“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” ― Corrie ten Boom
FROM THE DESK OF: the Director of Mobilization
Much like eating a salad, mobilization is both absolutely necessary and mostly frustrating. Our goal is to get as many incarnational gospel witnesses as possible, into as many places as possible. Simple enough. Except for one variable. We focus on the “10/40 Window,” a geographic designation for a massive swath of the planet where the majority of the world’s unbelieving population lives. Many of these places are headquarters to terrorist cells, sex trafficking rings and drug smuggling operations. Many governments in these regions would prefer to live in the 7th century and many of their infrastructures aren’t too far ahead anyway. That’s a long way of saying we work in incredibly inconvenient places. This makes sending short and long term workers ... complicated. There is a reason these people are unreached. They’re tough to get to.
A very current, very obvious example: We have scaled back, delayed or canceled, many placement opportunities in the Middle East because of the chaos caused by ISIS (not that people are clamoring to go to those areas anyway).
You can see the difficulty in organizing simple travel arrangements much less, intake the cultural differences, language barriers and spiritual warfare that are a part of this process. I make this point, not to make you feel sorry for the cards that the mobilization guy got dealt but can you believe we actually had pre-ISIS opportunities to cancel?! And can you believe that a kid in Texas can play a part in reaching the nations? Despite these difficulties we’re gearing up to send a soccer team to the Arabian Peninsula, an intern to North Africa and a gymnastics team to the Middle East. It’s all grace upon grace. The Kingdom is expanding and if the grave couldn’t contain it than neither can the rules about visas or terrorist insurgencies.
For the Win[dow],
Bubby Bryan, DOM
VERSE OF THE WEEK: Psalm 146:7-10
“He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.”
beautiful Burma countryside (photo credit: conciergetraveller.com)
COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: MYANMAR
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, commonly referred to as Burma and/or Myanmar, is a Southeast Asian country with a 1,200 mile coastlines on the Bay of Bengal. According to World Watch List, "Being Burmese is synonymous with being Buddhist, and anyone who deviates from this heritage is viewed as a potential threat. Christians are often caught in the crossfire between different ethnic groups and the army – dozens of Christians have been killed, and church buildings and homes destroyed." In a population of nearly 54 million, there are almost 45 million unreached Burmese, most of whom are Buddhist. Pray for God to uphold Burmese Christians and frustrate the ways of those who oppose the Gospel.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- we are searching for an intern to spend a few months with a worker in North Africa, helping create a sports business plan
- PRAISE: our local event last Saturday went really well, and we had many cool opportunities to connect with our community!
- we continue to pray for a new staff person (or two) to join our team this fall and ask God to bring the right person quickly