CRM - Empowering Leaders

John Shorack

Having grown up very comfortably, as a college student I felt compelled to experience first hand what the “other side” of the world was living. My first step was to work one summer with a reforestation project in Haiti. The following summer I went to Mexico with Operation Mobilization (OM). This experience completely altered my life direction. Instead of teaching music in Oregon, as I had studied for in the University, I knew that I had become “Juan” and that my life was to be spent as an ambassador of Christ in other cultures and languages.

While doing a Master’s degree in Inter-cultural studies at Fuller seminary I experienced clarity and confirmation that my calling was to live and work with the poor. With a group of students I moved into the Latino immigrant community of inner city Los Angeles, California and founded a community there. From that ministry, a team of five, in 1992, became an InnerChange team.  

My favorite phrase from the InnerCHANGE commitments, which reflects a deep passion of mine, is: “Through prayer, fasting and the leading of the Holy Spirit I wage peaceful warfare against all that is contrary to the establishment of God’s kingdom.”

Birgit Shorack

When people ask me what my nationality is, I can't help but grin. Though I was born and raised in rural Germany, I spent over 15 years living and ministering with Latin Americans in Los Angeles, California before coming to live in the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela in 2001.

So who am I? God has profoundly shaped me through every culture I've been a part of. There is an element of rootlessness to my life that at times is painful. At the same time, I feel that I truly experience the meaning of 'the global family' of God – that is, my particular identity as a daughter of God in a world full of diversity. What weaves my life together is the love of Jesus for all of us, particularly the marginalized.