Reaching People in Their own Backyard

I think sometimes we forget about national missionaries. Many churches, denominations, and church conventions support missions work right here in the U.S. From disaster relief to church planting, a lot is going on here. We tend not to think of it as missions because we’ve gotten used to the idea of missions as people leaving their country of origin to live in another country to reach people for Jesus.

Colombia has national missionaries too, which is just foreign enough for us to register. The Nu are a people group with very few believers who live in areas where it isn’t safe for foreigners to travel. It’s not very safe for nationals to travel either. But L and J, national missionaries, have spent the summer strengthening and encouraging the Nu believers. Praise God for that. And pray that He’ll use those strengthened believers to reach others for the advance of His Kingdom.

NU OF COLOMBIA (noo). Thank you for praying for the Nu believers. Give thanks to God that having Colombian missionaries L and J in the community for three months this summer was a great encouragement to the believers. They are now willing to stay in their community, having received help in some practical areas such as health and education.

To learn how your church can be involved in embracing an unreached people group through the IMB, click here.

To give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, click here.

Fleeing Violence, Finding Christ

There are millions of internally displaced people in Colombia. This is largely due to armed drug traffickers and paramilitaries that control rural areas of the country. In recent years the Colombian government, with aid from American military and intelligence workers, has been able to curb some of the violence.

The effects of these armed groups, while slowed, still loom large over the country. According to one website on internally displaced persons, anywhere from 3.6 to 5.2 million Colombians are internally displaced, having had to flee their homes due to the violence.[1] I’ve read somewhere that around 1 million people in Bogotá alone are displaced.

Since these armed groups take refuge in the jungle, many native groups have been pulled into the conflict, threatened by the armed groups if they don’t grow drugs on their land for them. Some of them have left their villages to seek refuge in the city. That’s where the prayer request comes in today.

CHA AND TA OF COLOMBIA (chah; tah). There is an IMB family that has made contact with a group of Cha people in a major city who have been displaced because of the violence in the area where they lived. These Cha people came to the city hoping to find a new life, a job, food for their family, and rest from the violence. What awaited them however was more violence, poverty, hunger and a city that is cold and forbidding to them. Pray as these missionaries build relationships and share the Gospel with them. Pray that these Cha people will find the peace that only God can give. Pray that even though they now say they will never return to their communities, God will call some of them to take the Gospel back to their people.

It is hard to imagine something similar happening in America. But we should try to imagine it if only to soften our hearts to identify with these people, the hurt and rejected. Without Christ they face an even bleaker eternity than their present reality.

Through your prayers, you can make a difference. And the IMB is trying to connect churches in the U.S. with unreached and unengaged people groups around the world. If your church isn’t prepared to take that kind of step, you can still support the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, 100% of which goes directly to the field, not administrative costs. It isn’t for nothing that the International Mission Board has the lowest overall cost per missionary of any mission agency.[2]

---

[1] http://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/colombia

[2] $46,700 a year (average). Reported April 2011. Support includes housing, salary, children’s education, medical expenses, retirement and more. http://www.imb.org/main/give/page.asp?StoryID=5523&LanguageID=1709

LMCO & Reaching Out

Jesus e o Senhor. Eu tenho que predicar o evangelio.
Jesús es el Señor. Yo tengo que predicar el evangelio.
Jesus is the Lord. I have to preach the gospel.

This is the extent of my language abilities. I can speak English, Spanish, and a little Portuguese. I have witnessed in two of these languages. How many languages have you witnessed in? The sad part is that many in today’s churches can’t even say they’ve witnessed in one. As the Missions Director at my church, I get to see much more mission material than the average attendee. I just had a chance to preview the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering videos and promotion material for this year. I feel a specific calling from God to go to Latin America, and from my past mission trips to Peru, Costa Rica, and Mexico, it really excited me to get to hear the stories from IMB missionaries on the field. As I was watching the videos I got up to get some juice and I looked out my window across the street and saw Bishop Hall, one of the buildings on campus at Ferris State University. I realized that the difficulty lies in translating the excitement I get from watching the testimonies into real actions on my campus. My church doesn’t offer anything for college students. That’s okay because it has its own ministries. If I want to share the gospel and invite people to church, I need to get involved in speaking with others and inviting them to one of the campus ministries.

I was most moved by the video about the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eric Reese, an IMB missionary there, takes the gospel to one of the most dangerous places in South America. The favelas (slums) have drug dealers, paramilitaries, and all sorts of things going on. In the video you can even hear gunshots from outside during a church service. He was so moved by the power of God… it’s hard to describe. You have to have a personal connection there. I want to see the power of God in my life. In the Bible, a lot of times, it was after a person stepped out in faith that God moved. I’m thinking my situation is similar. It’s not that God wants us to take the first step, but rather, God has taken the first step and we have to respond in faith. Those who feel the burden to preach the gospel are not motivated by guilt. Those who don’t feel the burden can’t be motivated by guilt.

But we all should feel the burden.