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Get talking!
Share Your Vision With Others
In August 1806, five students at Williams College in Massachusetts informally gathered in a meadow on campus to discuss and pray about the needs of the unreached in Asia, and how they might be personally involved. A storm quickly swept through, forcing the five to take refuge under a haystack. This meeting, later known as the Haystack Prayer Meeting, led to the formation of a student missions mobilization team, and ultimately a mission agency that sent out more than 8,742 missionaries in its first fifty years.
Did God start or strengthen a passion for world missions in you, much as He did for those five students? Do you sense that God plans for you to take the Gospel to an unreached corner of the world? We celebrate that with you! Yet it's easy for such an event to become simply a great memory or a binder of notes on a shelf. The book entitled HERE to THERE: Getting From CROSS to Your Mission Field, excerpted here, will help you translate a great felling of being called into a great action plan to move you toward the nations, particularly in strong partnership with your home church.
Start your journey by contagiously declaring your passion for the nations to others.
Key people who need to hear about your plans include:
Start reading about places and people groups where you might like to serve.
Simply and humbly share your hopes and dreams. Express your desire to bring God’s glory to the unreached. Your testimony will be an encouragement to others. Doing so will reinforce your decision in your own heart and mind.
Unreached people groups are unreached for a reason! The path ahead will require a deep love for God consuming your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Thank God for calling you; plead for His mercy and grace to take you there.
***** A word of warning *****
Do you blog? Are you a regular user of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.)? You may be tempted to spill your enthusiasm for unreached people groups in these public arenas. Assume that anything you write publicly will be seen around the world. Governments in nations hostile to Christianity are constantly scouring the Internet to prevent missionaries from entering.
For additional practical tips, get the book to see Appendix A: Practical Guidelines for Security Concerns.
Questions for reflection:
Did God start or strengthen a passion for world missions in you, much as He did for those five students? Do you sense that God plans for you to take the Gospel to an unreached corner of the world? We celebrate that with you! Yet it's easy for such an event to become simply a great memory or a binder of notes on a shelf. The book entitled HERE to THERE: Getting From CROSS to Your Mission Field, excerpted here, will help you translate a great felling of being called into a great action plan to move you toward the nations, particularly in strong partnership with your home church.
Start your journey by contagiously declaring your passion for the nations to others.
Key people who need to hear about your plans include:
- Your missions-minded and missions-committed friends.
- Your friends and family back at home.
- Your campus ministry or young professional fellowship back at home.
- Your church where you attend during the school year (if a student), and your home church (if that’s different than the church you attend at school).
Start reading about places and people groups where you might like to serve.
Simply and humbly share your hopes and dreams. Express your desire to bring God’s glory to the unreached. Your testimony will be an encouragement to others. Doing so will reinforce your decision in your own heart and mind.
Unreached people groups are unreached for a reason! The path ahead will require a deep love for God consuming your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Thank God for calling you; plead for His mercy and grace to take you there.
***** A word of warning *****
Do you blog? Are you a regular user of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.)? You may be tempted to spill your enthusiasm for unreached people groups in these public arenas. Assume that anything you write publicly will be seen around the world. Governments in nations hostile to Christianity are constantly scouring the Internet to prevent missionaries from entering.
For additional practical tips, get the book to see Appendix A: Practical Guidelines for Security Concerns.
Questions for reflection:
- Stop and think a moment: Who should be on that list of people you should tell about your new commitment and direction?
- How will you tell them?
- How might you follow up to find out how they respond to your news?
- When you’ve learned about something as important as missions, it’s possible to seem arrogant or judgmental about newfound truth that others haven’t learned yet. How can you avoid this kind of posture as you return home?