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Inside Hinduism: A Story of Freedom

We went to their house for dinner so they could help two short-term workers be better prepared to learn and serve in their country of origin.  We were expecting cultural revelations, but we came away with a story of God’s greatness. 

Maneesha is a beautiful Mauritian woman, with a devoted husband and gorgeous baby girl.  But her life has not always been easy.  Growing up, her father was a witch doctor, a man whose life was destined to be changed.  One day, Maneesha’s brother grew sick with a strange illness which lasted a long time.  Each time the boy reached for his school bag, he would fall down as though dead.  This didn’t happen once in a while, but for 4-5 years.  During that time, Maneesha herself became ill with half her face in perpetual pain.  Illness haunted the boy, then Maneesha, then her aunt, and finally Maneesha’s father. 

Desperate, they visited doctor after doctor – good ones, renowned for their skill.  Then the visits to the witch doctors started.  “It was scary,” Maneesha said, her eyes burning brightly.  “We would watch as animals were sacrificed, their blood spilt.  But nothing changed.  We remained sick.”

Then her father met a man of God, who came to their home to pray.  Maneesha’s father would not give in easily and their conversation turned to debate.  But then something happened.  “Okay,” her father said.  “I give in.  I will follow Jesus.”

From that day forward the family was healed, and together, they turned to Jesus. 

This is Maneesha’s story, but by God’s grace, it could also be the story of many others trapped in darkness and despair, bound to lifeless, impotent, immobile idols which do nothing to bring hope and salvation and joy.  They need Jesus, the life-giver, healer, protector, saviour. 

Will you be a part of bringing change to the Maneesha’s of the world?

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Inside Hinduism: Sights and Smells

“I am a Hindu,” writes Yann Martel in his book, Life of Pi, ”because of sculptured cones of red kumkum powder and baskets of yellow turmeric nuggets, because of garlands of flowers and pieces of broken coconut, because of the clanging of bells to announce one’s arrival to God, because of the… beating of drums… because of the fragrance of incense… because of foreheads carrying, variously signified, the same word – faith. I became loyal to these sense impressions even before I knew what they meant or what they were for… I am aware of Presence, not personal the way we usually feel presence, but something larger.  My heart still skips a beat when I catch sight of the murti, of God Residing, in the inner sanctum of a temple… My hands naturally come together in reverent worship. I hunger for prasad, that sugary offering to God that comes back to us as a sanctified treat.”

This is one of the best descriptions of Hinduism I have come across.  We can understand the philosophy of a religion, but unless we grasp the heart of it – the colour and the texture of it, the taste and the smell of it, the sound and the inner heartbeat of it, we won’t be able to fully engage with those whose very cultural identity is wrapped up with their religion.  For the vast majority, to be Indian or Nepali or Balinese is to be Hindu.  To be Hindu is to be Indian or… to see India as your motherland.  And they are Hindu because they were born Hindus.  As children they rang bells to summon the gods, tasted the sweetness of prasad, they were smeared with vermilion, and entered into their identity and their community of being Hindu. 

There are one billion of these humans who do not know Jesus!  Will you enter their world for the sake of their destinies?

  

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Next blog:  Inside Hinduism: A Story of Freedom



Inside Hinduism: What is it?

It’s incredible to think that 15% of the world’s population practice Hinduism.  That’s more than one billion people, most of whom live in Asia.  But what is Hinduism?  What do Hindus really believe?  To bring Hinduism into sharper focus, let’s do a brief compare/contrast between those who are followers of Hinduism and those who follow Jesus.

Hinduism believes that all religions are valid ways to God.  So whether you worship Krishna or Kali, Buddha or Jesus, they are all paths to salvation.  But Jesus was clear.  “I am the way, the truth, life,” He said.  “No-one comes to the Father but through me.”  According to Christianity, Jesus is the only way.

Hindus believe in reincarnation, a cycle of rebirths where they advance through birth after birth, life after life, until all karmas have been worked out, and liberation from this cycle (moksha), has been achieved.  Followers of Jesus believe that we live one life.  Heb. 9:27 states, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement…”

Hinduism sees moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnation) as the aim.  When moksha is realised, people themselves become gods.  They gain moksha by earning good karma through good works, following a guru, practicing yoga, performing ceremonial deeds, etc.  It is by their own effort.  But the Bible makes it clear that people are in need of salvation because they are sinful and have broken relationship with God.  They only way for this broken relationship to be fixed is through faith in Jesus.  It is through His redemptive work on the cross. 

