![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/files\/2019\/10\/Newsletter-header-2019-300x119.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Does it matter?
\nIs our work in vain?
\nWhy aren\u2019t more people stepping to the plate to finish the task?
\nIs our effort making any difference in the realm of laborers moving out to declare Christ to the unreached?<\/p>\n
It was twenty years ago that we stepped into the role of missions mobilization after spending a third of our lives in Papua New Guinea. We became the voice of the east to advocate the need for harvest laborers among the millions of unreached peoples of the world. We engaged with churches; we reached out to young families and individuals and to college students. We echoed that challenge to teens and to youth. \u2026And we\u2019re still doing that today \u2013asking God\u2019s people to consider the need and to do something about those who don\u2019t know Jesus.<\/p>\n
In the last two years we\u2019ve asked churches to keep an eye out for those in their congregations who have a heart to serve and then begin praying such ones onto the harvest fields of the world. Of course it\u2019s going to take the investment of time to nurture and disciple such ones in the effort of equipping them so partner organizations [like us] can give them specialized training for cross-cultural ministry. My challenge has been \u201cJust don\u2019t support missions; become senders and go-ers!\u201d (Go-er\u2019s\u2026 is that even a word?!!)<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have needs here\u201d you say. Yeah, I\u2019m all for reaching those on our home front; those in our communities struggling with addictions, those in the cities and those in the countryside who battle a myriad of issues. Sure, we all see those around us who need Jesus but what are we doing about those needs? Praise God some are assisting and reaching out to help those here. But what are we doing about the thousands of people groups who never heard of Jesus, God, or the Bible\u2026 what about their need for salvation? You see the world is a lot bigger than a street in my community, the cities in my state, and the places around me.<\/p>\n
Our challenge to the church is, \u201cWhat about those living \u2018beyond\u2019 the reach of the gospel? Who is gonna\u2019 tell them about Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n
I wonder if we\u2019re not looking in the right places? Jesus addressed this in his day when He said to His disciples\u2026 \u201cLift up (open) your eyes and LOOK at the world\u2026 it\u2019s ripe for harvest!\u201d (John 4:35) If they didn\u2019t get it, then maybe we\u2019re not getting it either. I\u2019ve always thought of that verse in the likeness of headlights on a car. Low beam illuminates the area around us \u2013the familiar. But high beam spreads the light beyond the familiar to distances we typically don\u2019t see in the darkness. As you move into that light your vision becomes deeper; you see things that perhaps you wouldn\u2019t see if you are looking only at what\u2019s nearby.<\/p>\n
So what in the world are we DOING??? We\u2019re climbing towards a world population of nearly 8 billion people. About a third of them, 2.7 billion people comprising thousands of unreached people groups, remain without the gospel. Friends, we need some serious prayer in light of what Jesus told us to pray about. He said \u201cASK the Lord of the Harvest to thrust out workers.\u201d Ok, that\u2019s the whole point of this writing\u2026 you can do something by asking Jesus to send (Ekballo: to cast, bring forth, produce) those who will go to such places of the world still without the gospel. That\u2019s pretty easy to do, isn\u2019t it? \u2026But don\u2019t be surprised if in the asking he sends some, perhaps you, to go. Let\u2019s continue to partner in prayer to see the job finished, OK?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does it matter? Is our work in vain? Why aren\u2019t more people stepping to the plate to finish the task? Is our effort making any difference in the realm of laborers moving out to declare Christ to the unreached? It was twenty years ago that we stepped into the role of missions mobilization after spending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}