Missions Articles

In 2014 when I staffed a Discipleship Training School — a six-month program that includes 12 weeks of classroom instruction followed by a 60-day mission trip — in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, one of the trainees came to me privately in distress. She had initially chosen to join my group for an outreach to Panama, but was beginning to doubt she made the correct choice. As a Singaporean who is fluent in Mandarin, she was contemplating a switch to the team that was going to be ministering in China, where that language is also spoken. Read More

Prayer movements and mission movements are converging! May 2019 through May 2020 is a previously unprecedented time of united, informed prayer for the largest gaps in work among the unreached around the world: YEAR OF THE FRONTIER! For thirteen months starting May 2019, prayer networks around the world will coordinate with the Alliance for the Unreached, the Ethné Movement, the 24:14 Coalition, Joshua Project’s “Unreached of the Day” (http://JoshuaProject.net/pray/unreachedoftheday) and Frontier Venture’s Global Prayer Digest as well as many others to pray for every one of the 400 Frontier People Groups (FPGs) with an in-country population over 500,000 as field efforts collaborate to see movements to Christ in every people and place. Read More

This year an older Jewish man came to stay with us. He was an old family friend who heard we has made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) and wanted to see us and know how we were doing in our Jewish homeland. We talked of how our children were doing well in the Israeli Army, and moving on to establish settled lives in Israel. He was very pleased to hear all of this- a great Jewish “moving to Israel” success story.

Then we brought up Jesus. Read More

It never ceases to amaze me how prospective field workers find out about Modern Day. We don’t do any traditional advertising, so people tend to find out about us in one of two ways: word of mouth from other missionaries on the field and from our partnerships with churches and other missionary organizations. As a result, Modern Day now has 400 field workers serving in 54 countries! Read More

They sat there stuffed into a small room. So many of them leaned their heads back with their eyes closed. They all seemed tired and unenthused about the worship music we had practiced so hard for them. But then I heard God say so clearly…Descansa (rest). As I listened to God telling me that these people were resting, my focus changed. We continued singing and I watched as tears fell from the eyes of many. Few were singing, few were standing…all of them were resting in the Spirit. Read More

Obedience. Obedience is a concept that we are all taught as children, meaning to do what is asked of us, even if we do not agree or willingly wish to do. Obedience is doing what is asked even if you fear the result, but oftentimes you fear the one asking even more. This summer I took a big step of obedience and shared my testimony with my teammates at our cheer camp. I was not a public speaker. I was not a vulnerable person. I was not an emotional person. I was just not qualified to lead a devotion, or so I thought. The Lord gave me a mandate and I could not ignore it; I knew in my heart I had this burning inside of me to fulfill what I had to do, not because I wanted to but because my father was telling me to. I had prepared and prepared so many topics I could speak on for weeks. The moment before I walked into the room to share I stopped and asked, Lord, what would you have me share? Holy Spirit would you help me? Would you speak through me to each person in that room? Lord I need your strength! Read More

Three years old and cute as a button in her lavender jumper she climbs the steep metal stairs for the exhilaration of a ride down the slide. She paused at the top. Her deep green eyes looked with sudden fear at the path ahead of her. Tender fingers gripped tightly to the handrails as she felt her heart urging her back, urging her away from the edge. She could not do it. She would not do it. This little girl turned around and chose the other edge: to return. One step, two steps, three steps, four st—she woke up with her face in the dirt and a wrist that was throbbing in pain. Read More

Brilliant thoughts happen in the shower and I had one earlier today. As I was enjoying my steaming retreat I heard someone else in the shower room next to mine. No! I thought, God, give me all the hot water, please! I had been determined to have a hot shower today. I woke up early to make sure no one else would be showering, but my plan failed. Then in my little puddle of self-pity, this thought crept into my mind: how very selfish to ask for hot water only for yourself. Read More

On a beautiful Saturday morning I heard my wife scream my name from the other room. Judging by the panic in her voice I knew that something was wrong. I dashed into the kitchen to see our trashcan overflowing with worms! Not your typical Saturday for sure, but believe it or not that trashcan was an answer to prayer. Funny enough, I had been reading in Exodus the passage about “mana,” if you tried to collect extra mana worms would appear and eat it.

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