One by one they\u2019re stepping out –from local churches, from Bible colleges\u00a0and Bible institutes.\u00a0 They are young couples, families, single men and women.\u00a0 They are dedicated individuals from all walks of life, stepping on faith to obey\u00a0 the command of Christ to make disciples among the nations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been enthralling for us to see fruit for our labors, having spent these last 15 years beckoning believers to take God\u2019s Word to unreached peoples.\u00a0 \u2026But it\u2019s not\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0been encouraging.\u00a0 At times our work has been downright discouraging, especially when we see folks responding to the call of God, only to have their passions squelched by well-intentioned believers who discourage them from going.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cStay here\u2026 we\u2019ll invest time & teaching to assure you\u2019ve really heard the call of God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cLook what you\u2019ll be missing out on if you go there; stay here, make a name for yourself.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYou have a good job.\u00a0 Why not let others go and you stay here and support them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Our work is difficult enough; the enemy of our souls convincingly tells us to \u2018leave the unreached alone\u2026 they\u2019re happy the way they are.\u2019\u00a0 Are they, really?\u00a0\u00a0What if we were living in their destitute condition\u2026 would we not want someone to bring the gospel of Christ to us?<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ve poured our lives into preaching the constraining love of Christ and the \u2018go\u2019 of the gospel which still motivates \u2018called ones\u2019 to become \u2018sent ones.\u2019\u00a0 I wonder how many unreached people will remain unreached as a result of someone discouraging another from going?<\/p>\n As we survey new areas where the gospel\u2019s never gone I ask myself, \u201cWhy has no one ever come here?\u201d\u00a0 Is it really all that hard to reach these people?\u00a0\u00a0 Sure it takes special skills and specified training, but we and others can provide that.<\/p>\n Could it be that those who resist the hardest actually may be the very ones God is calling onto the harvest fields of the world?\u00a0 We object with \u201cOh, I couldn\u2019t go there!\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t have what it takes.\u201d\u00a0 \u2013Like God isn\u2019t capable to prepare us for the work He\u2019s given us to do.\u00a0 If he could take a band of crusty old fisherman and a rowdy tax collector to turn the world upside down in his day, then surely we should make ourselves available to His command.\u00a0 \u2026Or is it that we don\u2019t want to?<\/p>\n I had my \u2018don\u2019t-want-to\u2019 challenged many years ago. It was at a time when I was in the work-a-day world, building air conditioners at a day job and reaching people in my community for Jesus in the evenings.\u00a0 That was good,\u00a0so I thought<\/em>, until I considered what value an air conditioner would do someone destined for hell.\u00a0 Moreover, I came face to face with the question \u201cAm I really obeying the command to make disciples among the nations?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>That really jarred my thinking.<\/p>\n The more I read of scripture the more I began to realize the immensity of the job. There were millions who needed to hear about Jesus.\u00a0 But we were just one couple; what difference could we make?\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have a lot of money to send others, but we did what we could\u2026 and we prayed!<\/p>\n And amid our praying and serving we sensed the personal responsibility to go. What?\u00a0 Us?\u00a0 Go?\u00a0 Go where?<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t even think about those questions when we realized the command to make disciples was to all believers.\u00a0 Sure, we were doing that here, but there were lots of people doing that here and so few going \u2018there.\u2019\u00a0 We knew we couldn\u2019t stay here; we had to go there\u2026 wherever \u2018there\u2019 was.\u00a0 \u00a0I think the Apostle Paul gave us a clear window into the heart of God when he told how he strived to preach the gospel in regions where the message never had been declared.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we wanted to go\u2026 but it would take specialized training.<\/p>\n After extensive research we found that NTM was one such group going to unreached peoples.\u00a0 Then we learned just how isolated these unreached people were; it was shocking.\u00a0 But shocking as it was, we knew they needed to hear about Jesus.\u00a0 We felt privileged to be among those who would tell them\u2026 but we needed training.<\/p>\n NTM was able to provide the tools we needed for missionary work \u2013a biblical foundation, New Testament church planting principles, and a boatload of language & cultural acquisition skills and lots of practical insights.\u00a0 It was intense.<\/p>\n It was during our training days that I realized this was an investment of our lives, not for any return we would receive, but the bringing of souls to leave at the feet of Jesus.\u00a0 We did a lot of reading and research about areas of the world without a gospel witness.\u00a0 Somehow the Lord pressed upon our hearts the country of Papua New Guinea.\u00a0 A country only the size of California, PNG has more than 860 languages.\u00a0 At that time, more than half of them remained unreached with the gospel.\u00a0 \u2026So that\u2019s where we went to serve.<\/p>\n Today, many of those language groups are still unreached with the gospel, although NTM has made it their business to reach as many as possible.\u00a0 That work carries on there today and in other regions of the world where the gospel has never been declared.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit staggering to think that there are still some 2,500 people groups who never heard the gospel, never held a Bible, and what\u2019s most sad to say is that they don\u2019t know Jesus.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve been at this work a long time and it still thrills our hearts to receive news that yet another tribe has stepped from their darkness, into the marvelous light of the gospel \u2013from death unto life.\u00a0 But many more die while waiting to hear.\u00a0 Is it their fate to face eternity with no hope and without Christ?\u00a0 \u2026Or is it my failure to be obedient to the command?<\/p>\n We\u2019ve been given a job to do. Somebody\u2019s gotta\u2019 do it.\u00a0 Who\u2019s it gonna\u2019 be?<\/p>\n This job of getting the gospel to people who never heard of Jesus weighs heavily upon our hearts.\u00a0 We go to sleep at night in a comfy bed with clean sheets and clean hearts, knowing full well as believers in Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.\u00a0 But we know of countless tribesmen who would trade all the clean sheets in the world,\u00a0if they had them<\/em>, for the assurance of eternity with Jesus.\u00a0 But clean sheets don\u2019t buy clean hearts. Only the liberating message of the gospel can change them.\u00a0 \u2026And that\u2019s a story worth repeating.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to my heart.<\/p>\n Dave Hilt, Nat\u2019l. Rep for NTM<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One by one they\u2019re stepping out –from local churches, from Bible colleges\u00a0and Bible institutes.\u00a0 They are young couples, families, single men and women.\u00a0 They are dedicated individuals from all walks of life, stepping on faith to obey\u00a0 the command of Christ to make disciples among the nations. It\u2019s been enthralling for us to see fruit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":{"0":"post-93","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","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=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-hilt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}