This last week I had the opportunity to participate in a homestay, which is where you spend time living with a local family. It allows you to get to know the language and culture of a place on a deeper level. I stayed with two local guys – Jay and his friend, Peter.
Preaching Scripture To Our Anxiety
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.
4 Missionary Biographies You Should Check Out
One of the most humbling experiences in missions is listening to the people who went before you. They are the rock movers who gave their lives to making a way for the gospel to penetrate some of the darkest places. Some people ready the soil, some people plant seeds and others get the joy of seeing a harvest. Be humbled and encouraged by these people who God worked through greatly. God did the work, these men and women simply made their lives available for Him to work through them.
An Unreached People Group Being Reached
This past week our team traveled to the mountains and spent the week trekking through villages. About 30 years ago, a team of workers said “yes” to God’s call and brought the Word to a small minority group living in the mountains. While it was a long process filled with trials and persecution, today this people group has churches. They have pastors. They have the Bible in their own language.
International Day for the Unreached
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.
What Is A Day Like With Cafe 1040?
A light musical alarm sounds in the background as I sit up to the small beam of sunshine poking through our window. The hot morning air, combined with the humidity, makes for an unusual awakening. As I push off my mattress to stand, I think to myself how different it feels than the air I am used to in Canada.
What Could Happen If Christians Cared About Ramadan?
7 Practical Ways To Care for Missionaries
Life on the field can be challenging, exhausting, and difficult. In the midst of that, many missionaries feel forgotten by their church and friends back home. The Great Commission is not a solo task. Even the work of individual missionaries is not solo work. We are all called to engage. Sending is the role that some will play. It is the work of a community of believers.
Why Mentorship Matters
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.
Your Story Isn't An Autobiography
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.
Where Are the Men on the Mission Field?
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.
5 Lies People Believe About Missionaries
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.
The Dream Giver
In early November we took our students to a city about 3 hours outside of base town. There we met Magdi, who was our tour guide and gracious host. He's an upper caste Hindu, with strong family affiliation. Our first night with Magdi and his family, one of our students was able to share his personal testimony. Unexpectedly Magdi began sharing about dreams he has personally had about JESUS.
Suffering Produces Endurance
Before this trip I always knew this verse and knew what it meant, but I had never truly experienced it. I had never really suffered. But since I have been in South Asia I have lost two people who I deeply loved back at home. I don't know if I could put into words how much losing them hurts and I probably won't ever be able to. But something amazing happened when I was grieving.
What Do You Want To Be Known For?
Here’s a question society loves to answer for us. Just google it. There are pages of ways to not be forgotten and advice on forming your personal brand. It’s at the heart of most marketing. Buy this product and you will be known for this or work at this company and people will think you are that. As humans, we are created with an innate desire for purpose, for an identity. Throughout life we find it in different places: as a professional, parent, student, athlete.
What if God has the whole thing rigged?
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.
What I Learned Between Two Buses In Asia
When I was in Asia, I got hit by two buses. The details are mostly irrelevant, though everyone wants to hear them. A careless bus driver and a poorly timed left-hand turn catapulted my motorbike into the front of an oncoming bus. For a terrifying moment, I ricocheted between two forces strong enough to crush me. Neither of them stopped.
How I Realized It's Not All About Me
There is One Constant
Why Experiential Learning Is Essential In Missions
“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.