The gods within Hinduism do not forgive sins and are not interested in saving their followers.  If a wrong is done, the sinner pays for their wrong-doing in the next life.  The only escape is for their good karma to outweigh their bad karma.  But God revealed in Jesus Christ is a God of love and mercy, ready to forgive those truly sorry for their wrong-doing. To satisfy his justice, a price had to be paid for these wrongs, but moved by mercy, Jesus paid this price for us.

Hinduism is a religion of many gods - 330 million at last count! Brahmā: the creator, Śiva: the destroyer, and Viṣṇu: the preserver, are the three highest gods.  Followers of Jesus worship one God and Jesus is his name!

Hinduism is the epitome of relativism, stating that there is no absolute truth; it depends on the individual.  However, Jesus said God’s Word is the truth (Jn. 17:17).  It is the external standard by which followers of Jesus live.

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Next blog: Inside Hinduism: Sights and Smells

Most Endangered Peoples in Poland

It’s a land of large cathedrals and prayer candles, statues of Mary and revered priests.  If being a Christian is based on culture or tradition, then Poland may be the most Christian culture in the world.  But if being a Christian is based on a heart choice to love God and follow Christ and His teaching, then Poland is one of the most forgotten nations of the world.  Almost 95% of all the municipalities in Poland do NOT HAVE EVEN A SINGLE evangelical church.

http://pioneerspoland.org/html/the_need.html 

 

With passion in her voice, one woman who is giving her life for the people of Poland comments, “If we are brave enough to allow Christ to show us the reality beyond the illusion of empty religion and prosperity, then we will be broken by His love for this country.”   

 

She continues, “For too long we have been deceived into thinking that those who show outward signs of religion and share a history similar to our own do not need to hear about Christ.  This misconception has led us into a blissful unawareness of the spiritual battle that rages throughout Europe. At first glance Poles look… deeply devoted to faith and family. Looking closer it becomes apparent that God’s presence is missing from their lives... Adherence to empty religion has no transforming power. It is only an illusion.” 

 

“Most Poles admit that they go to church because our culture tells them they have to,” tells one Polish man.  “When they do something wrong, they go to confession.  The priest offers forgiveness in exchange for acts of penance. Temporary forgiveness is theirs until the next time they mess up.  They end up stuck in an endless cycle, never experiencing the true grace or forgiveness.” 

 

One young Polish woman observes, “We are taught from a young age that we are defined by religious traditions whether or not we understand or agree with them.  Questioning the authority and teachings of the church is a sin.  As a result people are turning away from the church in search of the truth…”

There is no limit to what gifts and abilities can be used in Poland… only authentic relationship with Christ lived out in every day circumstances. 

You can be a part of shaping lives in Poland.  Will you help them experience the truth behind the illusion?

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Most Endangered Peoples

They are the most endangered peoples of the world.

 

http://dom.imb.org/the%20unfinished%20task.htm

Visit ‘The Unfinished Task’ link above. The figures change at an alarming rate – every 30 seconds another 43 people are born into people groups who currently have no access to the gospel.  Eighty-six people per minute!  The mathematics is frightening.  Peoples in danger – in danger of living and dying without Christ, endangered because they haven’t even had a chance to hear.  Frightening but not hopeless.

I think of Nazma and Rozi, Sudha's husband and Ruksana’s eldest brother. And little Anjali and the rapidly growing Nargiz.  I want to hang out with them forever!  I want them there, worshipping Jesus with us.  And worshipping Jesus now.

If it is true that Jesus is the one and only God, the only one worthy of being worshipped, if He is with us, giving us all authority to bring salvation to everyone who will believe, then what in the world are we doing about those who have never even heard of him?

“There can be no weary resignation, no cowardly retreat, and no merciless contentment among Christ’s people while he is disowned among thousands of unreached peoples.  Every Christian (who loves people and honours Christ) must care about this.” John Piper. 

He goes onto say, “any good-hearted goal, without the desire to give people eternal joy in God, is condemnation with a kind face.” 

Because if they don’t hear they are condemned, kind face or not, they are in danger.

The call has been given, the gauntlet thrown down.  Will we, the Church of Jesus Christ, rise up for the most endangered of the world?

