God At Work
Over the last week, we had a small team in Central Asia visiting, encouraging, and investing in a few of our global partners. Here is what we saw God doing.
- Whole-hearted Worship: On Sunday the 5th, our team got to worship with a local body of believers, and it was so encouraging. This is a context where only 0.2% of the population are born-again believers. You read that correctly. It is a staggeringly low percentage. But that doesn’t prevent believers from gathering and engaging in whole-hearted worship. In the service, we joined this multiethnic group (in a very global city), sang worship in three languages, heard the preaching of God’s Word, and enjoyed fellowship with each other. The hospitality of this church, not only towards us but towards each other and their physical neighbors, was a sign of the distinctive life change that happens in Christ. After the first service, there was a meal shared in the courtyard outside the church. And we saw more than one church member inviting a neighbor from one of the surrounding apartments to come and join us for this meal. No strings attached, just a shared meal. How Beautiful! In the service, we watched as children were welcomed and invited to stay with their parents or join in the special classes that were prepared just for them. I found myself praying over these children and their parents that God would continue to bear generational fruit through them. Many of their parents are first-generation Christians. In this global city, we got to get a foretaste of what Revelation 7 tells us will happen one day when people from all nations and speaking all languages will worship Jesus together!
- Young adults pursuing Jesus: Over the course of the week, we interacted with many young adults who are wrestling with the questions of their futures, identity, purpose, and value. Our cultures are different, but the felt needs are very much the same. It was so encouraging one afternoon as we sat with this group. Many of those who have traveled to the US and Europe before are not naïve and understand all that the world offers. Yet, they told us about following Christ and how they were working out their faith in the midst of their questions and struggles. For this group, their willingness to identify with Christ does not make their future options easier. Instead, being aligned with Christ goes far against the majority culture and can bring significant pressure and close doors of opportunity. Yet, they keep wrestling and pursuing Jesus. I reflected on how, for us in Ames, we still live in a majority Christian place, and while the tide is shifting where the church and Christianity are seen as harmful, will we be encouraged by their example to follow Christ even when it doesn’t benefit us culturally?
- Leaders eager to follow the Great Commission: I hope you’ve picked up on this, but there are very few Christians in this global city of 1.5 million. Yet, all of the leaders we talked and met with were eager to faithfully follow the Great Commission. They understood the cost and the call of discipleship in their setting, yet they, like the young adults we met, were committed to Jesus and to sharing the gospel. I was personally struck by their humility and willingness to engage in the conversation of increasing formation-focused discipleship. That is helping first and second-generation believers grow into maturity in Christ. We didn’t have easy or formulaic answers for them. Instead, we listened, talked, and worked through ideas together. Their creativity and passion flowed from inner wells of love and devotion to Christ.
- The gospel bearing fruit: Over and over again, we heard stories of the gospel bearing fruit. Of God meeting people in ways that they uniquely needed and never thought possible. We heard stories of one person coming to Christ in a local village and then leading two or three of their friends to Christ, which started a chain reaction, and soon whole families were following Christ where only a few years before, there were no believers at all. We saw people opening their homes in hospitality and using their gifts and resources to serve one another in a profound picture of changing priorities that come with following Christ. Sometimes, we can look at our own context of Ames and central Iowa and wonder if God is moving. I promise you that He is! But time with these believers was a clear reminder to me that our posture matters. Are we willing to be present to the Spirit of God through our days? Are we willing to offer our resources and gifts to God so that he might use them for his glory? Are we willing to shift our priorities and lifestyles by making intentional decisions to live differently because we are Christ-followers? God is moving, and if we aren’t seeing it, maybe we need to recalibrate our lives to see it. The harvest is plentiful!
I am grateful to be part of a church that values sharing the gospel and living lives of purposeful responsiveness near and far. Let’s not give up on that easily because God is at work!
Let’s keep praying for:
- Timely and needed words of encouragement for our partners laboring in difficult places.
- Engagement in mission and clarity of the gospel.
- Protection and provision for believers living in places where there are real consequences for following Christ.
- That gospel would continue to bear fruit that lasts.