Hello from Southeast Asia, where this week I am participating in an inductive Bible study with 63 others from around the world. I’ve been asked not to disclose the location or the name of the group of which I have been a member for 20 years. 

We do what is called a “manuscript” study, where all the headings, verse and chapter numbers, notes, etc. are stripped out of the text of the Bible and only the words on the page are left. It’s amazing the new insights one can discover, even from old and familiar passages, when people come together from different cultures, languages, and religious traditions and read the same text and see different things. It blows your mind, and I often think, “Wow, I’ve never seen that before.” The facilitator of the group discussion will often start by asking, “What do you see in the text?” and then ask again, “What else do you see?” By the third or fourth time that question is asked, we begin to see how much more there is in Scripture than we normally see or understand on the first or even second or third reading. But isn’t that how we experience and understand God? It’s a rich and rewarding experience, and I love it!

A very different but equally rich and rewarding experience is the pilgrimage I’m making on the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, which I did again this year in early May, together with four other pilgrims. We walk 125 miles in 10 days, and we start in the same city from where we left the year before. So, now we’re halfway through and will finish in May 2027. 

One of the most memorable experiences this year was when we stepped into a small chapel alongside the path where a Catholic sister was praying over and blessing the pilgrims. She asked my name and where I was from, and commenced to pray for me. When she made the sign of the cross on my forehead, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the presence of God and began to weep. It took a while to regain my composure, but I don’t want to ever forget that sacred moment on this pilgrimage that people have been walking for over 1,000 years.

At the end of May, I flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to participate in a missionary retreat for Free Methodist missionaries and church workers in Latin America. I was invited to share some of my teaching from my recent book that had just been translated and published in Spanish. It was deeply meaningful for me to be in Brazil with these Free Methodists, for it was in 1966, as a 19-year-old on a “short term” mission trip of two months with Free Methodists, that confirmed my commitment to give my life to joining God’s mission in the world.

In June, the American Society of Missiology held their annual meeting again at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, where our theme was “Unity and Mission in the Age of World Christianity.” The topic was especially timely in our deeply divided present age. The ASM is a wonderful group of diverse colleagues who I affectionately call “my tribe,” for I’ve been an active member of this guild since 1985. Last year they honored me with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and this year I received the ASM Book Award for my book, Crossing Cultures with the Gospel: Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness (Baker Academic 2024).

The Board of Publications decided there were two books worthy of this award for books published in 2024, and so my friend and colleague Fr. Stephen Bevans also received the Book Award for his magnificent magnum opus titled, Community of Missionary Disciples: The Continuing Creation of the Church.

What’s in store for the rest of the year? I’ll be with the leadership team of the Baptist Mission Australia in October in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and then during the first two weeks of November, I’ll make my annual trek to the Naga Hills of India and Nagaland Bible College. The first week of December, I’ll be working with Chinese missionaries again and we’ll gather in Bangkok for this training. It’s turning out to be a wonderfully fulfilling and meaningful year as I share my passion for helping people understand how they can become Followers of Jesus across radically different cultures in the world. And of course, that’s what God’s mission in the world is all about. We are called to simply tell the story of Jesus, and then live lives as if we believed it was true. Thank you for remaining engaged with me in this exciting endeavor of participating in the Kingdom of God.

Cordially,

Darrell Whiteman