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Getting to
Know Al Raber
Al plans to begin his assignment in the Amazon River Basin of Brazil in 2015. Right now he is putting together his Missionary Support
Team (MST), raising funds, training, and preparing to go. If you’d like to partner with Al, please visit donate.rmmweb.org
Can you tell us a little about your
growing up years?
What is your biggest challenge in
getting ready to go?
I was born into a large Amish family in
Holmes County, Ohio. I am the second to
youngest of twelve children. I attended
elementary school thru the 8th grade and
then began to work in my father’s sawmill
at the age of fifteen. Growing up we were
never farmers but always had various animals on our property, like horses, steers,
dogs, and chickens. We always kept a large
garden which we tended to every morning during the summer months. We were
never rich nor poor as dad, mom and all of
us worked hard to keep food on our table.
So far, I think my biggest challenge has
been planning and preparing for my eventual departure. Having to decide what to
keep and what to sell (think rifles, shotguns and fishing gear) has been difficult.
Do I keep my bed? Do I sell it? Do I store
my car or sell it? But then I think of Elisha
who burned his plow and slaughtered his
oxen to serve God.
How did you come to know Jesus?
Early in my life, I was introduced to God
and his Word in the Amish church we attended, but I rejected God for a ten year
period of my life. During that time, I went
through the “rumspringa” (a rebellious
adolescent) phase in my life. As alcohol
and other worldly pleasures left me empty
inside, I began to seek a deeper purpose
for my life. Through several influential
people, I came to give my life to Christ in
the summer of 1999.
How did you get interested in this
part of the world?
Shortly after my baptism in 1999, Dave
Clemens asked me if I would be interested
in going on a short missions trip to the Amazon to do some construction. I was fairly
miserable on that trip and wanted nothing
more than to leave and never go back. But,
I did the following year and grew attached
to the Amazon and its people.
What is the heart of what you’ll be
doing in country?
The missions organization (SEARA) will
be giving primary oversight to my assignment. SEARA exists to evangelize and aid
the river people of the Amazon. There are
approximately 33,000 river communities
in the amazon with only about 3,000 of
those having the evangelical gospel. I will
be working with SEARA to make evangelical and humanitarian trips by boat to these
communities. Currently, SEARA is working
in approximately 140 villages. I will also be
making trips to help SEARA’s missionaries
who live and work in these communities,
with my long-term goal being to eventually live and work, evangelizing and discipling the river people in the interior.
What is the most different aspect of
the culture that you’ve experienced
in past trips?
Hmm… this is a difficult question as there
are many very different aspects to the ribeirinho (river people) culture. But, I think
the biggest thing is simply the difficulty of
living in the Amazon with a hunter/gatherer subsistence lifestyle. Hunting and fishing (both of which I currently do just for
fun) are a daily part of simply staying alive.
What is something that the culture
has taught you and that you want to
internalize?
The village mentality, where everything
is basically communal and pretty much all
items are shared for the common good. If
one family has a net full of fish, it is shared.
If one family’s net breaks, a net is borrowed
from someone else, and so on.
What is your favorite local food?
I love several fruits such as cupuacu, acai,
tucuma and mangoes.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I look forward to representing RMM
in the Amazon. I will do so to the best of
my abilities. I want to thank everyone involved with RMM for first believing in me
and second for sharing my vision. I deeply
appreciate it. Also, I want to thank everyone at Berean, especially Pastor Steve and
the mission board, for their support and
financial backing. And I want to thank Pastor Dave and Erma Clemens for the years
of mentoring and tutoring. Without them
none of this would ever have been possible. I covet prayer like nothing else; please,
please pray for me!! Thank you and God
bless.
Thank you, Al! We are so thankful for the
way you have heard and been obedient to
God’s call in your life. We are excited to see
what he will do through you.
that includes training on prayer, spiritual
disciplines (a related word of course),
spiritual warfare, the fruit and gifts of the
Holy Spirit, community, etc. It also includes
training in disciple making. By contrast, the
seminar in August was a weekend focused
only on finding those people around us
who are ripe to become followers of Jesus,
and giving us simple tools to help bring
them into a strong, obedient relationship
with him.
Do You Mean Discipleship or Disciple Making?
By Joe Showalter
What’s
the
difference
between
discipleship and disciple making? Are they
basically interchangeable terms? I’ve been
thinking about these terms for a couple of
reasons. First, because they are at the heart
of what RMM is all about. Jesus gave his
disciples the commission to make disciples
of all the earth’s peoples, and as spiritual
descendants of those first disciples, we in
turn accept the call to make disciples.
I’ve also been thinking about these
terms because one of the three aspects
of Conservative Mennonite Conference’s
new strategic vision is discipleship (along
with leadership and partnership). I am
pleased that together as churches, we are
committed to discipleship at our core.
The reason I think it may be important to
differentiate the two terms is so we don’t
lose the narrower term in the middle of the
broader one. We all know the principle that
the best way to learn something is to teach
with a three month DTS, or Discipleship
Training School. In August, RMM helped
host a Contagious Disciple Making seminar
at the Rosedale International Center.
Would it work just as well to refer to the
first three months of REACH as Disciple
Making Training School? Or could that
seminar just as well have been titled
Contagious Discipleship?
“Disciple making is one
of the essential aspects
of discipleship. As a
faithful disciple, I will
make disciples.”
I think it’s helpful to think of the two
terms this way: discipleship is following
Jesus, and disciple making is helping
someone else follow Jesus. Disciple
making is one of the essential aspects of
discipleship. As a faithful disciple, I will
make disciples.
it to someone else. We can say then that
the best way to learn to follow Jesus is to
teach someone to follow him. The best way
to “get” discipleship is to make disciples.
Sometimes it seems like the two terms
discipleship and disciple making are being
used interchangeably and sometimes
I’m pretty sure they’re not. I’ve come
to believe that we shouldn’t use them
interchangeably, but it isn’t always easy to
keep them “pulled apart.”
In my mind, discipleship begins when
someone chooses to follow Jesus. In
contrast, disciple making begins when a
disciple takes action to reproduce his or
her life in the life of another. My parents
began “making me a disciple” even before
I was born, and certainly before I chose to
follow Jesus.
What are some of the ways the terms are
used? At RMM, our REACH program begins
So REACH “Discipleship Training School”
is a time of intense spiritual formation
I think there are some practical tools and
actions involved in disciple making that
may never be discussed or engaged if we
don’t clearly differentiate disciple making
as an important aspect of discipleship. I
pray that as CMC focuses on discipleship
we will become more and more a
collection of churches that are known for
our unwavering obedience to Jesus as our
master and for our unflagging commitment
to making disciples—of all the peoples, to
the ends of the earth.
read more at news.rmmweb.org
Greedy for Jesus
“My first trip to one of the most
densely populated countries in
Southeast Asia was even more
intense than I had expected...”
Locally Grown:
An Introduction to
By Marjorie Bozer
“Marketplace evangelism happens
when we take who we are in Christ
to the marketplace.”
Being Jesus to the
Homeless in Sarasota
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