Everyone Needs an Advocate

by Steve Arnold

3/6/2023

Pastor Amon Kajabika of Rehoboth International Church Assemblies of God in Dayton, Ohio, gratefully recalls the people God used when he and his family came to live in America. Although he had ministry responsibilities in eight countries in Africa, when he sought asylum in America, he recalls, “I was lost in a huge country without knowledge. I was not able to speak one word in English.”

The Lord helped Pastor Amon’s family settle in Dayton and find fellowship with other African Pentecostal believers. Having to leave a church where they had been meeting, God gave Pastor Amon a dream of a building. The next day he saw that building, which turned out to be Kettering Assembly of God. Pastor Amon was welcomed there, and God began opening doors for them to integrate with the Assemblies of God.

Before long, 50 other African Pentecostal pastors living throughout the United States reached out to Pastor Amon, asking for guidance in how they might become part of the Assemblies of God. Pastor Amon says, “I had a burden in me that we need American pastors to equip us to serve in this land.” At the suggestion of the Ohio Ministry Network leadership, he wrote a letter to General Secretary Donna Barrett to present this need.

 The response from the national office was welcoming, and Pastor Amon was put in touch with Julie Kraus, someone God would use to be an advocate, friend, and resource for these ministers.

Julie, an Assemblies of God U.S. missionary with Intercultural Ministries, had served three terms alongside her husband, Paul, as World Missionaries in Ivory Coast, a French-speaking country in West Africa.

Paul and Julie returned to Springfield, Missouri, where Paul became vice president of the Global Center of Evangelism and Discipleship (CED). While at Global University, they assisted a good friend from the Ivory Coast who was now pastoring churches in Manhattan, Connecticut, and New Jersey and seeking fellowship with the church in America. He didn’t know how to make those connections himself. This helped open their eyes to a great need for advocates on behalf of pastors who have come to live and serve God in the United States.

New York Ministry Network (NYMN) Superintendent Duane Durst invited Paul and Julie to come to New York, where Paul would serve as the first NYMN Intercultural Ministries department director. They became appointed U.S. missionaries and, according to Superintendent Durst, Paul Kraus did “a phenomenal job” setting up the Intercultural Ministries department. In 2017, Paul was diagnosed with cancer, and he passed into heaven in March 2020. “We had always referred to Julie as the wind beneath Paul’s wings,” remembers Rev. Durst. “And when Paul went home, I realized Julie was his wings.” The superintendent asked Julie if she would step into Paul’s ministry role and carry on with what Paul had started.

“When Paul passed away, I was exhausted,” shares Julie. “I don’t want to say it was great, but for me the pandemic was a real gift when everything shut down, and I could just sleep and grieve. It was a lot of grace in my life. And when things picked up, everything was on Zoom, so I was able to really engage with New York online. I called every single ethnic pastor in New York, just to see how they were doing. Before we hung up, I’d ask each one to pray for me. I’m really fortunate; I work with an incredible team of ministers in New York. The encouragement and support I get is phenomenal. 

Julie says, “I am praying hard that God will call missionaries to New York City. You know, the most reachable unreached people groups are here in New York. Every nation is here, but we have such minimal missionary focus on the city. It breaks my heart.”

Julie gained certification and regularly presents workshops to help ministers learn about cultural intelligence, which she says are “those capabilities that allow us to go in and out of other cultures effectively.” These workshops have been so well received that the Assemblies of God national office invited Julie to present cultural intelligence workshops.

Chris Delmadge, the NYMN Ethnic Fellowship General Presbyter, shares how Julie’s cultural intelligence workshops impacted his own ministry. “I’m surrounded by different ethnicities. I grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I was pretty confident that I had a high cultural intelligence, right?” Chris continues, “Let me tell you, going through this (cultural intelligence) assessment, I failed miserably. It wasn’t that I didn’t have information; it was that I wasn’t willing to learn other cultures or I wasn’t willing to engage other cultures. That type of information can be off-putting, but Julie has this incredible gift of allowing you to learn these things about yourself and then provide solutions,” he says. “She is able to provide an awareness to others who might not realize that they have blind spots. They may not realize that some of their own behaviors, or cultural biases, can prevent ministry from occurring, but because of the way she presents it, it’s more than palatable. Her ministry is a wonderful blend of grace and mercy, but firmness and holding strongly to her convictions that just creates an environment where you want to learn more. You want to be more effective in your ministry.”

Julie is cultivating relationship between the many Assemblies of God Ethnic Fellowship officers who are based in New York. She was also asked to coordinate connection between Assemblies of God Intercultural Ministries directors from districts and networks around the country. They meet together with Dennis Rivera, director of the Assemblies of God’s Office of Ethnic Relations and Hispanic Relations, to share ideas on how to maximize their ministry efforts.

In working alongside many pastors from different languages and ethnicities, Julie shares a key lesson she has learned: “Everyone needs an advocate. And, when you can serve as an advocate, you can be a good listener and then advocate for what you’re hearing.”

Pastor Amon in Dayton and his pastor colleagues are benefiting from Julie’s ministry. Donna Barrett’s office invited Julie to participate on the task force, working to help districts effectively prepare the credentialing process to be accessible for ministers from other language groups, including providing courses they need for credentialing in their native ministry languages.

In partnership with Pastor Amon and others, Julie also helps bring together French-speaking and Swahili-speaking ministers working toward a French language fellowship and a Swahili language fellowship within the Assemblies of God in the United States.

Looking back at the amazing changes she has seen God bring about since she and Paul arrived in New York, Julie recalls how “Paul would talk with pastors, saying, ‘We really want to work with other cultures.’ People would say, ‘I don’t really get what you’re talking about.’ And now people do. Now, nobody would say that.”