Week 12

Douglas Huston, the base director from Honduras, taught this final week of the lecture phase. The subject was specifically on “Missions” however, he also taught us “Worship” is the fuel and goal of missions. In the beginning of time (Genesis Ch 11) God set aside the Nation of Israel to be blessed in order to bless all the nations. This is what we call “The Great Commission” to preach the good news of hope and grace to the entire world. There are approximately 6 billion people in the world, of those, 4 billion people have heard the Gospel but sadly enough, one half choose not to accept it. With these numbers we can see that about 2 billion people have never had access to the word of God. So this proves that not only do we need to reach the un-reached but also the nominal Christians as well (those without a daily walk or the ones that show up to church just on Easter, etc.). Just as a few examples, to demonstrate how missionaries are dispersed in all the different nations. There are approximately 3 missionaries per 1 million Muslims in the world, 5 per million Hindu, 5.5 per million Buddhist, 7 per million Chinese, 52 per million tribal members, 69 per 1 million Jews, and on and on. These really show the need of every nation. The key is to meet people in their land, on their terms, and celebrate diversity by worshiping in their own unique way. The biggest task is to realize that the message and meaning is what matters not the vessel or form. Each nation and tribe has it’s own unique flavor of worship. The exciting passion is for every nation to worship our Father God in their unique style and not just the “western” way. We need to step out of our box and see the world for what it is. God has created diversity and creativity among us. Let’s celebrate these things together! We are still learning to live as Jesus in Phil 2:5-8 to humble ourselves as servants to the nations so continue to pray for us because we have another month and a half to go in Southeast Asia.