2017 was the year I quit the comfort of a set salary with benefits, and the false security of finances shattered in front of me. It was the year I embarked on the greatest, craziest adventure of my life: support-raising. As with most missions organizations, we are responsible for raising funds to cover our salary and ministry expenses. God has led Cafe 1040 to this model of ministry funding and has provided in significant ways for many years.
What I'm Learning
Q&A With A Cafe 1040 Grad
Q: Why did you choose Cafe 1040?
A: “After looking at Cafe 1040, I also explored some other organizations. It was really eye opening for me to see a mentorship is something people actually do. Honestly, the reason I picked Cafe 1040 is I felt heard, and understood and identified with by Cafe, more than other organizations that have similar program.”
Mobilizing The Emerging Generation of Missionaries
Asked To Die, Called To Live
From the beginning of the trip, we have been told repeatedly:
Life is not about doing things for God--even good things. It's about seeking and knowing Him.
So I've asked God to strip away my agenda, my life, my plans...I've essentially asked to die to self (we always underestimate prayers of this kind!). And He is answering.
Give Easter To A World Longing To Know Resurrection
Standing over the banks of the Ganges River - the most holy place in Hinduism to bring the dead – I took in the most graphic image of death my eyes have ever seen.
Body after body was being burned and lowered into this river for its remission of sins. It was a picture of imminent death with one last grasp for hope.
I Am So Small In This Work
Does God Know our needs before we even ask Him?
Raising support to sustain a life of missions can be overwhelming. It can be a major obstacle that keeps people from ever obeying God's call on their life. We know God controls every resource in the world, but do we truly believe He can provide in this way for our life? We've put together a series of support raising stories from people in different stages and viewpoints of life as a way to remind you that God is at work and He loves to show off in this way.
Parents Just Don't Understand?
This is a guest post from our friend Joe at Pioneers.
Sensing God calling you to something crazy, but, in the immortal words of Will Smith, parents just don’t understand? In this, the first of a series exploring barriers to serving in mission, a mission candidate coach explores what is—for many—the first and trickiest obstacle.
What If This Is The Reason You Were Sent?
Setting down my chopsticks after yet another dinner of chicken and rice, I looked up to see three rough, wrinkled fingers waving in my face. “Three… three”, she says in her best English. Although we couldn’t communicate verbally, I knew what she meant. She was planning for me and my team to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to go fishing with her family, a daily routine for most people in this remote fishing village. She seemed overwhelmed with excitement to be hosting three American girls in her home for the weekend to experience their culture first hand.
7 Book Recommendations for 2018
Do you ever feel like there are so many books you’d like to read, but then you go to pick one and you never really know where to start? Should you pick up a work or fiction or is non-fiction a better use of time? The sheer amount of choices keeps you from reading all together. At Cafe 1040, we love sharing resources that keep us growing and learning so we polled a few of our staff to see which books they’d recommend.
The Backwards Love Of Christ
What Role Will You Play?
What Is Culture Shock?
When He Chooses To Use Us
One night our team was praying in our apartment. We took a minute of silence to listen to whatever God was trying to tell us. I started feeling really convicted that I needed to share the gospel with my friend Samir. I had kind of written him off as uninterested. All he ever seemed to want to do is goof off.
Bridging The Gap
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?