The missions world can be complex and quite confusing. There are long lists of questions, endless applications, hundreds of organizations. How do you know where to begin? Where do you get started?
Ryan’s Story – Reading the Bible for the First Time
Meet "Ryan"… (Gotta use code names). He’s a friend of ours that we met at the basketball courts. One day after playing, we were sitting waiting on someone and I just starting asking what we call "invasive questions" to start some religious conversation. I was asking what he believes, why, how he feels about it… all kinds of things.
Why Missions Needs Singles
Moving overseas as a single male or female is scary.
There are fears of loneliness and endless questions that can never truly be answered this side of the pond.
Will I fit in with my team? Will I feel like a burden to the families that are there? Am I giving up on my chance to be married? How will I make friends when I’m there? Will I be treated differently because I’m single?
Why We Are Committed To This Work
What Keeps Us Going In This Work?
As we near the end of another year, it’s always encouraging to look back and see how God has worked. He has worked in the lives of students who are seeking to leverage their lives for the sake of people knowing His name. He has worked among locals across the 10/40 Window, calling them to Himself. We have seen individuals come to know Jesus for the first time. We have seen countless young adults say “yes” to whatever God has planned for them among the nations.
Hear how one of our Southeast Asia students sums up their time with Cafe 1040:
“Knowing how great God's love is for me leads me to a place of surrender.
Whatever you want God, I'll do. I just want to be where you are and do what you call me to do.
I trust that you will continue to give me the strength to obey what you lead me to do as I am motivated by your great love for me.
This is especially important for this line of work. If I falsely believe that God’s love for me is subjective on how many people I share with and lead to Him, then it is very easy for me to get burned out and to feel condemned if I'm not seeing those results I long for.
But if I rest in God's great unchanging unfailing love for me, it empowers and sustains me even when I have to walk through the hardest of circumstances.
Having a right understanding of God’s love is crucial and I am so thankful for the way he has continued to demonstrate his love for me these past few months."
We praise God for what He has accomplished in 2017. It is His work. He simply invites us to be a part of it. And what a privilege that invitation is to accept.
Want to join what God is doing in the 10/40 Window?
When A Statistic Becomes A Friend - Thoughts From Our Overseas Staff
Hannah's Vision
"I have been thinking about this boy. I think about him so often. I don't want to see him anymore though because I don't want to miss him again...it hurts too much. I don't think he's real. I have never met him. I don't know his name. I saw him in my dream. I just saw his eyes. When I saw his eyes I could see everything.
When Following God Gets Hard
Why Am I Here?
Give Your Life To God's Promise
The State of Missions
What Makes A Good Missionary?
What Makes A Good Missionary?
As an organization that seeks to mobilize the next generation of missionaries, this frequently asked question is the topic of many conversations.
Is a good candidate for missionary work someone who has the ability to learn a new language? Is it flexibility? Is it a combination of many different things?
An Interview With A Cafe 1040 Student
As much as we try to provide answers and stories of what Cafe 1040 does, it is the students who have been through the program who provide the best insights.
Every student that goes through our overseas mentorship has a unique story of how God led him or her to Cafe 1040.
Find out how God moved in Bryan to be a part of our South Asia summer program.
10 Lessons Learned From Living In Southeast Asia
In the year before I left for Southeast Asia, I researched everything I should expect during my first months as a missionary. I studied culture shock charts, looked at line graphs of stress levels overseas, asked for advice about how to endure the life of a single missionary, stockpiled my anti-diarrhea medicine, and braced my supporters for a life-altering transition.
Is Missions Safe?
Over the years, we have sat down with numerous mothers, fathers, friends, cousins and coworkers talking about international missions. Inevitably by the end of the conversation, we have ventured onto the question of safety.
Is missions safe? Is where you are living safe? Do you feel safe overseas? Will my son or daughter be safe in your program?
The question comes in many forms but the heart of the question remains the same.
Sam and His Yak Farmers
Sam grew up as a self-proclaimed redneck mountain man. In the hills of West Virginia, he was always outside learning about the land. While studying agriculture and irrigation in his college years, Sam was drawn to Cafe 1040's mentorship program and spent a semester in North Africa, where he clearly felt God calling him into missions. But he wasn’t sure where. Or how.
The Class That Stole My Future
Have you ever looked closely at an optical illusion? There’s one in particular that comes to mind. You have probably seen it. It looks like an image of a vase. It’s an illusion because the image of the vase is actually the space between two faces, but most people only notice the vase. It doesn’t matter how long you stare at the picture before you figure it out. Once you notice the faces, they can never be unseen.