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Prayer that Changed the History of a Family

God is moving today through the prayers of His people. 

I remember a time when God broke through in wonder and changed the history of a man – and a community – by extending His hand in healing.  A modern day version of Acts 4:30!

This man had been sick for some time with an open ulcer on his leg and eventually the infection became septic.  He was dying.  As he lay in bed, unable to eat or mobilise, the doctor told his family to say their goodbyes.  In desperation, his wife turned to a Christian friend.  “You’ll come and pray?” she begged.  “Of course,” my friend responded.  “Of course.” 

The hospital was far away but the two-room home (situated below a slum-school she and her husband ran) was nearby.  It was late morning and the heat already had the day in its grip.  Snaking through the traffic, horns beeping, cycles and buses, cars and auto rickshaws, all weaving around each other, two women prayed for God to save this man’s life. 

Joined by three other local woman, none of whom were believers, the women made their way to the school.  Initial greetings made, chai offered and drunk, the sick man’s wife urgently asked again, “You’ve come to pray, right?”  

“Yes, that’s why we’ve come.  When we have prayed before, we prayed in Jesus’ name.  We will do that again today.  We are not praying in the name of the gods found on these posters on the wall,” she said, pointing around her.  “We are praying in Jesus’ name alone, and our hearts need to be joined together in that.  Will you pray in Jesus’ name alone?” she asked.

“Yes, yes,” they all agreed.  And so they prayed.  They prayed that this woman’s dying husband would be healed, that he would live, that he would meet Jesus through it. 

The prayer complete, the two visiting women got up and soon left… no immediate response, at least not that they knew of.

The next day my friend received a phone call.  Gushing with joy, the sick man’s wife told her, “After you left I went to the hospital to visit my husband.  When I arrived he was sitting up and eating plate after plate of rice and dal.  He had even gone to the bathroom by himself!  He is healed!”

Two women, praying in the name of Jesus for Him to move in wonder.  It’s happened before.  It can happen again. 

Will you be a part of changing history?

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Next blog:  Most Endangered Peoples

Prayer that Changes History

The greatest untapped resource that I know of is the prayer of God’s people, says Henry Blackaby. 

Andrew Murray writes, We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.

And Oswald Chambers states, The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilisation or education or even evangelism.  The key is prayer.

How easily we forget. 

Throughout Scripture it is evident that the character and nature of God does not change, but His actions do.  How?  Through the prayer of His people. 

Remember when Abraham bargained with God over Sodom in Genesis 18:22ff?  The men turned away…but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?“

So Abraham begged for 50 righteous men, and God changed His mind.  Then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten.  Though the story does not end well for Sodom, God was prepared to alter the course of history because of Abraham’s request. 

And Moses’ conversation with God in Exodus 32.  The people of Israel, in their selfishness and fear, had melted down jewelry and created an idol in the image of a golden calf.  God, burning with righteous rage, says, “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.”

But Moses went to bat for Israel, and, in vs.14 we see that God’s intended action changed… “the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

The prayer of one man changed the history of a nation.

There are many similar stories in the Bible; stories of how God’s anticipated action was modified because of people who stood in the gap on behalf of others.  And the stories continue today, how lives and tribes, countries and communities are transformed because of how God moves when his people pray.  

We read that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.  If that’s how He’s spending His time, isn’t it worth joining Him?  Don’t you want to see history changed, whether it be the history of one person or that of a nation, because of the prayers you’ve been a part of?  I do!

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Surrender: Upside Down Living in Hard Places

I first met him several months ago, this cool guy with a shaved head.  Of all the places in the world a person can choose, he wants to go to probably the most war-torn place in the world. 

He writes, “I was thinking…if I’m going to save one person I guess I’d like to do it in a country where few Christians go… I said to God that I’d be happy to go to the Middle East.”

Not only that, he wants to go to perhaps one of the hardest regions in that country.  Writing about the decision-making process, he says, “I decided to focus on a region in … and the… region came to mind.  I always felt that I would love to go there, but thought that was more my own interest than God’s.  But as it kept coming up I realised that very, very few people want to live out in those mountains, but I really do. From this time of searching, I came out with a conviction that God was indeed calling me there specifically.”   

Some of you might be thinking, "Well, he’s special, he’s different, he’s one of ‘those’ people".  But it wasn’t an easy choice to make. 

