Returning from Asia last month I went to attend our adult Bible school class at church. Someone asked about my recent trip, and I said it was “exceptionally successful.” Perceptively they asked how do you define success? After I explained some of the stories and details, my classmates agreed the trip was successful. Having returned last week from my February trip I feel this trip was even more “exceedingly successful” than last months.
First this was the largest deployment of the Asia Impact Team. Five members along with one spouse were available to be at a large celebration and then fanned out to visit Unreached People Groups (UPGs) in various village contexts. As of this writing some team members are still on the field.
FOCUS ON ASIA
The focus this time was on one south Asia country. Our Asia Impact Team met with five sets of key local and national leaders. Two of these groups we have been in contact for some time, and in the case of one, we had previously met them in person. We are still developing contacts which will lead to connections for partnerships. This trip provided the information and personal trust relationships needed for successful partnerships in reaching UPGs. Our team still has to debrief the trip and conduct more follow-up meetings with these key local leaders. But here are some highlights:
- One national group already sends about 30 missionaries into several neighboring countries with UPGs. They hope to at least triple their missionaries and with our help hopes to extend these missionaries tenure working in the field. They plan to totally fund these new efforts and want to walk with them as they revamp their entire mission operation.
- One other mission organization has asked us to do the same for their mission as they deploy missionaries in over 8 locations. They want our help in training cross-cultural missionaries.
- One national leader has trained about 60 church planters to work in resistant areas with persecution. He has now 75 more church planters in a training program.
- Each leader we met knows that the progress of the gospel will come in their area only by suffering. They are preparing disciples and leaders for sharing the Gospel of Jesus in an even more challenging time in the future.
Asian Chemistry – Some of you maybe missed this last month. Converge had someone interview John and authored an article on his current ministry. You can read the article here https://converge.org/article/catalyzing-spiritual-reactions