Raising funds for your salary is often a necessity in ministry work. However, we must not forget that support raising, although necessary, is as much a spiritual work as serving at your church, praying fervently, or reading your Bible. These all take a little bit of discipline and a lot of the Holy Spirit. Each of these gives us the greatest joy when done with the right heart, but can quickly spiral into legalism and shame if we are not careful.
Everyone has a place and role in the Great Commission. God wants to use you for beautiful things! Here are some things you can do right now to start reaching the nations whoever you are, wherever you are.
What works against you in grasping Christ's love for you? When I think about this question, my answers create a long list, sadly. My sin, fear of rejection, not being good enough, not being faithful enough, being a burden, seeing and experiencing broken relationships, feelings of shame.
During my time with Cafe 1040 in Europe, our group navigated the city through a "buddy system," ensuring no one ventured out alone. When a teammate sought a companion for a rendezvous with a girl she had met at a local Korean Festival, I volunteered without hesitation, completely unaware of what God would do from this encounter.
We live in an anxious world. In our fast-paced culture, it’s easy to let our minds take control and live by feelings rather than the Word of God. I would argue that anxiety is one of our greatest debilitating factors we face as Christians. It keeps us from ever truly finding rest. It keeps us from moving our lives where God may call us. It keeps us from walking across the street and meeting a neighbor.
Cafe 1040's mission was formed around the reality that there are almost 3 billion people who have little to no access to the gospel. That’s 42% of the entire world’s population and the majority of these people groups all live in one area of the world – the 10/40 Window.
Today, we get join together for the International Day for the Unreached.
American Dream, Support Raising, Church: these are a few of the many obstacles that young adults experience in going overseas long-term. These were also my obstacles, but when I was 23, I did not know that I had obstacles. In fact, the term “obstacle” was unfamiliar to me. However, through a series of experiences overseas, this term revealed itself to me in a way that I was not prepared for.
As an organization that desires to see all people groups reached with the gospel of Jesus, we want to empower the next generation of missionaries to go and tell the story of Jesus in some of the least-reached places.
We, along with the rest of the missions world, have noticed a disturbing trend: the general absence of men on the mission field.
Long skirts with tennis shoes, shaggy, unkept hair, khaki cargo pants, don’t act like you’ve never pictured a missionary this way before.
We’ve all fallen prey to this stereotype. For so long, “missions” was just a department in the church where people who can’t fit in with their own culture try out a new one.
As I sat across from Zara, my mind was flooded with thoughts. I’m face-to-face, deep in conversation with a young Muslim lady about what it means to follow Christ. My husband and I had moved our lives to the Middle East to have opportunities like this and now, here I was getting the opportunity in a tiny mountain town in the United States.
“The sun is always shining, it’s just above the clouds sometimes.” This thought struck home after five days of backpacking through miserable, stormy, overcast weather. The life lessons abounded – no matter how stormy or dark things look, the Son of God is still there, even when we can’t see or feel Him.
Have you ever tried to explain something to someone and you simply could not connect the dots? When I was first married to my wife, we oftentimes had this problem. We came from different families and had different assumptions. She thought that cleaning the table meant putting the dishes in the sink. I thought it meant washing them or putting them in the dishwasher.
Renee spent over a year bonding with her team and building a love for this country. She worked hard to raise support and get all of her paperwork together. She prayed and prayed and then prayed some more. She sold possessions including her car. She struggled through the emotions of having to say goodbye to family and friends. She mentally prepared herself to live in a different culture vastly different than her own. She was set and ready to leave.
There are thousands of Muslim people groups who have never heard what Jesus Christ has done on their behalf. This sobering thought fuels missions all over the world. Our friends at Frontiers are empowering people and churches to alter that reality by 2025. We love Frontiers’ heart for loving Muslims until all have heard.
We exist to help people see how their life actually can change the current reality that 42% of the world’s population has never heard the story of Jesus. We love providing practical and attainable steps for those who desire to see the story of Jesus known in even the most remote and unlikely places. This is why we overhauled our site.
For a lot of people, June 6th through July 5th is just another thirty days of the year. However, for many around the world, these thirty days constitute the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic Muslim calendar, a time devoted to increased prayer and fasting.
While Ramadan, for the Muslim world, is the holiest month of the year, it occurred to me that many outside of the Islamic faith don’t really understand what Ramadan is or how it may impact those who follow Jesus.