Later, when battling with the idea of going he wrote, “I do not feel ready, I do not feel strong enough, I do not feel spiritual enough, I do not feel together enough… but I know He’s calling me.”

What drives him?  He knows that in a mountainous area of a war-torn country are a people who have not heard about Jesus.  “I feel it’s a great tragedy that they are still unreached,” he states, “and I’m passionate about changing that fact.” 

“And,” he adds, a smile on his face, “I can’t wait to fall in love with them.” 

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Surrender: Upside Down or Right Way Up?

I’ve been thinking about surrender a lot lately.  I watch in awe as people sell their homes to go to a different country and live Jesus out loud – in a way that can make all the difference in the world to those they go to.  I think about one couple who had just finished both of their medical specialties and abandoned the potential of a huge income to go to an area of the hills of South Asia where people haven’t heard about Jesus.  I think of other friends who finally, after years of infertility and hopeful, prayerful waiting, progressed to the top of the adoption waiting list in Australia, only to obey God’s call to go, which for them meant giving up any known possibility of having kids.  Crazy surrender!  Upside down choices.  Their way of thinking is counter-cultural.  It doesn't make sense.

But it does to God.

In fact, He came up with that kind of thinking; where millions and millions of the world’s population who have no chance of hearing about Jesus matter to Him, where the 200 people who died as you read these words and who have never heard about Jesus matter to Him, as do the 300 who were born in these minutes and who at this time in history have no hope of hearing. 

In his redchurch.org blog, ‘The Rise of the 2^nd Wave Prosperity Gospel’, Mark Sayers writes, “It offers self actualisation rather than self-denial. Social Justice without personal cost. Discipleship without responsibility.”

And I wonder, how will people hear without self-denial?  How will they receive justice and mercy without personal cost?  How will they be discipled unless someone takes the responsibility, seeing them as entrusted by God?

I wonder.

We talk about surrender, giving all for Jesus, but…

...we just need to do this first

...we’re not sure we could handle that

...we’ll surrender anything except [insert idol of choice here]. 

But true surrender knows no limits – or at least it acknowledges limits and asks God to invade and do His thing to change us.  Don’t we want to be like that?  People who will step out of our comfort zone, without dragging our feet or having a foot in both camps?  People who will be bold and brave, or even scared-to-death-but-willing?  Then maybe we’ll be reflecting some of those upside-down things that God holds dear to His heart and look much more like Him than like the world that tarnishes and erodes.

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Next blog: Surrender: Upside Down Living in Hard Places


Shema Video

Living Jesus Out Loud in Chad.  See it come alive in this video!

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Living Jesus Out Loud in the Heart of Africa

One of our workers knows exactly what it's like to live Jesus out loud with his family in a hard-to-reach place of the world.  Writing from the heart of Africa, he says...

What does it take to live Jesus out loud?  The first thing I think of is telling people about Christ.  Now, granted, I have an evangelist’s heart, so my bent is in that direction, but sometimes we get lost in the ‘how’ of it all. 

At times, we are so relational that we miss an important opportunity.  We focus solely on building relationships with our non-believing acquaintances without making Jesus a natural part of that relationship right from the start.  So what happens?  We have a real heart to see the person come to know the Lord, we get to know him or her, and we become good friends.  And then, uh oh, somehow now we have to find a way to introduce the most important person in our life, our very worldview, to the neighbour we have been cultivating a relationship with for some time. And because we haven’t mentioned Jesus before, it becomes very awkward to do so now.

As if we are trying to trick our new friend.

Living out loud means not only being the hands and feet of Jesus, but also the voice of the gospel.  Our message, when shared in truth and love, brings honor to God and shows love and respect to our friends.  But we actually need to speak about Jesus. In my context, here in the heart of Africa, I have to remind myself of this every time I walk outside my door where all of my neighbors are Muslim.  They have never been told who Jesus really is, so I owe it to them to be both loving and bold in my encounters with them.

My passion is to live Jesus out loud among people who don’t know Him.  In our particular setting, that means two international flights and a three-day drive across the Sahel of Africa.  The result of such a journey means arriving at a destination where I get to spend time with whole tribes who, as yet, do not have even one believer among them. 

