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.
Have you ever wanted to sit down with a Cafe 1040 grad over coffee and hear about their experiences? Each of them has been impacted in a significant way by our overseas mentorship program and has many stories to tell.
I sat on a flight that lasted roughly 12 hours, had a few hours to kill in an airport and tried not to fall asleep, and then another short flight later. I arrived in our base country bubbling with excitement. I kept peering out of the taxi window and commenting on how pretty all of the buildings were to my coworker. I was immediately enraptured.
Our Sunday fellowship is made up of people from all over the world. There are many from the US and Australia, of course, but also people from Korea, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries. On a recent Sunday, we sang in the local language and then came back to the chorus in English, which repeated: “Worthy is the lamb who was slain.”
As I sit here on the patterned carpet, bare-foot, and leaning up against the patterned couch, my heart overflows with love for these women. I long for the ability to communicate with them on a deeper level, yet I am depending on my smiles and my few Arabic words to convey everything I cannot express with complex words.
Hospitality – in the states we associate this with words like inviting, welcoming, and understanding. It is such a simple word. I would have never thought one word could hold so much depth – that one word could dictate a culture. Living here in Southeast Asia has redefined my view of what it means to be hospitable.
The village is located on the edge of an island. It is so small that a person can walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes. The people’s main occupation is fishing. They fish for squid, fish, and many other things. As I walked along one of the two main roads or “paths”, I saw many people mending their nets.
After an hour plane ride, a two-hour bus ride, a five- hour bus ride, and five-minute boat ride across the river, we arrived in the village. The goal of the trip was to establish contacts and develop relationships. Within the interactions with the locals, our aim was to acquire information about the history and culture of the village.
THIRST. IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE EXPERIENCE IF WE DON’T GET ENOUGH WATER.
Our bodies crave it and nothing else will quite satisfy it. It is one thing to experience thirst when you know water is only minutes or seconds away. It is a whole other thing to experience thirst when you don’t know when your next sip of water will be.
Our team just returned from our first home stay a few days ago, and I must say, God really made some cool moves and really re-ignited my fire during my home stay. We stayed together in a house with 10 girls and 3 guys. Thankfully, 4 of the girls were under the age of 12 and were in primary school, which was perfect as they are just above our level of understanding, so they were phenomenal teachers.
