Over the past two months, a group of nine Cedarville students teamed up with other students all across America to plant seeds of Gospel truth in an area where the vast majority of people have never before heard the good news.
In an effort to come alongside and help the long-term workers who have been plowing the soil for the past 15+ years, the students who come are able to develop genuine friendships with locals, sow seeds of truth with their friends, and are even able at times to read the Bible with them if their friend shows interest in learning more.
This system strategically allows the reach of the long-term team to be expanded significantly, and when we leave for the summer, those there long-term can follow up with the people who were interested in learning or reading more.
During the six weeks we were there this summer, 133 people got to hear the good news!
Major Themes of This Summer
A major theme for many of our team members, myself included, was worshipful obedience. It’s a great joy and privilege to share the gospel with someone who’s not ever before heard the good news. But too often, my motivation behind this work can become skewed. I grow to love the person with whom I’m sharing that I often begin to share out of a love for them or because I don’t want them to be eternally separated from God. Other times, I see sharing as an obligation because I know it’s what I should do. While these motivations in and of themselves are not necessarily wrong, they should never replace my first motivation — worship.
When my greatest joy is to worship the One who created me to dwell with Him forever and the One who made that possible for me through the saving work of Christ and the sanctifying work of the Spirit, this should cause me to worship. And what a joy it really is to share this good news with others when my perspective is right and when all I want is to pour out worship to the One who is worthy.
A second major theme throughout this summer was the importance of and beauty in biblical community. It’s an undeserved gift of God’s grace that He’s brought us into union with Himself through Christ, and yet He is gracious still in giving us the undeserved gift of community within the body.
This summer, many people were able to hear the Gospel for the first time. Several locals were interested in learning/reading more, and this was something about which we were able to rejoice. We were all there for a common purpose — to worship God and be obedient to His command of making disciples of all nations — so this allowed us to celebrate with one another when someone was interested to hear, learn, or read more!
While many were interested in learning more, several people who heard the good news were not interested at all. For you to pray for and have others praying for opportunities for you to share the good news, for you to boldly proclaim it to a friend about whom you care so deeply, and then for your friend to reject completely the only news that’s able to bring them back into a right relationship with God—this is hard.
But because of the Lord’s kindness, we have other brothers and sisters in Christ who are able to grieve that rejection with us, and that community was needed this summer. We were able to grieve together, pray together, encourage one another, and be reminded that we aren’t the One who is able to bring about life from death — but He can!
Ultimately, this trip encouraged me even more to keep my eyes fixed upon the day about which John writes in Revelation 7:
- “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’”
Keep pressing on until this day. It is coming soon!
- Majoring in Early Childhood Education
- Hometown: Butler, OH
- Coffee Order: Hot Vanilla Latte
- Favorite Bible Verse: Romans 8
Tags: #globaloutreach, #GOtrip
Posted in: Global Outreach