By Georgia McKee
This Sunday, we have the joy of welcoming two remarkable guests: Jeff Lee, CBF field personnel in North Macedonia, and Yusuph Emmanuel from Twelve21 in Tanzania. As I have reflected on my recent journey to visit the Lees in Macedonia, it’s not just the stories of beautiful ancient monasteries or delicious Balkan meals that I tell, but the stories of transforming partnership and the deep, relational work the Lees exhibit.
Before our trip, my idea of missions was shaped by my past mission experiences that were often rooted in religious conversion and white-saviorism, so I was actually pretty hesitant going. But in Macedonia, I encountered something different. I saw faith lived out not as a numbers campaign, but as a gentle, healing presence. The Lees’ ministry, and the work of partners like Yusuph, is about healing, hospitality and walking alongside others in their journeys. It’s about weaving threads of community across differences, offering hope in quiet, practical ways — the Jesus way.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes in An Altar in the World, “The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self — to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”
In Macedonia, I witnessed this kind of love. At Poraka, a center for adults with developmental disabilities, we played, crafted and shared meals — no agenda, just presence. At a food bank, we packed boxes for families in need. At Ratoe, a recovery center, I saw how dignity is restored through work and community. And because of the Lees’ work, these ministries are not isolated but interconnected, each supporting the other, creating a community of collaboration and hope.
Our world is in dire need of Christians who feel called to be healers, not colonizers. This is why we as a church in the United States look for ways to support global missions. Not because we want to make people become more like us, but so we can learn from others and join in the work across cultures in what it means to become more like the kin-dom of God.
As we welcome Jeff and Yusuph today, I invite you to come with open hearts and curious minds.
Let’s pray together for our global partners and for ourselves — that we might have the courage to listen deeply, to build bridges across difference, and to embody the healing and hope of Christ in our own neighborhoods and beyond.