During the next several days almost every single member of the church was able to be in a small group with all of the different missionaries. One of the groups I attended, they were able to listen intently for 3 hours missionaries M. and S. from Central Asia as they spoke about when ISIS came close to the city where they worked, and all of the dangers they faced on a daily basis.
They heard them say, “we prayed about leaving like many others, but in the end, we decided to stay with the people God had called us to minister to”.
They heard them speak of how God has been working in spite of the Syrian refugee crisis, and the 8 house churches that have been started and the 34 that had come to faith in Christ and followed in baptism. One lady said with tears in her eyes at 11:00 pm when they finished their stories, “I had no idea there were people willing to pay such a high price for the sake of the Gospel, I will never pray for missionaries in the same way.”
Every member was profuondly impacted at their exposure to what God is doing both locally and globally with those who have answered the call, and said, we are ready to go.
On Saturday I was able to speak to about 300 teenagers on the subject of “A life that Glorifies God” and we had 36 teens and single adults surrender their lives to go personally and take the Gospel to those who have never heard.
Each one of the children were exposed to missions as they boarded the “Missionary Plane” that took them to a personal visit to each one of the missionaries at the missions fair. I wish you could have seen each one of the missionaries sitting on the floor with the children in their booths at the missions fair, showing them what God is doing in other parts of the world. At a Global Celebration, the main speaker is important, but the presence of missionaries is paramount in order to personalize missions for every single member of the church.