The Global Mission Fellow experience - Erick Hunter

'If you're thinking of serving as a Global Mission Fellow, go for it!' - these are the words of Erick Hunter, a Global Mission Fellow serving at Wesley's Chapel in London.

"So it was to my very great (and pleasant) surprise when I was sent to London as Global Mission Fellow to find out that Methodism is, in fact, so very much bigger than I imagined. I don’t mean in numbers of membership or property owned, I could have quoted those. But the American Methodist churches are very much birds of a feather. Dropping out of the sky to land among the diverse, tea drinking, hymn-belting Methodists of the UK has been nothing short of a revelatory experience. And not infrequently a bit shocking. Despite being asked the question on almost a weekly basis, I still find it hard to put into words exactly what it’s like finding myself in a setting at once definitely Methodist, and yet also so very alien to me. I can rattle off some of the funny trivia bits. We have Elders and Local Licensed Pastors, the UK has Presbyters and Local Preachers. We end the Lord’s Prayer with ‘forever,’ the UK ends it with ‘forever and ever.’ We have Bishops, you have presidents, we sing hymns to the right tunes, you sing them to the wrong ones, we have potlucks, you have bring-and-shares, etc, etc. (Erick pictured right with Jay Hezeil Abayon (Filipino serving in Cambodia), Erick, Agustinus Hurabarat (Indonesian serving in Cambodia), and Reeba Webster (Honduran serving in Uruguay) from left to right)

But if that was all there was to serving as a Global Mission Fellow, I could get the same education from reading Buzzfeed articles on my couch at home. The real treasure of this experience has been just how deeply it peeled back the layers of my little world. It’s one thing to say ‘Methodism is a diverse and global church.’ It’s another thing entirely to spend three hours dancing to a praise band in a tin shed in Nairobi. There is no substitute for experience. I knew that Methodism was a big church, I knew we were a big family with roots all over the world. But in hindsight I’m not sure I could say I really believed it, and I certainly couldn’t say I understood it. Even now it would be arrogant of me to say I really understand it. But I can say serving as a mission fellow has let me glimpse it.

So if you’re thinking of serving as a Global Mission Fellow, go for it. If you want to see the world and meet more Methodists, just do it. I can’t promise you’ll enjoy it, and I can’t promise it will go smoothly, mine certainly hasn’t all been smooth, but I can guarantee you’ll never see God’s church the same way again."

To learn more about Global Mission Fellows or apply click here