{"id":953,"date":"2011-05-16T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svm2.net\/abandonedtimes\/?p=953"},"modified":"2019-11-20T16:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T09:48:59","slug":"take-the-first-step-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalmmi.net\/take-the-first-step-part-1","title":{"rendered":"Take the First Step – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Long<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justin is the Information & Team Mobilization Strategist for Mission to Unreached Peoples.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since you are reading this, you are probably\u2014at least in some small degree\u2014interested in missions. You want to know a little more about missions, and most likely your place in it. You are probably like many of us who feel prompted and maybe even challenged by the Holy Spirit to be involved in missions in some way.<\/p>\n

Still, you are also probably like many of us who are grappling with what our specific role is. What, precisely, are we supposed to do? Where? For how long? And how do we get started in it?<\/p>\n

Simply finding a need and working on it is a challenge, because no matter where you go in the world, whether close by or far away, you\u2019ll find plenty of good things to do and plenty of people in need. With so many different causes clamoring for our attention, how do we choose?<\/p>\n

Admittedly the easiest option is to stay where you are and work on the people closest to you. Perhaps the most tempting option is to go where it\u2019s easiest and the harvest is \u201cmost ripe,\u201d and work there! Instead, let me point out the examples of Jesus and Paul.<\/p>\n

Examples from the Bible<\/h3>\n

In Luke 10, Jesus chose 72 disciples and sent them out in pairs \u201cto all the towns and places he planned to visit.\u201d (Luke 10:1) He didn\u2019t put them to work in the town where he was presently ministering\u2014he sent them to places that he (probably) hadn\u2019t visited before.<\/p>\n

In Luke 10:11 he warned them that some of the towns they would enter would not welcome them. This was potentially dangerous business: \u201cI am sending you out as lambs among wolves.\u201d (Luke 10:3)<\/p>\n

Paul, similarly, went to \u201cother places far beyond you, where no one else is working.\u201d (2 Corinthians 10:16) In such places it was impossible to know whether the harvest was \u201cripe\u201d or not–because no one was there to examine the fields!<\/p>\n

Unreached Places Today<\/h3>\n

Today there are many such places, clearly identified by research:<\/p>\n