group in Portland is also exploring Itzinya.

NextMove, a network of agency diaspora specialists, advanced diaspora missions in 2022:

• Formal Consultation – NextMove uses an in-depth process for mission agency leaders.  SIL, the leading Bible translation ministry, and Latin Link, a UK mission agency, are two groups we’ve worked with.
• Merge – One hundred and fifty North America-based Muslim ministry workers gathered in Estes Park, CO, for strategy sharing and networking. NextMove and Converge were among the sponsoring agencies, and John and Jan were on the planning team.
• Diaspora Research – Embarking on an ambitious global research project, NextMove is creating a research team and process to collect information from the global diaspora to learn how movements of gospel multiplication are facilitated, and how theses movements affect the homeland population. The goal is to generate a set of fruitful practices for mission groups to use their personnel and resources wisely.
• Writing and Podcasts – A few of the groups that John wrote for or did podcasts for Snowbird Outfitters, the Tibetan Global Diaspora Network, and China Source.

Here are some links to a podcast and blog.

Snowbird Outfitters is a youth and outreach ministry in western North Carolina –

https://www.swoutfitters.com/podcasts/a-conversation-on-missions-abroad-at-home-pt-1/

https://www.swoutfitters.com/podcasts/a-conversation-on-missions-abroad-at-home-pt-2/

China Source is a leading resource for missionaries working in China and the Chinese worldwide -- 

https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/blog-entries/are-you-ready-for-the-diaspora/

https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/blog-entries/where-to-work-in-the-diaspora/