So how can we live out loud for Jesus?  Let’s ask the Lord to help us, and then look for opportunities, difficult though some may be.  Once we find them, let’s love people – the Shema in action.  And let’s make sure they don’t think we are just good people, but that they know we love and follow the great God.  And how that same great God – revealed in Jesus - loves them.  

For more information visit www.pioneers.org.au                      

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Next blog: Surrender: Upside Down or Right Way Up?

Shema: Living Jesus Out Loud

I love watching Jesus at work. In Mark 12:28-34 we can see a Pharisaic scribe testing Jesus, and, in response, Jesus turns the tables of history.  Jesus begins in vv. 29-30 by quoting Deut. 6:4-5, known as ‘the Shema’, which is the Hebrew word for ‘hear’ - the core cry of the OT law and religion. 

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This is what all Jews would chant as their confession of faith, their core value. It summarized their way of thinking. At the heart of their identity, it would be recited every morning and evening as part of the pious Jew’s prayer. It still begins the service every Sabbath in every synagogue of the world. 

Hear, O Israel. Listen up, people of God! Hear and remember. Remember that you are my covenant people, that I am your God – the God of your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember that I am the God who fulfils the promises I made with you as part of our covenant. Hear, O Israel. 

…the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Yahweh, the Great I AM, is the one and only God. There is no other. He is – and there is only one of Him. He is not a pantheon of gods, He is not a multiplicity – one god for this, and another for that. He is not like any of the gods that were and are worshipped by surrounding nations. He is not to be mixed up with them, like a Buddhist Jesus, or Jesus, your spirit guide.  He is unique, unrivalled. He is one.  

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (as Mark adds) and with all your strength.  Love Him with all your heart: the seat of the will and the emotions, love Him to the core of your gut. Love Him with all your soul:  with every breath, your very life. Love Him with all your mind: with every thought, with the way you understand and look at things.  Love Him with all your strength:  with all your energy and resources.

The writer is simply saying, love God with utter devotion, unconditional surrender.

Then others will know that the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  They will know by our whole devotion, our surrender without reserve, our allegiance, our affection, our living Jesus – God revealed to us in man – living Him out loud. 

And Jesus, quoting Lev. 19:18, says, ”Love you neighbour as yourself.”  The practical application of Deut. 6:4-5.  First, always first, is loving God.  Then, out of that reality, we love others.  We can love because He first loved us.  Sound familiar?  Love for God should never stop short of loving others.  And loving others without truly loving God, is just a clanging cymbal. 

In one stroke, Jesus has condensed the 613 laws of the Old Testament into two supreme laws.  Love God.  Love others.

It reminds me of a doctor friend who’s spending herself for a community of poor, writing scripts, praying for the women, travelling to the slum despite 45 degree heat, choosing not to advance her own career, living Jesus out loud to others.  The Shema, extended NT mix!

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Next blog: Living Jesus Out Loud in the Heart of Africa

Living an 'ACTS' Life in South Sudan

Last year, I met some people whose lives fit into the ‘radical’ lifestyle that was the norm for those living in the church we see in the book of Acts.  He is a doctor working with refugees here in Australia.  She, an Occupational Therapist, is one of those people you automatically feel at home with, as if you’ve been sisters for life.

They have an incredible dream.  Heading toward the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, they plan to work amongst the broken and downtrodden.  In their own family mission statement they say:

“We believe God wants us to be His hands and feet amongst the people of South Sudan.  He has given us a clear mission as a family – to join with others in re-building South Sudan…

• By providing health care to women and children
• By promoting the value and values of God-honouring families
• By proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, in words and deeds
• By praying that God’s Name and His Ways would be honoured”

This second point might sound strange, but in a country where families are torn apart, kids are orphaned, fathers killed by war, to model a family that honours God is huge.  And this family, in their beautiful vulnerability, will do it well.  Sharing their skills, their lives, their resources, their faith… they would fit well into the church we find in Acts.

Check out their website:  www.servantsofsouthsudan.net

LIKE their Facebook page: The Poole Family in South Sudan https://www.facebook.com/#!/PooleFamilyInSouthSudan

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Next blog: The Shema – Living Jesus Out Loud

Living an 'ACTS' Life

Some time ago a friend pointed me to Francis Chan’s sermons on YouTube.  Being the gifted communicator that he is, most of his sermons make you want to immediately go and change the world! But one in particular struck me.  In this talk he uses a balance beam as a prop.  After sharing a bit of his life history, he lies on the beam, hugging it.  No jumps and twirls (which, after seeing this live at the Commonwealth Games 2010, I’m much more impressed with), no cartwheels, no flippy dismounts.  Then, mid powerful monologue, he simply climbs off and does the Olympic hands in the air ‘thank you’. 

