Mission-Minded

King of Kings Baptist, which founded Living Hope and is my “home” church while I’m here, just celebrated its annual missions week. This small congregation (around 300 or so members, I believe) sends and supports 21 individuals and families around Africa, Asia and Europe, and supports another dozen or so mission organizations. They’ve got it right in following Jesus’ command to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The world is hungry for the spiritual fulfillment and eternal life that only Jesus can provide. The guest speaker at this morning’s worship service, Willie Crew of the World Missions Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, told an amazing story of two missionaries who were traveling through Iran with a carload of Bibles. Negotiating a treacherous mountain road, their steering locked up and they screeched to a halt before tumbling down a cliff.

As they were assessing the situation, a Iranian man showed up and asked, “Where are the books?” They figured they were really in trouble now – you just don’t bring Bibles into such a hard-line Islamic country. But the man starting telling a story of how Jesus appeared to him in a dream the night before. The Lord told him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) and the man instantly converted from Islam to Christ-follower. Then, he said, Jesus told him to go down the mountain the next day and he would be given Bibles to bring back and share with his village.

This event cannot be explained as mere coincidence. The living God wants lost people to know Him and He is using His people to make that happen. Mission work is not just for a special few with some unique calling. It’s for anyone who calls Christ their Lord and Savior and it’s to be done everywhere – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), and people need to know how to do that.