Welcome to Jobmission
Support to harassed churches in countries with few Christians by Danes in secular jobs or studying abroad
Today more than 60 percent of the world population is not reached by traditional mission. Jobmission can change that. Jobmission meets no closed borders but can work where there are jobs. Jobmission is physically present in countries with harassed churches and few local Christians.
Read about:
- What is Jobmission?
- Job emissaries
- Students
- Resources
- For employers
- Danish network behind Jobmission
- Support Jobmission
- Pray for Jobmission
- Contact information
Jobmission encourages and supports Christians who will let their place of work or study be in a country where there are not so many Christians.
The aim is that people all over the world shall have the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ - and have a fair chance to meet Christians living with faith as an integrated part of their lives.
In countries forbidding mission, traditional mission would appear unnecessarily provoking. At the same time these countries often have strong religion, and often the man in the street would like to get into dialogue with Christians. Christians working or studying in these countries do not cheat. They are just Christians in another country than Denmark. The world has opened up, and no borders are closed for Jobmission.
Are you fond of your profession and curious to meet another culture?
Do you want to get a secular job or study stay in another country?
And do you want to be a clear and open Christian at the same time?
Then become a job emissary!
What does a job emissary do?
The job emissary is a Christian working or studying in a country with harassed churches and few Christians. As a job emissary you naturally attend your job or study well, this in itself being a way of serving God.
You do not build mission stations or drive 4WD Land rovers. Nor do you show movies in public or exhibit your faith in open public space. But you do talk to your colleagues, study mates, neighbours and your other acquaintances. You may not get to tell a lot of people about Jesus Christ, but you will reach some. And if there is a local church, you will attach to its congregational life.
The job emissary gets help and support from Jobmission. See resources.
Use for everybody
Everybody can do Jobmission, regardless of education and age. This is the reason why we are not going to point out special educations or say that one generation is better fit for being job emissaries than another. In Jobmission the scope is just as wide as and the labour market, and as we all know, there are not many who have to be vacant!
On the other hand it goes without saying that the moment you move to other countries, certain educations may make it easier to find a job than others. Equally, an older person will experience to be met with more respect in for instance a Muslim country than a young person will be met with. It lies in the culture. But this does not mean that young persons should just stay away, for if you have a job, your are accepted.
Where and how?
As a starting point you find your job or study place on your own in a country with few Christians and harassed churches. If you are interested in a study stay abroad, also read students. Jobmission primarily aims at Muslim countries and East and Central Asia. But come with your country wishes and let us talk about it. You are also welcome to contact us if you need help to find the right job.
Contact Coordinator Nicolaj Wibe Nielsen for an informal personal interview. E-mail, phone +45 8695 0160, cellphone +45 2369 9664.
Become a job emissary and go for a study or trainee stay in a country with harassed churches and few Christians.
You get new skills in your profession and get international experience. At the same time you are a clear Christian with your study mates and other people you meet in your everyday life, and you attach to the local church of Christian students association if such exist. You may not get to tell a lot of people about Jesus Christ, but you will reach some.
Jobmission is in contact with a Danish student in Asia. He says there are ample opportunities, professionally as well as spiritually. To speak about Christian faith, to be a witness to your fellow students, is in many ways easier there than in Denmark as to most Asians, religion is a natural part of the world picture.
How and where?
As a starting point you find your study or trainee place on your own in a country with few Christians and harassed churches. If you are interested in a study stay abroad, also read students. Jobmission primarily aims at Muslim countries and East and Central Asia. But come with your country wishes and let us talk about it. You are also welcome to contact us if you need help to find the right study place.
It is often an advantage in your later career if you have spent some of your students days studying abroad. Contact your study institution for information of where and how you may study in another country. When this is settled, then contact Jobmission, and together we can make a strategy for how you may best act as a job emissary.
Students who have spent a semester or two abroad, will later find it easier to go out as job emissaries again, because their stay abroad during their education helped opening professional doors, but very much also because it has given them a taste of mission.
The job emissary gets help and support from Jobmission. See resources.
Contact Coordinator Nicolaj Wibe Nielsen for an informal personal interview. E-mail, phone +45 8695 0160, cellphone +45 2369 9664.
As job eissary you may expect the following from Jobmission:
- Short course on the vision of Jobmission.
- Guidance in living as a Christian in a foreign culture.
