{"id":1917,"date":"2013-03-19T01:15:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T01:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paytonandgrace.com\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2013-03-19T01:15:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T01:15:57","slug":"pick-a-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2013\/03\/19\/pick-a-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick-a-Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"field<\/a> A day or two before the official missions conference started, our small group jokingly contemplated putting up a “Fortunes Told Here” booth to help students decide where they should go overseas. Even jokingly, the whole idea may seem a bit offensive, but I will tell you after spending two days hearing from representatives from all over the world, I was wishing we could just grab a dice or pick a name out of a hat! The needs were overwhelming. Even if everyone of us in that room made it to the field and defied the odds of the current attrition rates, we would barely make a dent. \"field<\/a><\/p>\n

\"761_4387_dao<\/a>
This is a photo from the Dao people group. I’m currently reading “Prophecies of Pale Skin” written by the missionaries who live with the Dao right now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first, I had no clue where to channel this weighty feeling. Then, as I prayed about it, I realized that I need to be challenging those we meet about becoming co-laborers in all of this! My heart was broken as we heard about one man from a people group in Asia Pacific who contacts the mission about 6 times a year asking, “Hey, do you have anyone yet? Will anyone be able to come?” These people live in a swampy place that is filled with disease and is pretty nasty from what I hear. The average life-expectancy of tribal people in those areas is only 30 years! There are peoples in the jungles of West Brazil who are incredibly remote and hard to even get to by helicopter! But, even those living closer to civilization all had the same story…they are without the gospel and are living without hope. \"Village<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, in the midst of the desperate need, Payton and I were able to see God at work through the testimonies of the missionaries. We sat with one guy from Asia Pacific for over 5 hours, chatted with reps from Southeast Asia, and also considered the other countries represented (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and a few others). We’re still hoping to hear more from Africa in the next month. To my own surprise, we’re also considering what God is doing in a much colder part of the world after we spoke with a rep from North Asia (I had never thought I’d even be open to considering a “cold” option, but God changed something deep down inside of my heart, that’s for sure!). \"cold<\/a><\/p>\n

So, no, we haven’t chosen a field yet. In fact, there are more on our radar than before. But, we are devoting what we do know to prayer and are trusting God to lead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A day or two before the official missions conference started, our small group jokingly contemplated putting up a “Fortunes Told Here” booth to help students decide where they should go overseas. Even jokingly, the whole idea may seem a bit offensive, but I will tell you after spending two days hearing from representatives from all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"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":[56],"tags":[273,1037,1100],"class_list":{"0":"post-1917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-mtc","7":"tag-missionaries","8":"tag-thoughts","9":"tag-unreached","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}