Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.
We invite you to take a moment and look back on what God has accomplished through our team in North Africa over the past 20 years. Below, you’ll have a unique opportunity to listen to a heartfelt conversation with our missionaries and/or read a text inspired by their powerful insights and humbling experiences. We hope this affirms you in your faith journey and that you are encouraged to join us in celebrating our YESTERDAY. Enjoy!
The Unexpected Results of Simple Obedience
What do poor health, CrossFit, and cooking lessons all have in common? No, they aren't a recipe for another year of failed New Year's resolutions. It's much better than that: they are ingredients God has used for advancing His kingdom on earth. Does that surprise you? Well you're in good company; it surprised our students in North Africa too. One of the greatest joys of our ministry is watching, over and over again, as God astounds our students by showing up in ways they never expected.
The surprise starts first with belief in a myth: the great myth of the missionary. Undoubtedly you've heard it before. A man or woman, equipped with faith to move mountains and a seminary education, hears the call of God to leave all earthly possessions behind in pursuit of the unreached masses. While faithfully preaching the Gospel and seeing God bring many lost souls to repentance, they also, on the side, build orphanages, plant churches, cure polio, write bestsellers, explore the rainforest, and translate the Bible into seven languages. They are not immune to trial, sometimes suffering in ways almost unimaginable, but because of their deep, rich relationship with God they find the strength to make it through even the darkest night with joy and praise.
Sounds great, right? Who doesn't want to support a missionary like that? There's just one problem: these heroes aren’t real. And they are certainly a far cry from twenty-year old Steve and Sally who show up in North Africa with a suitcase, a half-finished college degree, and a vague sense that they might be meant to share the Gospel in another country. The problem is that Steve and Sally believe this myth and expect life overseas to look like these heroes. With this expectation in mind, after they have been living cross-culturally for a few weeks, struggling through language classes and trying hard just to make a few friends, doubt sets in fast. As they think about what a missionary is supposed to be and compare it to their unmet expectations, a logical conclusion follows: "I must not be cut out for this."
It's precisely at this point in our students' lives, when they are harshly confronted by their own inadequacy, that God has used our overseas staff to bring hope. This happens in two primary ways. First, our long-term missionaries remind them that the Biblical determiner of fitness for the missionary task is not measuring up to an impossible standard. No one is qualified for missions based on how closely they resemble the Apostle Paul or Billy Graham. God's measure of success is very different: FAITHFULNESS. Obedience to the commands of the Gospel, including (but not limited to) Christ's clear mandate to "go and make disciples of all nations". So many of our students, who have left comfort behind to spend twelve weeks in an unfamiliar culture to prepare to reach the lost, are already displaying a degree of obedience in their lives. In this way, they are not so unlike the many other faithful missionaries who have gone before them and to whom they aspire.
"God's measure of success is very different: FAITHFULNESS."
The second encouragement comes when our students begin to discover that God, in his infinite power and wisdom, can use their gifts to advance His kingdom. There is no missionary mold to fit into or checklist to fill out. God, in His own words, "apportions [gifts] to each one individually as he wills" (1 Cor. 12:11), and when young people realize that God has gifted them as He did for a reason, they are freed up to serve the Lord with newfound creativity. They can take an honest look at themselves, with all their many strengths and weaknesses, and ask, "How might I be faithful to use what God has given me to reach the lost?"
The answering of that question has led to some of the most incredible and unexpected stories we have heard over the last twenty years. This takes us back to the beginning: what do poor health, CrossFit, and cooking lessons all have in common? God used them all to advance His kingdom through our program in North Africa.
A student suffering from poor health had a physical breakdown while in North Africa that turned into an opportunity to share the Gospel. The very thing people told her couldn't be used by the Lord became the means by which she had one of the greatest ministry opportunities of her life.
A student who believed all she had to offer was athletic ability was invited into a country hostile to missionaries to teach CrossFit. She now runs a CrossFit gym there and has abounding opportunities to share God's love with her clients.
A student who believed she couldn't build relationships started learning to cook from a girl in an unreached people group, leading to opportunities to share the Gospel. Her friend then shared it with her father, a man who had been hoping for twenty years for someone to tell him about Jesus.
In the same amount of time that girl's father had been waiting to hear about Jesus, Cafe 1040 has had the honor of being a part of hundreds of these stories displaying the surprising results of simple obedience. They are the fuel that ignites our desire to continue in the work to which God has called us. We want more and more young adults to experience the wonder and joy of being used by God as unique individuals, to see the myth dispelled in their lives and replaced by confidence and clarity.
These are the kinds of stories God is writing through your prayers and gifts to our ministry, and we know that you, like us, are eager to hear more of them. "History repeats itself" as the saying goes, and in our case we deeply hope that is true. We want to see more young adults walking in faithfulness, growing in confidence, and using their gifts to the glory of God in the most unreached parts of the world. If tomorrow is anything like yesterday, then we know that we will.
And we want you to be a part of it.