- Help to find the right job.
- Offer of visit by Jobmission staff member during first year of work.
- Personal contact and support via Coordinator.
- Relevant literature.
- Christian community in Denmark that will pray for you and back you up.
- If possible: Build up a Christian network around you in the work country.
Organisations
No borders are closed for Jobmission. But many countries put great obstacles in the way of the Gospel.
Below you will find some links to organisations documenting the human rights situation i various countries or working with mission in countries with harassed churches and few Christians.
Tentmaking:
Tent
Interserve
Global Opportunities
Arab World Ministries
Human rights and conditions for Christians:
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Open Doors
Jobbank: How to find your job?
Many firms recruit personnel for jobs, and the following websites are relevant depending on what kind of job you are looking for, and what education you have got.
Google is a splendid site for a person looking for a job abroad! Experience from other mission organisation (e.g. in Canada) show that 95 percent of those coming forward for Jobmission, find their jobs via websites - particularly via Google.
Interserve has a large jobbank for job emissaries, but some of the jobs are unpaid as they have volunteer status.
Literature
Not much literature on Jobmission is available yet.
One of the best places you cam read articles on Jobmission is Global Opportunities. We draw your attention to the articles by Ruth Siemens, in particular.
You can take an online Workiing Your Way course. More information of this: Working Your Way Online.
Useful books:
Study book on Jobmission: Working Your Way to the Nations, Jonathan Lewis (ed).
Book on God's idea with the work: Your Work Matters to Gd, Doug Sherman and William Hendicks.
Find more tips on useful books on Global Opportunites.
Jobmission encourages and supports Christians who will let their place of work be in a country where there are not so many Christians.
The aim is that people all over the world shall have the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ - and have a fair chance to meet Christians living with faith as an integrated part of their lives.
Christian staff member
To the employer having a Christian staff member on job abroad is not different from having a Christian staff member employed in your own country.
In the job emissary the employer gets a staff member with a clear Christian profile. This means that
- he has deep understanding and respect for what religion and faith mean, also to people of other faiths.
- he builds his life, ethics and values on the teachings of Christianity.
- he looks on work as a way of serving God and therefore attends his job as well as possible.
Read more about Jobmission and the network of organisations behind it.
DANISH NETWORK BEHIND JOB EMISSARIES
Three Danish organisations together form the network supporting Danish job emissaries:
Danish Evangelical Mission (DEM)
Danish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (ELM)
Kristeligt Forbund for Studerende (KFS, Danish branch of IFES)
Management
Jobmisson is headed by a steering committee consisting of:
Jobmission Coordinator Nicolaj Wibe Nielsen, phone +45 8695 0160, cellphone +45 2369 9664.
General Secretary Sune Skarsholm, DEM, phone +45 7456 2233
National Secretary Paul Otto Kjøller, ELM, phone +45 5695 9680
Student Secretary Anders Seekjær, KFS, phone +45 6179 4481
No mission work functions if Christians do not invest in it.
Jobmission will only get the opportunity to grow if Christians give some money now and then. We shall spend the funds received for making Jobmission a more and more attractive way of being in mission.
An investment in mission really pays off as it is placed in God's hands. And he can make things grow!
Send your donation cheque to Jobmission
c/o Danish Evangelical Mission, Nørregade 14
DK-6070 Christiansfeld, Denmark.
Jobmission will only get the opportunity to grow if Christians pray for it.
The job emissary will often live in a difficult situation that he cannot inform openly about out of consideration for his own or others' safety, and he will have a great need for people praying for him.
Often he cannot mention concrete prayer requests such as names of persons or places, for instance, but instead he will have to ask for prayers in a more anonymous form. Some times even the job emissary's own name will have to be kept as a secret. This demands much of you as his prayer supporter but then remember that God will hear your prayers - and he knows what it is all about!
Address and contact person:
Coordinator Nicolaj Wibe Nielsen (photo)
Cedervej 1, Stjær, DK-8464 Galten, Denmark
Phone +45 8695 0160. Cellphone +45 2369 9664. E-mail.
Administration:
Jobmission c/o Danish Evangelical Mission,
Nørregade 14, DK-6070 Christiansfeld, Denmark
Phone +45 7456 2233. E-mail.
Webmaster and news:
Editorial Secretary Marianne Bach
Danish Evangelical Mission. E-mail.