His challenge? When our lives are over and we stand before God, many of us will want credit for the great performance our lives have been, but all we’ve done is hug the ‘balance beam of Christian life’ and dismount.

“I want my life to fit in this,” Francis Chan says in another YouTube video, holding up his Bible.  Implicit in this is the question, If we were to hold our lives up to the radical lives that we see in the early church (especially in the book of Acts), would our lives fit, or would we be “living on the bearable surface of things,” as one writer pens? 

When I first saw this balance beam YouTube, I was living in Nth India, working with the poor.  Maybe, just maybe, on a good day, if I held my life and my work up against the Acts church, it wasn’t too different.  But I’m now back in Australia.  What about now?  What about you?  Rather than ‘normal’ being modelled by the culture around me, I want to have the radical nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ as my standard. For that to be my normal. 

What’s your normal?

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Next blog: What’s it like living an ‘Acts’ life in the youngest nation on earth?

Planting among Hippies in South East Asia

Curled up on a stone seat overlooking the murky Ganga River, she begins to talk. Below her are hordes of people; Half-naked Sadhus, travellers ladened with backpacks trying to look somewhat savvy in a world so different to their own, bedraggled kids rushing around with their hands full of floating candles and other trinkets for sale, men bathing in the shallows, devotees coming to the river to worship. Buffalo and stray dogs look for food, and boats softly make their way back and forth, packed with pilgrims fulfilling a life-long dream to visit this ancient city.

I’ll call her Goldberry because she reminds me of the character from Lord of the Rings, with golden hair and a voice like a bell. She, her husband and their son have been living in India for five or so years now. They run a Jesus Ashram, where they invite travellers to come for meditations on Jesus. They fall easily into conversation with eclectic peoples from Europe, Asia, India, Australia, the Americas, you name it, and invite them home for chai or a chat about Jesus or a place to sleep.

“It’s not an easy life”, she says, eyes fixed on a distant point, “but we know it’s where God has planted our family.”

Planting is an important metaphor for Goldberry. “I think beauty itself speaks directly about God. It reflects part of who He is,” a smile playing on her lips as she meanders throughout the garden she planted. Looking around, I see her creative touches everywhere. I see, too, how it reflects Jesus to others. How the beauty of this garden, the wall art, and the sacred space they have set apart within the Ashram, bears witness. They are living Jesus out loud in this hard place.

For more information, visit: www.pioneers.org.au

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Entrusted to Go

Often the first questions people ask when they are thinking about mission life is, “Where can I go?”, “What can I do?” Or, tangentially, “How do I know that what is on my heart is what is on God’s heart? And how do I even know what God has put on my heart anyway?!” Good questions, all of them.

If questions like these keep you up at night, remember this… if you are interested in the ‘going’ part of global missions, you are one of very few. Believe it or not, only one follower of Jesus in every 20,000 takes the good news of Jesus to places of the world where people have never heard of Him. So if there is a stirring in your heart about missions, a longing to be a part of the solution for people who don’t know Him, questions can be a catalytic starting point. Maybe you’ll be one of those who dares to go to one of the hardest places of the world… so that others who, to date, haven’t had the chance, can hear life-changing news! If that’s you, we’d love to journey with you, help you take another step, engage with your questions, throw some ideas your way.

“How do I know what God has put on my heart?” He’s given you – entrusted to you – His heartache for those who haven’t had the chance to hear. Unengaged Peoples. Groups of people who haven’t heard that Jesus is Lord or who don’t have a church community among them strong enough to spread the news without help. Help from people willing to cross cultural barriers, learn another language, and live Jesus ‘out loud’ in a way that makes “all the difference in the world,” (F. Beuchner).

You might serve as a doctor in the heart of Africa, work with slum dwellers in India, teach English in Thailand, surf in Spain, clean prison cells in Bolivia, or do business in the Middle East. Doing what most are not doing. Living Jesus out loud in even the hardest places.

 

For more information, visit: www.pioneers.org.au

Next blog: What’s it like working with hippies in South East Asia?