Three of us on the team were able to go to the International Learning Center last week for an Impact Your World Conference. It was an unbelievable time of training and encouragement. We were also able to spend time with some of the missionaries that are being commissioned today before they head abroad to begin their overseas service. It was a special treat to spend time with some friends from church, who will be heading to South Asia later this month for a two year term. I was also able to meet in person someone I've been praying for because she's joining the team we've worked with in Kharkov, Ukraine (the link to her blog is included in the link section of this blog) . It was exciting to see so many families and individuals responding to the call to take the gospel "to the ends of the earth."
The dates for all of our team training sessions are set, and various projects are underway to help us be ready to depart in October. The team has also had some opportunities to share about ministry in India to other churches in the area. Hopefully more churches will commit to praying for and going to India. The needs there are huge. In northern India alone, there are 44 million people who currently have little or no access to the gospel...that means no Bibles, no churches, and no people there to tell them. "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in ? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Romans 10:14
The statistics that we saw and heard about lostness at the conference were overwhelming and heartbreaking. However, we serve a BIG God that longs to be known and worshipped, and He gave us a peek into the future in Rev. 7:9 "a great multitude....from EVERY nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb!" Let's all remember that we are "blessed to be a blessing." Gen. 12:2-3
