“Auntie, when will we start Bible Club?” The children ran up to me again to find out. This community, known for witchcraft and rituals of fire walking to gain the favor of false deities, is filled with children. Like all children, they love to play and hear stories. Since they learn English in school, many…
From the world’s viewpoint she was a secluded woman. She had outlived her lifelong friends. Her family had all passed away except for her son who had migrated to another country. In the middle of 14 million people she appeared to have nobody except a group of strange Christians. At her recent death, though, it…
“Turn to your neighbor and practice telling him/her how you first trusted Jesus,” I instructed my class on Sunday. Without skipping a beat, ‘B’ a 7th grade girl from the projects, looked at me and said: “when you first told us about Jesus years ago, when I was little.” At this, several other kids piped…
How do you get to the word of God? Is your desire to hear and learn from the Bible that important to you? How valuable is the knowledge of God to you? How much of your desire to seek after God is genuine, and how much is a product of your culture? These are questions…
Most churches have never sent a missionary from their own congregation. This is in spite of their high level of interest in missions that is evidenced by budgets, missions conferences and missionaries supported. What if a church wanted to send one of their own to the mission field? That would raise a lot of questions,…
We have tended to define a missionary by their source of income. In other words, a person is a missionary who gathers support from churches and individuals and goes to some other country. However, this is a financial model of doing missions that has been used over the past couple hundred years. For 1800 years…
On a warm Georgia October day in 2007, an 11 -year-old boy rolled down his car window, and for the first time heard the shrill of countless bagpipes echoing through the trees. He had no experience with Scottish culture, but one must think God was at work that day – warming a young heart to…
The sudden death of a friend caused Martin to stare out across the Black Sea and contemplate his own life as he sipped some strong afternoon coffee.* Martin was a successful importer of furniture from Thailand into Verna, Bulgaria for distribution all across Europe. Growing up as a missionary kid in rural Thailand, he would…
A Metaphor You can’t stop water with a fork. The water will get through, but it will look different than it did without the fork; the straight pour will be disturbed but the water will get through. You can’t stop missions with government interference. Missionaries will get through, but missions will look different than it…
“You don’t have to do this,” one man said. “What are you trying to prove?” another asked. “There are souls to save right here at home.” Why go? Is it worth it? The resounding answer is: “Yes! Advancing the name of Jesus is worth it!” We must participate in the great commission by either going…