Israel, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, loves the Lord and is a passionate worshipper of Jesus. Israel’s mother gave birth to him in a refugee camp where he spent the first fourteen years of his life before traveling to the United States. Now a young man, Israel serves as a skilled worship leader in a Rosedale Network church plant in Texas.
Dale attends one of the original Rosedale Network churches in Michigan. Dale has benefitted from a Christian heritage of faith that has been both taught and experienced. Generations after Dale’s ancestors came to the new America in the 1700s from Switzerland, Dale serves as an elder in his church and is investing in the mission of Rosedale International (RI), “Jesus to the World. The World to Jesus,” by serving on the RI board.
Sandy would attend Bible studies and church services with her grandmother when she was a little girl. This Juarez, Mexico church plant was one piece of a long thread of events. In the 1960s and 70s, a vision began to emerge in Conservative Mennonite Conference to begin sharing the gospel in Central American countries. The young adults and families who were commissioned and sent from the US developed a love for the Latin people, and upon their return to the States, some began to plant churches in the southwest border cities. Jesus transformed lives, and Sandy is now married to a Rosedale Network pastor, continuing to multiply the Kingdom work that began several generations ago.
God is a God of order and purpose, but from the human viewpoint, there is plenty of chaos and commotion…
Aydiko and his family are one of many Ethiopian and Eritrean families that moved to Madison, Wisconsin, following the Eritrean-Ethiopian War in the late 1990s. Christians who immigrated started businesses, earned educational degrees, and began gathering in house fellowships according to their country of origin before forming more structured churches. Around 2017, some of the Ethiopian and Eritrean fellowships in Madison decided that the followers of Jesus from these two countries in conflict needed to learn how to be the church together. Antioch International Church, a new congregation in Rosedale Network, is a beautiful example of “living at peace with one another” (Rom: 12:18 par.) and already has a vision of planting more international churches in cities across America. Aydiko serves on the pastoral team.
These little glimpses into the lives of Israel, Dale, Sandy, and Aydiko are the results of congregational visits across Rosedale Network that Caryn and I had the privilege of experiencing just this past January. They are a beautiful reminder of the Genesis to Revelation story of God’s creative purpose.
The Creator blessed and gave a mandate to the man and woman created in His likeness and image in Genesis 1 to “…Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth” with the glory and likeness and image of the Creator (Gen. 1:28a). The proclamation in Revelation 5 reveals the fulfillment of God’s creative purpose through the Lion of Judah, the Lamb who was slain—Jesus: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9).
God is a God of order and purpose, but from the human viewpoint, there is plenty of chaos and commotion that has been a reality in this masterplan of two people being commissioned to fill the earth with the likeness and image of God, culminating in people from every tribe, language, and nation, worshipping and serving King Jesus. A quick read through Hebrews chapter 11 will reveal that faith in God’s bigger story of redeeming humanity for God’s glory requires living by faith in what appears to be plenty of chaos.
Setting sail in the 1700s from Switzerland, releasing and commissioning sons and daughters to live in Central and South America, leaving all that was familiar behind because of war, and sharing the gospel in unfamiliar places are all significant pieces of the past and present of Rosedale Network of Churches. Each story, each era, reveals living by faith in seasons of chaos and upheaval, each contributing to God’s amazing mission that every tribe, language, and nation will be represented in His Kingdom as people are “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Are we willing to embrace the chaos, by faith, in this season of Rosedale Network as we continue participating in God’s creative purpose of filling the earth with the glory, likeness, and image of Himself?
A Song of Pilgrimage
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore” (Psa. 121).
Photo credit: Darren Peachey
